What happened
In a pair of highly charged congressio-
nal hearings this week, special counsel
Robert Mueller flatly denied that his
report exonerated President Trump,
and said that Trump and his campaign
welcomed Russia’s election interference
and that Trump and several aides repeat-
edly lied to cover up their activities. “The
president was not exculpated for the acts
that he allegedly committed,” Mueller
told the House Judiciary Committee,
referring to the 10 instances described in
the report where Trump tried to influ-
ence or stop the Russia investigation. But
Mueller largely refused to go beyond the
details and conclusions of his original
report, which have been public for months.
Mueller, a reluctant witness who only agreed to testify publicly
after being subpoenaed, emphasized that the Russian government’s
interference in the 2016 presidential election is “among the most
serious challenges to our democracy” he’s seen in his FBI and
Justice Department career. That interference, he said, was “not a
hoax,” and his investigation was “not a witch hunt.” But Muel-
ler strenuously tried to avoid giving partisan ammunition to either
Democrats or Republicans, and refused invitations to rehash the
details, usually saying “I refer you to the report.” The Mueller re-
port states that although Justice Department guidelines hold that a
sitting president can’t be indicted, “other constitutional processes”
could be used to hold the president accountable for his actions,
with a brief reference to impeachment. When asked by Rep. Veron-
ica Escobar (D-Texas) if he was referring to impeachment, Mueller
responded, “I’m not going to comment.” He did say, however, that
Trump could be indicted after he leaves the White House.
Republicans aggressively accused Mueller of running a hope-
lessly biased investigation against Trump. GOP House members
repeatedly questioned Mueller about the role of the Steele Dossier,
a private intelligence report paid for by the Democratic Party, in
launching the probe. Mueller did not
answer any questions about the probe’s
origins, on the grounds that the matter
is already under investigation by the
Department of Justice. In a rare moment
of pushback, Mueller defended his team
against accusations of partisan bias. “I
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,” Mueller
said. “It is not done. What I care about
is the capability of the individual.”
What the columnists said
If impeachment depended on Mueller’s
testimony, then it’s “not happening,”
said Ed Kilgore in NYMag.com. Many
Democrats believe, with good reason,
that the Mueller report contains more
than enough evidence to impeach the
president for obstruction of justice.
But Mueller’s underwhelming appear-
ance probably won’t do anything to
galvanize the public in either direc-
tion. Looking worn and tired, Muel-
ler retreated repeatedly into “legally
necessary but unattractive evasions like
‘I won’t get into that’ and ‘I would refer
you to the report.’” It’s unclear what
Democrats were trying to accomplish
here, unless it was to take impeachment
off the table.Actually, Mueller accomplished some-
thing important, said Philip Bump
in The Washington Post. He directly
contradicted Trump’s claim that the
investigation “cleared him of all wrong-
doing,” including on possible collusion with the Russians. “We did
not address ‘collusion,’ which is not a legal term,” Mueller said. He
said there was not enough evidence to charge anyone with taking
part in a criminal conspiracy with Russia—which he defined as an
agreement to violate the law—but noted that “there may have been
at least some evidence pointing to possible conspiracy.” Mueller
even reiterated that Trump’s team hoped to benefit from Russian
election interference, and that Russia sought to help Trump get
elected. If the “no obstruction, no collusion mantra” wasn’t dead
already, it should be now.Oh please, said Rich Lowry in NationalReview.com. Instead of the
historic watershed liberals hoped for, Mueller’s testimony turned
out to be a dud. Democrats believe they “scored big points by
getting Mueller to say the president wasn’t exonerated.” But we
already knew that. Mueller’s shambling performance was hard to
watch, said Byron York in WashingtonExaminer.com. At times,
he had to look up or be reminded of the details of his own report,
raising the question of how much he was involved in writing it.
“If Mueller was not fully in charge, that would direct attention to
the staff he assembled for the investigation,” including Andrew
Weissmann, a Democratic donor who attended Hillary Clinton’s
Election Night party. It’s conflicts like that that prompted Trump
to frequently deride Mueller’s team as
“17 angry Democrats.”Don’t lose sight of what’s important
here, said Josh Marshall in Talking
PointsMemo.com. Mueller reiterated
that President Trump and his campaign
knew about and actively encouraged
Russian election interference and
hoped to benefit from it. “This is a
massive betrayal of country. Whether
that amounted to a statute crime is
secondary.” Republican attempts to
distract from that are laughable. Some
GOP members excoriated Mueller for
launching his investigation in the first
place because Justice Department rules
say that a sitting president cannot be
indicted. So are they saying it would be
better if Americans didn’t know about
the Trump campaign’s involvement in
Russia’s attack on our democracy? ReutersMueller: ‘The president was not exculpated.’THE WEEK August 2, 2019
4 NEWS The main stories...
Mueller defends his investigation
Illustration by Howard McWilliam.
Cover photos from Getty (2), NewscomWhat next?
President Trump and his allies are confident that
Mueller’s testimony “will stop any momentum
toward impeachment,” said Eliana Johnson and
Melanie Zanona in Politico.com. Mueller’s “steely
reputation” has cast a long shadow over the
Trump administration, so the early reaction to
his halting manner and hedged answers was eu-
phoric. Trump gleefully tweeted that the hearings
were “a disaster for the Democrats and a disaster
for the reputation of Robert Mueller.” There’s a
silver lining for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said
Jennifer Haberkorn in the Los Angeles Times. The
Democratic leader believes impeachment will
backfire politically without broad, bipartisan sup-
port, and Mueller’s unexciting appearance may
justify her stance. Pro-impeachment Democrats
said they would “take stock of the situation” over
the next week.