House Judiciary chairman subpoenas ex-White House counsel Don McGahn

What to know about White House Counsel Don McGahn and why he's making headlines when it comes to Robert Mueller's Russia probe.

We all knew this was coming.

After the Mueller report alleged that Trump told former White House counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller on the basis he had a conflict of interest, it was only a matter of time before Democrats would subpoena him to come before a hearing:

REUTERS – U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler on Monday subpoenaed former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify before the panel in its investigation of possible obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump.
In a statement, Nadler, a Democrat, said the committee had asked for documents from McGahn by May 7 and for him to testify on May 21. An attorney for McGahn was not immediately available for comment.
A report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller publicly released on Thursday by the Justice Department said Trump asked McGahn to fire Mueller as he was investigating suspected Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and possible coordination between Trump campaign members and Moscow officials.
“Mr. McGahn is a critical witness to many of the alleged instances of obstruction of justice and other misconduct described in the Mueller report,” Nadler said.
The top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, Representative Doug Collins, said it was premature to issue a subpoena.
“Instead of looking at material that Attorney General Barr has already made available, Democrats prefer to demand additional materials they know are subject to constitutional and common-law privileges and cannot be produced,” Collins said in a statement.
He said “it now falls to Congress to determine for itself the full scope of the misconduct and to decide what steps to take in the exercise of our duties of oversight, legislation and constitutional accountability.”

I really don’t expect this to ever come to fruition.

What I expect is that Trump will declare executive privilege and block the subpoena, which I think he absolutely should do.

Think abut it. Why would Trump ever want his former White House counsel answering all manner of questions from Democrats hell bent on destroying him? It would make no sense to put McGahn in that situation.

But if somehow McGahn does find himself before the House Judiciary committee, then all of his answers will more than likely be ‘I can’t disclose private conversations with the president’ – as I don’t believe he would ever violate the confidence of Trump.

Either way I just don’t see this amounting to anything significant.