Update (2100ET): President Trump has decided to chime in on the Democrats’ move to force Mueller to testify:
After spending 40 Million Dollars, reviewing 1.4 million pages of documents, & interviewing 500 people with the total support of the White House, the Mueller Report was a BIG DISAPPOINTMENT to the Democrats, so they want a DO OVER. It doesn’t work that way-so bad for our Country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 22, 2019
The Democrats are on a fishing expedition, wanting to interview the same people, and see the same things, as we just went through for two years with Robert Mueller and the 18 Angry Dems. Never happened to a president before. Never even happened to President Obama!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 22, 2019
* * *
Update (2030ET): Angry Democratic Congress members have turned up their rhetoric amplifier to ’11’ this evening, suggesting that special counsel Mueller may be subpoenaed to compel him to testify (publicly, of course, because - apparently - none of this is worth doing unless the American public gets to see the farce).
“I think he will have to be subpoenaed,” Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told The Hill.
“He’s critical. He basically made the case for obstruction of justice and we need to hear from him,” she said.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) has repeatedly said the committee would subpoena Mueller if necessary but that he hopes it wouldn’t come to that.
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) said when asked whether Mueller should be subpoenaed if he declines to testify publicly.
“It’s so important for the American public.”
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), a Judiciary member, declined to say whether he supported subpoenaing Mueller and added that he’s open to hearing arguments for Mueller to testify privately.
“If he can demonstrate some compelling reasons why he should be allowed to testify in private, I think we would have to consider that. And I would certainly like to hear - if that is the case - what sort of justification he’d give for wanting to testify in closed door hearings as opposed to open to the public,” Johnson told The Hill.
However, as The Hill reports, the move by the Democrats could be viewed as divisive, has the potential to generate negative headlines and is a step most would like to avoid.
Furthermore, as The Hill notes, if Mueller testifies, it could backfire on the Democrats as some Republicans are expected to question Mueller on the origins of the Russia counterintelligence investigation, which they allege was started by agents biased against Trump.
* * *
With most Congressional Democrats still stunned from the anticlimatic publication of Mueller’s “Russiagate” report, which found that Trump did not collude with Russia, many have been desperate to hear Mueller’s side of the story perhaps in hopes that he will unveil some smoking gun in public (something he failed to do in his report) while the others have quietly turned on Mueller, asking why after a two year probe, he failed to put Trump behind bars.
And now, after the latest development in the never-ending Russia “witch hunt” to paraphrase the president, it won’t be long before virtually all Democrats are convinced that Mueller himself must also a Putin plant.
According to Bloomberg, which cites three people familiar with the special counsel’s position, Robert Mueller has balked at testifying publicly before Congress, pushing instead for a closed-door appearance in negotiations with House Democrats.
Why? Because Mueller, who was the center of a media and political circus for no less than two years has told the Democratic-controlled House Judiciary Committee that - get this - he doesn’t want to be dragged into a political fight and that he’s hesitant to publicly discuss his final report. Among the options Mueller has raised is making a public statement before the committee questions him in private, the people said.
But why if he has nothing to hide, and if all the results of his multi-million probe were disclosed in his report?
As a reminder, the NYT and WaPo recently sparked more Russiagate drama, when they reported that Mueller had written AG William Barr to complain that he’s given summaries of the report’s findings that “did not fully capture the context, nature and substance” of his team’s work. A more detailed read of the report also revealed that Mueller did not actually have complaints about Barr’s representation of his lengthy report but was instead bashing the media - such as the NYT and WaPo.
As the WaPo reported earlier, Mueller III and House Democrats “have been unable to reach an agreement on how much of the special counsel’s expected congressional testimony would be public, and how much would take place in private, according to people familiar with the matter.”
The special counsel’s office, along with senior Justice Department officials, has been quietly negotiating with the House Judiciary Committee, whose chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), has been eager to have Mueller testify as soon as possible.
Who is driving the dispute is a source of debate. Two people familiar with the matter said the Justice Department is deferring to Mueller, who would like for any discussions beyond the public contents of his report to be conducted in private. But another person said it is primarily the department, rather than Mueller himself, resisting a nationally televised hearing.
Needless to say, House Democrats - and Russiagate obsessed conspiracy theorists everywhere - want to press Mueller publicly about a host of issues, including whether he thought President Trump could or should be charged with obstruction if he were not the president, and whether Mueller agreed with Attorney General William P. Barr’s handling of the investigation’s findings.
With hundreds of former prosecutors - mostly Democrats - recently opining that Trump would have been charged with obstruction, based on the case Mueller detailed, Democrats are hoping that Mueller might say as much himself if pressed to testify. That, however, is proving problematic: one possibility, per the WaPo is that if Mueller felt a private allegation was unfair, “it seems unlikely he would be willing to publicly accuse the president of a crime at a congressional hearing.” That would only make Democrats even more livid with rage.
