Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said Wednesday he did not know that President Donald Trump's oldest son, Donald Jr., had been subpoenaed by the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee, and he thinks it was "bad form" that there was no heads-up that the action was being taken.
"I have no opinion about that because he is a private citizen and not a member of the administration," Mulvaney told CBS News' Major Garrett in an interview for the network's "The Takeout" podcast. "I have no difficulty with bipartisanship, but to subpoena the president of the United States son and not at least get a heads-up, I thought was — let's say bad form."
Mulvaney added that he has no idea whether Trump knew his son was being subpoenaed, and that the president left for Florida for his Wednesday rally before the news broke.
Mulvaney said that as acting chief of staff, he might not have known about the subpoena because Trump Jr. is not a member of the administration, "but it would be highly unlikely that it would end up in the White House and I wouldn't know about it. Possible, possible, but unlikely."
Mulvaney told Garrett he doesn't know what the allegations involve, and that he knows just from media reports that it "deals with a Trump Tower discussion or something like that."
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said earlier this week that it's "case closed" where special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation is concerned, but Mulvaney said the Kentucky Republican was likely referring to Trump, not his son.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.