The real reason the Trump DOJ was spying on White House Counsel Don McGahn
Back in late 2017 and early 2018, various major news outlets published a series of inside-sourced articles which depicted Donald Trump repeatedly ordering people in the White House to commit obstruction of justice, and White House Counsel Don McGahn heroically stepping in each time to stop it from happening. Based on the structure of these articles, it wasn’t difficult to figure out that McGahn was very likely the source; these kinds of leakers always paint themselves as the thinly veiled hero of their own story.
Now it turns out I may not be the only one who spotted the pattern. It turns out that in February of 2018, the Trump DOJ subpoenaed the personal data of McGahn and his wife, according to a new report from the New York Times. The reasoning behind this spying isn’t being revealed. But it wouldn’t be a stretch to hypothesize that someone in the Trump regime suspected McGahn was the source for these various media articles, and went after his personal communications to try to prove as much.
Even if this is the case, then the Trump DOJ’s actions against McGahn were totally unwarranted. Leaking embarrassing true things about your boss to the media might be a fireable offense, but it’s certainly not a criminal offense – meaning the Trump DOJ had no business pursuing it. In fact the DOJ committed a crime against McGahn by spying on his personal data, and particularly his wife’s personal data, just as the DOJ committed a crime by spying on multiple House Democrats.
It’s worth noting that when it comes to today’s New York Times bombshell, Don McGahn once again appears to be the source. How else would the authors of the article know that McGahn and his wife recently received notices from Apple that their personal data had been seized? If this is the case, then let’s hope that McGahn keeps talking, and reveals more about the Trump regime’s criminal antics. McGahn recently testified to Congress about Trump’s obstruction of justice crimes. Let’s hear even more from him.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report