Published on July 25th, 2019 📆 | 3383 Views ⚑
0Robert Mueller’s Work Is Done. Now It’s Congress’s Turn
Robert Mueller proved Wednesday that he might just be the least cooperative friendly witness Congress has ever faced. During close to six hours of Muellerâs testimony before two committees, House Democrats learned the hard way that you can lead a special counsel to an impeachment hearing, but you canât make him testify.
The man who had spent the last two years leading the investigation of Russiaâs attack on the 2016 election, and Donald Trumpâs apparent obstruction of justice, had promisedâwarned, reallyâthat he would not go beyond the four corners of the 448-page report heâd delivered earlier this spring. He lived up to that promise.
âThe report is my testimony,â he told both committees. He refused even to read aloud key portions of that report, preferring to have congressional representatives read it aloud themselves, and then confirming in monosyllabic answers whether those portions were accurate. CBS tallied 41 one-word answers in just the first half of the morning Judiciary Committee hearing; Mueller declined more broadly to discuss all manner of other related and unrelated topics.
The dayâs most clarifying exchange came during the first five minutes of the hearing, when Judiciary Committee chair Jerrold Nadler ran through a rapid-fire series of questions aimed at undermining President Trumpâs consistent mantra of âNo collusion, no obstruction.â
As Nadler opened, âDirector Mueller, the president has repeatedly claimed that your report found there was no obstruction and that it completely and totally exonerated him, but that is not what your report said, is it?â
âCorrect. That is not what the report said,â the former special counsel replied.
Then Nadler proceeded: âThe report did not conclude that he did not commit obstruction of justice, is that correct?â
âThat is correct,â Mueller said.
Nadler: âAnd what about total exoneration? Did you actually totally exonerate the president?â
Mueller: âNo.â
Nadler: âNow, in fact, your report expressly states that it does not exonerate the president.â
Mueller: âIt does.â
Nadler: âYour investigation actually found, âmultiple acts by the president that were capable of exerting undue influence over law enforcement investigations, including the Russian interference and obstruction investigations.â Is that correct?â
Mueller: âCorrect.â
Even where Mueller could have said more, he chose not to do so.
Yet after that strong opening, Muellerâs reticence over the following hours made clear that he was not appearing on Capitol Hill to save American democracy. Itâs clear Mueller feels like heâs contributed all he needs to the process. Heâs done his work, delivering page after page of evidence and hard factsânot to mention three dozen criminal cases, indictments, and guilty pleas. Any further action or conclusions will have to come from the will of congressional Democrats.
While Democrats did manage to draw a troubling pattern of obstructive behavior by the president in the morning hearing, and in the afternoon expounded upon the Trump campaignâs gleeful willingness to accept Russian help in the 2016 election, the totality of the testimony managed to be both damning and underwhelming.
Mueller operated under tight constraints, some imposed by courtsâwhich had issued gag orders in ongoing cases involving the Internet Research Agency and Trump associate Roger Stoneâand some imposed by the Justice Department, in terms of avoiding discussions of internal deliberations or ongoing investigations. But even where Mueller could have said more, he chose not to do so. He specifically seemed to go through elaborate verbal gymnastics to avoid saying the word âimpeachment.â
There was no bombshell moment, no snappy soundbite easily digestible in campaign ads or cable news, no crisp, succinct verbal indictment of the presidentâs behavior, nor memorable phrase to be recorded by history books. There was no harsh rebuke of Republican conspiracy theories, akin to a âHave you no sense of decency, sir?â moment, nor did Mueller clearly identify his own feelings about the presidentâs anti-American behavior. In fact, he seemed to go almost out of his way to avoid providing the soundbites Democrats wanted.
Perhaps the closest such moment came when Mueller went after Trumpâs welcoming of the leak of stolen documents by Wikileaks. âProblematic is an understatement,â said Mueller about the presidentâs embrace of Julian Assangeâs website, which Mueller also labeled a hostile intelligence organization. Candidate Trumpâs enthusiastic embrace of Wikileaksâ hack-and-dump operation, Mueller said, âgave a boost to what is and should be illegal activity."
In one of the few other eyebrow-raising comments, he also said he believed that the president was âgenerallyâ untruthful in his written answers to the special counselâs office.
While Democrats tried hard to methodically to build a case for the presidentâs obstructionârepresentative Ted Lieu and others carefully walked through the compelling evidence supporting various possible obstruction chargesâitâs not clear that the message broke through with the American people, nor is it clear how the upcoming six-week August recess will impact whatever momentum Wednesdayâs hearing built up.
Overall, itâs hard to say how the hearing, muddled as it was by conspiratorial non sequiturs from Republicans and sometimes confusing lines of inquiry from Democrats, will play with the millions of Americans who tuned in on radio, television, or the web. The threads of the conversation and the narrative arc of Muellerâs report was often difficult to follow, and much of the day did not represent the best of the legislative branch. Members of Congress mispronounced names of key players, ranging from deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein to Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya to the shadowy Joseph Mifsud. Arizona republican Debbie Lesko even mispronounced Muellerâs name.
