Another White House lawyer bites the dust. It started with a scoop from Axios that White House counsel Don McGahn would be out the door soon. By the afternoon, Trump sealed his fate with a tweet. Why is McGahn leaving just as Robert Mueller’s investigation is starting to heat up—and how will his successor fare?
Welcome to Rabbit Hole.
Trigger: The forcing mechanism for McGahn’s ouster appears to be the New York Times article that painted McGahn as suspicious of President Trump and all too eager to cooperate with the Mueller investigation. McGahn reportedly turned over a wealth of shockingly useful information to Mueller’s team, on the belief that he was being set up by Trump to take the rap for a possible obstruction of justice charge. Unwilling to be the John Dean to Trump’s Nixon, McGahn sang to Mueller and his allies talked to the Times.
ADVERTISEMENT
Explosion: Trump erupted at the story when it dropped and called it fake. In an all-caps broadside against the paper, he painted himself as entirely aware and in control of McGahn’s cooperation with the investigation (the Times reported it was “not clear” how much Trump knew about how much McGahn gave Mueller’s team). He defended McGahn’s honor against the implication that he was a “John Dean type ‘RAT.’”
Fallout: The Times piece made clear that McGahn wasn’t exactly having the time of his life handling Trump and his many Russia problems, and was eyeing the exits. But he appears to have been nudged out the door by Trump. For all Trump’s tweeted defenses of his attorney, he doesn’t appear to have fully trusted his lawyer. McGahn was reportedly shocked to learn that Trump had cemented his exit in a tweet without his knowledge. McGahn, Trump wrote, would be “leaving his position in the fall, shortly after the confirmation (hopefully) of Judge Brett Kavanaugh.”
Box scores: For those keeping track of Trump lawyer longevity, McGahn has lasted an impressive 643 days from his start date to the announcement of his exit. In comparative terms, that’s approximately 2.32 Ty Cobbs—the 276-day unit of measurement that represents how long Ty Cobb, the last senior Trump lawyer to leave the White House, lasted in his job.
Don’t go: Republican senators aren’t happy about the departure. McGahn had been a close ally of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell since McConnell nominated him to the Federal Election Commission. There he went to battle with Democrats to hold the Republican Party line on lax scrutiny of campaign contributions. Aside from the Russia investigation, he’s worked closely with his old patron, McConnell, to stack the federal courts with arch-conservative judges.
“I hope it’s not true McGahn is leaving WhiteHouse [sic] Counsel. U can’t let that happen,” Sen. Chuck Grassley tweeted at Trump.
“If the reporting is true about Don McGahn’s time at the White House coming to an end later this year, it will be sad news for our country. Don is the most impressive White House Counsel during my time in Washington, and I’ve known them all,” McConnell said in a statement.
The new guy: Axios reported that Emmett Flood, an attorney who’s been working as part of Trump’s legal team, will take over as White House counsel. Flood has impressive experience for a White House lawyer. He’s served two presidents—Bill Clinton and George W. Bush—in the White House counsel’s office wrangling over impeachment issues and executive privilege.
Close call: McGahn’s successor was almost Rob Porter, the ousted former White House staff secretary accused of being a wife beater, according to The New York Times. Before the domestic violence allegations against him became public, Porter rebuffed Trump’s offer of the job on the grounds that he didn’t think he was qualified enough for the post.
Managing up... The biggest challenges Flood will face come from inside the White House rather than Democrats banging on the gates. Like all administration staff, his biggest problem will be managing up. The president is his own worst enemy on many issues, but especially so on the Mueller investigation. Getting the president to simply shut up and stop tweeting things that put him in legal jeopardy will be a tough, important task.
... and sideways: Trump isn’t the only mercurial, self-contradicting septuagenarian Flood has to stop from incriminating the president—there’s also Rudy Giuliani. Flood’s predecessor didn’t quite get along with Rudy when the two worked together. “Don McGahn hates Rudy with the intensity of 1,000 burning suns," one source told Vanity Fair. One of the most important things Flood needs to do to get control of the Russia investigation storyline is to end Giuliani’s constant string of car-crash cable news appearances. But Giuliani shows no signs of being manageable from the outside. And he’s known Trump for years, making it an uphill battle for Flood to become the most favored consiglière.
Mueller tea leaves: In Washington, where you stand depends on where you sit when it comes to power. Flood, having spent much of his career in the White House counsel’s office during the bitter fight over impeachment, is a big believer in executive privilege. That has implications for the Mueller investigation. Trump tweets raw poison at Mueller just about every day. But that didn’t stop McGahn from meeting with Mueller’s team even if Trump himself had been hesitant for a sit-down. You can probably kiss that kind of access goodbye if Flood gets the job as expected.
Barbarians at the gate: Flood worked for the Bush White House when it expanded the counsel’s office to fend off the investigation-hungry Democrats who had swept the 2006 midterms. In that job, he was instrumental in running interference on the U.S. attorneys investigation. For example, he once told the RNC to stonewall a congressional request for documents about communications with the White House.
With Democrats gaining in the midterms polls, it looks like Flood could reprise his role as the president’s congressional investigations stonewaller, albeit from a more senior perch. Aside from the Russia investigation, Democrats have all manner of investigating they’d like to do that could touch on the White House. There’s the payoffs to Trump’s alleged mistresses, the problems with executive staff getting security clearances despite dubious backgrounds, and much more. Don’t expect Flood to be indulgent with the Hill the way the White House has been with Rep. Devin Nunes’ House intelligence committee if control of Congress changes.
Head here to go deep on the story that everyone is obsessing over—all for Beast Inside members only.
