White House lawyer who may have incriminated Trump in extensive Mueller interviews may leave admin

Andrew Harnik/AP

White House Counsel Donald McGahn and President Donald Trump.

• President Donald Trump's White House legal counsel, Don McGahn, may leave the administration in fall, according to Axios.
• It comes after he cooperated extensively with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into possible criminal wrongdoing by Trump.
• McGahn has reportedly clashed with Trump before, and may have incriminated Trump during 30 hours of interviews with Mueller's team.
• After the news of McGahn's conversations with Mueller went public, Trump tweeted that McGahn was not a "RAT" like John Dean in the Watergate scandal.

President Donald Trump's White House legal counsel, Don McGahn, may leave the administration in short order after cooperating extensively with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into possible criminal wrongdoing from Trump.

McGahn could leave the White House later this fall after the Senate likely approves Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, the news website Axios reported on Wednesday.

Previously, Trump had reportedly clashed with McGahn after courts found the former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort guilty of financial crimes, and Trump openly pondered a pardon.

McGahn reportedly refused to participate in the pardoning process, causing Trump to consider bringing on a new lawyer, Vanity Fair reported on Monday.

But before the reported clash over Manafort, McGahn had already extensively cooperated with Mueller in a way that could have incriminated Trump in the ongoing investigation into possible obstruction of justice over the Russia probe.

The New York Times reported earlier in August that McGahn had given 30 hours of interviews to Mueller over the past nine months. The report said that during those talks, McGahn and his own lawyer focused on absolving himself of wrongdoing while candidly discussing inner circle conversations with Trump over his moves in the investigation.

These discussions touched on Trump's firing of former FBI Director James Comey, his focus on putting officials loyal to his presidency in charge of the investigation, and trying to get Attorney General Jeff Sessions to take control of the probe, according to the Times.

Trump called the Times' story "Fake" because he said it implied that McGahn had become a "RAT" like John Dean, who helped out the Watergate scandal that ended Richard Nixon's presidency.

Trump instead insisted that he allowed McGahn and others to cooperate with Mueller because he had "nothing to hide" and wanted to get to the end of the probe.

More quietly, away from the scandals that dominate news coverage, McGahn helped Trump select a record number of conservative judges around the country, in what may prove one of Trump's more consequential moves as president.

Emmet Flood, a former Clinton administration official who joined the White House in May to help with the Russia probe is the likely replacement for McGahn, Axios reported.