Trump says he won't let Don McGahn testify before Congress

Don McGahn and Donald Trump.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

During an interview with Fox News on Thursday evening, President Trump said he will try to block former White House Counsel Don McGahn from testifying to Congress.

"I've had him testify already for 30 hours," Trump said, referring to McGahn's interviews with Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his team. During those interviews, McGahn told Mueller that Trump ordered him to fire the special counsel, but he refused.

Trump also said if he lets McGahn testify to congressional committees, he would have to let others go before the panels, too. "I would say it's done," he said. "We've been through this."

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Trump could try to use executive privilege to keep McGahn from testifying, asserting that conversations between the president and his counsel should be private. However, by letting McGahn talk with Mueller's team for hours on end, any executive privilege claim has most likely been waived, legal expert Michael Stern told Reuters.

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Catherine Garcia

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.