After a protracted legal fight, former WH counsel Don McGahn finally testified by the House Judiciary Committee re: the Mueller probe, and the committee has just released the transcript: judiciary.house.gov/uploadedfiles/…
Recall that we already know a lot of McGahn's version of events, since he talked to Mueller: buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
As Chair Nadler notes, the agreement reached for McGahn to testify incl. that he could only be asked about publicly avail. info in Mueller report:
At least at the start, McGahn is careful to avoid answers that stray from the literal text of the Mueller report.
Asked about a section saying Trump told Sessions to resign after learning about Mueller's appointment, McGahn replies: "I don't quibble with the syntax."
"You rarely leave conversations with President Trump. There's never really a good beginning, middle, and end. It's just -- especially when you're the counsel. You're always kind of around."
"You don't recall your reaction ... to learning that the press had reported that the President of the United States was under personal investigation by the special counsel?"
"I don't recall my subjective impression on the evening of June 14th about a news report. No, I don't"
On Trump's request to involve Rosenstein:
Q "McGahn said he told the President that he would see what he could do."
A I did say that, yeah. Yeah.
Q Did you intend to see what you could do?
A No.
Q Then why did you say that to the president?
A I was trying to get off the phone.
More on Trump's call to McGahn asking him to get Rosenstein to oust Mueller:
Q After you hung up with the President on that second phone call, how did you feel?
A After I got off the phone with the President, how did I feel? Oof. Frustrated, perturbed, trapped. Many emotions.
Baby is asleep, back to McGahn. Asked why he didn't take it seriously when Rob Porter said Trump would fire him if he didn't contest Jan. 2018 reports saying he'd considered resigning: "Because I was doing a great job at so many other things"
Consider the landscape for McGahn in Jan. 2018 — he'd come off a literally record-breaking first year of getting federal appeals judges confirmed, not to mention getting one SCOTUS justice seated. Republicans (and specifically Senate leadership) were extremely happy with that
(I know everyone screenshotted this but here it is anyway)
Q Why isn't it true?
A Because I'm not a lying bastard.
Q What was your understanding of why the President said that?
A You'd have to ask him. I don't know. I mean, the report kind of speaks for itself on this point.
Oh! I swear I did not know when I hit publish on this earlier tweet that McGahn would actually bring up judicial nominations as a reason he didn't think Trump would fire him
Perhaps unsurprisingly (see previous tweet re: "lying bastard") McGahn says he hasn't spoken with Trump since he left the White House, which was in October 2018
In conclusion:
Q What ultimately led to your resignation on October 17th, 2018?
A What ultimately led to what?
Q Your resignation on October 17th, 2018.
A It was time to leave.
The word of the day is "crisp," which McGahn uses 17 times to refer to his lack of clear memories on a particular subject
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