Trump says he’ll decide in coming days about using executive privilege to block McGahn testimony
President Trump said Friday he expects to decide in the coming week whether he’ll invoke executive privilege to prevent former White House counsel Don McGahn from testifying before congressional lawmakers.
“That’ll all be determined over the next week or so,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during a meeting with Slovakian Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini.
Trump has in recent days indicated he is likely to block McGahn from testifying after Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee voted to subpoena him to appear before the panel.{mosads}
The president previously pledged to fight “all the subpoenas,” arguing his cooperation with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference was sufficient.
He said Thursday that he does not believe he can allow McGahn to cooperate with lawmakers and then try to stop other White House officials from doing the same.
“I can’t say, ‘Well one can and the others can’t,’” Trump said during an interview with Fox News. “I would say it’s done. We’ve gone through this.”
McGahn was a key witness for Mueller and is featured prominently in the special counsel’s 448-page report, a redacted version of which was released publicly late last month. According to Mueller’s report, the former White House counsel provided damaging information about Trump’s attempts to fire Mueller, among other episodes that were investigated for possible obstruction of justice by the president.
Trump on Friday insisted that he had been adequately transparent with Mueller so as to dispel the need for further cooperation. The president did not sit for an interview with the special counsel, instead providing written answers to his questions.
“I let him interview the lawyer, the White House lawyer for 30 hours … I let him interview other people,” Trump told reporters. “I didn’t have to let him interview anybody. I didn’t have to give any documents. I was totally transparent because I knew I did nothing wrong.”
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. regular