trump did not fight a mcgahn interview in court. quote, mr. mcgahn and his lawyer, mr.uld not understand why trump was so willing to allow don mcgahn to speak freely to the special counsel. but he did raise no objections. mcgahn was free to speak to the special counsel. and he did. i mean, don mcgahn, much to his own surprise, perhaps to his own chagrin, he was allowed by the white house to go speak with the special counsel to go tell the special counsel everything that he knew. mcgahn does that for dozens of hours. he then ends up in the redacted mueller report being cited more than 150 times as mueller methodically goes through all these instances in which the president appears to have obstructed justice. and that ends up being hugely important for two reasons. number one, we get mcgahn's testimony, we get all these narrative facts about all these times the president allegedly obstructed justice while in office. we'll have more on that in just a second. in fact, we'll have more on that over the course of the next year, more than you think. but that moment with them cl

mcga mcgahn shrugged off the request. mcgahn dismissed the threat.n said he would not write the letter the president requested. the following day, john kelly scheduled time for don mcgahn to meet with him, john kelly, and the president in the oval office, again, to discuss "the new york times" article. the morning of the meeting, the president's personal lawyer called don mcgahn's attorney and said the president was going to be speaking with mcgahn, and mcgahn could not resign no matter what happened in the meeting. that makes you look forward to the meeting. quote, the president began the oval office meeting by telling mcgahn "the new york times" story did not look good and mcgahn needed to correct it. mcgahn recalled the president saying i never said to fire mueller, i never said fire. this story does not look good. you need to correct this. you are the white house counsel. the president seems to understand that the word kwu"kw" counsel means lawyer in this context, but the president doesn't understand that the white house counsel is not his person

>>> calling mcgahn. the house judiciary committee chairman subpoenas former white house counsel don mcgahn, seeking documents and testimony for the investigation into possible obstruction of justice by president trump. what does mcgahn know about the president's efforts to undermine the mueller investigation? >>> restraining congress. president trump and his son sued to block house demps from getting his financial records and asked a judge to slap a restraining order against lawmakers, blocking their subpoena. will the court side with congress or the president? >>> and americans killed, at least four u.s. citizens confirmed to be among the almost 300 people killed in the easter suicide bombings targeting churches and luxury hotels in sri lanka. tonight, a key suspect with possible ties to isis has emerged. >>> we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >> the breaking news this hour,

he's known don mcgahn for more than a decade. nearly two decades.why this stings so much for the president. >> everybody stand by. there is more news we're following, including the uncertain fate right now of maria butina as the russian agent faces sentencing in a matter of hours. and after a summit with vladimir putin, kim jong-un is taking a new slap at president trump accusing the united states of acting in bad faith. a neighbord with a lot of other young couples. then we noticed something...strange. oh, could you, uh, make me a burger? -poof -- you're a burger. [ laughter ] -everyone acts like their parents. -you have a tattoo. -yes. -fun. do you not work? -so, what kind of mower you got, seth? -i don't know. some kid comes over. we pay him to do it. -but it's not all bad. someone even showed us how we can save money by bundling home and auto with progressive. progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents. but we can protect your home and auto. progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents. thwho see things others can't. th

>>> calling mcgahn.an subpoenas former white house counsel don mcgahn, seeking documents and testimony for the investigation into possible obstruction of justice by president trump. what does mcgahn know about the president's efforts to undermine the mueller investigation? >>> restraining congress. president trump and his son sued to block house demps from getting his financial records and asked a judge to slap a restraining order against lawmakers, blocking their subpoena. will the court side with congress or the president? >>> and americans killed, at least four u.s. citizens confirmed to be among the almost

mcgahn and has said the only way to protect himself from impeachment is to attack mueller and mcgahn. those people said, if that's what a white house under siege looks like, here is what it sounds like. donald trump today spiraling into a puddle of self-pity on twitter taking on our colleague joe scarborough, "new york times" columnist paul krugman, democrats and twitter itself. "the washington post" writing about this very moment in trump's presidency, quote, the events of the past week are threatening to redefine legal and ethical standards that have long served as constraints on the american presidency. they suggest that few, if any, of the traditional guardrails that have kept trump's predecessors in check remain for this president and possibly those who will follow him. that is where we start today, with the two reporters who authored those two stories as well as a few of our favorite friends. ashley parker, white house reporter for "the washington post," and "new york times" washington coordinator mike schmidt. at the table congressman from florida, now an independent. good for

