White House plans to fight House subpoena of former counsel Donald McGahn for testimony [View all]

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Source: Washington Post



The White House plans to fight a subpoena issued by the House Judiciary Committee for former White House counsel Donald McGahn to testify, according to people familiar with the matter, setting up another showdown in the aftermath of the special counsel report.

The Trump administration also plans to oppose other requests from House committees for the testimony of current and former aides about actions in the White House described in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's report, according to two people familiar with internal thinking.

White House lawyers plan to tell attorneys for administration witnesses called by the House that they will be asserting executive privilege over their testimony, officials said. Such a move will intensify an ongoing power struggle between the Trump administration and congressional Democrats, potentially setting up a protracted court battle.

McGahn was mentioned more than 150 times in Mueller's report and provided damaging accounts to investigators about how the president pressured him to oust the special counsel and then pushed him to publicly deny the episode. McGahn's lawyer, William Burck, began discussions with the House Judiciary Committee about his potential testimony after the panel issued a subpoena Monday, according to people familiar with the matter. Securing McGahn's testimony would be a boon for the Judiciary Committee, which hopes to focus on potential obstruction of justice by Trump in a series of public hearings this spring while exploring other "abuses of power," Democratic aides said.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-plans-to-fight-house-subpoena-of-former-counsel-donald-mcgahn-for-testimony-on-mueller-report/2019/04/23/2d48732a-65f1-11e9-83df-04f4d124151f_story.html

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Full title: White House plans to fight House subpoena of former counsel Donald McGahn for testimony on Mueller report