White House Counsel Related to Lawyer Trump Sued Over Atlantic City Casino

Photo source: CNN

White House Counsel Don McGahn, after being ordered by President Trump to pressure Attorney General Jeff Sessions not to recuse himself from the investigation into Russian active measures in the 2016 presidential election, did as he was told and tried to convince Sessions to remain involved in order to protect the president, according to a new report in The New York Times.

McGahn’s role as White House Counsel is not to protect the president. The role of the White House Counsel is to advise the president on legal issues concerning the president and his administration. The position can be described as attorney for the presidency - the office, not the person. McGahn has no attorney-client privilege related to his position, which means he can be compelled to testify in court regarding his conversations with the president.

McGahn’s career in campaign finance law and as chief counsel for the National Republican Congressional Committee would not seem like a normal career path leading to his current role. McGahn served on the Federal Election Commission from 2008 to 2013 as an appointee of George W. Bush, and is credited with loosening rules governing campaign spending.

There is a long history between the Trump and McGahn families. McGahn’s uncle, Patrick McGahn, was considered the most powerful lawyer in Atlantic City in 1979, when gambling became legal through a referendum. The elder McGahn served as Donald Trump’s lawyer in the early days of the growth of the Atlantic City gambling industry.

According to investigative reporter Wayne Barrett, McGahn’s uncle, Patrick McGahn, negotiated with mobsters for Trump in 1982. The Trump Organization was Harrah’s at Trump Plaza, which later became Trump Plaza. The property did not have a parking lot. A site across the street was owned by two members of the Scarfo crime organization. New Jersey state investigative records show that Trump paid $1.1 million for the site, after the title was transferred from mobsters Salvatore Testa and Frank Narducci, Jr., to Patrick McGahn’s secretary, and then to a Trump entity.

The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement produced a report which stated that Trump knew the property was owned by the “Testa Group.”

The Divison of Gaming Enforcement report states:

“Because [Trump] did not want to negotiate with those people directly, he instructed his attorney, Patrick T. McGahn, Jr., to deal with a broker and arrange for a cash deal. With respect to the property in question, by deed dated July 11, 1977, Jeanne’s Enterprises transferred the property to Frank J. Narducci Jr. and Salvatore A. Testa. By deed dated April 1, 1982, Narducci conveyed his interest in the property to Testa.”

The casino deal is explained in an article in Roughly Explained, an online political website.
https://www.roughlyexplained.com/2017/05/white-house-counsel-don-mcgahns-uncle-helped-trump-deal-mob/

According to The Press of Atlantic City from 1995,

 “ … the relationship soured in 1991 when Trump fired McGahn. Last November, Trump threatened to sue McGahn for making defamatory comments in a dispute involving property needed for the expansion of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino. That suit was never filed.”
 
The article about the lawsuit, originally published in 1995, can be found here.
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/trump-sues-former-lawyer-patrick-paddy-mcgahn/article_6b3f9e76-16d8-11e6-b681-2b0df4c3460a.html

A Washington Post profile of White House Counsel Don McGahn from April 2016 can be found here.
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?utm_term=.b10098bfad3c

An article from The Hill  describing the New York Times ​reporting can be found here.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/367538-trump-ordered-wh-lawyer-to-stop-sessions-from-recusing-himself-in
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The New York Times article can be found here.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/04/us/politics/trump-sessions-russia-mcgahn.html​