As the hearings unfolded, Republicans especially continued to fail their test for the history books. Unable to discredit the presidentâs obstructive acts or the Russia attack, GOP members instead focused on muddying Muellerâs team and vague hand-waving outrage about the Steele dossier. Continuing the partyâs three-year-long pattern of obfuscation and chosen head-in-the-sand ignorance, most members steered clear of engaging with Mueller at all on the Russian attack on the election. Representative Tom McClintock even went so far in the morning hearing as to express doubts over whether the Russian troll farm, the Internet Research Agency, was connected to the Russian government. The lone exception was representative Will Hurd, a former CIA officer, who kept his line of questioning focused squarely on Russia.
Mueller, his voice more halting and gravelly than the last time he spoke in public years ago, seemed rusty at pointsâsometimes stumbling over small details and asking for various questions to be repeatedâbut his energy level seemed to rise through the day, and he was notably more engaged and direct in the afternoon when discussing the Russian attack on the election, and how the country needs to more confidently confront such foreign interference. He reiterated his statement from May that Russia interfered in âsweeping and systematic fashion,â and told the committees, âOver the course of my career, Iâve seen a number of challenges to our democracy. The Russian governmentâs effort to interfere in our election is among the most serious.â
He made clear that even while Democrats remain focused on Volume I of his report, dealing with the presidentâs obstruction, heâs most focused on Volume II, dealing with the Russian attack. âWe have underplayed that part of our investigation,â he said, calling on the nationâs leaders to read it and meet the challenges it poses for 2020: âWe need to move quickly.â
As Mueller said, his report was also âa signal, a flag to those of us who have some responsibility in this area to exercise those responsibilities swiftly and donât let this problem continue to linger as it has over so many years.â
Russiaâs attacks are ongoingâand America isn't doing enough to stop it or other adversaries, Mueller told lawmakers. âMany countries have developed capabilities to replicate what Russia has done,â Mueller said. âTheyâre doing it as we sit here and they expect to do it during the next campaign.â
A sphinx for the two years of the investigation, he remained one throughout Wednesday.
Beyond the Russian attack, Muellerâs few moments of sparksânone rose to something one could label fireâcame when he defended his investigative team or the integrity of his report. He made clear that he was not leading a âwitch hunt,â as the president has long alleged. At one point, he snapped back when representative McClintock charged Mueller that âhaving desperately tried and failed to make a legal case against the president, you made a political case instead. You put it in a paper sack, lit it on fire, dropped it on our porch, rang the doorbell and ran.â
Mueller replied, snappily, âI donât think you reviewed a report that is as thorough, as fair, as consistent as the report that we have in front of us.â
He pushed back, aggressively, on accusations that his team had any partisan bent. âWe strove to hire those individuals that could do that job,â he said. âI have been in this business for almost 25 years, and in those 25 years I have not had occasion once to ask somebody about their political affiliation. It is not done. What I care about is the capability of the individual to do the job and do the job quickly and seriously and with integrity.â
Such answers made clear that Mueller was capable of more expansive remarks, but he never came anywhere close to expressing his own unvarnished thoughts about the presidentâs behavior. A sphinx for the two years of the investigation, he remained one throughout Wednesday. His theory appears to be that his independent fact-finding will stand on its ownâand that he wonât let his words be twisted to partisan purposes. The politicians have to do that themselves. President Trump offered his own conclusion on the hearing, having spent much of Wednesday monitoring Muellerâs testimony from the White House; he tweeted, âTRUTH IS A FORCE OF NATURE!â
Democrats made clear after the hearings that they see Muellerâs testimony as a tentative turning point, a bridge that will begin a fall of further hearings with witnesses, like former White House counsel Don McGahn, who actually participated in the events Mueller described.
âIâm begging the American people to pay attention to whatâs happening,â representative Elijah Cummings, the chair of the House oversight committee, told reporters Wednesday evening. âBecause if you want to have a democracy intact for your children, and your children's children, and generations yet unborn we've got to guard this momentâŠ. This is our watch.â
Cummingsâ comment was perhaps more personal than heâd wishâMueller has clearly left future steps in the hands of Cummings and the other House Democrats.
Indeed, itâs possible that for Mueller, who has spent nearly 40 years in the Justice Department, and nearly 50 years in service to his country, Wednesdayâs hearing may represent the final public appearance of his career. It seems likely his 89th congressional appearance will be his last. One of the few outright smiles that appeared on his face during the seven hours on Capitol Hill came when, during the morning hearing, he confirmed heâd resigned from his turn in the public spotlight: âI am no longer special counsel,â he said. Whatever comes next, itâs not Robert Muellerâs problem.
Garrett M. Graff (@vermontgmg) is a contributing editor for WIRED and the author, among other works, of Mueller's War, available on Scribd. He can be reached at garrett.graff@gmail.com.
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