White House Counsel Don McGahn is leaving the West Wing, President Trump confirmed in a tweet Wednesday morning.
The confirmation comes just hours after an Axios report detailed McGahn's impending exit, citing federal officials and other sources close to McGahn. Trump tweeted that McGahn will leave this fall, soon after Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is "hopefully" confirmed to the court, which mirrors Axios' reporting.
McGahn was recently revealed to have cooperated with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, providing 30 hours of interviews to Mueller's team. Trump's lawyers were reportedly unsure of what McGahn told investigators, but the president still tweeted that he okayed the testimonies and that McGahn was not a "John Dean type 'RAT.'"
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Trump has not yet named a replacement for McGahn. But a source close to the lawyer tells Axios that McGahn is hoping for Emmet Flood, who served in the Clinton and Bush administrations and is currently an attorney for the president in the Russia investigation. Trump administration officials also said they want Flood in the spot because he communicates well with Trump — and because he isn't a fan of investigations into sitting presidents.
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