White House lawyer Don McGahn grabbed headlines earlier this month after it was revealed that he has cooperated extensively with special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe. | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo White House 'They just kind of avoided each other': How Trump and McGahn's partnership collapsed The president announced the long-expected departure of his White House counsel on Twitter after months of estrangement between the two men.

White House counsel Don McGahn’s office is just one floor up from the Oval, but it might as well be miles away.

In recent months, the president has sometimes gone days — or longer — without having substantial conversations with McGahn as their relationship has grown increasingly strained, according to two people familiar with the matter.


“They just kind of avoided each other for the most part,” one former administration official told POLITICO. Another Republican close to the White House said they discuss nothing but essential work business.

People who know both men said their mutual frustrations are often manifested in silence, rather than massive blow-ups. But the two have also had several heated clashes that often stemmed from Trump’s steadfast belief that McGahn hasn’t done enough to minimize the Russia investigation, according to four current and former administration officials and others close to both men.

One outside associate of McGahn’s said it always bothered Trump that McGahn was “his own man and wouldn’t kowtow to him.”

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McGahn’s eventual departure — whether after the midterms or after the anticipated confirmation of Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh — has long been seen as a foregone conclusion in the White House. But McGahn and others close to the president were nevertheless surprised when Trump tweeted about it on Wednesday, according to two people close to the White House, ensuring that McGahn would have no choice but to go.

“I have worked with Don for a long time and truly appreciate his service,” Trump wrote. He told reporters Wednesday afternoon that McGahn was a “really good guy” for whom he has “a lot of affection.”

The White House pushed back on the notion that McGahn and Trump have a deeply strained relationship, with an administration official adding that they speak regularly. McGahn did not respond to a request for comment.

“The president doesn’t treat him any worse or any better than anybody else,” said another person close to the White House. “The president is genuinely appreciative of what he's done on the judges and deregulatory fronts.”

The two men have worked alongside each other since the early days of Trump’s presidential campaign and have shared a common goal of stocking the federal courts with conservative judges and slashing government regulations.

But their once-strong relationship has deteriorated steadily since the beginning of the administration, when the president was searching for somebody to blame for the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller, the flawed travel ban and Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from the Russia probe. A recent New York Times story detailing McGahn’s cooperation with the investigation cemented what had long seemed inevitable in the White House: that McGahn would soon follow so many others out the door.

Though the White House has not yet named McGahn’s replacement, three people close to the president said White House lawyer Emmet Flood is expected to get the job, though a final decision has not yet been made.

Flood, a former George W. Bush White House lawyer who has also represented Bill Clinton and former Vice President Dick Cheney, joined Trump’s White House earlier this year to handle special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, replacing Ty Cobb. He took the job with the tacit understanding that he would have the opportunity to replace McGahn, the people said.

It’s unclear what McGahn will do after he leaves the West Wing, but one person close to him and another close to the White House said he’s expected to return to his former law firm, Jones Day. The firm has close ties to Trump and is representing the campaign in its dealings with Mueller. McGahn could also join the campaign in a more formal capacity as a lawyer, another person said.

McGahn, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, signed onto Trump’s campaign in 2015, making him one of Trump’s earliest political advisers. But Trump initially wasn’t sold on hiring him, according to one of the Republicans close to the White House, who said the then-candidate raised concerns about the fact that McGahn got his law degree from Widener University, instead of a top-tier law school — though McGahn also received a postgraduate Master of Laws degree at Georgetown University. But the president was persuaded to hire him after aides touted his tenure at the FEC, this person said, and the two men became friendly once McGahn joined the campaign.

The formal announcement of McGahn’s pending departure — which had been expected for months — comes as Trump is increasingly isolated amid Mueller’s investigation, as well as parallel investigations in New York that touch on Trump’s businesses.

In the past week, Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, has been convicted of tax evasion, and former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to tax evasion and campaign finance violations related to payoffs he made shortly before the 2016 election to two women — adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal — to silence their claims of affairs with Trump.

McGahn threatened to resign last year after Trump ordered him to explore the possibility of firing Mueller, though the president eventually backed down. Trump was furious when news of his interest in firing Mueller was first reported by The New York Times in January, and he pressured McGahn to publicly dispute the story, according to a person familiar with the issue. The White House denies that Trump has pushed to fire Mueller.

The president also tried without success to get his then-staff secretary, Rob Porter, to warn McGahn that he could be fired if he didn’t deny the article, the person said.

McGahn generated a fresh round of headlines earlier this month after the Times reported that he had spoken with Mueller’s investigators for more than 30 hours over the past nine months.

