Former national security adviser H.R. McMaster on Tuesday defended his ex-White House colleague Gary Cohn for removing a trade-related document from President’s Trump.
“I know about that incident and that was wholly appropriate for Gary Cohn, who was a wonderful public servant and a great colleague, to do,” McMaster said during an appearance an event held by Perry World House in Philadelphia.
He was responding to a question about whether removing papers from the desk of a commander in chief fits the role of a civil servant, since he had argued it isn’t their job to check a democratically elected president’s power but rather to help make him or her successful.
The Cohn incident is described in Bob Woodward’s latest book, Fear. Trump had on his desk a letter that if signed would pull the U.S. out of a trade agreement with South Korea. Cohn grabbed it and walked off with it and later told an associate about what he did. “I stole it off his desk,” Cohn said, according to the book. “I wouldn’t let him see it. He’s never going to see that document. Got to protect the country.”
Trump condemned the story as “false” and “made up” in an interview with the Daily Caller, adding, “there was nobody taking anything from me.”
Cohn himself put out a statement not outright denying the events that transpired, but claiming they were misportrayed. “This book does not accurately portray my experience at the White House. I am proud of my service in the Trump Administration, and I continue to support the President and his economic agenda,” he said.
[More: H.R. McMaster dishes on two reasons for leaks: ‘One of them was to damage the president’]
While McMaster appeared to confirm that a document was removed from Trump’s desk by Cohn — he had worked closely with Cohn, who was the White House chief economic adviser — McMaster cast doubt on the motive detailed in the book.
“It wasn’t to hide it from the president at all,” McMaster said. “I mean, the president knew what this particular argument was. We had a process that was underway that combined the Homeland Security Council, the National Economic Council, and the National Security Council together to assess really what our trade policies ought to be and our objectives ought to be.”
[More: Trump pissed at Gary Cohn, Rob Porter for their roles in Bob Woodward’s book: Report]
Trump and Cohn reportedly clashed over their contrarian approaches to trade before the former National Economic Council director resigned in March.
That same month Trump announced that McMaster would be replaced by John Bolton as national security adviser.
