President Donald Trump told White House counsel Don McGahn this year that he wanted the Department of Justice to prosecute Hillary Clinton and James Comey, only to have McGahn push back and remind him that he doesn't run the DOJ.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that at McGahn's urging, White House lawyers spelled out in a memo to the president how asking federal law enforcement to investigate his political enemies could open him up to an investigation that might end with his impeachment.

Trump has said privately that that he would favor the appointment of a second special counsel to probe both Comey, the FBi director he fired last year, and Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee whom he beat in 2016.

President Donald Trump, pictured Tuesday talking to reporters as he left the White House for Thaknsgiving break, reportedy asked the White House's top lawyer about directing the Department of Justice to investigate his political enemies

Trump blamed Comey (right) for soft-pedaling the FBI's investigation of Hillary Clinton's mishandling of classified information on a private email server

McGahn told Trump that even requesting a DOJ investigation, something within his power, would likely draw howls of protest and accusations that he was abusing his power, according to the Times.

McGahn left the White House in October, with 21 months in service ranking among the longest-serving of Trump's top aides.

The president named Pat Cipollone as his replacement, but the noted commercial lawyer and conservative Catholic activist has not been seen at the White House.

Trump has long resented Comey for what he sees as the FBI's effort to let Clinton off the hook after the 2016 discovery that she had mishandled classified material in her emails.

Clinton ran all her emails while she was secretary of state through a private server that sat in the basement of her Chappaqua, New York home.

Don McGahn, then the White House counsel, derailed Trump's efforts by making the case that it would be seen as abuse of power that could lead to impeachment

More than 100 of her messages were later found to have been classified at the time she sent or received them.

But Comey announced in July 2016 that 'no reasonable prosecutor' would charger her with a crime, and spared her a career-ending criminal charge.

Comey also released a book in April, 'A Higher Loyalty,' in which he excoriated Trump as a corrupt authoritarian leader who should never have been given the reins of power.

The conversations the Times described would likely have occurred around the time the best-seller hit store shelves.