President Trump is not onboard with seeing any of his current or former White House aides testifying before Congress, he said in a new interview with The Washington Post.
After the White House’s cooperation with special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, any further compliance with Congress’ requests is unnecessary, Trump said, especially when dealing with a “very partisan” legislative body.
“There is no reason to go any further, and especially in Congress where it’s very partisan — obviously very partisan,” he told the Post. “I don’t want people testifying to a party, because that is what they’re doing if they do this.”
“I allowed my lawyers and all the people to go and testify to Mueller — and you know how I feel about that whole group of people that did the Mueller report,” Trump continued. “I was so transparent; they testified for so many hours. They have all of that information that’s been given.”
That tone of defiance appears to be the battle plan for Trump’s legal team. His lawyer Rudy Giuliani later told the New York Times that the administration was just stealing notes from the Clinton playbook.
“I agree with the strategy of now fighting everything, the way Clinton did initially,” he told the Times. “We already gave every document we have, every witness we have. I don’t think the White House should sit by and have them do it all over again.”
Trump’s opposition to complying with congressional requests just escalates an ongoing power struggle between House Democrats and the White House. Just this week, the administration told former White House official Carl Kline not to comply with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena for testimony. The White House also indicated it would assert executive privilege to keep former White House counsel Don McGahn from testifying and the Treasury Department pushed back on the Ways and Means Committee’s deadline for handing over Trump’s tax returns.
