He just can't stop obstructing
by digby
According to the New York Times, Trumpie's been putting the squeeze on McGahn:
White House officials asked at least twice in the past month for the key witness against President Trump in the Mueller report, Donald F. McGahn II, to say publicly that he never believed the president obstructed justice, according to two people briefed on the requests.
Mr. McGahn, who was the president’s first White House counsel, declined, one of the people said. His reluctance angered Mr. Trump, who believed that Mr. McGahn showed disloyalty by telling investigators for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, about Mr. Trump’s attempts to maintain control over the Russia investigation.
The White House made one of the requests to Mr. McGahn’s lawyer, William A. Burck, before the Mueller report was released publicly but after the Justice Department gave a copy to Mr. Trump’s lawyers to read. Reading the report, the president’s lawyers saw that Mr. Mueller had left out that Mr. McGahn had told investigators that he believed Mr. Trump never obstructed justice. Mr. Burck had told them months earlier that his client had shared that belief with investigators.
Apparently he did say that. But then he read the report and realized he may have been wrong:
Mr. McGahn initially entertained the White House request. But after the report was released, detailing the range of actions Mr. Trump took to try to impede the inquiry, Mr. McGahn declined to put out a statement. The report also included comments Mr. Trump to aides about how he believed Mr. McGahn leaked to the media to make himself look good.
McGahn did leak to the press to make himself look good. The Trump team should have realized saying that out loud would cause McGahn to balk at helping them out. After all, the guy wants to make himself look good in all this. He wouldn't like having that opinion on the report any more than Trump liked being caught obstructing justice.
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