FILE PHOTO – White House Counsel Don McGahn listens during U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., September 4, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to instruct former White House counsel Don McGahn to defy a congressional subpoena to testify before a U.S. House panel investigating whether Trump illegally obstructed the Russia probe, the New York Times reported on Monday.
McGahn figures prominently in the part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe that examined whether Trump tried to obstruct the investigation into whether the Republican businessman’s 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Russia.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Democratic Representative Jerrold Nadler, chairman of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, last month subpoenaed McGahn to testify before the panel on Tuesday, and has said he would hold the attorney in contempt if he did not show up.
“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 last month.
The Justice Department will soon release a legal opinion on the subpoena, a department official, who asked not to be named, said on Monday.
The Times cited an unnamed person briefed on the matter in its report.
Reporting by Steve Holland, Sarah N. Lynch and Tim Ahmann; writing by Mohammad Zargham; editing by David Alexander and Jonathan Oatis