to end the conversation with the president, mcgahn left the president with the impression that mcgahn would call rosenstein. mcgahn recalled had he already said no to the president's request and he was worn down. so he just wanted to get off the phone. and so donald trump fired robert mueller. and robert mueller stayed on the job. william barr knew that that passage was in the mueller report when he told us yesterday thatond cooperated fully with the mueller investigation. today it was congress' turn to be directly insulted by william barr. democratic congressional leaders immediately turned down barr's offer to them that they alone be able to see some of the redacted material in the mueller report. the chairman of the house judiciary committee which has jurisdiction over impeachment immediately and correctly according to all congressional precedent refused. >> i've been invited to read the less redacted version of the report on condition that we take no notes and tell nobody about what we read. what's the point of that? congress is a collective body. and if i read something and i can

talking about don mcgahn.they have indeed hired their own counsel as a cost saving move and haven't fired jones day. also reported all that so it's hard to see the objection. more on mcgahn and trump. >> total bs. as the president rages against the mueller report he appears to be singling out one particular person who spoke to investigators. former white house counsel don mcgahn. watch out for people that take so called notes. when the notes never existed until needed. >> it's been a privilege to part of the presidential campaign that was successful. >> it's a big turn around considering mcgahn's role during the russia probe. it was mcgahn who refused to fire the special counsel when trump said mueller has to go. mcgahn refused to lie about it later. the mueller report indicates both actions protected trump from obstruction charges. jack o donl says trumps anger is typical. >> this this case where mcgahn really saved him, it's not rel vent because the bigger picture mak makes donald look bad. >> it's more gene

the president asked mcgahn again if he would do a correction and mcgahn said no.thought the president was testing his metal to see how committed mcgahn was to what happened. we should further point out a critical single sentence in this mueller report. it says the following. it says "mcgahn is a credible witness with no motive to lie or exaggerate, given the position he held in the white house." as we get in another break here tonight, coming up, what we learned all over again just today about the echo chamber we sometimes inhabit around here. that when we come back. >>> last thing before we go here tonight are some pretty important findings about something that certainly affects >>> last thing before we go here tonight are some pretty important findings about something that certainly affects our life and work around here, and that's twitter. something we know but we tend to forget with regularity is that twitter is used by somewhere around 1/4 to 1/3 of the u.s. social media age population, and something we know but tend to forget with regularity is this. it punc

mcgahn wouldn't do it. he portrayed him as an out of control leader and barked orders at aides who ignored them. the president is questioning the legal strategy that went into the white house's cooperation with mueller at the time his lawyers cobb and dowd encouraged them to cooperate. now aides are questioning the strategy given the amount of damaging and embarrassing information that emerged. the president is on the golf course here in west palm beach. we are waiting to hear more from the president as he has not said much to the cameras since that report emerged on thursday. >> right. he promised he would have a press conference or be before the cameras yesterday. that didn't happen. he went straight for the helicopter and on to air force one to where you are now. sarah westwood, keep us posted. thank you so much. >>> a major legal fight is brewing in the wake of the mueller report. democrats issued the subpoena they have been holding close for weeks, ghademanding to see the l unredacted report. the depar

talking about don mcgahn.ing they have indeed hired their own counsel as a cost saving move and haven't fired jones day. also reported all that so it's hard to see the objection. more on mcgahn and trump. >> total bs. as the president rages against the mueller report he appears to be singling out one particular person who spoke to investigators. former white house counsel don mcgahn. watch out for people that take so called notes. when the notes never existed until needed. >> it's been a privilege to part of the presidential campaign that was successful. >> it's a big turn around considering mcgahn's role during the russia probe. it was mcgahn who refused to fire the special counsel when trump said mueller has to go. mcgahn refused to lie about it later. the mueller report indicates both actions protected trump from obstruction charges. jack o'donl says trumps anger is typical. >> this this case where mcgahn really saved him, it's not rel vent because the bigger picture makes donald look bad. >> it's more gene

