Former special counsel Robert Mueller is a reluctant witness before Congress to discuss his report on President Trump’s ties to Russia. But his more than 50 appearances as FBI director over a dozen years suggest he isn’t afraid to mix it up with lawmakers when pressed.
Mueller in May put lawmakers on notice that they wouldn’t get much out of him if compelled to discuss his 400-plus page report. No matter, the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees on Tuesday night issued a subpoena for Mueller’s testimony on July 17, to which he’s agreed to comply.
House majority Democrats and their Republican counterparts each have incentives to push and challenge Mueller over the report. His report found there was insufficient evidence to establish that Trump or his associates engaged in a criminal conspiracy with Russia to disrupt the 2016 election, despite numerous contacts between his campaign and Russians.
Mueller, during years of oversight hearings while heading the FBI, showed a willingness, if not eagerness, to fight back against lawmakers challenging his work. At other times, he take a lawyerly approach, answering lawmakers only with precise, specific missives that added little new information or context. And he wasn’t afraid to criticize the work and performance of other high government officials.
At a June 13, 2013 oversight hearing by the House Judiciary Committee, then under Republican control, Chairman Bob Goodlatte, Virginia, grilled Mueller over the investigation into the recent Boston Marathon bombings. Goodlatte zeroed in on logistics of federal law enforcement obtaining search warrants.
“In your experience … when you authorize a search warrant for a target of a criminal investigation, wasn’t prosecution of that target the objective?” asked Goodlatte.
Mueller paused for several moments and responded, “I would say no,” without elaborating.
At that same hearing, Rep. Bobby Scott pressed Mueller about FBI surveillance tactics. Responding to the Virginia Democrat’s question, directly contradicted the previous testimony of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales about surveillance programs.
And that wasn’t the first time Mueller contradicted Gonzales, attorney general under George W. Bush for two-and-a-half years. In 2007, he told Congress that three years earlier Gonzales visited then-Attorney General John Ashcroft in his hospital room to discuss an NSA surveillance program. Gonzales earlier claimed that he simply discussed “other intelligence activities.”
One mainstay of Mueller testimony is bipartisan praise about his performance as FBI director. Mueller was at one point so popular that, at the request of President Barack Obama, Congress agreed to extend his 10-year term by an additional two years.
At a June 19, 2013 Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing, Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, praise Mueller for his performance, integrity, and character. Mueller on July 17 is unlikely to receive such effusive comments from either side. Among other gripes, Democrats remain angry Mueller’s report didn’t recommend indictment or other legal action be taken against Trump, while Republicans contend the investigation should never have been launched in the first place.
