Investigations, lawsuits up next
WASHINGTON — After months of anticipation, Congress finally heard testimony from former special counsel Robert Mueller. So what now?
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Mueller’s appearance was “a crossing of a threshold,” raising public awareness of what Mueller found. And Democrats after the hearing said they had clearly laid out the facts about the Mueller report, which did not find a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia but detailed extensive Russian intervention in the 2016 election. Mueller also said in the report that he couldn’t clear President Trump on obstruction of justice.
But it remains to be seen how the testimony will affect public views of Trump’s presidency and the push for impeachment. Mueller said some of the things that Democrats wanted him to say — including a clear dismissal of Trump’s claims of total exoneration — but he declined to answer many of their questions, and he spoke haltingly at times. Trump claimed victory, saying Mueller did “a horrible job.”
Democrats say they will continue to hold Trump to account. A look at the ways they will try to do that:
Investigations to continue: Democrats have multiple investigations of the president ongoing that don’t require cooperation from the White House or Justice Department. The House intelligence and financial services committees are probing Trump’s finances, an area that Mueller appears to have avoided. And the intelligence panel is investigating Trump’s negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow during the campaign.
Lawsuits: To obtain testimony from former White House counsel Donald McGahn and others, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said his panel will file lawsuits this week. Democrats will also seek to obtain secret grand jury material from Mueller’s report that has so far been withheld from Congress. They will also try to force McGahn to provide documents and testimony. Impeachment inquiry: Almost 90 House Democrats have called for an impeachment inquiry, and more are certain to do so after Mueller’s testimony.
Election security: Democrats in both the House and the Senate want to move forward with legislation to make elections more secure after Mueller extensively detailed Russian interference.
Justice Department reviews: There are two ongoing reviews into the origins of the Russia probe — one by the Justice Department’s inspector general and another by U.S. Attorney John Durham, who was appointed by Attorney General William Barr to examine surveillance methods used by the Justice Department during the 2016 election.