mcgahn is a nice person. >> we know mcgahn spent 30 hours testifying. once you read this it's clear it was more than that. he's on almost every page. he's a real e republicrepublica. he was in there trying to protect the president from himself. what i think history will determine is was don mcgahn the difference between criminal obstruction or not. was don mcgahn -- did he serve two masters. was he informing robert mueller the entire time of all this conduct as is clear from every footnote in the obstruction section and laying his body on the tracks to sort of push donald trump away from some of these actions that almost certainly would have lead to his impeachment. firing mueller, getting sessions to unrecuse. it's hard to imagine trump being more brutal but it seemed like mcgahn nudged him to the other side of complete abuse of his sitting attorney general. it will take a longer read and wider perspective to determine whether mcgahn in serving both mueller and trump, spared trump from criminal obstruction. >> it wasn't just on mcgahn. i'm reading thro

fired and don mcgahn said, no. the president then took a meeting with corey lewandowski, of all people. corey lewandowski, a private citizen at that point, sat him down in the oval office and told him to take dictation. corey, write this down. told him to write down a message that was essentially a draft statement that he wanted attorney general jeff sessions to deliver. that draft statement he wanted jeff sessions to deliver would have jeff sessions announcing that he was unrecusing himself from the russia investigation, he was taking over control of the special counsel's investigation, and he was directing mueller that he could no longer look at anything that happened in the 2016 election. instead, mueller henceforth must only look at future crimes. he must only look at crimes that russia might commit against future american elections that hadn't happened yet. but all of 2016, that's no longer what mueller is looking at. now, as the mueller report describes, lewandowski got this direction from the president. wrot

the president asked mcgahn again if he would do a correction and mcgahn said no. mcgahn thought the president was testing his mettle to see how committed mcgahn was to what happened. we should further point out a critical single sentence in this mueller report. it says the following. it says, "mcgahn is a credible witness with no motive to lie or exaggerate, given the position he held in the white house." >>> as we get in another break here tonight, coming up, what we learned all over again just today about the echo chamber we sometimes inhabit around here. that when we come back. if you have medicare, listen up. medicare alone only covers 80% of your cost, leaving you to pay the rest. changes to medicare are no laughing matter. if you don't know the plans available now, you might end up with a doctor you're not so comfortable with, or even worse, being forced to pay thousands in medical expenses due to coverage limitations. that'll be how much? understanding all the options, let's face it, it can be downright confusing. that's why i love healthmarkets, your insur

>> it depends on where it came from. >> don mcgahn saved him. >> don mcgahn didn't save him. >> don mcgahnidn't carry out an order and saved him. >> he had a perfect right to file mueller. >> omg. i don't know even where to begin. let me take there is nothing wrong with getting information from the russians. the russians are our most sophisticated adversary. trump has been denying that they interfered in the election time and again to the consternation of the intelligence community. the idea that there is nothing wrong, i never thought in my lifetime, ari, i would hear a president of the united states' top lawyer saying that. it's astounding to me. and yet further reason why the congresswoman's right, congress has to take a deep look at this and ask what the heck is going on. why is there so much weirdness in this administration about russia. >> yeah, it's a lot of important questions. we've been relying on your expertise a lot, and luckily we get to come back to you soon. so neal katyal, as part of our opening argument series, as always, thank you for joining us on "the beat." you can go

mcgahn speaking to mueller. mueller decides when they could have exercised privilege to redact the information to the public, they didn't. that will be very difficult for them. once the round is out of the chamber of a gun, it's virtually impossible to get it back, trace. the second thing that is very relevant here and i'm not politicking, this is just the law in all cases, is when a litigant, if you will, is making public statements about a thing, then they're opening themselves up. they're waiving the confidential privileges. that's not what is going on here. it's out in the court of public opinion, trace. >> you're saying the president is undermining his own cause here. >> to any of these things, there's a legal issue and a political issue. i can't second guess the president as to what he wants to do in terms of how he politicking the particular thing. all i can say is when you are politicking, when you're infusing that to a legal process, you may be shooting yourself in the foot as it were. the interesting t

president, what did you tell don mcgahn about mueller? i never told don mcgahn to fire mueller. if i wanted to fire mueller, i would have done it myself. it's very simple. i had the right to. and frankly, whether i did or he did, we had the absolute right to fire mueller. in the meantime, i didn't do it. i'm a student of history. i see what you get when you fire people, and it's not good. but there would have been nothing wrong with firing him. legally, i had absolute right to fire, but i never told don mcgahn to fire mueller. and by the way, and mueller finished out his report: no collusion and no obstruction. reporter: mr. president, how do you beat joe biden? pres. trump: i think we beat him easily. reporter: mr. president, measles cases are increasing. what a a tell parents about getting their kids vaccinated? measles. pres. trump:oh. they have to get the shot. the vaccinations are so important. this is really going around now. they have to get their shot. reporter: mr. president, how old is too old to be president? pres. trump: well, i think that, i just feel like a young m

