White House Counsel Don McGahn ended his 21-month tenure as President Trump's official lawyer Wednesday. Veteran DC attorney Pat Cipollone will replace him.
Mr. McGahn’s departure was confirmed by two people close to him. Mr. McGahn and the president sat for a farewell chat on Wednesday, one said.
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As White House counsel, Mr. McGahn took on a handful of often-conflicting roles: counselor to the president; protector of top law enforcement officials, including the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III; and witness in the investigation into whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice. He has told associates that he stopped Mr. Trump from firing Mr. Mueller and from forcing Attorney General Jeff Sessions to retake control of the Russia inquiry after he recused himself from oversight of it.
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... Mr. McGahn often tried to stop the president from taking steps that Mr. McGahn viewed as legally or politically problematic, such as firing the special counsel. The president blamed Mr. McGahn for the deputy attorney general’s appointment of Mr. Mueller in May 2017, saying Mr. McGahn had not done enough to control the Justice Department.
Mr. McGahn may have also caused more damage for Mr. Trump than any other White House official in the special counsel investigation. Mr. McGahn has spent at least 30 hours with Mr. Mueller’s investigators, laying out how Mr. Trump tried to interfere with or quash the inquiry, including by trying to fire Mr. Mueller himself in the summer of 2017.
McGahn, a Soldier for Trump and a Witness Against Him, Departs White House (NYT)