The Denver Gazette

Multiple reports: Trump DOJ sought subpoenas against McGahn

BY JERRY DUNLEAVY The Washington Examiner

Multiple news reports emerged on Sunday stating the Trump Justice Department sought Apple records from former White House counsel Don McGahn, a revelation following McGahn’s recent congressional testimony and disclosures that the DOJ obtained records from members of Congress and journalists.

Apple reportedly informed McGahn in May that “the Justice Department had subpoenaed information about an account that belonged to him in February 2018, and that the government barred the company from telling him at the time,” according to the New York Times. The Times said McGahn’s wife received such a notice from Apple too.

The report stated that Apple received the subpoena on Feb. 23, 2018, after it was “issued by a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia” and that “it is not clear what FBI agents were scrutinizing, nor whether Mr. McGahn was their specific focus,” adding that Apple told McGahn “that it complied with the subpoena in a timely fashion but declined to tell him what it provided the government” and said the evidence suggests “that prosecutors went to court several times to prevent Apple from notifying the McGahns earlier.”

CNN followed up with a report stating that “McGahn and his wife received disclosures from Apple last month that their account records were sought by the Justice Department in February 2018” and that “the pursuit was under a nondisclosure order until May, indicating the Justice Department went to a judge multiple times to keep it secret.” The outlet added that “the subpoena for McGahn’s records did not come from” former special counsel Robert Mueller’s team and that “there’s no indication at this time whether the pursuit of McGahn’s records was politically motivated, or what possible case investigators were pursuing.”

The Associated Press also reported on Sunday that Apple “informed … McGahn and his wife that the Justice Department had subpoenaed information about accounts belonging to them in 2018” but that “it’s not clear yet why the Trump administration sought the McGahns’ records.”

Democrats sued McGahn in 2019, claiming to need his testimony on the instances of possible obstruction of justice that Mueller outlined in his report. Then-Attorney General William Barr and then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein concluded justice had not been obstructed.

McGahn, who served as counsel from former President Donald Trump’s inauguration through his resignation in October 2018, testified behind closed doors before the House Judiciary Committee on June 4, saying Trump had told him to tell Rosenstein that Mueller had multiple alleged conflicts and could not serve as special counsel.

NATIONAL POLITICS

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2021-06-14T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-06-14T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://daily.denvergazette.com/article/281741272367277

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