President Trump’s outside legal counsel may be missing important details regarding what White House counsel Don McGahn has divulged to special counsel Robert Mueller’s team as he cooperated with the federal Russia investigation, according to a report Sunday.
McGahn’s own lawyer has provided Trump’s personal attorneys with only a brief overview of what his client told federal investigators since November over the course of 30 hours spread across three interviews, the New York Times reports.
While Trump’s external lawyers say they do not believe McGahn has revealed anything too damning, advisers close to the president are concerned McGahn’s statements could come back to haunt Trump, particularly as they relate to allegations that Trump obstructed justice by firing former FBI Director James Comey.
[Trump: ‘I allowed’ Don McGahn, other White House staff to cooperate with Mueller probe]
Trump’s outside lawyers have never asked for a full account of McGahn’s interviews, a source told the newspaper.
Rudy Giuliani, who joined Trump’s legal team in April, told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday that he learned about McGahn’s testimony from a second-hand source — former Trump lawyer John Dowd. “I’ll use his words rather than mine, that McGahn was a strong witness for the president, so I don’t need to know much more about that,”Giuliani
The development follows Trump firing off a slew of tweets attacking the New York Times’ initial report Saturday of McGahn’s interactions with Mueller’s team. The interviews started as part of a strategy implemented by the president’s former personal attorneys to fully cooperate with federal investigators in order to precipitate the probe’s end.
McGahn’s eagerness to comply, the Times reported, was spurred by his belief Trump’s outside counsel may have sought to use him as a scapegoat for any potential wrongdoing uncovered by the inquiry. He reportedly has spoken about Trump’s response to the dismissal of Comey and the president’s push to install a loyalist to oversee the federal Russia investigation.
Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to say White House counsel Don McGahn has spoken with special counsel Robert Mueller’s team for 30 hours. Not 90 hours.
