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Don McGahn | |
|---|---|
 | |
| White House Counsel | |
| In office January 20, 2017 – October 17, 2018 | |
| President | Donald Trump |
| Preceded by | Neil Eggleston |
| Succeeded by | Emmet Flood (Acting) |
| Chair of theFederal Election Commission | |
| In office July 10, 2008 – December 31, 2008 | |
| President | George W. Bush |
| Preceded by | David Mason |
| Succeeded by | Steven T. Walther |
| Member of theFederal Election Commission | |
| In office July 9, 2008 – September 12, 2013 | |
| President | George W. Bush Barack Obama |
| Preceded by | David Mason |
| Succeeded by | Lee E. Goodman |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Donald Francis McGahn II (1968-06-16)June 16, 1968 (age 57) Atlantic City,New Jersey, U.S. |
| Party | Republican |
| Spouse | Shannon McGahn |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | University of Notre Dame (BA) Widener University (JD) Georgetown University (LLM) |
| Signature |  |
Donald Francis McGahn II (/məˈɡæn/mə-GAN; born June 16, 1968) is an American lawyer who served asWhite House counsel for U.S. presidentDonald Trump, from the day of Trump's inauguration through October 17, 2018, when McGahn resigned. Previously, McGahn served on theFederal Election Commission for over five years. In November 2019, McGahn received a court order to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives. In August 2020, theUnited States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 7–2 that the House can sue him to comply.[1]
Don McGahn was born on June 16, 1968, and grew up inAtlantic City, New Jersey, the son of Noreen (née Rogan) and Donald F. McGahn.[2][3][4] He is a nephew ofJoseph McGahn, former Democratic New Jersey State Senator and medical director atDonald Trump'sResorts International,[5] and Atlantic City attorney Patrick McGahn, who had represented Trump's casino interests from 1982 until Trump sued him for alleged overbilling in 1995.[6][7][8][9][10]
Don McGahn attended Our Lady Star of the Sea School in Atlantic City andHoly Spirit High School in nearbyAbsecon.[11] He briefly attended theUnited States Naval Academy before transferring to theUniversity of Notre Dame.[12] At theUniversity of Notre Dame he received a B.A. degree in history and computer applications.[13] He obtained hisJ.D. degree fromWidener University Commonwealth Law School in 1994. In 2002, later in his career, he earned anLL.M. degree from theGeorgetown University Law Center.[14]
After graduation from law school, McGahn worked in campaign finance law at the Washington, D.C., office of law firmPatton Boggs.[15] From 1999 to 2008, McGahn was chief counsel for theNational Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC).[16]
George W. Bush nominated McGahn as a Republican-selected member of theFederal Election Commission (FEC) in 2008. He was confirmed on June 24, 2008, by theUnited States Senate and was sworn in shortly thereafter. He is credited as having played a crucial role in loosening regulations oncampaign spending.[17][18] According to documentary footage in the 2018 filmDark Money, McGahn's brief period as incoming chair of the Commission ushered in a newly partisan rigor to the FEC whereby he and his two fellow Republican members, also new, formed an unprecedented lockstep voting bloc preventing any and all enforcement of FEC regulations. McGahn resigned from the FEC in September 2013.[19]
After leaving the FEC, McGahn returned to the law firm Patton Boggs.[16] In 2014 he moved to the law firm ofJones Day inWashington, D.C.[17] He also worked for theKoch affiliatedFreedom Partners.[20] McGahn brought five Jones Day lawyers with him to theWhite House, and six more were appointed to senior posts in the Trump Administration.[21]
McGahn served asDonald Trump's campaign counsel during his2016 campaign for president.[16] McGahn managed all litigation involving Donald Trump's 2016 Presidential campaign. Early in 2016, he stopped efforts to keep Trump off of the Republican primary ballot in New Hampshire by going to court and winning to ensure ballot access in a key primary state.[22] Several weeks before the election, lawsuits were filed in four battleground states alleging voter intimidation and seeking to enjoin the Trump campaign from having observers at polling locations.[23] McGahn successfully managed and won these litigations.[24]
Shortly after Trump was elected, he named McGahn General Counsel of thePresidential Transition Team. On November 25, 2016, McGahn was namedWhite House Counsel for the President-elect's newadministration.[25][26]
Since Jones Day has also represented the Trump campaign in its dealings with Robert Mueller, McGahn secured an ethics waiver that allows him to talk to his old firm when its clients have business before the U.S. government.[21]
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McGahn personally recommended Trump nominateNeil Gorsuch to replaceAntonin Scalia andBrett Kavanaugh to replaceAnthony Kennedy on theSupreme Court. Gorsuch's first official interview with Trump staff was on January 5, 2017, when McGahn met with him in Trump Tower. Trump and McGahn met with him on January 14, 2017. McGahn called Gorsuch on January 27, 2017, to tell him that he had been selected as the nominee.[27] Gorsuch was sworn in on Monday April 10, 2017.[28] McGahn also recommended the nomination of Labor SecretaryAlexander Acosta. Acosta was sworn in on April 28, 2017.[29]
McGahn assembled a team of lawyers to oversee filling all judicial vacancies. Guided by McGahn's team, President Trump had already appointed ten appellate judges by November 11, 2017, the most that early in a presidency sinceRichard Nixon.[30]
According toThe New York Times, McGahn conveyed instructions from President Trump toAttorney GeneralJeff Sessions, requesting Sessions not torecuse himself from overseeing investigations intoRussian interference in the 2016 Presidential election.[31] McGahn was unaware that Sessions had already consulted with career attorneys at the Department of Justice. When Sessions informed him he had already decided to recuse himself, McGahn ceased further discussion of the topic.[32] In response to this,Walter Shaub, former director of theUnited States Office of Government Ethics, said McGahn had "done much to undermine anticorruption mechanisms in this country." Shaub said, "It is a crime for a federal employee to participate in a particular matter in which he has a financial interest."[33]
