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Trump doesn't want McGahn to testify in Congress

By Allen Cone
President Donald Trump speaks at the National Day of Prayer Service at the White House on Saturday. The president was interviewed Thursday night by Fox News' Chief Intelligence Correspondent Catherine Herridge. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI
President Donald Trump speaks at the National Day of Prayer Service at the White House on Saturday. The president was interviewed Thursday night by Fox News' Chief Intelligence Correspondent Catherine Herridge. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

May 2 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump on Thursday said he doesn't want any of his current or former administration officials, including former White House counsel Don McGhan, to testify to the U.S. House about possible obstruction of justice by himself.

"They've testified for many hours, all of them. I would say, it's done," Trump told Fox News' Chief Intelligence Correspondent Catherine Herridge. "Nobody has ever done what I've done. I've given total transparency. It's never happened before like this. They shouldn't be looking anymore. It's done."

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Trump said he allowed McGahn to speak to special counsel Robert Mueller and the White House lawyer subsequently had more than two dozen hours of interviews.

According to Mueller's report, McGahn said that Trump told him to fire the special counsel. Trump has disputed the account.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., has issued McGahn a subpoena to testify.

Attorney General William Barr earlier this week said Trump would decide whether McGahn would appear before Congress even though he no longer works for the president. "That's a call for the president to make," Barr said.

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Barr said Mueller didn't find sufficient evidence of obstruction though Mueller said the president can't be cleared.

One day after testifying before the U.S. Senate's Judiciary Committee, Barr failed to appear before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday. House Democrats had insisted that committee counsel, rather than members of Congress, question Barr.

"It's not up to me, it's up to him," Trump said on Barr's decision not to show up. "And they were going to treat him differently than they've treated other people. And of course we've been treated differently to start off with. We've gone through so many investigations, everybody. And it's so ridiculous. No obstruction, no nothing -- there's been no nothing. There's been no collusion, there never was, they knew that from day one."

House Democrats also want the Treasury Department to release the president's income taxes.

Trump and his private company sued House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings on Monday to block a subpoena asking for his financial records.

Trump is trying to prevent the accounting firm Mazars USA from releasing "statements of financial condition" and audits prepared for Trump and several of his businesses, including the company that owns the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.

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"I assume Mueller looked at my financial statements, having 20 people and 49 FBI agents and all of the staff and all the money that was spent," Trump said. "I assume for the $35 million, my taxes, my financial statements, which are phenomenal, they've gone through anything. And I'm so clean. Think of it, two and a half years and all that money spent, nothing. Very few people could have sustained that."

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