House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler cited testimony from Robert Mueller, which the former special counsel had to correct during his two-hearing appearance on Capitol Hill this week, as reason that President Trump should be indicted.
“He told us in a remarkable exchange with Mr. Lieu that, but for the Department of Justice policy prohibiting him from doing so, he would’ve indicted President Trump,” Nadler said Friday at a news conference. “Indeed, it is clear that any other citizen of this country who has behaved as this president has would have been charged with multiple crimes.”
Testifying to the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Mueller told Rep. Ted Lieu, a Democrat from California, he would have charged the president if it was not for a Justice Department guideline that prevents a sitting president from being indicted.
That reasoning contradicted what he had previously said about declining to bring charges against Trump.
Mueller’s 448-page report laid out 10 instances of possible obstruction of justice, but Mueller did not reach a determination on obstruction charges, referencing the longtime Office of Legal Counsel opinion, though his report did not explicitly state that was the only reason.
Attorney General William Barr said in April that Mueller told him he was not saying that he would have charged Trump with a crime but for the Office of Legal Counsel opinion and, in addition, a May joint statement from the offices of Mueller and Barr reiterated that point.
Hours after his exchange with Lieu, Mueller walked back his response to Lieu during the second hearing of the day with the House Intelligence Committee.
“Now, before we go to questions, I want to add a correction to my testimony this morning,” Mueller said Wednesday afternoon. “I want to go back to one thing that was said this morning by Mr. Lieu who said, and I quote, ‘You didn’t charge the president because of the OLC opinion.’”
“That is not the correct way to say it,” Mueller said. “As we say in the report and as I said at the opening, we did not reach a determination as to whether the president committed a crime.”