he did say he thought mcgahn's account -- that don mcgahn was mistaken or confused and his account of president trump telling him at least in mcgahn's view to fire bob mueller that that was unreliable. what did you think of that? >> this is the white house counsel. this is the person the president of the united states chose to have as the chief lawyer advising him in the white house and also other personnel in the white house who, by the way, told all these thing to bob mueller that rudy giuliani and others complained about. the president and his other lawyer ty cobb said go cooperate and tell the truth. z as the report points out, mcgahn had no reason to exaggerate, embellish or lie. if you look at the section, get rid of bob mueller, he shouldn't be there. it's a tortured analysis that giuliani engages in. don mcgahn was a white house counsel, understood exactly what the president wanted, further crop rated by the fact that donald trump did 80 other things that suggested he wanted bob mueller gone, suggested he wanted jeff sessions to change the focus of the investigation, even tell

now, mcgahn ultimately does not fire him. he's one of the guardrails or was one of the guardrails of the trump presidency. and the white house goes out and once this breaks, i think it broke a year later in "the new york times," the white house lies about it. the white house says that never happened. it's fake news. but that act, potentially obstruction of justice. >> yes, the attempt to do so obstructs justice. the idea of him being ignorant of the law in that capacity, the very second he fired james comey, we can all recall that day, obstruction of justice was no longer like a nebulous term, it was floated because he was aware of that. his lawyers were brought in to undermine that assumption, and then it follows up with mcgahn and down the law, if there was a moment of ignorance of the law, that was in the rear-view mirror. the fact it was unsecsisful, the fact that maybe nobody carried out the particular endeavor does not say oh, then you never committed the crime. that's what's missing from the discussion that the preside

don mcgahn also did that.. >> and the justice department bill barr is the same, you have chris ray at the fbi, these are all people who are institutionalists who revere the rule of law but now this is all in a political realm. you're right, the roles are reversed, and the democrats have to decide do they think this helps them politically or not, and i think that's how they're going to judge it, but i think we have been spared from tulsi gabbard to steny hoyer to senate republicans we should celebrate mueller found there wasn't conspiracy. >> that's all the time we have. happy easter to everyone. fareed zakaria picks up our breaking news that is out of sri lanka right now. >> this is "gps," the global public square. welcome to all of you in the united states and around the world. i'm fareed zakaria coming to you live from new york. today on the show, the mueller report. 23 months after mueller's appointment, the public now knows much of what he has discovered. is the president in the clear? >> no collusion, no

the president asked mcgahn again if he would do a correction and mcgahn said no.ht the president was testing his metal to see how committed mcgahn was to what happened. we should further point out a critical single sentence in this mueller report. it says the following. it says "mcgahn is a credible witness with no motive to lie or exaggerate, given the position he held in the white house." as we get in another break here tonight, coming up, what we learned all over again just today about the echo chamber we sometimes inhabit around here. that when we come back. last years' ad campaign was a success for choicehotels.com badda book. badda boom. this year, we're taking it up a notch. so in this commercial we see two travelers at a comfort inn with a glow around them, so people watching will be like, "wow, maybe i'll glow too if i book direct at choicehotels.com". who glows? just say, badda book. badda boom. nobody glows. he gets it. always the lowest price, guaranteed. book now at choicehotels.com what would i say to somebody keep being you.? keep loving. keep aspir

julie, don mcgahn matters. he's the keystone for obstruction if the democrats move in that direction on capitol hill but will they be able to compel him to testify? julie: listen, it's an open question whether they'll be able to compel him. thers no question they want to hear from him, if he read the mueller report. it'sar c that many of the thestions underlyin obstruction issue were answered for mueller a his investigative team by mcgahn. so they've issue a subpoena. they want to talk to him. we heard the presidentay he's not only going to try to block that, he's going to block any of thes g requests that he'sng to get from the congressional oversight c it's an open question how they're going to proceed but the democrats are notac going to down here. they really want to the hear from mcgahn. they also want to hear from mueller and other figures in thisut investigation mcgahn is key so they have a few avenues they can pursue. they could try toholdm in contempt of congress. they could try in various ways to enf

