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Robert Mueller

Robert Mueller to testify publicly before Congress next month

WASHINGTON – Former special counsel Robert Mueller will testify publicly before two key House committees after being subpoenaed, top Democratic lawmakers announced Tuesday.

Mueller will testify in open session before the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees on July 17.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said in a statement Tuesday evening that Mueller has agreed to testify before both of their committees after they issued a subpoena to the former special counsel.

“Americans have demanded to hear directly from the Special Counsel so they can understand what he and his team examined, uncovered, and determined about Russia’s attack on our democracy, the Trump campaign’s acceptance and use of that help, and President Trump and his associates' obstruction of the investigation into that attack," the two said in a statement.

“We look forward to hearing his testimony, as do all Americans," they continued.

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., praised Mueller's decision to testify before the two House panels. In a statement, Pelosi said that despite Mueller's report revealing that Russians interfered in the 2016 election, "the president calls it a hoax, and suggests that he would welcome Russian interference again."

“We are pleased that the American people will hear directly from Special Counsel Mueller. Our national security is being threatened and the American people deserve answers," she also said. "Members of Congress must honor our oath and our patriotic duty to follow the facts, so we can protect our democracy."

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Democratic lawmakers over the past several weeks have called for Mueller to testify about his investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election, which also touched on possible obstruction of justice by Trump. 

Mueller's investigation, according to its final report submitted to the attorney general in April, documented Moscow's "sweeping and systematic" effort in the 2016 election aimed in part at helping Trump win the presidency and a Trump campaign that welcomed the assistance, but it did not find a conspiracy between the two. It also traced a series of steps Trump took after becoming the president to stymie the investigation looming over his administration, though Mueller declined to say whether those acts were illegal.

Lawmakers from both parties have said they are eager to question the former special counsel about both his conclusions and the handling of the Russia investigation, which Trump has repeatedly called a "witch hunt."

Mueller's investigation led to criminal charges against three businesses and 34 individuals, including Russian intelligence officers and six of Trump's onetime senior aides and advisers. The investigation found that several of Trump's former aides had lied to investigators and Congress in ways meant to downplay links to Russia.

In late May, Mueller made a rare public statement of his findings on the Russia probe. He also said that he and his team of investigators and prosecutors did not clear Trump of criminal wrongdoing with regard to obstruction of justice and laid out why he could not bring charges against the president. 

"If we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said that," Mueller said at the time, adding that investigators were essentially blocked by long-standing Justice Department policy that prohibits the criminal prosecution of sitting presidents.

"A president cannot be charged with a federal crime while he is in office. That is unconstitutional," Mueller said.

Mueller also said at the time that he would not testify before Congress and that his report speaks for itself.

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Since Mueller's report was released in April, Nadler has attempted to get the former special counsel to testify before his committee to no avail.

Nadler and Schiff noted in a letter accompanying the subpoena to Mueller on Tuesday that there are "certain sensitivities associated with your open testimony," such as the Special Counsel’s Office referring several criminal investigations to other offices at the Department of Justice, and certain matters that are ongoing. 

"Nevertheless, the American public deserves to hear directly from you about your investigation and conclusions," the two lawmakers wrote in the letter. "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."

Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said he hopes that "the special counsel's testimony marks an end to the political gamesmanship that Judiciary Democrats have pursued at great cost to taxpayers."

"Three months after the special counsel completed his investigation, two months after the attorney general made the less redacted report available to congressional leadership, and two months after I asked Chairman Nadler to invite Robert Mueller to testify, we may actually get to hear from the author of the report," Collins said in the statement. 

"May this testimony bring to House Democrats the closure that the rest of America has enjoyed for months, and may it enable them to return to the business of legislating," Collins continued.

Nadler said during an interview that aired live on CNN Tuesday night that he is not worried that the White House or Department of Justice will block Muller's testimony.

"No, I'm not really worried about that because Mueller is an honest, upstanding citizen and he will testify in response to the subpoena that we issued," Nadler said.

Lawmakers are expected to ask Mueller whether he intended to leave the charging decision with regard to obstruction in Attorney General William Barr’s hands.

Another source of questions could deal with how much of the report lawmakers see. Barr blacked-out portions dealing with grand-jury evidence, information that could affect pending cases, intelligence secrets or information that could hurt the privacy of people who weren't charged.

Democrats led by Pelosi have insisted on receiving an unaltered version of Mueller's report. Nadler the full report, but Barr has resisted. A potential court battle could last years.

Lawmakers could also ask Mueller about questions left unanswered in the report.

Mueller pressed charges against Russian intelligence agents who hacked into Democratic computers, stole emails and provided the messages to WikiLeaks for publication. But left unanswered was how WikiLeaks released the trove of documents at auspicious times for Trump.

Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was convicted of bank and tax-fraud charges for work in Ukraine before he joined the campaign. But left unanswered was why he would have shared Trump polling data with a man linked to Russian intelligence. Trump has denied knowing about the transfer.

Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, was convicted of lying to Congress about the extent of negotiations during the campaign for a real-estate deal in Moscow. Cohen testified that Trump told him indirectly to lie, but Trump has denied wrongdoing. 

During an interview on CNN Tuesday night, Schiff said that Mueller will appear before the two committees in back-to-back hearings.

The intelligence committee chairman also said during an interview Tuesday night on MSNBC that Mueller did not want to testify but will honor the subpoena.

"I don't think the Special Counsel's Office would characterize it as a 'friendly subpoena,'" he said. "He did not want to testify. He made that very clear. Nonetheless, they will respect the subpoena. They will appear."

Schiff also said on MSNBC that former staff members from the now disbanded Special Counsel's Office will also testify in a closed session.

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