The House Democrats who oversaw Robert Mueller’s congressional testimony Wednesday touted the former special counsel’s performance across two hearings on Capitol Hill.
Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler faced reporters after Mueller spoke with lawmakers for about six hours on the findings from his Russia investigation.
“Part of what I found so powerful about his testimony today was not just when he was asked about the law, but when he was asked about the ethics, the morality, the lack of patriotism of this conduct,” Schiff, a Democrat from California, said of Mueller’s reaction to Trump and his 2016 campaign associates examined as part of the inquiry.
The country was heading into the next election cycle “more vulnerable” than it should be, Schiff said.
“The president will still not forswear receiving foreign help again,” he added, saying Trump continues to refer to Russia election interference as a “hoax,” something Mueller “directly refuted.”
Despite Mueller walking back his comments to Rep. Ted Lieu about not charging Trump, Nadler claimed it was “only” Justice Department guidance prohibiting the indictment of a sitting president saving Trump from criminal prosecution.
“Mueller made clear that the president is not exonerated. Mueller found evidence of obstruction of justice and abuses of power by the president,” Nadler, a Democrat from New York, said. “The president’s chant of ‘no obstruction’ is nonsense. His chant that he’s been totally exonerated is a simple lie.”
Mueller told Lieu during the first hearing of the day it was “correct” that he did not indict Trump because of the DOJ internal memo protecting incumbent presidents.
“That is not the correct way to say it,” the former FBI director said later in his opening statement for the House Intelligence Committee hearing. “As we say in the report and as I said at the opening, we did not reach a determination as to whether the president committed a crime.”
