2 panels prevail; Mueller to testify
Appearance set for next month
WASHINGTON — Robert Mueller, the former special counsel, will testify in public before lawmakers on July 17 about his investigation into Russia’s election interference and possible obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump, House Democrats announced late Tuesday.
Coming nearly three months after the release of his report, Mueller will testify in back-to-back hearings before the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees.
Mueller, who has spoken publicly only once about his work, resisted taking the witness stand, where he will face questions from Democrats and Republicans.
In the end, the two committees issued subpoenas
compelling Mueller to appear.
The chairmen of the panels, Reps. Jerrold Nadler of New York and Adam Schiff of California, wrote in a letter to Mueller on Tuesday that they understood he had reservations about appearing on Capitol Hill, but they were insistent that he do so, anyway.
“The American public deserves to hear directly from you about your investigation and conclusions,” the chairmen wrote. “We will work with you to address legitimate concerns about preserving the integrity of your work, but we expect that you will appear before our committees as scheduled.”
After the announcement, Trump tweeted: “Presidential Harassment!”
The White House declined to comment Tuesday night.
Schiff told reporters shortly after the announcement that he expected his committee to meet privately with members of Mueller’s staff after Mueller’s testimony to answer additional questions. As special counsel, Mueller employed a large team of prosecutors and FBI agents
whose detailed knowledge of the case could be as valuable to House investigators as Mueller’s public statements.
It was not immediately clear which committee Mueller would appear before first on July 17, though a copy of the subpoena issued by Nadler indicated that he was to show up before the Judiciary Committee at 8 a.m.
The committee leaders have been under intense pressure from Democratic activists and their own rank-and-file members to secure an appearance by Mueller.
Nadler and Schiff initially invited the special counsel to testify voluntarily in April, but discussions proved thorny and protracted. Mueller and his team of prosecutors wanted to avoid a public spectacle and asked to limit his remarks to closed sessions with lawmakers.
Mueller spoke publicly for the first time in May when he said his office could neither clear nor accuse Trump of obstructing justice, leaving room for Congress to make
a call where he would not and fueling impeachment demands among some Democrats.
Mueller said if his office “had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so,” and he noted that the Constitution “requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing.”
Over the course of a twoyear investigation, the special counsel charged 34 people, including 26 Russian nationals, and secured guilty pleas from seven, including several high-level Trump campaign and administration officials. The investigation concluded in March, and the following month the Justice Department released the office’s 448-page report documenting its work.
The report said investigators found insufficient evidence to show a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the election. But Mueller also said he could not exonerate Trump on obstruction of justice.
Mueller’s team wrote that they were bound by Justice Department policy that forbids
After the announcement that Mueller would testify, President Donald Trump tweeted: “Presidential Harassment!”
the indictment of a sitting president from deciding or alleging — even privately — that Trump had committed a crime.
In his public statement last month, Mueller put lawmakers on notice that he did not ever intend to say more than what he put in the report.
“We chose those words carefully, and the work speaks for itself,” he said during the news conference. “I would not provide information beyond what is already public in any appearance before Congress.”
Democrats say it is now the job of Congress to assess the report’s findings. Lawmakers are likely to confront Mueller on why he did not come to a firm conclusion on obstruction of justice.
As of now, it does not appear that Mueller will participate in a hearing before the Republican-controlled Senate, where lawmakers in the majority were less insistent that he appear.
Republicans in the House, who continue to stress that Mueller did not recommend charging Trump with either conspiracy to aid the Russians or obstruction of justice, welcomed the news. They are likely to press Mueller not just on those bottom-line conclusions but also on the composition of his team and what they argue are possible irregularities and government abuses around the origins of the FBI Russia investigation that Mueller inherited.
“Thank God,” Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said in a brief interview late Tuesday. “We’ve been asking for this for a while.”