The Weekly | Who is Don McGahn, the Lawyer Behind Trump’s Court Makeover?

Producer/Director Singeli Agnew

Most Americans may not know Donald F. McGahn II’s name, but they’ll likely live with his legacy for decades to come.

As White House counsel for the first 21 months of President Trump’s term, McGahn helped push through lifetime appointments for more than 100 conservative judges, including the successful nominations of Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, credits McGahn with accomplishing a key Republican priority, and Stephen K. Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, says McGahn engineered one of the administration’s most durable accomplishments. “Why the left is triggered by Trump is because they understand they’re in a Kafkaesque nightmare, that Donald Trump is going to be in their personal lives 10, 20 and 30 years from now – and the reason is Don McGahn,” Bannon says on the latest episode of “The Weekly.”

Trump’s critics are worried that even if Democrats manage to take back the White House and control of the Senate in 2020, “there is a third branch of government that’s been taken over by one party,” says Brian Fallon, a former Hillary Clinton aide.

Our reporters look at McGahn’s success in reshaping the American judiciary, which won him praise from conservatives, and they examine his falling-out with Trump over McGahn’s role in the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, where he was the most cited witness in the Mueller report.

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Senior Story Editors Dan Barry, Liz O. Baylen, and Liz Day
Director of Photography Andreas Burgess
Video Editor David Herr
Associate Producer Brennan Cusack



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