mcgahn refused to lie about it later. mueller report indicates both actions protected trump from obstruction charges. a former executive in the trump organization says trumps anger is is typical. >> in this case where mcgahn really saved him, it's not relevant the bigger picture makes donald look bad. >> it's general. >> the mueller report suggests trump was always suspicious of mcgahn's potential power. why do you take notes? lawyers don't take notes. he said he was a real lawyer. trump shot back. i have had a lot of great lawyers like roy cone. he didn't take notes. cone served during the campaign to root out communists and worked for trump in the 70s when the company was accused of discriminating against african americans. he had to settle and lost his license for ethic violations. >> perhaps the president had reason to think that. after all when he was trying to get his casinos up and running years ago battling politicians and regulators and more. who managed every detail no matter how small. mcgahn's uncle, pat. >> h

by the way, don mcgahn, i would think that he would be smart. the man is an attorney and i think he would realize he probably doesn't want to spend the next six months of his life and the immense amount of resources it would take to fight a court battle. my guess is at the end of the day, don mcgahn, regardless of what the president tells him, is likely to appear before congress. >> you cautioned in the past that impeachment proceedings have exactly zero chance of removing president trump. i assume you are referring to the fact that you need two-third votes, 67 senators to agree to do so. and that's pretty unlikely. when you look at the president's efforts to stonewall congressional oversight, how does that influence your personal thinking about at least getting the ball started in the house of representatives? >> yeah, so remember we're talking about two different things here. number one is, does this president deserve impeachment? has he possibly committed crimes that would cross that legal threshold in the constitution of high crimes and misd

mcgahn recalled him telling him, mueller has to go and call me back when you do it. in january of 2018, "the new york times" reported that the president had ordered mcgahn to fire mueller after the mueller report, it says after the story broke, the president threw his personal counsel deny that he had been directed to remove the special counsel. each time he was approached, mcgahn responded that he would not refute the accounts because they were accurate in reporting on the effort to have the special counsel removed. here's what the president said when asked whether he ever tried to fire mueller. >> have you thought about, consider, leading to the dismissal of the special counsel? >> i haven't given it any thought. i've been reading it from you people. you're saying, i'm going to dismiss him. i'm not dismissing anybody. >> and this is what he said when the story came out in "the new york times" about don's refusal when asked if he sought to fire robert mueller. he said, fake news, folks, fake news. typical "the new york times." that's not true. the president tried to

it was in the 1990s when petty mcgahn, he was president trump's lawyer. he was don mcgahn's uncle. donald trump ultimately got into a huge rile with him, fired him, big legal battle. here we are facing a very similar situation in a political context with don mcgahn and it should be noted that the trump campaign has cut off jones day, the law firm that don mcgahn had worked for previously. it used to be theanymore. that's a multi- multi-million hit. he's upset even though he saved him from himself. the special counsel asserted that congress has the ability to apply luce on the obstruction of justice to the president's behavior writing that no person is above the law. now we talked about senator warren who's now calling for impeachment. how do you think this could possibly back fire on democrats if they do, in fact, go through impeachment proceedings? >> it seems like a lot of the democrats in the house and of course senator warren in the senate are kind of moving toward impeaching the president without knowing all the details in the report. it seems like congressman nadler and nancy

don mcgahn's uncle, pat. >> because literally donald could ask pat mcgahn to do anything.o it for him. obviously don mcgahn had his limits with donald trump. >> you could argue that even trump fans face something of a puzzle right now. what should they think of don mcgahn? yes, donald trump is saying bad things about him. but he is, as you said erin, arguably the man who saved the trump presidency. >> right, that's the irony. >> yes. >> that's the guy he is shooting vicious arrows at. >> with friends like these. >> all right. thank you very much. and next, joe biden. poised to announce his run for president next we can. finally -- it's like he had gum on his shoes. will the decision force others like our next guest john kasich to sit out. and jeanie moos on rod rosenstein's blinkless -- isn't that dangerous -- performance. ♪ ♪ what did i miss? [laughter] you ready to go? yeah. let's go! ♪ it's nice. ♪ you got this! ♪ woo! ♪ ♪ ♪ when you rent from national... it's kind of like playing your own version of best ball. because here, you can choose any car in the aisle, even if

