As Trump Takes A Victory Lap, House Intel Committee Wants To Talk To Robert Mueller
The House Intelligence Committee may ask Special Counsel Robert Mueller to testify before them about the contents of his report summarizing the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, The Daily Beast reports. According to Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, who sits on the committee, the group would like to speak with Mueller to gain additional context beyond the summary shared over the weekend by Attorney General William Barr.
Per special counsel protocol, Barr alone received the final report and where it goes from there, whether to Congress, the public, or nowhere at all, is up to him. Barr’s summary, as submitted, indicates that there was no evidence found of collusion between Russia and President Donald Trump or his campaign. It also indicates that Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein found Mueller’s evidence in terms of the possibility of obstruction of justice to be uncompelling. Barr did share an excerpt of Mueller’s statement that made it clear that while no proof was found on the issue of obstruction, the report did not exonerate the president on this issue either.
“We hope Mueller would testify before us about the letter [from Barr] and the findings of the investigation,” Krishnamoorthi said. “The American people deserve to see it especially when Attorney General Barr quotes Mueller saying that the office cannot exonerate president when it comes to obstruction of justice.”
The president called it "a complete and total exoneration." The special counsel explicitly did not. #APFactCheck https://t.co/CNZ2cIdoW4
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 25, 2019
Aside from advocating to see the full text of the report, Krishnamoorthi said that they were looking for a better accounting of any counterintelligence that Mueller may have received during the two year investigation. The purpose, he said, was about more than just Trump, and had to do with making sure that the democratic process in the U.S. would not be further compromised in the future.
Even as the Trump Administration seeks to put the Mueller Report behind them, House Democrats are carrying forward with a variety of related and unrelated investigations into the president, including the continued pursuit of testimony of witnesses that, in some cases, were also talked to by the special counsel’s office.
Felix Sater, for example, will appear before the committee next week to testify about the details of his relationship with Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney. The primary topic of discussion will be the Trump Tower Moscow project, which has evidently been an ongoing pursuit dating back to the campaign.
“Our mission is far broader than what Mueller was looking at,” Krishnamoorthi said. “We have to look at counterintelligence issues. That’s part of why where’re bringing Sater in next week.”
