Tag: Don McGahn

Let's begin this hour with that and security clearances with Mara Liasson. GARCIA-NAVARRO: So that first item about President Trump's White House lawyer Don McGahn comes to us via The New York Times. All of this goes to Mueller's investigation of whether Trump obstructed justice when, among other things, he told McGahn at one point to try to fire Mueller, which McGahn didn't do. But the most extraordinary thing about The New York Times story is that it suggests that McGahn talked to Mueller to show Mueller that he did nothing wrong. And today, the president tweeted that he didn't like The New York Times suggesting that McGahn was a, quote, "John Dean type rat." LIASSON: Well, the president is threatening to revoke the security clearances of a whole bunch of critics of his. LIASSON: The impact could be pretty chilling, according to a lot of former intelligence officials. In other words, the president talked about removing the security clearance of a top Justice Department official. If you're going to tell the president about intelligence that he might not like, you might be worried that he'll yank your security clearance. GARCIA-NAVARRO: That's NPR national political correspondent, Mara Liasson.

“The president and Don have a great relationship,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement on Saturday. Trump subsequently tweeted his own response to the report, writing: “I allowed White House counsel Don McGahn, and all other requested members of the White House staff, to fully cooperate with the special councel [sic]. In addition we readily gave over one million pages of documents. Most transparent in history. McGahn cooperated with Robert Mueller’s team as a regular witness, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters, as the White House asked many staffers to do. The person also said he did not believe McGahn provided Mueller with incriminating information about Trump. McGahn provided the facts but nothing he saw or heard amounted to obstruction of justice by Trump, the person told Reuters. The newspaper reported McGahn’s motivation to speak with the special counsel as an unusual move in response to a decision by Trump’s first team of lawyers to cooperate fully. But it also said McGhan feared he could be placed in legal jeopardy because of decisions in the White House that could be construed as obstruction of justice. Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, declined to comment.

[3] At the time of the raid the White House and its allies were gearing up to fire Deputy AG Rosenstein as the White House fears investigators seized tape recordings of conversations between Cohen and President Trump. [4] President Trump has attempted to fire Special Counsel Mueller multiple times. [5] President Trump's former lead Russia lawyer, who recently quit,[6] called for an end of Mueller's investigation. He and Mr. Vekselberg attended the event together and met with Mr. Cohen there, according to a person briefed on the matter. Columbus Nova, the company controlled by a Russian oligarch that paid Michael Cohen, registered a number of websites aimed at white nationalists and the alt-right. [10] A company at the center of widening questions involving President Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen is listed as the organization behind a string of websites targeted toward white nationalists and other members of the alt-right. Columbus Nova, a company whose U.S. chief executive, Andrew Intrater, and Russian investment partner Viktor Vekselberg have both reportedly been interviewed by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s team, is listed as the registrant behind a handful of domains for websites named after the alt-right that were created during the 2016 election. Could the court just issue charges repeatedly after the President issued a pardon (assuming it covers civil contempt)? WASHINGTON, July 6 - Judith Miller, an investigative reporter for The New York Times, was sent to jail on Wednesday after a federal judge declared that she was "defying the law" by refusing to divulge the name of a confidential source. Judge Hogan held the two reporters in civil contempt in October for refusing to cooperate with a federal prosecutor's investigation into the disclosure of the identity of a covert operative of the Central Intelligence Agency.