Trump’s allies have said McGahn did not offer anything damaging about the president, but McGahn still could help fill in some blanks as Mueller probes whether Trump campaign aides colluded with Russians before the election and whether Trump obstructed justice.

Trump has since said that he gave McGahn permission to fully cooperate with the investigation, which he has regularly dismissed as a “witch hunt.” But McGahn’s allies were nonetheless worried that the story would infuriate the president.

In the White House, McGahn, who is seen as a savvy operator, has increasingly separated himself from dealing with the West Wing response to the Russia probe, leaving that to other administration lawyers. McGahn has focused largely on judicial nominees and ensuring that Trump’s Supreme Court picks are confirmed.

Although much of the recent coverage of McGahn has focused on his cooperating role in the Mueller probe and his selection of judicial nominees, including two Supreme Court picks, he’s also played an integral, behind-the-scenes role in Trump’s efforts to roll back regulations, and he’s told allies he hopes that ends up as much a part of his legacy as the reshaping of the court system.

“When I hear ‘deregulation,’ all that means is returning the power to decide policy back to those elected by the people, whether it is the House, the Senate, or the president,” McGahn told Time back in March 2017.

McGahn’s departure from the White House counsel’s office gives his likely successor, Flood, the chance to put his own stamp on a key part of the White House, which has shed its top lawyers in recent months.

Already, several of McGahn’s top deputies and colleagues have left the White House for other jobs throughout the administration or the private sector, including Greg Katsas, now a federal appeals court judge on the D.C. circuit; Uttam Dhillon, acting administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration; Makan Delrahim, assistant attorney general for the Antitrust Division at the Department of Justice; James D. Schultz, chair of the Government and Regulatory Practice Group at the Philadelphia-based law firm Cozen O’Connor; and John Bash, now the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas.

McGahn’s deputy White House counsel and the ethics czar, Stefan Passantino, is also scheduled to leave the White House after Labor Day — though that move was planned long before McGahn’s plans became public.

People who know McGahn praised his tenure as White House counsel.

“He really treated the presidency as his client, and he treated it with reverence and respect and always had the office of the president and the protection of that high office as his top priority,” said Mark Corallo, a former spokesman for the president’s legal team. “He did understand that the White House counsel has two jobs. You are the president’s attorney, but you’re also the attorney for the presidency.”

McGahn has also built strong relationships with Republicans on Capitol Hill.

The news that McGahn would step down drew a sharp reaction from Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Judiciary Committee. “@realDonaldTrump I hope it’s not true McGahn is leaving WhiteHouse Counsel. U can’t let that happen,” Grassley tweeted.

McGahn engaged in a lengthy and productive partnership with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s conference on stocking the federal judiciary with Trump’s nominees. McConnell reached a deal with Democrats on Tuesday to confirm seven more judicial nominees, with 60 total confirmed judges during the Trump administration, after cutting short the chamber’s usual August recess in part to focus on getting those picks approved.

“Don is the most impressive White House counsel during my time in Washington, and I’ve known them all. His departure from the White House, whenever that may be, would be a big loss for the Trump Administration and the country,” McConnell said in a statement.

Another slew of judicial nominees is on tap for votes in the Senate next week. Grassley’s lament about losing McGahn further underscores the counsel’s solid relationship with top Senate Republicans.

“Senator Grassley has appreciated Mr. McGahn’s work over the last two years and has considered him integral to the president’s record-breaking success on filling judicial vacancies,” Grassley spokesman George Hartmann wrote in an email. “From Senator Grassley’s perspective, there’s not been any White House counsel who has worked so well and so efficiently with the chairman’s office and the Senate Judiciary Committee on judges.”

McGahn’s most fruitful achievement on the judicial confirmation front has been Kavanaugh, whom McGahn first contacted about joining the nation’s high court mere hours after Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement in June.

McGahn’s effectiveness in shepherding Kavanaugh on an increasingly smooth path to confirmation has drawn howls from Democrats, who have objected to the White House counsel’s role in a meeting with Senate Republicans last month that influenced the scope of their request for records on Kavanaugh’s past.

If Democrats take control of the House in November, McGahn would likely be hauled up for questioning as part of Democrats’ oversight efforts into the administration.

“There’s no question that extensive statements given to the special counsel increases the expectation in Congress that the witness, such as Don McGahn, will be equally forthcoming,” said Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law professor at The George Washington University.

Eliana Johnson, Daniel Lippman, Lorraine Woellert and Rebecca Morin contributed to this report.