John Dean told Alysin Camerota and John Berman this morning that his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee today is to give the committee "a historical base to understand what is going on" and said it would be a good foundation for them.
"One of those witnesses who you say is stonewalling with whom you see lots of parallel is White House counsel Don McGahn. So since you shared that role with him, what do you plan to tell them about Don McGahn's role?" Camerota said.
"Don has said he feels himself torn between two different branches of government and that creates a conflict for him. Actually, it was my testimony that the ABA read during the Watergate hearings that rang a bell in Chicago and they decided to revise their code of ethics. They solved a lot of the problems that used to exist in representing an organization. That's why Don today represents the office of the president and not Donald Trump. I think his loyalty is to the office and not the man, and that lowers the conflict considerably. He's got some ethics issues that i try to address."
"You do think he could testify. You don't think the privilege would cover him?"
"No, I don't think the privilege would cover him. There are two reasons. First of all, there's something called the 'crime fraud exception.' When there's any criminal behavior, that is not covered by any privilege, not by attorney-client privilege, not by executive privilege, and some of these are crimes he's talking about. A general waiver. The waiver occurred when Mr. Trump released for public consumption the Mueller report, and all those things that are in the mueller report that relate to Don McGahn, he is now free to talk about."
"President Trump called you a nasty name over the weekend. How do you think you'll be treated by his allies on Capitol Hill today?"
"I haven't seen his tweet yet. He's called me nasty names before. I like that small club actually that I'm in, so it doesn't bother me in the slightest. It's a cue to his admirers that i'm not on his team. but i think they knew that before today," Dean said.
"I think it is interesting, though. It's a good question. The Republican allies of the president on that committee I imagine will go after you. What for, do you think?"
"It seems the theater of it all is what interests them. What I've tried to pay very close attention to are the rules of decorum of the House, where the House does not take the president's name in vain and accuse him of things that he hasn't done, to be very careful about that. I have gone out of my way to do that and was working on the statement last night to make sure that didn't happen."
Echoes of 1973. I hope it has some impact!
