Testimony unlikely to be a bombshell
Democrats praying that Robert Mueller’s congressional testimony today will reveal an impeachment smoking gun against President Trump are likely to be disappointed by the end of the hearing, political observers predict.
The former special counsel is expected to testify on Capitol Hill for at least five hours, detailing his findings on Russia’s 2016 election interference — which failed to return any indictments against Trump and found no evidence his campaign had colluded with Russians.
The Justice Department on Monday told Mueller his testimony should not go beyond information that has already been released publicly.
“Mueller wants his report to speak for itself, so it’s really going to be minimal testimony,” pollster John Zogby said Tuesday. “I don’t think a bombshell or any huge revelations are likely to come out.”
“My guess is there’s going to be less coming out of the hearing than many Democrats are expecting,” said Mark Tushnet, a constitutional law professor at Harvard. “And it likely won’t have much impact on the political environment one way or the other.”
The nation has heard the special counsel speak only once — for nine minutes — since his appointment more than two years ago.
On May 29, from the Justice Department podium, Mueller cautioned Congress that he would not go beyond the text of the report if called upon to testify.
“It’s a total waste of time,” said constitutional law crusader Harvey Silverglate. “A ridiculous waste of time and energy and money. Each party should just get on with trying to run the country in a productive manner, instead of this circus.”
While Mueller’s report did not find sufficient evidence to establish charges of criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia to swing the election, it said Trump could not be cleared of trying to obstruct the investigation.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Tuesday: “I’m not going to be watching — probably — maybe I’ll see a little bit of it. I’m not going to be watching Mueller because you can’t take all those bites out of the apple.”
That marked a slight shift from last week, when Trump insisted that he would not watch any of Mueller’s backto-back appearances before two House committees.
Either way, the president has continued to wage war on the former special counsel’s credibility, sending out a series of tweets Monday in which he deemed Mueller, without evidence, “highly conflicted” and said that “in the end it will be bad for him and the phony Democrats in Congress who have done nothing but waste time on this ridiculous Witch Hunt.”