WASHINGTON (CBSNewYork/AP) — President Donald Trump on Saturday accused the Democrats of playing politics with classified information, asserting that their memo countering GOP allegations about the conduct of the FBI’s Russia probe was a trap meant to “blame the White House for lack of transparency.” Citing national security concerns, the White House notified the House Intelligence Committee on Friday that the president was “unable” to declassify the Democratic memo. White House counsel Don McGahn said in a letter to the committee that the memo contains “numerous properly classified and especially sensitive passages” and asked the committee to revise it with the help of the Justice Department. The Democrats sent a very political and long response memo which they knew, because of sources and methods (and more), would have to be heavily redacted, whereupon they would blame the White House for lack of transparency. Trump urged the Democrats to “re-do and send back in proper form!” The president’s rejection of the Democratic memo was in contrast to his enthusiastic embrace of releasing the Republican document, which accuses the FBI and Justice Department of abusing their surveillance powers in obtaining a secret warrant to monitor former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page. The Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat, California Rep. Adam Schiff, criticized Trump for treating the two documents differently, saying the president is now seeking revisions by the same committee that produced the original Republican memo. She tweeted that Trump’s blocking the memo is “hypocrisy at its worst.” The head of the House committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., who produced the GOP memo, encouraged Democrats to accept the Justice Department’s recommendations and “make the appropriate technical changes and redactions.” Trump has said the GOP memo “vindicates” him in the ongoing Russia investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller. Republicans backed the release, but several said they thought it should be redacted. Ryan also said he thought the Democratic document should be released. Trump declassified the GOP-authored memo over the objections of the FBI, which said it had “grave concerns” about the document’s accuracy. They noted that federal law enforcement officials had informed the court about the political origins of Steele’s work and that some of the former spy’s information was corroborated by the FBI.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Saturday accused the Democrats of playing politics with classified information, asserting that their memo countering GOP allegations about the conduct of the FBI’s Russia probe was a trap meant to “blame the White House for lack of transparency.” Citing national security concerns, the White House notified the House Intelligence Committee on Friday that the president was “unable” to declassify the Democratic memo. White House counsel Don McGahn said in a letter to the committee that the memo contains “numerous properly classified and especially sensitive passages” and asked the committee to revise it with the help of the Justice Department. “The Democrats sent a very political and long response memo which they knew, because of sources and methods (and more), would have to be heavily redacted, whereupon they would blame the White House for lack of transparency,” he tweeted. Even before reading the GOP document, Trump pledged to make it public. The Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat, California Rep. Adam Schiff, criticized Trump for treating the two documents differently, saying the president is now seeking revisions by the same committee that produced the original Republican memo. She tweeted that Trump’s blocking the memo is “hypocrisy at its worst.” The head of the House committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., who produced the GOP memo, encouraged Democrats to accept the Justice Department’s recommendations and “make the appropriate technical changes and redactions.” Trump has said the GOP memo “vindicates” him in the ongoing Russia investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller. The House Intelligence Committee voted Monday to release the Democratic memo. Ryan also said he thought the Democratic document should be released. Trump declassified the GOP-authored memo over the objections of the FBI, which said it had “grave concerns” about the document’s accuracy. They noted that federal law enforcement officials had informed the court about the political origins of Steele’s work and that some of the former spy’s information was corroborated by the FBI.

Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump on Saturday tweeted a brief explanation for why he rejected the request to declassify a Democratic memo from the House Intelligence Committee. Trump called the memo "very political and long" and said he "told them to re-do and send back in proper form." — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 10, 2018 On Friday, White House counsel Don McGahn informed the committee of the President's decision, writing in a letter that although Trump is "inclined to declassify" the memo spearheaded by the panel's ranking member, California Rep. Adam Schiff, "he is unable to do so at this time." Schiff's memo rebuts allegations in another memo from the committee's Republicans that accuses the FBI suppressing Democratic ties to an opposition research dossier on Trump and Russia used in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant for former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page. "Mr. President, what you call 'political' are actually called facts, and your concern for sources and methods would be more convincing if you hadn't decided to release the GOP memo ("100%") before reading it and over the objections of the FBI," Schiff wrote. In a statement Friday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein called Trump's decision not to release the Democratic memo "hypocrisy at its worst." In a statement Friday, Feinstein, a Democrat from California, called the Republicans' memo "misleading" and said she had read the underlying intelligence documents on which both memos were based. Mueller's is just one of several investigations into Russian meddling in the campaign, which include a probe by the House Intelligence Committee. Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion. "One week after he released the misleading and incomplete Nunes memo, President Trump tonight blocked the release of the Schiff memo that sought to fill in the holes.

President Trump on Saturday defended his decision to block the release of a memo from Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, claiming Democrats knew their document would have to be heavily redacted. "The Democrats sent a very political and long response memo which they knew, because of sources and methods (and more), would have to be heavily redacted, whereupon they would blame the White House for lack of transparency," Trump tweeted. "Told them to re-do and send back in proper form!" The comments come after the White House announced Friday that Trump is not ready to approve the release of the Democratic memo meant to rebut a document he declassified last week that was authored by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee. The GOP memo alleges that senior FBI and Justice Department officials improperly secured warrants to surveil a former adviser to Trump's campaign. Trump has pointed to that memo, claiming it "totally vindicates" himself in the ongoing Russia probe. White House counsel Don McGahn wrote a letter to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) on Friday explaining that “although the president is inclined to declassify” the Democratic memo, the administration believes it would create “especially significant concerns” for “national security and law enforcement interests.” Trump’s legal team insists that it came to that conclusion at the behest of senior officials at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Justice Department.