https://www.wsj.com/articles/thank-you-don-mcgahn-11556057923
President Trump should be savoring the end of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation with no charges of collusion or obstruction of justice, but as ever he can’t stand prosperity. His post-report scrap with former White House counsel Don McGahn shows how this President is so often his own worst enemy.
As part of his obstruction “analysis,” Mr. Mueller recounts that in June 2017 Mr. Trump asked Mr. McGahn to ask Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to say Mr. Mueller had conflicts of interest and couldn’t remain as special counsel. Mr. McGahn took notes but no action, sought advice from White House colleagues, and planned to resign until the President dropped the subject.
Mr. Trump tweeted in response to the report to “watch out for people that take so-called ‘notes,’ when the notes never existed until needed,” and his spokesmen have cast doubt on Mr. McGahn’s account. Mr. McGahn says the account is accurate, though the dispute has given Democrats an opening to rehash the episode and they’ve subpoenaed Mr. McGahn to appear before the House Judiciary Committee.
We believe Mr. McGahn, but the needless dispute highlights several realities of the Trump Presidency. One point is that this episode is not evidence of obstruction of justice, despite claims by the Democratic-media chorus. Mr. Trump would have had every constitutional right to fire Mr. Mueller, an inferior officer at the Justice Department. Mr. Trump let Mr. McGahn and others talk to Mr. Mueller and turn over notes, which is the reason Mr. Mueller knows about all this.