So far House Democrats have been unable to get any current government officials to publicly testify about Mueller’s findings, and the White House asserted executive privilege to fight a subpoena for the unredacted report and the underlying evidence.
And yet, the DOJ has repeatedly said that the assertion of executive privilege doesn’t prevent Mueller from testifying. While Trump has offered differing opinions on whether Mueller should testify, Barr has said he had no objections.
In other words, it is now Mueller himself that will now be blamed for his suspicious lack of willingness to cooperate and testify before the American public. Surely he must be hiding something, surely he must be a Russian agent, etc.
via zerohedge
A Russian agent? Well he was the bagman for the Uranium One samples to Russia. Maybe?
One thing we know for certain there is no intelligence on the Intelligence Committee.
Right On!
So true!!!!!!!
His REAL job was to cover up for Obama and Hillary!!! We was the ERASER MAN!!!
YOU ARE SOOOOO RIGHT ON THAT NOTE
Taddy Naddy, get your head out of your bun hole . I hope the people will send you fools a bill for the excursion of a life time you have taken us on. We’re out of cryin towels you stupid loser. Read my lips there’s nothing to see here, MOVE ON AND GET SOME WORK DONE OR YOU WILL BE SUBPOENAED TO FIND OUT HOW MUCH DO DO YOU HAVE IN YOUR DIAPERS.
The claims that had been made and pushed for over two years have added up to “Collusion Delusion”. Someone from within stole a bunch of files electronically. It’s totally impossible to send a thumbnail file overseas at the rate that former NSA agent Bill Binney had calculated, but who and from where in Washington D.C. did they manage to steal the files from with the forty three MBPS rate of speed and how is it that Putin could have received dirt on Hillary Clinton and the Uranium One scandal as fast as he did? That’s still the mystery.
THE DEMS THINK AMERICANS ARE STUPID.
Interesting they aren’t holding Muller in contempt for refusing to testify.
I hope they do, but we all know its just a show. Dems know Repubicans will hammer Mueller with questions like when did he know the investigation was all a set up and why didnt he look into it. This could crush the Dems and you wait and see, Mueller will not testify.
Think back to elementary school, maybe even high school: There were one or two kids who hated others who got good grades, were sure they got away with cheating or were favored by the teacher. Thought they “deserved” the class offices to which other students got elected. Bullied little kids, always “knew” they were right, had a persecution complex about anyone doubting their lies. Remember those failed human beings? They’re Democrat politicians now, and their character hasn’t improved. It’s always someone else’s fault, e.g. Hillary and the two year blame tour.
Spot on. I couldn’t have said it better
Enough is enough the democrats have nothing then a tin hat theory’s that have gotten them nowhere. They want lawyers to question the AG, yet they themselves claim to be lawyer’s. Tells me they must have been ambulance chasers. Then you have this Hank Johnson (a democrat) who thinks Guam is going to capsize because of increased troop deployment. He’s on the Judiciary committee, a typical member of these fools. Someone tell Nadler to get over his blind hateful opinion of our President and realize he’s wasting our tax dollars. This B.S. their pushing is useless as we all know the Senate will not support an impeachment. They have stood in opposition of everything Trump has done including attacks on his family, they are all scum.
These people are going to have to be put in an insane asylum whey President Trump wins in 2020, this is so ridiculous and they keep repeating the American people want to know, how about they ask us if we would like to spend any more time and money on this farce, the Dems have not done their job in two years fooling with this lie, spending OUR money don’t we get a say? I am so sick of this! Thank God for President Trump that at least he has been working hard to make us great and safe without any pay and without any help, he is doing it on his own, he owes no one anything, I just wish he would drain the swamp and arrest Hillary, Obama, and all the other treasonous ways and now they want Biden who did nothing for 8 years and will just continue groping he needs to be arrested too!!! PRESIDENT TRUMP 2020!
Mueller’s not jumping at the chance to testify in an effort to add fuel to the smoke in his report is puzzling. Has he already overstepped the facts and is thinking he might or will incriminate himself? He knows the Republicans will have a feast of him with the questions they will ask about the real facts and truth not made clear in his report. The entire world realizes Mueller was out to assist the Dems in taking President Trump down so, his report cast DJT in the worst light Mueller could make it.
Is Mueller dragging his feet because he has already stretched the truth and facts as far as possible and he knows he will only enrage Nadler and company further by not “saying” what they want to hear?
Inquiring minds want to know what is or are Mueller’s reason(s) for not running to testify, as it seems he should be anxious to do!
