Reports: Don McGhan, top White House counsel, to step down

Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Don McGahn left his position as White House counsel on Wednesday, ending 21 months as one of the top attorneys to President Donald Trump, administration officials said.

Trump said in August that McGahn would be leaving his post in the fall. Sources close to McGahn and inside the White House confirmed the departure to multiple news outlets, including The New York Times.

Yesterday, Trump said veteran Washington lawyer Pat Cipollone would replace McGahn.

Cipollone is "a brilliant lawyer and tremendous strategist and understands the intricate nature of the political process," Jay Sekulow, one of Trump's personal lawyers, told Politico.

Trump's announcement of McGhan's replacement may have expedited the departure, an unnamed source told CNN.

"Typically you would have the incumbent stay until the successor was ready to take his place. But in this case McGahn was tired of the president and the president was tired of McGahn," the source said.

McGahn is a longtime Washington, D.C., attorney for Republicans who was Trump's top attorney throughout the Republican primary and 2016 presidential election.

After Trump won the 2016 presidential election, McGahn stayed on as Trump's top White House counsel.

McGahn attracted some controversy in August when he agreed to speak to Robert Mueller, the special counsel leading the investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

But Trump pushed back on the idea that he didn't agree with letting McGahn speak to investigators.