Ex-Trump aide must testify before Congress, rules US judge

Dismissing Trump administration's claims of "immunity", a federal judge has ruled that former White House counsel Don McGahn must comply with a US Congress subpoena seeking his testimony in the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 US election, media reports said.

The ruling on Tuesday came in a lawsuit filed against McGahn in August by a Democratic-led House of Representatives Judiciary Committee. The case was filed after McGahn, who left his post in October 2018, last May defied the Committee's subpoena for testimony on matters related to former special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe.

US District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, in her ruling, said that "no one is above the law", BBC reported.

Judge Jackson also said the US President "does not have the power" to stop his aides from responding to subpoenas from Congress.

Trump's administration had argued that the former White House counsel had "absolute immunity" as a top presidential adviser.