Congresswoman Debbie Lesko said that the second volume of the Mueller report was filled with news stories that she could’ve seen on cable news as she questioned the former special counsel during his appearance before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday morning.
Mueller was testifying about his two-year-long investigation into whether or not the president or his campaign knowing conspired with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election. The special counsel’s office did not determine if the president obstructed justice, citing the Department of Justice’s guideline that a sitting president cannot be indicted, but the second section of his report focused on 10 instances in which Trump may have done so.
Lesko questioned Mueller about the second volume of the report.
“Mr. Mueller, rather than purely relying on the evidence provided by witnesses and documents, I think you relied a lot on media,” Lesko began.
Lesko then asked Mueller how many times he cited both the Washington Post and the New York Times in the report. Mueller answered that he did not know the answer to either question, but Lesko said there were about 60 times and 75 times respectively. She then asked the same question about Fox News, but again, the special counsel did not know the answer.
“About 25 times. I’ve got to say it looks like Volume 2 is mostly regurgitated press stories. Honestly, there is almost nothing in Volume 2 that I couldn’t already hear or know simply by having a $50 cable news subscription. However, your investigation cost the American taxpayers $25 million,” the congresswoman responded.
She continued, “Mr. Mueller, you cited media reports nearly 200 times in your report. Then in a footnote, a small footnote number 7, page 15 of volume 2 of your report, you wrote, ‘This section summarizes and cites various news stories not for the truth of the information contained in the stories but rather to place candidate Trump’s response to those stories in context.'”
