How Trump’s Protector Became Mueller’s Best Witness

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.3 • 107.7K Ratings

🗓️ 22 April 2019

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The most interesting figure in the Mueller report may be the man who was hired to protect President Trump, but turned out to be the most damaging witness against him. We look at the role of Donald F. McGahn II, the former White House counsel. Guest: Michael S. Schmidt, who has been covering the special counsel investigation for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Background reading:Mr. McGahn’s interviews — including an account of being asked by President Trump to remove the special counsel — were cited in the Mueller report 157 times, more than any other witness.Mr. McGahn is one of many Trump aides who took notes of their interactions with the president. In some cases, it was to help them do their jobs, but in others it was for self-preservation.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro.
0:02.4	This is daily.
0:10.0	Today, the most interesting person in the Mueller report
0:14.8	is the man who was hired to protect the president
0:18.4	and turned out to be the most damning witness against him.
0:22.0	Mike Schmidt, Undarnled McGand.
0:32.0	It's Monday, April 22.
0:38.0	Mike, I imagine you spent your weekend continuing to read the Mueller report.
0:42.0	Is that pretty much some up the weekend for you?
0:44.0	Yes, fair.
0:46.0	And what were you most interested in upon further examination of it?
0:50.0	The president's relationship with his White House counsel,
0:54.0	Donald F. McGand, the second.
0:58.0	Statements provided to investigators by McGand are cited 157 times in the report,
1:06.0	more than any of the other 500 witnesses Mueller talked to.
1:12.0	We always knew that McGand and his cooperation with Mueller were going to be a great deal.
1:18.0	His cooperation with Mueller were going to be a central part of the investigation.
1:24.0	But what we see in these details is McGand is the narrator for Mueller.
1:36.0	He is being used to tell the story.
1:40.0	Mueller's way of getting inside the White House
1:44.0	and finding out what was really going on as he investigated whether the president was obstructing justice.
1:52.0	What's interesting about that, Mike, is that when I think about Dom again, I think of him as this loyalist to Trump.
	...

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