'The Quiet Man': The Powerful Conservative White House Lawyer In The Middle Of It All
By day, Don McGahn is a straight-laced lawyer, but by night, he's a long-haired rocker.
In the White House drama that occupies almost every news day — from the firing of the FBI director, to the Russia probe, to the controversial travel bans — there is one crucial name that hardly ever is mentioned publicly: Don McGahn. He is the White House counsel, the president's official lawyer, and his job description puts him at the center of every legal decision made in the White House.
McGahn is filling some impressive shoes as the president's counsel. Some of the most respected lawyers in the country have served in the job, beginning in 1943 when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt created the office and appointed as its first occupant Sam Rosenman, a formidable New York lawyer and former judge who moved easily in the corridors of power.
McGahn, in contrast to most of his predecessors, however, is not widely known — even in conservative Republican circles.
Indeed, in some ways he is an odd fit, or at least, like the president he serves, an unconventional one.
Lawyer by day, rocker by night
McGahn's friends joke that he has something of a split personality. By day, a straight-laced lawyer, and by night, a long-haired rocker, the former guitarist for Scott's New Band, which performed all over the Mid-Atlantic states for more than a decade — until Aug. 25 of last year.
That day, two things happened: the Trump campaign announced McGahn as its general counsel, and the band announced it was retiring.
