Ex-White House counsel Don McGahn to testify before House Judiciary Committee on June 4
Washington — Don McGahn, White House counsel for former President Donald Trump, will answer questions from the House Judiciary Committee on June 4, after a deal was reached between the Justice Department and Democrat-led panel for his testimony earlier this month.
McGahn will appear before lawmakers for a closed-door transcribed interview next Friday at 10 a.m., according to an official notice sent by the committee. A transcript will eventually be made public, according to the terms of the deal filed with the U.S. court of appeals in the District of Columbia.
Under the agreement between the Justice Department, which is representing McGahn, and the Judiciary Committee, the interview will be limited to information from McGahn in the publicly available parts of special counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
McGahn's testimony before the panel marks the culmination of a years-long dispute over a subpoena issued by the Judiciary Committee in April 2019 after Mueller released his long-awaited report. The report identified 10 instances in which Mr. Trump may have obstructed justice during the federal probe, but Mueller and his team did not make a determination on whether the former president did so.
McGahn met voluntarily with Mueller's investigators and was cited extensively in the special counsel's report.
The Trump White House blocked McGahn from complying with the committee's subpoena for his testimony, claiming he was "absolutely immune" from answering lawmakers' questions. Democrats asked a federal court in August 2019 to enforce the subpoena, but a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ordered the case to be dismissed on technical grounds and said it didn't have the authority to enforce the subpoena.
Democrats asked the full D.C. Circuit to rehear the case, and arguments were scheduled for May 19 but canceled after lawyers for the Justice Department and Judiciary Committee came to an agreement over McGahn's testimony.
Mrr. Trump, who is not a party in the case, is not part of the deal.