In January 2018,The New York Times reported that in June 2017, the president asked McGahn to instruct top Justice Department officials to dismiss special counselRobert Mueller, and that McGahn refused, instead threatening to resign.[34][35][36][37][38]
The Times reported on August 18, 2018, that McGahn had been cooperating extensively with theSpecial Counsel investigation for several months and that he and his lawyer had become concerned that Trump "had decided to let Mr. McGahn take the fall for decisions that could be construed as obstruction of justice, like the Comey firing, by telling the special counsel that he was only following shoddy legal advice from Mr. McGahn."[39]
On August 29, 2018, President Trump announced "McGahn will be leaving his position in the fall, shortly after the confirmation (hopefully) of JudgeBrett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court. I have worked with Don for a long time and truly appreciate his service!"[40][41] McGahn formally departed the Trump administration on October 17, 2018.[42]
In November 2018 it was reported that in spring 2018, Trump told McGahn that he wanted the Justice Department to prosecuteHillary Clinton andJames Comey. McGahn told Trump that he had no authority to order a prosecution and that while he could request an investigation, that too could prompt accusations of abuse of power. McGahn had White House lawyers write a memo to Trump warning that if he asked law enforcement to investigate his rivals, he could face possible impeachment.[43]
McGahn returned toJones Day in March 2019 as the head of the firm's Government Regulation Practice.[44]
According toMueller's final report, McGahn complained to White House chief of staffReince Priebus that Trump was trying to get him to "do crazy shit." The president responded that McGahn was a "lying bastard."[45][46]
On May 7, 2019, the White House instructed McGahn not to comply with asubpoena issued by theHouse Judiciary Committee, instructing the committee to redirect its records requests related to Mueller's investigation to the White House; McGahn is the most cited witness in the Mueller Report. House SpeakerNancy Pelosi referenced the action as anobstruction of justice, stating during an event atCornell University, "Trump is goading us to impeach him[.]"[47][48][49] A week later, it was reported that Trump's lawyers believed that McGahn told Mueller he did not believe Trump obstructed the investigation and ordered him not to provide any documents he had to the Judiciary Committee.[50] On May 21, 2019, McGahn defied a subpoena to testify before theHouse Judiciary Committee, at the direction of his former client.[51] On August 7, the House filed a lawsuit with theUnited States District Court for the District of Columbia in an effort to challenge this precedent-setting move.[52]
On November 25, 2019, U.S. District JudgeKetanji Brown Jackson ruled that McGahn, who the Trump administration ordered not to cooperate with the investigation, must cooperate with the investigation and comply with a House of Representatives subpoena to testify.[53][54] The Justice Department requested a stay pending an appeal of the ruling, but on December 2, Jackson rejected the request, calling the DOJ's assertion that the House Judiciary Committee would not be harmed by a stay "disingenuous." Jackson wrote, "DOJ's argument here that any further delay will not be harmful to the Judiciary Committee because, in essence, DOJ has already harmed the Committee's interests by successfully delaying its access to other materials strikes this Court as an unacceptable mischaracterization of the injury at issue."[55]
On February 28, 2020, a divided panel of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed that judgment and ordered the House's lawsuit dismissed.[56] Circuit JudgeThomas B. Griffith, joined by Circuit JudgeKaren LeCraft Henderson, determined that theseparation of powers under the United States Constitution does not allow Congress to use the Courts to force Executive officials to testify.[57] Judge Henderson wrote a concurrence in which she argued the House simply did not havestanding to sue in this instance.[57] JudgeJudith W. Rogers wrote a dissent.[57]
On appeal from the House, on March 13, 2020, the full Court agreed to reconsider the case.[58] On August 7, the full Court ruled that the House of Representatives could sue to enforce the subpoena,[59][60] but then, on August 31, the court ruled that the House had never been legally empowered by Congress to sue to enforce subpoenas.[61][62]
McGahn is married to Shannon McGahn, a lobbyist with theNational Association of Realtors.[63] Shannon was a former Counselor toSecretary of the TreasurySteven Mnuchin and staff director of theHouse Financial Services Committee.[64][65] They have two sons.[16] He is aRoman Catholic.[66] McGahn has played guitar for more than 20 years and studied atBerklee College of Music. He playslead guitar for an act called Scott's New Band.[67]
President Trump gave firm instructions in March to the White House's top lawyer: stop the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, from recusing himself in the Justice Department's investigation into whether Mr. Trump's associates had helped a Russian campaign to disrupt the 2016 election [...] But the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, carried out the president's orders and lobbied Mr. Sessions to remain in charge of the inquiry, according to two people with knowledge of the episode.
Media related toDon McGahn at Wikimedia Commons
Works by or aboutDonald F. McGahn atWikisource| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of theFederal Election Commission 2008–2013 | Succeeded by |
| Chair of theFederal Election Commission 2008 | Succeeded by | |
| Legal offices | ||
| Preceded by | White House Counsel 2017–2018 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
