Trump Counters McGahn, Saying He ‘Never Suggested Firing Mueller’

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump countered the sworn testimony of Don McGahn and said in a new interview that he never asked his former White House lawyer to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

“I was never going to fire Mueller,” Trump said in excerpts from an interview with ABC News aired Friday. “I never suggested firing Mueller.”

McGahn, the former White House legal counsel, is cited in Mueller’s report as describing events in June 2017 when he received a call from Trump, directing him to tell former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to remove Mueller.

After the call, McGahn said he decided to quit because he didn’t want to participate in events that he described as akin to the "Saturday Night Massacre," a reference to the 1973 Watergate scandal, according to Mueller’s report. McGahn ultimately stayed on.

“I don’t care what he says,” Trump told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in the interview. Trump suggested McGahn gave the testimony because he was either mistaken or that “he wanted to make himself look like a good lawyer.”

Attorney General William Barr last month told the Senate Judiciary Committee he didn’t think there was enough evidence to prove Trump’s instructions to his then-White House counsel about removing Mueller had “corrupt intent.”

The House on Tuesday voted to authorize lawsuits against Barr and McGahn as Democrats try to enforce subpoenas for documents and testimony in their investigations into Trump and his administration.

McGahn defied a Judiciary Committee subpoena to turn over documents and testify, citing White House protective assertions of executive privilege. One of the legal issues is whether the administration waived executive privilege for McGahn by allowing him to cooperate with Mueller’s investigation. He became a key witness cited frequently in Mueller’s final report.

Trump said in other excerpts of the ABC interview aired earlier this week that he’d want to hear damaging information about a political opponent in the 2020 election, even if it were provided by a foreigner.

The remark triggered pushback from lawmakers as it evokes some of the controversial conduct at the heart of Mueller’s investigation.

“I think I’d take it,” the president said.

Asked whether he would accept information from foreigners or hand it over to the FBI, Trump said he thought that “maybe you do both.”

On Thursday, Trump said in a pair of tweets that it’d be “ridiculous” to expect him to report all his conversations with foreigners to the FBI.

To contact the reporter on this story: Terrence Dopp in Washington at tdopp@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael Shepard at mshepard7@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Wasserman, Kathleen Hunter

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