Robert Mueller, in stepping down as special counsel, made clear that he would not give Democrats a second crack at his report by drawing him out through testimony. Instead, Congress will have to make any decisions about President Trump on the basis of what is already out there.
“I hope and expect that this will be the only time I will speak to you in this manner,” Mueller said on Wednesday morning. “I am making that decision myself, nobody has told me whether I can or should testify or speak further about this matter. There has been discussion of an appearance before Congress. Any testimony from this office would not go beyond our report. It contains our findings and analysis and the reasons for the decisions we made. We chose those words carefully and the work speaks for itself. And the report is my testimony. I would not provide information beyond that which is already public in any appearance before Congress.”
[Watch: Robert Mueller gives statement on Russia investigation]
Democrats, of course, could subpoena Mueller and attempt to force him to testify, but this makes clear that if that were the case, he would not expand on anything that is not already public. No parts of the report left on the cutting room floor would emerge, no off-script comments disparaging Trump or Attorney General William Barr. And so even if Democrats could get Mueller to appear, nothing could prevent him from simply responding to questions by either reading excerpts from the report, or simply stating over and over again, “I would refer you to the report.”
Thus, Democrats will be forced to make a decision on whether to pursue impeachment on the basis of what the report says, and nothing Mueller said today changed the substance of that debate.
Mueller reiterated that though there was ample evidence that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, when it came to the Trump campaign, “there was insufficient evidence to charge a broader conspiracy.” Republicans will go on interpreting that as “no collusion,” and Democrats will argue that there was plenty of evidence, just not enough to make Mueller confident of being able to convict any Trump campaign officials on conspiracy charges. But nothing Mueller said today will alter that argument.
On the issue of obstruction, Mueller restated that the office decided not to take a conclusive position. More precisely, he stated, “if we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so,” but “under long-standing department policy, a present president cannot be charged with a federal crime while he is in office. That is unconstitutional.” Given that Trump would have no legal recourse to defend himself in court, the office of special counsel decided against offering a clear recommendation on obstruction.
Ultimately, he said it was up to Congress, because the “constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing.” In other words, Congress can proceed with impeachment to put Trump on trial if it so chooses.
Essentially, then, we are where we have always been, with findings that contain enough damaging revelations for Democrats to use against Trump, but also enough equivocation for Republicans to confidently defend Trump. The one thing it does change is that for Democratic leaders hoping to stave off impeachment, it deprives them of a talking point. That is, they can no longer stall the pro-impeachment crowd by building up to a potentially shocking Mueller testimony. Mueller’s statement makes it clear that there would be no additional bombshells in any such testimony.
