Former White House counsel Don McGahn mocked President Trump’s repeated claim that his call with Ukrainian leaders was “perfect.”
Trump’s July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was the first domino to fall in what became two articles of impeachment, but the president maintains that the call was perfect. During a presentation at Stockton University on Thursday, McGahn joked about Trump’s “perfect call” after being set up by the moderator, Bill Hughes Jr.
Huges asked, “It is timely that you’re here. You couldn’t come at a better time. … You have some on one side saying it was necessary — almost required. On the other side, saying actions aren’t justified — that it was rash and that an institution is in jeopardy. And I think the audience would like to know, so I ask you about … Harry and Meghan?”
McGahn, 51, responded in stride, saying, “It’s a tough one. Not as tough as where I thought you were going. I heard she called the queen, and she thought it was a perfect call.”
The Sussexes, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, gave up their royal titles. When the couple announced the decision, it came as a surprise to Queen Elizabeth and the rest of the family, leaving to split reactions, similar to U.S. reactions to impeachment, between those who support the privacy of the Sussexes and those who believe they disrespected the royal family by leaving in such a manor.
The attorney had been chosen by Trump to be his White House counsel following his election in 2016. McGahn became a key figure in the Mueller report after it was revealed that he had resigned from his position rather than following Trump’s orders to fire Robert Mueller.
Following the report, McGahn was subpoenaed to testify before the House Judiciary committee, but the White House ordered him not to speak because of executive privilege. A judge ruled in November that McGahn was not immune from the congressional subpoena, but the Department of Justice repealed that ruling. The court also made it clear that their ruling only mandated that he appear before Congress but that McGahn could still invoke executive privilege while testifying.
Beyond the chaos that followed the Mueller report, McGahn was credited for organizing the White House’s record-breaking judicial appointments alongside his counterpart in the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“The president makes appointments, I was fortunate he put a tremendous amount of trust in me,” McGahn told Huges. “What the president was looking for was folks who wanted to read the law as it was passed — not as they wanted.”