mcgahn. mr. mcgahn is the one who saved him from firing bob mueller and saved him from a far worse scandal. >> the president, as you know, is now claiming that everybody there follows his orders, that he doesn't have people who are defying him or ignoring him. >> well, it's very ironic, because the reason he's still president of the united states is because people did defy him. i mean, he had these crazy schemes for folks to blatantly break the law, and the only reason mueller didn't have a more damning conclusion and left some ambiguity in terms of the obstruction issue is that it was a clumsy and inept attempt because he had people who were willing to defy him and not carry out blatantly illegal orders. >> yeah. your committee has had to push back its deadline for subpoena of the president's financial records due to the suit the president filed yesterday against your committee's chairman, elijah cummings. is this delay a victory for the president and is this a strategy you expect them to use to

don mcgahn is certainly one of them. >> you covered the doj. what do you make of this hint they may invoke privilege? that is after mcgahn sat there and testified for 30 plus hours. >> i think one of the real questions facing the white house right now and the justice department is what to do with all of these people who congress wants to talk to. the problem we have actually from the outside is it's not clear to what extent any of these individuals really want to come to congress including and especially special counsel mueller. >> that's a great point and we'd like permission to call upon you again. again as we continue to take these strings and pull on them from deep within the mueller report. our great thanks for joining us tonight. eric tucker returning to our broadcast. >>> and coming up for us, thousands of pro-trump twitter bots suddenly disappeared on easter sunday. we'll look at the disinformation the bot network is accused of spreading. and the surprising suspects that are said to be behind this particular now shut down campaign. that

they're asking for a whole lot of documents from mcgahn by may 7th. they have an oversight authority here. obviously, what mcgahn told mueller and his team raised a lot of questions, right? does congress have the right to see this stuff? >> so, it was a very broad request that covered things way beyond the obstruction issues. so i think that's important to look at. but also, these are not mcgahn's documents to produce. these are the white house's documents. and they're subject to executive privilege. and therefore, the white house is going to be the one to respond to this, not mcgann and mcgann's lawyers at the end of the day because these issues all pertain, for the most part, to his time as counsel for the president, and therefore, will be subject to executive privilege, and you know, look, this went far beyond -- >> just jumping in on that, do you think mcgahn should come testify? you read the mueller report. it raised a lot of questions, right? that part with him. >> it's not mcgahn's choice as to whether he comes and testifies or not. >> why? >>

he's in a weaker position with mcgahn. mcgahn is out.don't know whether mcgahn personally is willing to tell the story >> he needs to be careful. people like rudy giuliani saying things that impugn mcgahn too much. >> we know that the president is furious at mcgahn. we know the republican national committee has cut off jones day which is mcgahn's law firm as it appears. this is not certain that a punishment to jones day for mcgahn's presence there. there is a lot of interpersonal dynamics going on >> when the president tweeted about this yesterday it struck me as dancing on a strange line with privilege. if he's saying something didn't happen and the only way you could find out whether it did happen was to talk to the other person, isn't that a win? >> i thought the same thing. it's less clear of a waiver. the president of all people have the right to public affairs, to talk about the presidency. my point is he waived executive privilege with the mueller report. in all the legal fights mcgahn is probably the most interesting because ther

one instance that don mcgahn was involved n.also, mcgahn did not go along with that and months after that when it was reported later that the president tried to fire the special counsel he wanted don mcgan to come out and say that just wasn't true. don mcgahn wouldn't do it because he told people that was true so he wasn't going to go out there and put his name on the line by denying something that had actually happened. that's another instance of the president pressuring people to go along with what he's demanded. one interesting one that people did not see coming is cory loon dousk i who worked on the president's campaign, does not work in the white house and never has, but the president tried to get him to send a message to the attorney general jeff sessions basically telling him that he wanted him to curtail the russia investigation. lewandowski realized that was a problem and did not go along with it and tried to pass it is along to someone else in the white house who did not follow through on it. what they all portray is a president being managed by his staff. that's not a depi

