President Donald Trump said this week that he does not want former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify before Congress — and a former Watergate prosecutor told CNN’s John Berman Friday that the president has no power to stop McGahn’s testimony.
Appearing on CNN, attorney David Dorsen told Berman that it would be ridiculous for Trump to assert executive privilege over McGahn’s testimony after he previously waived that privilege to have him cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
“President Trump just makes things up,” he said. “We had total access to everything in Watergate. The idea that what is going on now is unprecedented is just false.”
He also said that he doubted McGahn would actually resist a Congressional subpoena like Trump wants because “he’s going to have to testify or go to jail.”
He then finished up by saying Trump seems to completely lack an understanding about the actual powers he’s been given under the United States Constitution.
“President Trump says, ‘I won’t let him testify’ — it’s not for President Trump to decide whether he will let a witness testify, now a private citizen, before a house of Congress,” he said. “They are equal branches of the government and they could subpoena him and have him testify without the permission of the president… I just think the president has an exaggerated view of his status and powers.”
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