Don McGahn
 Don McGahn    (lawyer) | |
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| Born | June 16, 1968 Atlantic City, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Nationality | US |
| Alma mater | University of Notre Dame, Widener University, Georgetown University |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Children | 2 |
| Spouse | Shannon McGahn |
| Member of | Squire Patton Boggs |
| Party | Republican |
American lawyer who was White House Counsel for U.S. President Donald Trump, but resigned.
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Donald Francis McGahn II is an American lawyer who was White House Counsel for U.S. President Donald Trump, from the day of Trump's inauguration through October 17, 2018, when McGahn resigned. Previously, McGahn served on the Federal Election Commission for over five years.
Early life and education
Don McGahn was born on June 16, 1968, and grew up in Atlantic City, New Jersey.[1][2][3] He is a nephew of Joseph McGahn, former Democratic New Jersey State Senator and medical director at Donald Trump's Resorts International,[4] and Atlantic City attorney Patrick McGahn, who had represented Trump's casino interests from 1982 until Trump sued him for alleged overbilling in 1995.[5][6][7][8]
Don McGahn attended Our Lady Star of the Sea School in Atlantic City and Holy Spirit High School in nearby Absecon.[9] He briefly attended the United States Naval Academy before transferring to the University of Notre Dame.[10] At the University of Notre Dame he received a B.A. degree in history and computer applications.[11] He obtained his J.D. degree from Widener University Commonwealth Law School in 1994. In 2002, later in his career, he got a degree from the Georgetown University Law Center.[12]
McGahn has been married to Shannon Flaherty since the end of 2010, who has been a political consultant for the National Association of Realtors since October 2018. She was previously an employee of Congressman Jeb Hensarling and an adviser to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in 2017/18, among others.[13]
Career
After graduation from law school, McGahn worked in campaign finance law at the Washington, D.C., office of law firm Patton Boggs[14] and for several years as a legal advisor to the National Republican Congressional Committee.[15] From 2008 to 2013, at the instigation of the Republicans in the Senate, he was one of the representatives of the Republican Party in the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and temporarily its chairman.[16] After leaving the FEC, McGahn returned to the law firm Patton Boggs.
Working for Donald Trump
McGahn was one of the leading lawyers in Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and was part of the transition team after Trump's election victory. President Trump, who has just taken office, appointed McGahn as White House legal adviser on January 20, 2017.[17]
As a legal advisor, McGahn focused on preparing judicial nominations and deregulation efforts. Unlike all previous legal advisers, he had no experience as an insider of political or administrative institutions and served as a link to the party leadership of the Republicans in Congress, which at first was skeptical about the new president. McGahn showed himself to be relatively independent in this position and considered himself an adviser to the office rather than the person of the president, which led to conflicts with Trump, who questioned McGahn's loyalty. He was criticized for his role in the inadequate review of National Security Adviser Michael T. Flynn, who resigned after a few weeks, and the delayed introduction of the ban on entry for residents of Muslim-majority countries (Executive Order 13769). Despite initial misgivings, McGahn agreed to the firing of FBI director James Comey and questioned Attorney General Jeff Sessions about his decision to withdraw from oversight of the Russiagate investigation due to bias.[18]
In January 2018, the New York Times made it public that Trump had instructed McGahn in June 2017 to initiate the dismissal of special investigator Robert Mueller, who was leading the investigation into "Russian interference in the 2016 US election campaign". McGahn had warned against this step and threatened that he would rather resign himself before doing so. As a result, Trump dropped out of his plan.[19]
On August 29, 2018, Trump announced that McGahn would be leaving the White House in the fall of 2018. In mid-August, the New York Times reported that McGahn had cooperated "extensively" with special counsel Mueller.[20] On October 17, 2018, McGahn's employment in the White House ended.[21] On October 16, Trump appointed Pat Cipollone, a Washington-based business lawyer, as his successor.[22]
References
- ↑ "Jean Quinn Rogan Obituary", Citizens' Voice via Legacy.com, May 19, 2014.
- ↑ https://www.vaildaily.com/news/what-does-the-white-house-counsel-do/
- ↑ https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2017-03-06/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-donald-mcgahn
- ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/28/nyregion/joseph-mcgahn-82-pioneer-of-casinos-in-atlantic-city.html
- ↑ https://www.forbes.com/sites/charlestiefer/2016/11/25/new-trump-white-house-counsel-donald-mcgahn-is-a-partisan-politico-consiglieri/#4383efee374f
- ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/trumps-own-beltway-establishment-guy-the-curious-journey-of-don-mcgahn/2016/04/11/856229a8-fb9a-11e5-80e4-c381214de1a3_story.html
- ↑ https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-decorated-marine-who-called-trump-a-draft-dodging-bastard-to-his-face
- ↑ https://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/trump-transition-counsel-mcgahn-231725
- ↑ DeRosier, John. "Atlantic City native embroiled in Trump/Flynn controversy ", The Press of Atlantic City, May 17, 2017. Accessed November 15, 2017. "McGahn, a longtime Republican campaign lawyer and former commissioner at the Federal Election Commission, grew up in Atlantic City, attending Our Lady Star of the Sea school and Holy Spirit High School, where he played football."
- ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/18/us/politics/don-mcgahn-mueller-investigation.html
- ↑ https://www.fec.gov/about/leadership-and-structure/donald-f-mcgahn/
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20180209063351/http://www.law.georgetown.edu/news/alumni-in-the-news/?start=6&selectedYear=2017&selectedMonth=103
- ↑ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-05/white-house-counsel-s-wife-mcgahn-to-leave-senior-treasury-job
- ↑ https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB122523208143177711
- ↑ http://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/14/politics/white-house-counsel-donald-mcgahn/index.html
- ↑ https://www.npr.org/2017/06/06/531337749/the-quiet-man-the-powerful-conservative-white-house-lawyer-in-the-middle-of-it-a
- ↑ https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-selectsdonald-mcgahnas-white-house-counsel-1480103558
- ↑ https://www.lawfareblog.com/don-mcgahn-white-house-counsel-early-appraisal
- ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/25/us/politics/trump-mueller-special-counsel-russia.html
- ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/18/us/politics/don-mcgahn-mueller-investigation.html
- ↑ https://www.politico.com/story/2018/10/17/don-mcgahn-leaves-white-house-912088
- ↑ https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-names-white-house-counsel-to-succeed-don-mcgahn
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