Washington - Former US Special Counsel
Robert Mueller testifies to Congress on Wednesday at a pair of
televised hearings that carry high stakes for President Donald
Trump and Democrats who are split between impeaching him or
moving on to the 2020 election.
Mueller, whose inquiry detailed extensive contacts between
Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia at a time when Moscow was
interfering in the 2016 election with hacking and propaganda, is
set to appear beginning at 8:30 a.m. (1230 GMT) in separate
hearings before the House of Representatives Judiciary and
Intelligence committees.
Democrats, who control the House, hope his testimony will
rally public support behind their own ongoing investigations of
the Republican president and his administration, even as they
struggle with whether to launch the impeachment process set out
in the U.S. Constitution for removing a president from office
for "high crimes and misdemeanors."
Mueller is not expected to deliver any new bombshells,
according to Democratic aides, but rather stick to the contents
of his 448-page investigation report about the 22-month-long
probe of Russian election meddling. Mueller plans to deliver an
opening statement before taking questions.
Republicans are expected to object to the presence of Aaron
Zebley, the former deputy special counsel who had day-to-day
oversight of investigations in the inquiry, who will accompany
Mueller.
Zebley will be present at the Judiciary hearing, according
to Mueller's spokesman Jim Popkin and a House Judiciary staffer,
and will be sworn in as a witness for the intelligence panel,
according to an aide for that committee.
"This was specifically NOT agreed to," Trump wrote on
Twitter on Wednesday morning before the hearing was set to
begin.
Democrats hope the 74-year-old former FBI director will give
the American public a compelling account of Russia's sweeping
interference, the Trump campaign's readiness to accept help from
Moscow and Trump's efforts to impede the Russia probe that
Mueller investigated as potential obstruction of justice.
Trump, running for re-election in 2020, is hoping to move
past the entire Russia issue.
"Seeing is believing in America. That report was voluminous.
But most Americans didn't read it. So they'll see Mueller lay
out the case," said Representative Eric Swalwell, who sits on
both the Judiciary and Intelligence panels.
Mueller's appearance could also be a turning point for
Democrats on the question of impeachment.
Many liberal Democrats are pushing for an impeachment
inquiry against Trump, whose recent incendiary rhetoric about
four congresswomen from racial minorities also has ignited a
political firestorm. Eighty-nine House Democrats, about 38
percent of them, now want an impeachment inquiry against Trump,
according to a Reuters survey.
That is well short of the 218 votes needed to adopt articles
of impeachment in the House, which would trigger a trial in the
Senate on whether to remove Trump. But the number backing
impeachment could swell if Mueller's testimony proves to be
compelling.
"We hope Mueller's testimony will be a watershed," said
Democratic Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, a Judiciary panel
member.
The impeachment question has divided Democrats, with House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi opposing such a move as politically risky
for moderate Democrats on whose future the House Democratic
majority depends. Some Democrats prefer to remove Trump from
office the ordinary way: defeating him in next year's election.
Mueller, who had expressed reluctance to testify, agreed
only after being subpoenaed. Mueller, a former federal
prosecutor and U.S. Marine Corps officer, is also known for
favoring one-word answers at hearings and could prove too
taciturn to satisfy Democrats' hopes of a forceful narrative.
"Let us listen, let us see where the facts will take us,"
Pelosi said of the hearings. "We'll see what happens after
that."
'GOING TO BE DISAPPOINTED'
Republicans in Congress are predicting chagrin for the
Democrats.
"I think they're going to be disappointed, just as they were
when the Mueller report came out," said Republican
Representative Tom Cole.
Mueller's report said the investigation found insufficient
evidence to prove that Trump and his campaign engaged in a
criminal conspiracy with Russia. The report also did not reach a
conclusion on whether Trump committed the crime of obstruction
of justice but pointedly did not exonerate him. Attorney General
William Barr, a Trump appointee, subsequently cleared the
president of obstruction of justice.
"It is so important for him to say that the investigation
did not exonerate the president," said Representative Val
Demings, another Democrat who sits on both panels.
Republicans are expected to raise questions with Mueller
about the integrity of the origins of the Russia probe in the
FBI during Democrat Barack Obama's administration and the
political leanings of the special counsel's staff members. Trump
has sought to portray the probe as an attempted coup.
The Justice Department on Monday sent a letter telling
Mueller to limit his testimony to merely discussing the public
report, a directive that the two Democratic committee chairmen
rejected as out of line.
"I fully expect that the DOJ letter will have no bearing on
your testimony," House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam
Schiff wrote to Mueller in response, rejecting the department's
stance.
Even if Mueller's testimony proves disappointing enough to
deflate impeachment chances, Democrats expect their continuing
investigations to produce revelations that could damage Trump's
re-election prospects.
The heart of the Democratic strategy is to focus Mueller's
testimony on several examples of potential obstruction by Trump,
including his repeated efforts to get former White House Counsel
Don McGahn to remove Mueller and then deny that he had been
directed to do so.
Lawmakers will also emphasize attempts by Trump to his fired
former Attorney General Jeff Sessions to redirect the Russia
probe away from his 2016 campaign, and possible witness
tampering in public statements seen to discourage his former
campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his former personal lawyer
Michael Cohen from cooperating with federal investigations.
Democrats have said the report includes shocking evidence of
misconduct that would result in criminal charges against any
other American. The Justice Department has a longstanding policy
against bringing criminal charges against a sitting president.