The House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed former White House counsel Don McGahn on Monday.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., seeks testimony on documents from McGahn, who in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report is shown to have resisted Trump’s order to fire the special counsel.
“The Special Counsel’s report, even in redacted form, outlines substantial evidence that President Trump engaged in obstruction and other abuses,” Nadler said in a statement. “It now falls to Congress to determine for itself the full scope of the misconduct and to decide what steps to take in the exercise of our duties of oversight, legislation and constitutional accountability.”
A redacted version of Mueller’s report was released Thursday and determined that neither the Trump campaign nor other Americans colluded with the Kremlin during the 2016 election. However, it did not clear Trump of obstruction of justice and detailed 10 instances of possible obstruction.
“Mr. McGahn is a critical witness to many of the alleged instances of obstruction of justice and other misconduct described in the Mueller report,” Nadler said. “His testimony will help shed further light on the President’s attacks on the rule of law, and his attempts to cover up those actions by lying to the American people and requesting others do the same.”
In an interview Sunday, Nadler said McGahn’s testimony was essential to help Congress determine whether Trump attempted to obstruct justice when he requested McGahn fire Mueller.
Nadler demanded McGahn provide the documents to the panel by May 7 and appear before the committee to provide testimony on May 21.
House Judiciary Committee ranking member Doug Collins, R-Ga., said Nadler made his move “prematurely” and went against the chairman’s pledge to not issue a subpoena “every time we have a disagreement with the administration.” Collins also noted McGahn participated in more than 30 hours of interviews with Mueller’s team.
“Instead of looking at material that Attorney General Barr has already made available, Democrats prefer to demand additional materials they know are subject to constitutional and common-law privileges and cannot be produced,” Collins said in a statement.
