Olly. This is cnn tonight. Im don lemon. The white house asked the former counsel, don mcgahn to state publicly that President Trump did not obstruct justice. But mcgahn declined. The New York Times reporting the white house made that request to mcgahn twice before and after the Mueller Report was released. And saying tonight the request was not perceived as something sinister. But a source saying the president was upset with mcgahns refusal and dmgs moving quickly to get the president s tax returns. Issuing subpoenas for six recent years of trump returns. And the treasury secretary refused an official request. Are they stone walling . Creating a constitutional crisis . Tonight well look at the big picture. Thank you so much for joining us on this friday evening, everyone. What are does it say that President Trump wanted don mcgahn to make a statement saying he didnt obstruct justice . I guess its not surprising. Its very reminiscent of some of the anecdote covered in the earlier behavior trying to get intelligence chiefs to make a statement saying he didnt have anything to do with russia. Far from the disorganized white house thats passively sitting there and waiting to be vindicated by the Mueller Report, im struck by trying to shape the narrative around the report and perceived the testimony given over 30 hours was among the most damaging revelations in the report itself and trying to shape that is notable in this context that is still unclear when and under what circumstances Congress Might hear directly from don mcgahn himself. The white house did not assert executive privilege to stape him from testifying to special counsel. But now theyre saying they dont want him to testify on the hill. Im not a lawyer but it seems to me not having asserted a privilege is hard. Absolutely. The president has repeatedly claim that mueller found no obstruction. Watch this. Ive been totally exonerated. No collusion. No obstruction. No collusion, no obstruction. It was a total hoax. No collusion e no obstruction, no anything. So if trump was so confident mueller exonerated him, why would he need don mcgahn to say it . Because donald trump knows in his heart of hearts he probably obstructed justice. Hes going to do anything he can to keep people like mcgahn and others from testifying. Hes desperate to try to turn the narrative around. He the great moment when the report was released early on and able to say no conspiracy and instead were seeing a tunations Democratic Party seeing more answers and a white house working over time to try to block people from telling the truth or coming forward and saying what they feel and think. Its imperative that mcgahn and mueller come to capitol hiller and talk to our law makers. Theres still a lot of questions about trumps behavior with russia and the Mueller Report needs to be fully vetted in front of a Wide Television audience. Are there legal issues considering mcgahn could be future witness in any number of hearings . Mcgahns opinion as to whether the president obstructed justice doesnt matter. Its can completely irrelevant. All this was was damage control and constructed mcgahn to be one of the cronies or stoojs to help spin the report. Why they to do this is because regardless of the legal findings, its incredibly damaging to the president personally. Along the lines oz of what susan said, its not really obstructive conduct here but its sort of part of the same pattern of behavior. Its leaning on mcgahn to try to minimize this story and at some point some of the conduct in the report clearly was chargeable obstruction of justice. This seems like can continuation, even if its not illegal. Im going to give this to you since youre raring to go. And he said we did not perceive it as any kind of threat of something sinister. Legally as you were saying it dua doesnt really matter what his opinion is but it was perceived request it. It might have been cordial but its hard to tell if it was more arrogant or stupid to reach out to the former white House Counsel and get him to spin the reports of a dually executed enforcement proceeding. Its trying to twist the facts for something again was quite damaging if not legally, personally to the president. Heres the bottom line. Mcgahn refewed trumps request. And do you think this is why it the white house tried to prevent him from testifying at all costs it seems . They think it could be damaging testimony. The specter of john dean looms laerj over all of this. The idea of the president s own lawyer testify against him in some way shape or foerm in a public televised way is bad. They had the spectacle of the former personal attorney testify publicly on cap 28 rr hill. That was very damaging to President Trump but this would be even worse because it gets to the heart of his conduct while in office. Its clear the whole section around obstruction is essentially a road map to congress when it comes to obstruction and laying out the different kinds of evidence. Instead were being tides down in a series of process and legal fights over access, not ownnly the unredacted