The origins of the Trump-Russia investigation. The political biases of the investigative team. British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s dossier.
Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee plan to interrogate Robert Mueller on Wednesday about all those subjects, along with the conclusions the special counsel reached on collusion and obstruction and more.
Mueller’s report concluded Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election but didn’t establish criminal conspiracy between the Russians and the Trump campaign. Mueller laid out 11 possible instances of obstruction of justice but didn’t reach a determination. Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said obstruction hadn’t occurred.
Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona told the Washington Examiner that his No. 1 question for Mueller is, “How did this whole Russian investigation start?”
The FBI’s probe into connections between Trump and Russia, dubbed Crossfire Hurricane, officially began in late July 2016, but many Republicans think it may have started earlier.
Biggs said another key question is how early on Mueller concluded there was no criminal collusion.
“When did you know that there was no conspiracy between Donald Trump and the Russians?” Biggs said. “And if it was well before the 2018 midterms, why did you wait so long, and why didn’t you disclose that?”
Biggs said it is also important for Mueller to disclose what, if anything, he’d discovered about Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign’s connections to foreigners or foreign governments in 2016.
Steele was hired by the opposition research firm Fusion GPS, which was itself hired by Marc Elias of the Perkins Coie law firm at the behest of the Clinton presidential campaign. Information from Steele’s dossier made its way into the Clinton campaign, the media, and the government. Barr is investigating whether the unverified dossier may have contained Russian disinformation.
Rep. Guy Reschenthaler told the Washington Examiner that he wants answers about the origins of the investigation as well as about possible abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by “securing a warrant based on the Democrat’s political opposition research.”
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz launched an investigation in March 2018 into the FBI and the DOJ filing four FISA applications and renewals to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page while relying on Steele’s dossier.
Reschenthaler also said he wanted to hear about “the leaks from Mueller’s team and what he did to stop them.”
One leak occurred in April, when sources said some members of Mueller’s team were unhappy with the way Barr portrayed Mueller’s findings. Throughout Mueller’s two-year investigation, there were numerous stories stemming from what appeared to be leaks from the DOJ or the FBI.
“I’d like to hear if he approves of this kind of behavior in the upper echelons of our top law enforcement agency,” Reschenthaler said.
Rep. Greg Steube of Florida told the Washington Examiner that he had questions about the way Mueller conducted his investigation.
“How did we get to a place where we spent 22 months, had 40 FBI personnel investigating, issued 2,800-plus subpoenas and nearly 500 search warrants, interviewed 500 witnesses, and spent over $12 million dollars only to find nothing?” Steube said.
Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas was highly critical of Mueller, telling the Washington Examiner that “the Mueller report is exactly what could be expected from a stable of attorneys who despise Donald Trump and love Hillary Clinton.”
President Trump has tweeted repeatedly about the “angry Democrats” comprising Mueller’s team. Most special counsel team members were registered Democrats, and Mueller’s “pitbull” Andrew Weissmann is considered by many Republicans to be especially partisan.
Gohmert claimed the Mueller team’s aim was “to extort people” into turning on Trump and said the report was written to be as unflattering as possible.
Reschenthaler said that it was time for the country to move on after a comprehensive investigation by Mueller, claiming that “Democrats are chasing ghosts.”
Steube agreed that Congress should focus on other issues and echoed Trump’s refrain that the report showed “no collusion” and “no obstruction.”
Biggs said that, to him, the Mueller report was “not like any legal brief I’d ever encountered before” and that it seemed more like “a political memo.” Biggs said that Mueller seemed to be trying to “massage” potential crimes such as obstruction of justice instead of just presenting the facts and applying the law. Ultimately, Mueller didn’t charge Trump with any crimes.
“Our friends on the other side didn’t like the results of the Mueller report, so they’re basically trying to reopen the investigation,” Biggs said. “This, to me, has always looked like it was political theater as opposed to really legitimate oversight.”
Biggs said he believed Mueller’s testimony was part of an effort by Democrats to impeach Trump.
“I mean, that’s really the bottom line here,” Biggs said. “I think that’s the goal.”
