The Don McGahn hearing is officially locked and loaded

| 3:06 pm EDT May 14, 2019
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Donald Trump has spent the past week attacking former White House Counsel Don McGahn on Twitter, while seeking to block McGahn from turning over documents to the House Judiciary Committee – but Trump has made no move to try to block McGahn from showing up and testifying. Now the committee has gone ahead and locked in the hearing date, and it raises questions about Robert Mueller’s upcoming testimony.

This afternoon, the House Judiciary Committee formally locked in May 21st for the Don McGahn hearing, according to NBC News. That’s just one week from today, and it includes compulsory testimony from McGahn in accordance with the subpoena that the committee previously served him. NBC points out that there’s still no confirmation that McGahn will show up – but as Palmer Report keeps pointing out, there has been no indication of any kind that McGahn won’t show up.

The big question now is who might show up before him. All along, the House Judiciary Committee appeared to be looking to have Robert Mueller’s testimony take place before Don McGahn’s testimony. Mueller would educate the public about his investigation and its overall findings, and then Mueller’s star obstruction witness McGahn would educate the public about Donald Trump’s crimes, before moving on to Mueller’s other cooperating witnesses. Mueller’s testimony is definitely happening, as House Intel Committee Chairman Adam Schiff revealed last night that Mueller will be testifying before both House committees on unspecified dates.

But with Don McGahn’s testimony now set for May 21st, is Robert Mueller still going to testify first? Unless something is scheduled at the last minute for this week, we’d be looking at Monday, May 20th, as Mueller’s target date. That said, it’s possible the House Judiciary Committee has now decided to go ahead with McGahn’s testimony first. In any case, the McGahn hearing is now locked and loaded. All that’s left is to see whether McGahn shows up as expected, and how badly Trump melts down once he figures out he can’t stop it.