Donald Trump has been sold out
On Saturday, The New York Times reported that White House Counsel Don McGahn has been cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller for a number of months. Based on the reactions of Donald Trump and his mouthpiece, Rudy Giuliani, they are scared proverbial-less by whatever he knows. McGahn has information about the firing of James Comey and other events. McGahn reportedly feared being set up by Trump to take the fall for any obstruction, and so he attempted to insulate himself from such exposure.
What is interesting is that McGahn has been relatively quiet over the last few months, while mouthpieces Giuliani and Jay Sekulow are out touting how cooperative Trump is and what a “witch hunt” the investigation is. Trump reacted to the story by tweeting: “I allowed White House Counsel Don McGahn, and all other requested members of the White House Staff, to fully cooperate with the Special Counsel. In addition we readily gave over one million pages of documents. Most transparent in history. No Collusion, No Obstruction. Witch Hunt!”
The timing of the Trump tweet is suspicious. One angle or thought is Trump is engaged in attempts to influence the jury in the Mueller case or other potential jurors, showing what a cooperative, open person he is. Giuliani claimed the Mueller team is panicked and perhaps leaked the information about McGahn, stating on Jeanine Pirro on Saturday night that “the best analysis would be that the Mueller team is panicking. They know they don’t have a case. There was no collusion, there was no obstruction.”
Giuliani also said on Pirro’s show: “They can’t prove it, and they are trying to get the president to testify. And they are hoping that if they put out a story like this in which they suggest that McGhan is cooperating against him, but don’t say it…that he’ll want to come in and explain himself. The president wants to testify. The president wants to be open and transparent. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have encouraged 30 witnesses, including McGhan to testify.”
This is likely more hogwash coming from the second biggest liar in the Trump administration, after Donald Trump himself. If Trump has been so open and transparent, with thirty witnesses being encouraged to testify, then why have we not heard about it until now? What is doubtful is that Robert Mueller put this out. Trump is nervous: everyone has evidence against him, and it is all coming home to roost.
Daniel is a lawyer writing and teaching about SCOTUS, and is the author of the book “The Chief Justices” about the SCOTUS as seen through the center seat.