don mcgahn said to himself no, and, therefore, don mcgahn is a free man. and the same thing with corey lewandowski or any number of other individuals named in the mueller report is that the way that all of these administration officials preserved their freedom and are not in jail right now or at least charged and in a court right now is because they refused to carry out the orders that president trump demanded of them. >> the specific details in here are very, very powerful. evan, you've been going through the document as well, 4,900-page mueller report with the redactions. give us the big look of mueller deciding whether or not to charge campaign officials. >> that's right, wolf. the report are, as volume one of the report describes the russian campaign, and the efforts by people associated with the trump campaign to essentially encourage some of that activity. none of that according to special counsel robert mueller crossed into the line where they can bring a charge, a crime against anybody associated with the campaign. on page 174 in volume one, it tal

mcgahn is an interesting figure in trump world. the president worked with his uncle years and years ago back in atlantic city. working in all these very fancy law firms, just someone whose really not very similar to most of the people who were in the core of trump's campaign operation. he chose to go from the campaign into the white house with the president, so he's actually been around him for a very long time. but nonetheless, the two never really developed a close relationship. by the time mcgahn left his job the two of them were barely on speaking terms and you can see throughout mueller's report the tensions between the two of them that day, that mueller describes in so much details of the president at camp david calling mcgahn twice, at least twice in one day at mcgahn's home saying, look, i want you to fire mueller. you've got to get rid of mueller, and him saying i can't do this. and you have a scene then where mueller decides to call his chief of staff, actually go to the white house, pack up his belongings and informs rei

remember, that testimony by mcgahn under oath.yn collins outfront tonight live outside the white house. kaitlan, you know, i almost want to stop asking this question because the president will often make up his own facts on twitter. but who is he speaking to here? who who is he trying to convince with in. >> what we have seen is this theme emerging not just from the president and dwirt but aides and allies accepting the broad conclusions of the mueller report but attempting to poke holes in other aspects like whether or not the president tried to fire mueller even though as you laid outs, the mueller report actually leaves little down the president tried to do so. now, several other aspects in the president's tweet are just simply not true, including that mueller was respectfully allowed to do hiswork because actually the president was attacking him repeatedly and publicly but also the president claimed again insisting mueller was conflicted even though justice department lawyers cleared him of any kind of conflicts of interest or

today, former trump white house counsel don mcgahn is that first subpoenaed witness, don mcgahn is the personification of history repeating itself just just as richard nixon's white house counsel became a star witness in the last investigation of a republican president. white house counsel don mcgahn is the star witness in the second half of the redacted mueller report in which mcgahn is quoted as saying the president was always asking him to do "crazy crap" much of which don mcgahn seemed to believe was illegal crazy crap. and the redamaged mueller report, don mcgahn was in the oval office when the president first discovered that robert mueller was appointed special prosecutor and the president said my god, this is terrible, this is the ends of my presidency. i'm effed. don mcgahn heard the president say that. he will testify that he heard the president say that. he's going to testify to all of in the house judiciary committee next month may 21st. but before that, the same subpoena that requires don mcgahn's testimony demands that he deliver documents to the committee just two weeks f

trump tried to get mcgahn to fire mueller. trump wanted mcgahn to deny that it ever happened.cgahn refused because it actually did happen. that is one small piece in a series of stories that is revealed that people in the president's circle were essentially trying to protect him from himself. that's not likely to sit well with a president who doesn't like the idea he's being managed and you can see that in his tweets from yesterday when he said and insisted that he did have the right to fire robert mueller, even though he says he chose not to which of course we see from the mueller report is not true. bo boris and christine. >> digging in on the finding that president trump tried to, mueller goes into detail about the president's determination in trying to fire him, describing a night where president trump made a phone call to former white house counsel don mcgahn. mueller writes, the president called mcgahn and directed him to call the acting attorney general and say that the special counsel had conflicts of interest and must be removed. mcgahn did not carry out the direction

don mcgahn's uncle, pat. >> pat mcgahn would do anything for trump. obviously don mcgahn had his limits for donald trump. >> reporter: trump fans are facing something of a puzzle right now. what should they think of don mcgahn? sure, the president is putting him down but he is also the very man who appears to have saved the trump presidency. tom foreman, cnn, washington. >>> with us now, cnn legal analyst and former fell prosecutor shan wu. shan, let's pick up where tom foreman left off there. the role of don mcgahn, do you think he rescued the trump presidency? >> i think he ended up helping the president from not committing more overt obstruction. what's in the report reveals the president really already did commit a lot of obstruction. so i think mcgahn should certainly be credited for following his conscience and refusing to do something that he felt was wrong. i don't know that in the end, it it necessarily saves the presidency, because all the details are still coming out. and they're very troubling details. i personally think it's quite clear f

