House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Tuesday the House should issue a subpoena to special counsel Robert Mueller if he refuses to voluntarily testify before the oversight committees who want to hear from him.
“If he won’t testify,” said the Maryland Democrat, “I think we ought to issue a subpoena anyway, personally.”
Mueller signaled in a seven-minute statement last week that he had nothing to offer Congress beyond his 448-page report on Russian interference in the 2016 election and that he does not want to testify.
But Democrats remain determined to bring Mueller to the Capitol to answer their questions.
Hoyer said Mueller’s testimony before Congress is “a very, very important aspect of fact-finding.”
Democrats want to know more about Mueller’s views on Trump’s actions to obstruct the two-year probe, for example.
“Questioning is an important fact-finding pursuit,” Hoyer said.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said Tuesday he’s still in talks with Mueller and that he wants him to testify in public, not privately.
“Hopefully, they will reach an agreement,” Hoyer said, adding that Mueller “may want a subpoena in which case we ought to issue a subpoena.”
Even if Mueller is not seeking a subpoena, Hoyer said, the House should issue one if he does not show up to testify.
He called Mueller’s testimony “one aspect in our decision-making process,” on whether to launch an impeachment inquiry into President Trump.
[Opinion: Robert Mueller says the report speaks for itself. He still needs to testify]
