Trump directed McGahn to deny report he ordered Mueller's firing

After The New York Times reported that President Trump had ordered White House Counsel Don McGahn to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller in June 2017, Trump pressured McGahn to publicly deny the story. According to the Mueller report, Trump sought through his personal counsel and aides to have McGahn issue a statement disputing the reports. McGahn refused multiple times to comply with the president's directive to deny the accurate reporting. Trump publicly dismissed the Times report as "fake news" while privately attempting to get his White House counsel to create a false public record. This incident became a key example of potential obstruction of justice examined in the Mueller investigation, as Trump attempted to create a false narrative about his earlier attempt to remove the special counsel investigating him.

"If I wanted to fire Robert Mueller in December, as reported by the Failing New York Times, I would have fired him." — Trump's public denial of the New York Times reporting while privately pressuring McGahn to create a false record