Nadler Pushes For Ouster Of White House Lawyer Over Sessions Pressure
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Rep. Jerry Nadler called for the immediate dismissal of White House counsel Don McGahn after a report that the lawyer urged Attorney General Jeff Sessions not to recuse himself from the investigation of Russian election meddling.
Nadler (D-Manhattan) said the incident, reported in the New York Times, was a clear effort to obstruct the Russia probe and he expected McGahn to volunteer to testify before the Judiciary Committee.
The Times said President Trump directed McGahn to stop Sessions, who was a chief adviser in Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, from removing himself from a Justice Department probe into whether the campaign worked with Russians to sway the 2016 election.
McGahn failed to persuade Sessions to remain involved and Trump erupted in anger in front of a number of White House officials, saying the attorney general needed to protect him/].
“Either Mr. McGahn knows this and decided to interfere with the Russia investigation anyway, or he doesn’t,” Nadler said in a statement. “Neither case is acceptable.”
After Sessions recused himself in March, the Justice Department appointed special counsel Robert Mueller to lead the investigation into possible collusion and whether Trump tried to obstruct the FBI’s Russian inquiry.
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