White House Counsel Don McGahn to Leave Post

(CN) - White House Counsel Don McGahn will leave his post this fall following the expected confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump announced via Twitter on Wednesday.

“White House Counsel Don McGahn will be leaving his position in the fall, shortly after the confirmation (hopefully) of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court," the president's tweet said. "I have worked with Don for a long time and truly appreciate his service.”

McGahn’s planned exit from the White House follows media reports that McGahn recently met with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team of prosecutors and answered questions from them for several hours.

The president has not yet named McGahn’s replacement.

According to Axios, McGahn has privately said he would prefer that attorney Emmet Flood succeed him.

Flood is widely considered a heavyweight attorney on Capitol Hill: he advised former President Bill Clinton during his impeachment proceedings in 1998 and represented former Vice President Dick Cheney when Cheney was sued by Valerie Plame for his alleged role in exposing her covert CIA agent status. He also served as attorney for the administration of former president George W. Bush.

More recently, Flood replaced White House attorney Ty Cobb and has been assisting the president during Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

During his tenure in the White House, McGahn has often been caught up in the administration’s controversies.

When he first took on the role at the White House, McGahn was publicly warned by then-acting Attorney General Sally Yates that Trump’s national security adviser at the time, Michael Flynn, was susceptible to blackmail by Russian agents.

Yates also warned McGahn that Flynn may have lied to Vice President Mike Pence.

When McGahn cooperated with Mueller, according to the New York Times, he expressed concern to prosecutors that the president was attempting to pin possible criminal charges on him.

After the reports of McGahn’s cooperation circulated, Trump tweeted on August 18, that he “allowed White House Counsel Don McGahn and all other requested members of the White House Staff, to fully cooperate with the Special Counsel.”

“In addition we readily gave over one million pages of documents. Most transparent in history. No Collusion, No Obstruction. Witch Hunt!” Trump tweeted. [Emphasis original.]

The White House did not immediately respond to request for comment.

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