White House counsel Don McGahn wouldn’t comply with a White House request last month to say publicly that President Trump didn’t obstruct justice, according to new reports in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
Just after the redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report was released last month — in which McGahn is painted as a road block to some of Trump’s most egregious requests — the White House asked McGahn to make a public statement declaring Trump didn’t try to obstruct the Russia probe, but McGahn declined. Sources told the Journal that McGahn didn’t want to comment on the entirety of the evidence uncovered or give any additional statements beyond what he shared with Mueller.
The news comes just as the House Judiciary Committee hopes to bring McGahn in for testimony following news that the White House instructed him to ignore their record requests.