report but the underlying evidence if congress is going to investigate the allegations. And congress is the only vehicle that can impose accountability for allegations like this. Theyve got to have the information. They cant see it, susan. Almost an absurd, illogical thing. Its not surprising this is happening. I think this is import ntd. The chairman of the houses ways and means committee, for trumps tax returns. The white house has not shown any sign of complying with other subpoenas. So why should this be any different . Its a pattern of donald trump thinking hes above the law. Typical attitude of authoritarian. Nobody should talk if he doesnt want them to talk. Somebody not understanding our role of our democracy and hes getting heat from lot of ocorner. When senator burr rr said i want to hear from donald trump jr. , that cuts close to home. I think its one of the reasons Rudy Giuliani is in the ukrain saying im going to look into biden and his son. Trump is desperate to change the subject away from the Mueller Report because he thought he had it sequestered and the taxes need to be turned over. Its a clock were running out here with the election and well have to see whether the impeachment idea take hold or not. But first we need hear from more people and keep issuing subpoenas. American people have to demand to see the tax returns. Elliott, thank you. Susan, happy mothers day. You come back. It thats right. Ill tell you happy mothers day again. Well be right back. Run with us. On a john deere z500 series mower. Built to mow better, faster. 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Like a special price for military families and one of our best phones when you buy one. Thats verizon. Applebees bigger, bolder grill combos. Now thats eatin good in the neighborhood. So its been a long week. The house judiciary can committee voted to and President Trump invoked executive privilege over the entire Mueller Report and subpoenaed donald trump jr. And the house ways and means issued subpoenas to get President Trumps tax returns. The battles between the white house and congress seem never ending. Cay. So give me the big picture here, elliott. The white house is stone walling congress at every turn with trumps taxes. Security clearances and the list goes on and on o. Theres been a question of whether or not year in a constitutional crisis. Are we . Year in a crisis when the Constitutional Order that was set up 229 and a 1 2 years ago cant sustain the behavior of the individuals running government. Right now you have one party that does not recognize another party. Im glad you tick itted off that list of subpoenas with respect to immigration and all the things in the Mueller Report and so on. The president doesnt respect congress. Courts can still step in and resolve this. My question is if the president of the executive braench does not respect a court order and we have lots of evidence to suggest they might not therks president has spent a lot of capitol insulting courts and judges and so on, thing i think we have a problem because clearly the three braqss of government are not working together. And clearly the mechanism for fixing one partys behavior just cant sustain it. I think were almost there. But i still have that misplaced lawyers faith in the court to save us and i hope that can be where this ends up. Your new piece is titled is this official trump constitutional crisis and you write in part. In recent weeks trumps ordered his administration to take a defiant attitude towards congress. The president essentially is arguing that his democratic tormenters in the house have no right at all to pursue information and testimony related to him. He seems to be saying kangress has no power over him. Is that official trump constitutional crisis youre referring to . Its not gist individual challenges. And we should be clear that there have been a long history of democratic congressman e republican congressman getting in fights over subpoenaing documents or testimony. Dprrs the longrunning case between eric holder, the obama attorney general and the republicancontrolled house just settled this week in a little bit of an ironic footnote. That is not a crisis in the sense that weve had a fairly regular and long standing seary of conflicts. Sometimes in the courts it takes a long time. I think trumps maximalest view of executive power and nonrecognition of any form of congressional subpoena authority right now e is that where youre revisiting and revising the Constitutional Order. Thats what constitutional chairman jerry nadler he called it a kaingsitutional crisis. When the earth starts shaking in california e is this the big one or just some mini crisis . We literally have been talking about a constitutional crisis and trump since january 20th, of 2017. You dont want be to the boy who cried wolf. On the other hand it is breath taking when you step back and look at how all the individual actions together. But just to elliotts point. President trump hasnt defied a court order yet. There will be no dispute. If that occurs, everyone