President Trump does not want any current or former White House aides to testify in front of congressional panels in connection with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report, he told The Washington Post on Tuesday.
"There is no reason to go any further, and especially in Congress where it's very partisan — obviously very partisan," Trump said. The House Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena on Monday to former White House Counsel Don McGahn, asking him to turn over documents and testify next month. McGahn, cited 157 times in the Mueller report, discussed how Trump tried to get him to fire Mueller and then pressed him later to lie about it.
Two people with knowledge of the matter told the Post on Tuesday the White House will fight McGahn's subpoena, asserting executive privilege. This doesn't sound like a solid plan, former Watergate prosecutor Richard Ben-Veniste said. "It seems to me executive privilege was waived when McGahn was permitted to give testimony and to be interviewed by Special Counsel Mueller," he told the Post. "I don't see how the White House can assert executive privilege with something that has already been revealed. To use the Watergate expression, 'You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube.'"
A person close to McGahn said while he's not "eager to testify," he's also "not reluctant." McGahn doesn't "want to be in contempt of Congress," the person added, "nor does he want to be in contempt of his ethical obligations and legal obligations as a former White House official."