Watergate’s John Dean: White House counsel is ‘doing right’ by cooperating with Mueller
John Dean, a key figure in the Watergate scandal, said Saturday that White House counsel Donald McGahn was acting appropriately by cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller in his investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
“McGahn is doing right!” Dean, the former White House counsel under former President Nixon, tweeted on Saturday in response to a New York Times report about McGahn’s discussions with Mueller.
McGahn is doing right! https://t.co/qqzhZRAFlY
— John Dean (@JohnWDean) August 18, 2018
Dean became a key witness in the Watergate scandal after pleading guilty to a single count of obstruction of justice.
His tweet came just hours after the newspaper reported that McGahn has discussed accounts of multiple episodes at the center of Mueller’s probe into whether President Trump obstructed justice.
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The Times noted that McGahn began cooperating with Mueller’s team last year and had grown fearful that the president was setting him up to take the blame for a potential obstruction of justice charge.
McGahn and his lawyer, William Burck, reportedly began doing as much as they could to cooperate with Mueller. Among other things, McGahn told investigators that Trump tried to control Mueller’s probe and gave a mixture of potentially damaging and favorable information concerning the president.
In addition, McGahn has discussed the president’s dismissal of former FBI Director James Comey and his repeated urging of Attorney General Jeff Sessions to claim oversight of the special counsel despite his recusal from the Russia probe.
Trump has consistently railed against Mueller’s probe as a partisan “witch hunt.” He responded to this latest report by tweeting that he allowed McGahn “and all other requested members of the White House Staff, to fully cooperate with the Special Counsel.”
“In addition we readily gave over one million pages of documents,” he said. “Most transparent in history. No Collusion, No Obstruction. Witch Hunt!”
I allowed White House Counsel Don McGahn, and all other requested members of the White House Staff, to fully cooperate with the Special Counsel. In addition we readily gave over one million pages of documents. Most transparent in history. No Collusion, No Obstruction. Witch Hunt!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2018
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