will agree it is the crisis but weir rer not there yet. Because having been at the Justice Department part of the time they were litigating fast and furious, i want to piggy back on susans point. Merely having a dispute and oversight dispute as was the case in fast and firious and to some extent with the Mueller Report is okay and part of a healthy government and one side wins and one lose. But when one party simply does not respect the other party and its legitimacy and ability to carry out as a co equal branch, thats when you have a problem and a thats where we are now. I want you to sit and listen to this. This is rudy jewel yany. Remember he said he was going to go to ukrain and investigate joe biden and some mishap he believed. Hes saying tonight hes not going to go. Lets listen and then discuss. So ive decided im not going to go to the ukrain. I think im walking into a group of people that are enemies of the president , in some case enemies of the United States and in one case an already convicted purseen who hasnt been found to be involved in assisting the democrats with the 2016 election. Okay. Douglas, you want to take a stab at that once with again Rudy Giulianis playing the fools role. It was an idiotic idea to go to the ukrain for the first time. He was going to walk in to a buzz saw. Now hes on fox and insulting ukrain whos struggling to have a democracy against russia totalitarianism and they have problems on their eastern border with with civil unrest. What was giuliani, the president s lawyer doing walk nothing to the whole scenario . Maybe giulianis law yers said kill it. This is not very smart idea. And so im glad hes not going. Susan. I would say within thing thats really important is the context is really the hoops buof this, donald trump now that he says hes exonerated by the Mueller Report has had an hour and half long phone call with Vladimir Putin and consistently said hes ready to take over and annexation of crimea. Now intervening in the effort to dig up dirt in american politics is an extraordinary, extraordinary move. Well see if they keep pursuing this. He says it but you never know. Because they often change their minds. Ill give you a quick word as well. Remember before he said they could do it it didnt matter because the election was a year 1 2 away and they were interfering in an investigation e not an election. One of the great quotes ever. Did we lirn anything from the entire last two years of the russia investigation . And i youed the point in the last segment. Is it arrogant or stupid . What could they possibly be doing . Why could there ever be the exercise of sound jijment in setting the president s attorney to ukrain given all we know about attempts to medal in our election over here and its a staggering and shocking degree of arrogance. Hes awfully tan. I dont know if its bronzer or what. Hes almost the color of the president. Thank you both. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi still resisting calls to impeach President Trump. But with more and more staun walling from the white house is the president forcing her hand . Book now and enjoy free unlimited open bar and more. Norwegian cruise line. Feel free. Another wireless ad. Great. 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The xfinity store is here. And its simple, easy, awesome. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi walking a fine line with impeachment. The president is almost self impeaching because he is every day demonstrating more obstruction of gists and disrespect for congresss legitimate role to subpoena. That as a source asked mcgahn to say the president didnt obstruct justice and he refused. How would impeachment go down . Could the president keep stone wall sng a lot to talk about. Allen is the author of the case for impeachment. So good to have you on. Youve heard the big news tonight. The white house twice sdhd former white House Counsel don mcgahn to publicly say he didnt think the president obstructed justice. But mcgahn refused. Does this news make for an even stranger case for impeachment for the democrats . It certainly make as stranger case for thub instruction of justice and all of the now infamous allegations. Number 11 at this point, if thats true. Hes asked somebody to influence at least a Public Perception oof his role in the collusion or obstruction of justice probe by mueller . Its part of this overall conversation about the president s trying to put his thumb on the scale of justice. I think it does add more fodder and just like the other 10 instances, its a self inflicted wound that was preventible. And asked like when it came time for james chemmy to testify and the president s said can you publicly make an announcement to try to create the narrative that is favorable to me . Allen, you think democrats are making a mistake by not moving to impeach. You wrote that by not impeaching the president e democrats are empowering trump and handing him reelection in 2020. I have said similar things, at least about questioning about why democrats, it feels like democrats have to