Noah Feldman, Columnist

Don McGahn Served His Own Interests, Not the President’s

The White House counsel shouldn’t have cooperated with Robert Mueller without putting up a fight.

August 21, 2018 at 11:00 AM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

His true client is the presidency.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

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Lawyers are not supposed to disclose conversations with their clients, at least not without a fight over attorney-client confidentiality. Senior presidential advisers aren’t supposed to discuss consultations with their boss, at least not without first asserting executive privilege. Yet we now know, thanks to the New York Times, that White House Counsel Don McGahn has been cooperating with Robert Mueller’s investigation of Donald Trump. Why is the world of normal procedures being turned upside down?

There’s a technical answer; and then there’s the deeper logic (or illogic) behind it: the bizarre nature of decision-making in the Trump presidency.