Former top FBI lawyer James Baker said special counsel Robert Mueller could help Democrats convince the public to support impeaching President Trump.
When Mueller delivered a public address last week, he made clear he does not want to testify to Congress about his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Democrats, led by House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, are poised to compel him to testify as many rank-and-file members are pressuring House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to initiate impeachment proceedings.
Baker told CNN he thinks Mueller would show up without the need for a subpoena and that there would be “value” in the American people hearing from him again even if he refuses to reveal anything not in his report.
“He’s not going to go beyond the four corners of the document,” the former FBI general counsel said on Wednesday. “That doesn’t mean he wouldn’t and doesn’t mean there’s not value for the American people from hearing from him directly at least in summary form to try to understand the scope of that 448-page report.”
Baker agreed with the notion that most Americans have not read the Mueller report and dismissed concerns about a political circus.
“I think members of Congress could ask reasonable questions of former Director Mueller to get a clear sense of what it was he was concerned about and help the people understand,” he said. “That’s what this is about at the end of the day. Impeachment is a political process and to my mind, if you don’t have the support of the American people, it’s not going to go forward. That requires educating the American people. That’s what Congress needs to do and focus on and figure out how to do that in an effective way.”
Mueller’s report, released by the Justice Department with redactions in April, shows his team was unable to find criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. Mueller also looked into whether Trump attempted to obstructed justice, and despite laying out 10 instances of possible obstruction, he did not make a determination about whether he believed the president committed a crime. Democrats argue Mueller left it to them to investigate and decide while Attorney General William Barr said there was insufficient evidence to accuse Trump of an obstruction crime.
Polling last month showed a rise in Americans supporting impeachment, but those figures were still less than 50%. Polling released on Thursday showed 35% of registered voters in favor of starting impeachment proceedings, while 45% opposed.
At least 59 Democratic lawmakers and one Republican — Rep. Justin Amash — support an impeachment inquiry, but Pelosi remains unconvinced it is a good idea without an “ironclad” case under the belief Trump wants to be impeached so he can be acquitted by the GOP-led Senate while Democrats face political backlash.
During a press conference Wednesday, Pelosi warned that people who do support impeachment do not understand what exactly it entails. “It is not the means to an end that people think. All you do, vote to impeach, bye bye birdie. It isn’t that,” the California Democrat said. “It is an indictment, so you want to have the best possible indictment.”
Baker has been making the media rounds in recent weeks ahead of a hotly anticipated release of an Justice Department inspector general report on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuse.
Baker told CNN that he is cooperating with Inspector General Michael Horowitz and is open to helping Attorney General William Barr and U.S. Attorney John Durham with their review of the origins of the Russia investigation. He also stressed that it was a “small group” who led the FBI’s counterintelligence inquiry into Trump’s campaign, namely, former FBI Director James Comey and former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.
