A new report indicates that one of the White House’s top lawyers has “cooperated extensively” with Robert Mueller‘s special counsel investigation into President Trump‘s possible obstruction of justice.

New York Times spoke to multiple current and former White House officials who say that Don McGahn allowed himself to be interviewed by Mueller’s team at least three times over the last nine months. These interviews reached an estimated total of 30 hours altogether, during which, McGahn reportedly spoke about Trump’s anger with former FBI director James Comey, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and his general frustration with the ongoing Russia investigation.

Sources said its possible McGahn told Mueller about details he might not have learned any other way, including an account of how Trump previously attempted to have Mueller fired. McGahn’s level of cooperation is somewhat abnormal for someone in his position, but interestingly enough, part of the report says that McGahn thinks Trump might try to use him as a fall guy if Mueller charges the president with obstruction.

From the report:

Mr. McGahn’s cooperation began in part as a result of a decision by Mr. Trump’s first team of criminal lawyers to collaborate fully with Mr. Mueller. The president’s lawyers have explained that they believed their client had nothing to hide and that they could bring the investigation to an end quickly.

Mr. McGahn and his lawyer, William A. Burck, could not understand why Mr. Trump was so willing to allow Mr. McGahn to speak freely to the special counsel and feared Mr. Trump was setting up Mr. McGahn to take the blame for any possible illegal acts of obstruction, according to people close to him. So he and Mr. Burck devised their own strategy to do as much as possible to cooperate with Mr. Mueller to demonstrate that Mr. McGahn did nothing wrong.

While McGahn reportedly told investigators that he never saw Trump go beyond his presidential authorities, their relationship was reportedly gotten increasingly rough over the last few months. People close to McGahn say he sometimes refer to Trump as “King Kong” when frustrated by the president’s anger.

When asked for comment, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders disputed the allegations of tension, saying “the president and Don have a great relationship.”

[Photo via Getty Images]

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