Round One of the Robert Mueller hearings just concluded Wednesday afternoon. During the generally polite and decorous three-and-a-half-hour proceeding hosted by the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerry Nadler, questioners of both parties appeared to recognize the larger-than-life figure seated in front of them.
Former FBI Director Robert Mueller is now a private citizen. His tenure as special prosecutor for the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election has expired. He can only be described as a reluctant and reticent witness. But lawmakers, and much of the public, demanded more. Many of us have clamored for more than the 448-page issued report. We wanted to hear directly from the man itself. Televised testimony can be gripping and compelling and allow words to leap from the page, their impact far more meaningful and useful in assessing facts.
Why? Because body language and tone, physical delivery, often tell us far more than can be easily discerned from the flat, two-dimensional platform that the written word affords. As a former investigator, I keyed in on Mueller as the witness, having served under him for all twelve years of his stint as FBI director.
I anticipated difficulty in reading a man I recalled bodyguarding on a visit to Afghanistan in 2003. He could fairly be described then, as now, as stoic, implacable, and unflappable. Mueller is a man in absolute complete control of his emotions at all times. He has the utmost probity and moral rectitude. None of his potential detractors on the GOP side dared to question his character. Their only openings were the coterie of politically left-leaning prosecutors he had assembled, and the report’s conclusions themselves.
Yet much of that has already been litigated in the press over these past two seemingly unending years of investigation by the Mueller team. We weren’t expected to learn much from these proceedings at all, actually. Round Two is ongoing Wednesday afternoon in front of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. As much as Round One was about Volume II of the Mueller report (covering obstruction of justice), Round Two is focusing on Volume I (covering conspiracy to collude).
The most effective questioning from the Left on Wednesday morning occurred as an effective opening salvo from Nadler, who expertly walked through the “non-exoneration” clause of the report. Would that have concluded the proceedings with a sharp “prosecution rests,” I believe points would have been scored. Unfortunately, the herky-jerky process, and back-and-forth format of Republican and Democratic inquisitors, rendered any small victories moot. Mueller’s terse, yet compelling responses weren’t allowed to “breathe” — the effective tool used by prosecutors to pause, or “rest,” and allow a witness’s answer to resonate with the jury. Pontificating and proselytizing seldom sway opinions. I don’t believe the minor amount, relative to most congressional hearings, that we witnessed thus far swayed opinions for either side.
The key takeaway for me was the clear and obvious aging of Mueller.
Absent one short public statement recently held to hopefully stave off the demands for his testimony, Mueller exhibited “ring rust.” Some six years between congressional testimony can cause a man to lose his edge. He stuttered and stammered and continually requested that questions be repeated. He repeatedly needed staff to point out the location on the dais of the questioner and exhibited an odd unfamiliarity with key portions of the report that bears his name.
No one expected him to do this without notes or an occasional refreshing of memory. Though you could almost sense a simmering inner-seething when he pushed back at one questioner of the report’s fairness — “I don’t think you’ve reviewed a report as thorough, as fair, and as consistent as this report,” he snapped – he resembled, at times, a befuddled 74-year old shuffling visitor to the OTB, confused as to how a parlay bet works. You can almost hear the partisan political machine feverishly working to splice together the stutters, the stammers, and the multiple times he retreated to “can you repeat the question, please?” into an effective viral video that questions Mueller’s capacity for effective oversight of this probe.
Robert Mueller is a patriot. But his less-than-stellar appearance thus far may have blunted any potential Democratic gains or galvanized any will beyond the #Resistance to open impeachment hearings tomorrow morning.
So far, this one is a draw.
James A. Gagliano (@JamesAGagliano) worked in the FBI for 25 years. He is a law enforcement analyst for CNN and an adjunct assistant professor in homeland security and criminal justice at St. John’s University.