I have come to the conclusion that the Democrat Party is filled with complete insane idiots. Hating Trump because their favorite crime queen lost shows their insanity. They claim to be lawyers yet don’t seem to know our Constitution and laws which makes it appear that they ran for office under false pretences. They tried to get Barr to break the law and become criminals like them. They backed the most racist president for eight long years, spreaded their hate for our Constitution and laws, turned their heads away and approved every law Obama broke. That is not patriotism, that is treason.
Round up all of these democrats that have gone insane over trump winning the election and put them in padded cells so they can scream at each other and put the people that are guilty of starting the Muller hoax that cost us 40 million dollars and put them in the cells right across from the insane crazy democrats so they can stare at each other . the democrats in the house and congress owe us a refund for the salaries and benefits we paid them to do absolutely nothing but hate trump . Get to work or step down because your crying is now becoming an embarrassment to yourselves, your party and the country .
He did his job but because it didn’t come out their way they want to waste more money.They are idiots who the people need to vote out of office.They are doing nothing for us.
Wake up Democrats! It’s pretty sad when your own HAND PICKED gunslinger, can’t find anything against the President! It’s time to move on, or keep up the nonsense and just wait for all the crap to hit the fan against your own!
just think how good the country could be doing if we didnt have the rats going after the president who has done more for this country than any other president in my lifetime , the rats cannot stand the fact that donald trump won , all they want is your money and power . they suck also name one fucking thing obama bin laden did for this country
Treason is a badge of honor for the Godless NAZI Commie liberal Racist Muslim Demoncrat Party & RINOs! The party of hate, hypocrisy, lies, deception,Fake News(Russian Collusion & Jussie M hoax)the list is endless!And the clueless minions that follow them!
Everyone is sick to death of their useless whining and threats. There is no Democrat party anymore, only a pack of rats who will eat anyone for dinner and blame others for their indigestion.
Does ayone else remember grade school classes on how America was formed? the founding members (most not college educated,but with wisdom from God)made two parties on their individual beliefs wanted a balanced government.Some thought take the government should have the power to control the new democracy.The other side wanted the people to have the power (Republicans).The democrats don’t want it like that.We have survived for over 200 Years where socialism made it a little over 100 years.Look at Russia,there system fell and people are just trying to turn democratic.
60 Minutes just did a story on the rampant price fixing of generic drug prices among some of the largest drug companies in America who are being sued by several states Attorney’s General for causing many senior citizens and others in their state to have to choose between the medication prescribed by their doctors or food or a roof over their head. And it doesn’t stop there. Healthcare Insurance Companies are using the opiod crisis in this country as a ruse to deny Doctors the ability to prescribe the pain medications needed by so many of their patients just to boost their annual profits.
Yet the legislators we sent to Washington DC don’t seem to have time to indulge in anything but political theater because of their disappointment over the Muller Report. And this is despite knowing that after interviewing more than 500 people, reviewing more than 1.4 million documents and spending North of 40 million dollars of our money on the investigation that there was no crime committed by the President. But then the President doesn’t contribute to the re-election campaigns of those legislators does he? He does however, donate the salary he doesn’t take to a number of deserving charitable causes in this country.
I’m positive that no one will read this that needs to hear it, but if Jerrold Nadler really wants to know what the people want to hear, this is it. I want to hear that the Federal Government indicted the corporate heads of the drug and insurance companies who actually ARE colluding among one another for no other reason than more profit and to all of the citizens of this country’s detriment. Then I want the liberal media present to record the FBI arresting those corporate big wigs and actually putting them in Jail instead of handing down some insignificant fine that will be dwarfed by the company bonuses they’ll get this year and that goes to the government instead of the citizens that those corporations defrauded. That’s what I want to hear and that whole process would cost a hell of a lot less than 40 million dollars!
Thank you. I agree.
He is not concerned about answering democrat questions in public. I believe he does not want to answer republican questions. Especially, when he decided there was no collusion? Why he only had democrats on his team? Why he hired Clintons attorney? why he made claims of obstruction, but did not charge Trump with the act? Which members of Congress his team was in contact with? Who notified congress of the “Concern” Muellar and his team had with the AG Barr’s summary stated regarding obstruction?
Poor demo rats. No one is taking their stupid bullshit seriously anymore. The left has been too stupid for too long. Let’s impeach lets ompeach…. ayah for what? I dont know … just becuase. Yeah you cant do that. Yeah we cant we will vote for it. Why just becuase you dont like him? Yup. Ok new rules if yu dont like some one you can do whatever you want to them. Hhhmmmm…… that might be a problem for minorities.. oh shit!!!! You lefties didnt think about that did you… stupid is as stupid does and your stupid
nothing more than a pack of rats
What does mueller have to hide? What’s the issue with testifying in a public setting? On the other hand, even if he testifies in a closed setting, we know the democrats will leak everything within minutes of him saying what ever.