denying that he had been asked to fire the Special Counsel and that he had 784 threatened to quit in protest. McGahn’s attorney spoke with McGahn about that request and then called the President’s personal counsel to relay that 785 McGahn would not make a statement. McGahn’s attorney informed the President’s personal counsel that the Times story was accurate in reporting that 786 the President wanted the Special Counsel removed. Accordingly, McGahn’s attorney said, although the article was inaccurate in some other respects, 787 McGahn could not comply with the President’s request to dispute the story. Hicks recalled relaying to the President that one of his attorneys had spoken to 788 McGahn’s attorney about the issue. Also on January 26, 2017, Hicks recalled that the President asked Sanders to 789 contact McGahn about the story. McGahn told Sanders there was no need to 790 respond and indicated that some of the article was accurate. Consistent with that position, McGahn did not correct the Times story. On February 4, 2018, Priebus appeared on Meet the Press and said he had 791 not heard the President say that he wanted the Special Counsel fired. After Priebus’s appearance, the President called Priebus and said he did a great job on 792 Meet the Press. The President also told Priebus that the President had “never 793 said any of those things about” the Special Counsel. The next day, on February 5, 2018, the President complained about the 794 Times article to Porter. The President told Porter that the article was 795 “bullshit” and he had not sought to terminate the Special Counsel. The 796 President said that McGahn leaked to the media to make himself look good. The President then directed Porter to tell McGahn to create a record to make 797 clear that the President never directed McGahn to fire the Special Counsel. Porter thought the matter should be handled by the White House communications office, but the President said he wanted McGahn to write a letter to the file “for our records” and wanted something beyond a press 798 statement to demonstrate that the reporting was inaccurate. The President referred to McGahn as a “lying bastard” and said that he wanted a record from 799 him. Porter recalled the President saying something to the effect of, “If he