i let white house counsel mcgahn testify. i let everybody testify. i think mcgahn -- excuse me. i think mcgahn was in there for 30 hours. whoever heard of such a thing? but i said, i want everybody to testify. obviously, mcgahn thought he testified fine because he was with the administration for a long time after that. and i think he said he was just joining up with respect to the appointment of judges by the administration. but i let everybody testify. there has never, ever been transparency like this. just so you understand, so we got a great -- excuse me. we get the ruling. which i knew we were going to get because i have nothing to do with russia and the campaign. we get a ruling. no collusion. we essentially get a ruling, no obstruction based on the facts, our great attorney general made an immediate decision there was no obstruction. so, we have no collusion, no obstruction. we had total transparency. we gave 1.4 million documents, if you can believe such a ridiculous thing. 500 people testified. we had 18 people that were trump haters. that includes mr. mueller. he was a

. >> seems like rudy giuliani focusing on don mcgahn and questioning his credibility and don mcgahn could be a crucial witness if he testifies before the house. hallie? >> someone we're talking about later in the show, hans, thank you. >>> let me bring in jared huffman of california. thank you for being on the show after what is your conference call with your caucus last night. >> thanks for having me. >> are you satisfied with the outcome of that call? the house speaker and house leadership has said that we will aggressively investigate but not commit to impeachment. >> look, for now, i think there's broad unity in the democratic caucus on what the next steps need to be. there may be some different views on what we should call those next steps. i'm very comfortable with calling them part of an impeachment inquiry or impeachment proceeding. and others feel like it needs to, we need to avoid that term. but we all want to move forward with a full throated investigation and full accou accountability. i think that's the important point here. >> is it fair as i'm listening to your answer, cong

mcgahn resisted in doing so. democrats were investigating obstruction of justice and want to learn more. one thing that is dividing the parties in the days and weeks ahead is whether to pursue impeachment proceedings. elizabeth warren, the senator from massachusetts called on the house democrats to open up the impeachment proceedings. house democratic leaders are not so sure. jerry nadler said that is not the goal. the goal is to investigate what happens. a vote on impeachment would be after impeachment. he is not rushing into this at the moment. >> the democrats could pursue a line of investigation that the special counsel mostly avoided, that's the president's finances. >> they plan to investigate whether the president is compromised by a foreign interest. is this just another attempt to find another russian link to the president after mueller found no conspiracy? christina, what do the democrats want to know, specific pli, about the information they are seeking. >> simply put, they want to follow the money. th

if you have to choose between don mcgahn and president donald trump on truth i would go with mcgahn.there you go right there. omarosa during the time you worked with him. are you expecting to be subpoenaed here? >> you know, it wouldn't surprise me. i made it very clear when i talked to robert mueller's team about the things that concerned me including the two boxes of campaign e-mails and documents that the white house still has in their possession of mine. so i think that they'll be very interested in learning about the other things that the white house has done to kind of intercede in this investigation. >> talk a little bit more about that and what you expect them to ask you. what should they be asking you? >> well, i'm not welcoming it, believe me. my legal fees are high enough after being in the trump orbit for the last 15 years. but i think that they'll be curious to see where the inconsistencies in the report, part of the report that i'm in is redacted. so i'm not really sure about the ongoing investigation as it relates to my part. but i'm not welcoming it. >> but in that ca

he's going right at don mcgahn trying to cast seeds of doubt over what mcgahn told robert mueller. a tiny bit of wiggle room. don mcgahn essentially says that trump asked him to call rod rosenstein and say get rid of mueller. he has conflicts of interest. over some golf fees like ten years popping mcgahn says not going to do that. then "the new york times" does a story about that call and trump calls him and says, can you put out a statement denying that story. mcgahn says, not going to do that. now a debate over whether trump ordered mcgahn to fire mueller. and because they didn't use the word fire, i think trump thinks he has wiggle room, which is crazy, but here we are. >> the point is now we're talking about it. >> we're talking about it and i am a believer, don mcgahn wrote copious notes. his assistant wrote cope yious notes while he knew there was an investigation under way. he knew he was going to be speaking to mueller and knew he'd be asked to testify. he is also, what he also did here is cleared his name in a white house where there are many people leaving with terrible r