Rep. Devin Nunes said special counsel Robert Mueller’s public statement on Wednesday was meant to gin up calls for impeaching President Trump in the face of a widespread review into the origins of the Russia investigation.
“What was that press conference all about yesterday? It was only about one thing and that was to light the fuse for impeachment because these guys are in big trouble,” the California Republican said on Fox News.
In his roughly nine-minute address, Mueller spoke about his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Citing long-standing Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel policy, Mueller said he never considered charging a sitting president with a crime and noted that doing so would be unconstitutional.
Mueller’s report, released in April with redactions, shows he declined to make a decision on obstruction, but he laid out 10 possible scenarios in his report, which Democrats argue gives them a road map to continue to investigate and possibly seek impeachment.
Nunes argued that Mueller should have completed his 22-month investigation within two days if he was so constrained by DOJ policy.
“He was so blatantly dishonest yesterday that he says that the Office of Legal Counsel says you can’t indict a sitting president,” Nunes said. “Well, he should have been done after day two.”
With Mueller’s investigation over, the focus has now turned to an investigation of the investigators due to concerns of misconduct. Trump has granted Attorney General William Barr with the power to declassify documents related to the Russia inquiry’s origins. Barr is also working closely with Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who is running a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuse investigation.
Nunes is the top Republican on the House intelligence Committee. Last year, when he was chairman, the panel completed its own Russia investigation that found no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Democrats argued it wrapped up prematurely, and now new Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., has reignited the inquiry.
Believing the Mueller investigation to be tainted by “Clinton dirt,” Nunes claims the Democrats, not Trump, colluded with the Russians and has called for the full disclosure of classified scope memorandum for Mueller issued by then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in August 2017, months after he appointed Mueller to lead the Russia investigation without citing a crime.
“He has no Russians, except for the Fusion [GPS] and Clinton Russians, and possibly the dirty cops, the FBI’s Russians. Those are the only Russians that he has that show connections to the Trump campaign,” Nunes said.
He was referring to the unverified dossier compiled by British ex-spy Christopher Steele that was funded in part by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign that was used by the FBI to obtain warrant to surveil onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
“Clearly, the Clinton operation is heavily working with Russians or Russian disinformation. He didn’t take time to look into any of that,” Nunes said.
