What John Dean Has to Say About the NYT’s Blockbuster Don McGahn Story
"Donald Trump’s White House Counsel Don McGahn secretly recused himself a year ago"
By Isaac Chotiner Aug 18, 20188:29 PM
White House counsel Don McGahn on Capitol Hill, July 18, 2018, in Washington, DC. Alex Wong/Getty Images
On Saturday, New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Michael S. Schmidt broke a blockbuster story .. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/18/us/politics/don-mcgahn-mueller-investigation.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region%C2%AEion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news .. explaining that the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, “cooperated extensively” with Robert Mueller’s investigation. According to the Times, McGahn spoke to the special counsel’s office for as much as 30 hours, on at least three separate occasions. Although what he said remains unknown, Haberman and Schmidt report that his testimony was sparked, at least in part, by the fear that “Mr. Trump was setting up Mr. McGahn to take the blame for any possible illegal acts of obstruction” after Trump’s (now former) lawyers, John Dowd and Ty Cobb, encouraged McGahn to talk to Mueller as part of their “open book strategy.” (Near the end of the piece, Haberman and Schmidt note—wryly—that “as the months passed on, it became apparent that Mr. McGahn and [his lawyer] had overestimated the amount of thought that they believed the president put into his legal strategy.”)
There is one obvious historical parallel here, which the story mentions: “Worried that Mr. Trump would ultimately blame him in the inquiry, Mr. McGahn told people he was determined to avoid the fate of the White House counsel for President Richard M. Nixon .. https://www.nytimes.com/1973/10/20/archives/dean-pleads-guilty-in-deal-will-aid-the-prosecution-immunity-fight.html , John W. Dean, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice in the Watergate scandal.” Dean did, however, help prosecutors near the end of his White House tenure, and served as a witness against the Watergate conspirators.
After the Times story broke on Saturday, I spoke by phone with Dean, who is now a CNN contributor and author. During the course of our conversation, which has been edited and condensed for clarity, we discussed McGahn’s motivations, what the role of the White House counsel’s office should be, and the similarities and differences between Donald Trump and Richard Nixon.
Isaac Chotiner: What did you think when you read the Times story today?
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
