While it’s been widely known that McGahn handed over day-to-day responsibilities to Cobb when he started working in the White House last July, neither of the Trump lawyers had ever specified that the entire White House legal office had been recused from the Russia probe in its entirety.
“It tells us how deeply rooted this scandal is in every different part of the White House,” said Norm Eisen, a former top Obama White House ethics attorney in the audience for Cobb’s remarks.
But Eisen, a frequent critic of the Trump administration, also praised McGahn’s recusal decision as the right one to make from an ethical standpoint. “It’s like a ray of sunshine when you learn they did the right thing,” he said.
McGahn and at least two of his top aides, chief of staff Ann Donaldson and former senior associate counsel James Burnham, have sat for interviews with Mueller.
Looks like Sessions is not the only one to have recused himself from this investigation, but also not the only one with the ethical integrity to have done the right thing. Good for McGahn.
I wonder why we do not have Trump lambasting him all over Twitter like his beleaguered AG? My guess is that McGahn knows too much, unlike Sessions who likely knows nothing.
McGahn was the key player in deep-sixing the original letter drafted by Trump and Stephen Miller communicating the firing of Jim Comey.
Very refreshing that he and his team recused themselves in this way, and help explain the long-time presence of Cobb.
His interview with Mueller may, by itself, be enough to speak to the President’s state of mind on the firing and whether or not it constituted obstruction of justice.
Agreed on all counts. And it is interesting that Flood is who replaced Cobb as well. Now that we know about McGahn recusing himself, and that Cobb took over the duties of McGahn as it relates to the office of the Presidency, we also now know Flood is solely an attorney representing the office and not the man.
Which means Trump is literally left with Jay Sekulow and Rudy Giuliani as his star-studded legal defense.
As long as his attorneys keep positing effective legal approaches such as it being totally legit for the President to have shot, rather than fire Comey, and still avoid prosecution, I’m sure the President will be in fine hands.
The good news for Giuliani is that it will give him something to keep his mind off his divorce proceedings from his third wife.
We’ve been through this already. The IG report details have been leaking out for a week now. It will critique Comey for publicly declaring the Clinton investigation was reopened, which likely impacted the election and goes against FBI protocol. It was critique him for holding the press conference saying they would not recommend a criminal referral. Instead of turning everything over to the AG or DAG and allow them to make the statement.
It will critique Lynch for her meeting with Bill on the tarmac. It will be critical of Strzok and Page for having an affair and using government issued phones to communicate personally, but likely won’t suggest that their personal interaction affected their work for the FBI.
All of the things we already know and have been discussing since each issue was brought to the surface.
I will be shocked if there is anything revealed from this report that is unknown already or that is a game changer.
