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Re what AG Barr just said to Feinstein about how direct POTUS was with McGahn about firing Mueller, here’s what Mueller wrote, pp. 86-88of Vol II:
2/ “When the President called McGahn a second time to follow up on the order to call the Department of Justice, McGahn recalled that the President was more direct, saying something like, ‘Call Rod, tell Rod that Mueller has conflicts and can’t be the Special Counsel.’...
3/“... McGahn recalled the President telling him ‘Mueller has to go’ and ‘Call me back when you do it.’ McGahn understood the President to be saying that the Special Counsel had to be removed by Rosenstein. To end the conversation with the President, McGahn left the President...
4/“... with the impression that McGahn would call Rosenstein. McGahn recalled that he had already said no to the President’s request and he was worn down, so he just wanted to get off the phone.” McGahn felt “trapped” and “decided he had to resign.”
5/ McGahn called his personal lawyer and also his chief of staff to inform them of his decision. “Around the same time, Chris Christie recalled a telephone call with the President in which the President asked what Christie thought about the President firing the Special Counsel.”
6/ Barr today cited the NYT story on McGahn as going farther than facts in the Mueller report on this matter. But Mueller says that while some of POTUS’s language McGahn recalled is consistent with explanation POTUS merely wanted DOJ aware of potential conflicts of interest...
7/ “...Substanial evidence, however, supports the conclusion that the President went further and in fact directed McGahn to call Rosenstein to have the Special Counsel removed.”
8/ Mueller seems very clear on this matter as to what he believes: “McGahn is a credible witness with no motive to lie or exaggerate,” he writes.
9/ On pp 88-89 Vol II Mueller writes that POTUS had discussed “knocking out Mueller” on March 23 2017 call w McGahn, and that POTUS in days leading up to June 17 told Priebus and Bannon, who then told Ruddy, “that the President was considering terminating the Special Counsel.”
10/ POTUS also “reached out to Christie to get his thoughts on firing the Special Counsel. This evidence shows that the president was not just seeking an examination of whether conflicts existed but instead was looking to use asserted conflicts as a way to terminate“ Mueller
