NYT reporter who broke Mueller firing story: McGahn is central to all major White House scandals

After breaking a bombshell story about President Donald Trump attempting to fire special counsel Robert Mueller last June, the New York Times' Michael Schmidt told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow that White House counsel Don McGahn is more central to Trump administration scandals than most Americans realize.

McGahn, who is featured prominently in Schmidt's co-written report with the Times' Maggie Haberman, threatened to quit when Trump ordered him to fire Mueller — but as Schmidt noted, he was also involved in a number of other massive events on the special counsel's collusion radar.

"Don McGahn was involved in the Comey firing, Don McGahn was involved in lobbying Attorney General Jeff Sessions not to recuse himself from the Russia investigation," Schmidt said. "He's a central player in all these things and it's a remarkable part of the story that gives us insight how the president tried to use lawyers in ways he was apparently sort of afraid to do himself."

Maddow also noted that Schmidt broke another story involving McGahn earlier this month claiming that one of the White House attorney's deputies deliberately misled Trump to steer him away from firing Comey.

Watch the interview below, via MSNBC.