McGahn not a rat, says Trump
Dubs Mueller probe as ‘worst McCarthyism’
BRIDGEWATER: President Donald Trump insisted on Sunday that his White House counsel isn’t a “RAT’’ like the Watergateera White House attorney who turned on Richard Nixon, and he blasted the ongoing Russia investigation as “McCarthyism’’.
Mr Trump, in a series of angry tweets, denounced a New York Times story that his White House counsel, Don McGahn, has been cooperating extensively with the special counsel team investigating Russian election meddling and potential collusion with Mr Trump’s Republican campaign.
“The failing @nytimes wrote a fake piece today implying that because the White House councel Don McGahn was giving hours of testimony to the special councel, he must be a John Dean type “RAT”, Mr Trump wrote, misspelling the word “counsel’’, as he often does. “But I allowed him and all others to testify — I didn’t have to. I have nothing to hide......’’
The New York Times said it stands by its story.
Mr Dean, a frequent critic of the president, was the White House counsel for Nixon during the Watergate scandal. He ultimately cooperated with prosecutors and helped bring down the Nixon presidency in 1974, though he served a prison term for obstruction of justice.
Mr Dean tweeted on Saturday night in response to the Times story: “Mr Trump, a total incompetent, is bungling and botching his handling of Russiagate. Fate is never kind to bunglers and/or botchers! Unlike Nixon, however, Mr Trump won’t leave willingly or graciously’’.
He added on Sunday in response to Mr Trump’s tweets that he doubts the president has “ANY IDEA what Mr McGahn has told Mr Mueller. Also, Nixon knew I was meeting with prosecutors, b/c I told him. However, he didn’t think I would tell them the truth!’’
Mr Trump’s original legal team had encouraged Mr McGahn and other White House officials to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller, and Mr McGahn spent hours in interviews.
Mr Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, said in an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press that Mr Trump didn’t raise executive privilege or attorney-client privilege during those interviews because his team believed — he says now, wrongly — that fully participating would be the fastest way to bring the investigation to a close.
“The president encouraged him to testify, is happy that he did, is quite secure that there is nothing in the testimony that will hurt the president,’’ Mr Giuliani said.
Mr McGahn’s attorney William Burck added in a statement: “President Trump, through counsel, declined to assert any privilege over Mr McGahn’s testimony, so Mr McGahn answered the special counsel team’s questions fulsomely and honestly, as any person interviewed by federal investigators must’’.
Mr Trump on Sunday continued to rail against Mr Mueller’s investigation, which he has labelled a “witch hunt’’.
“So many lives have been ruined over nothing — McCarthyism at its WORST!’’ Mr Trump tweeted, referencing the indiscriminate and damaging allegations made by Sen Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s to expose communists.
“Study the late Joseph McCarthy, because we are now in the period with Mr Mueller and his gang that make Joseph McCarthy look like a baby! Rigged Witch Hunt!’’ he later wrote.
Mr Giuliani, in his interview, also acknowledged that the reason for the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Mr Trump’s campaign aides and a Russian lawyer, arranged by Mr Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr, was that they had been promised dirt on Mr Trump’s 2016 Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
“The meeting was originally for the purpose of getting information about Ms Clinton,’’ he said, adding that Mr Trump’s team didn’t know that Natalia Veselnitskaya was Russian.