- Special counsel Robert Mueller is getting ready to interview White House counsel Don McGahn.
- McGahn could provide valuable insight into several prongs of Mueller's probe.
- Topics likely to come up are Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with Russians at Trump Tower, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and President Donald Trump's firing of former FBI Director James Comey.
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Mueller is set to grill a key White House player as he examines whether Trump obstructed justice
Special counsel Robert Mueller is getting ready to interview White House counsel Don McGahn.
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Special counsel Robert Mueller will interview White House counsel Don McGahn in the coming weeks as Mueller continues to investigate
McGahn came under heightened scrutiny in September when The New York Times reported that he had blocked Trump from sending a letter to Comey outlining his reasons for wanting him fired.
Legal experts have suggested that t
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"We told them how we had this information, how we had acquired it, and how we knew it was untrue," Yates said.
She continued: "We told them that the conduct Flynn had engaged in [speaking to Kislyak] was problematic in and of itself. We said that the vice president was entitled to know that the information he was giving the American people was not true. And we told him we were concerned that the American people had been misled about what General Flynn had done, and that we weren't the only ones who knew about this."
To charge someone with obstructing justice, prosecutors have to prove that "the defendant corruptly endeavored to influence, obstruct, or impede" an investigation, according to legal and national-security expertswriting for Lawfare.
That element "is the hardest to prove, because it depends on showing an improper motive," the experts said.
Insight into Trump's state of mind when he fired Comey and crafted the statement will be crucial as Mueller examines whether the president willingly tried to impede the Russia investigation.
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Trump's lawyers have argued that Comey is an unreliable witness and that Trump has the power to fire whomever he wants. But the White House has not fully explained why Trumpreportedly overruledhis advisers' warnings to be as transparent as possible about the Trump Tower meeting — or why one of his personal lawyers, Jay Sekulow, told CNN in the days after the meeting became public that Trumpdid not play any role in crafting his son's initial statement.
Here, too, McGahn likely has insight into Trump's state of mind around the time that he drafted the statement, making him a crucial witness as Mueller attempts to put pieces together.
"As to the narrower legal question of obstruction of justice, the president's mental state would critical," Wright said. "Did he participate in crafting a cover story to hoodwink the American people or did he have congressional and criminal investigators in mind?"
It is unclear whether Trump consulted McGahn before drafting the statement about the Trump Tower meeting. But if McGahn was called, then he was in a position to hear Trump's thinking "and to shape that thinking" through his legal advice, Wright said.
If he wasn't consulted, that would likely signal to Mueller "either that Trump was profoundly unaware of the nature of his deteriorating legal environment or that he was avoiding legal advice because he did not want to be told to stand down," Wright said.
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He added: "Neither option looks great."
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