Mueller: Report didn’t exonerate Trump of obstruction and he could be charged later
The special counsel report did not exonerate President Donald Trump, Robert Mueller told the House Judiciary Committee, and the president could still be charged after his term.
The House committee questioned the special council Wednesday morning in the first of two hearings about the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Democrats on the committee asked Mueller repeatedly if the president committed a crime or could be impeached, but the special counsel would not answer those questions.
“Could you charge the president with a crime after he left office?” Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., asked Mueller during the hearing Wednesday morning.
“Yes,” Mueller replied.
“You believe he committed — you could charge the President with obstruction of justice after he left office?” Buck asked.
“Yes,” Mueller replied.
At the start of his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Special Counsel Robert Mueller told members that his findings did not exonerate the president of obstruction of justice.
Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), citing the report, asked Mueller if his findings saw no obstruction. “No,” Mueller replied.
Then Nadler asked if the special counsel report exonerated the president.
The president “was not exculpated,” Mueller told the committee. Trump had earlier tweeted Wednesday morning that there was “NO COLLUSION, NO OBSTRUCTION!”
Mueller said at a May press conference in Washington that the report his office released following the probe into Russian 2016 election meddling was tantamount to his testimony.
His lengthy report found no evidence the Trump campaign colluded with Russians to influence the election, but did list 10 possible instances of obstruction of justice by the president during the probe. Mueller also announced his office was closing up shop at the news conference.
But the Democrats who lead the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees in U.S. House of Representatives decided to subpoena Mueller to testify, announcing on June 25 that the former FBI head would appear before lawmakers in open session July 17. That date was later delayed to July 24.
“We look forward to hearing his testimony, as do all Americans,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., and Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said in a June statement.
Nadler and Schiff acknowledged Mueller’s preference to let his “written work to speak for itself” in their June letter accompanying the subpoena, but the pair wrote that “the American public deserves to hear directly from you about your investigation and conclusions.”
Mueller’s May press conference sparked some Democrats to call for Trump’s impeachment, with some pointing to Mueller’s comment that “if we had confidence that the President clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said that. We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the President did commit a crime.”
Those impeachment calls included a handful of Democratic presidential candidates.
“I believe a fair inference from what he heard from Bob Mueller is there would have been indictments returned against this president,” if not for the Justice Department guidance saying a president can’t be charged, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., told reporters during a stop in South Carolina, McClatchy reported. On Twitter, Harris called Mueller’s news conference statements “an impeachment referral.”
This story was originally published July 24, 2019 at 9:08 AM.
