House Dems In Direct Talks With Mueller To Testify

Alicia Powe |

May 2, 2019

WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 19: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Robert Mueller testifies during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee June 19, 2013 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Mueller confirmed that the FBI uses drones for domestic surveillance during the hearing on FBI oversight. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The House Judiciary team is reportedly in direct talks with the House Judiciary Committee to negotiate whether he will testify before Congress.

Prior to speaking with Mueller’s team, the committee was dealing with the Justice Department, according to NBC and ABC news.

A hearing has not been finalized and a date has not been set.

A source familiar says House Judiciary has begun discussions directly w/ Mueller’s team about coming to testify before the cmte but nothing has been finalized at this point + no date has been set. Previously the Cmte had been in discussions w/ DOJ regarding Mueller’s testimony

— Alex Moe (@AlexNBCNews) May 2, 2019

The House Judiciary Committee is now in direct contact w/ Robert Mueller’s team about a potential hearing w/ special counsel, per a source familiar w/ conversations. Previously, they were dealing with DOJ.

Dems want May 15 hearing, but nothing has been finalized.

— Ben Siegel (@bensiegel) May 2, 2019

BREAKING: The House Judiciary Committee is now directly in talks with Mueller's team about potential testimony pic.twitter.com/MDHJSs8YvV

— The Beat with Ari Melber on MSNBC 📺 (@TheBeatWithAri) May 2, 2019

Attorney General William Barr testified Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee and was slated to reappear Thursday. However, Barr canceled his Thursday testimony after he was interrogated by Democratic lawmakers on a myriad of issues pertaining to special counsel Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Democrats on the Senate committee also publicly disclosed a letter Wednesday that Mueller wrote to Barr following the March letter the attorney general sent Congress.

Barr’s memo detailed his principal conclusion about Mueller’s report. In summary, Barr said he and the deputy attorney general concluded that Trump’s actions did not constitute obstruction of justice.

In the letter released Wednesday, Mueller rebuked the attorney general’s characterization of his investigation, accusing Barr of creating “public confusion about critical aspects of the results.”

“The summary letter the Department sent to Congress and released to the public late in the afternoon of March 24 did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this Office’s work and conclusions,” Mr. Mueller wrote in the letter addressed to Barr.

“There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation,” Mr. Mueller wrote. “This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the Department appointed the Special Counsel: to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations.”