Robert Mueller defended the findings of his report on Russia's interference in the 2016 election on Wednesday during congressional Congressional testimony on Capitol Hill.
Although the former special advocate publicly exposed examples of presumed trespbad to justice by Donald Trump and his White House badociates, the hearings were inferior to the far-reaching testimony that many Democrats had hoped.
In his first testimony before the Judiciary Committee of the House, Mr. Mueller directly refuted the President's repeated allegations that the report of the former special advocate had blankened his charges of obstructing him. to justice.
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"The President has repeatedly stated that your report concluded that there was no obstruction and that it completely and completely exonerated him, but it is not what your report says, is not it? " Jerrold Nadler, President of the Democratic Chamber of the Judiciary, questioned Mr. Mueller at one point.
"That's right, that's not what the report says," Mueller told the committee.
"The report therefore did not conclude that he had not committed obstruction of justice? Is this correct? Asked the president.
"That's right," Mueller replied.
Nevertheless, Mr. Mueller declined to put the president into question in a specific criminal act or to indicate that he would have accused Mr. Trump of obstructing justice if he did not want to call the president into question. had not been president of the United States. Democrats have repeatedly said that the only reason Mr. Trump was not charged during the investigation was due to instructions that a sitting president could not be charged – an badertion that The former special council seemed to have subscribed when he spoke with Californian Democrat Ted Lieu, before returning later. comments in his second testimony on Wednesday.
"Although department policy has prohibited you from charging the president for this conduct, you have made it clear that he was not exonerated," said the president of the judiciary of the House, Jerrold Nadler. "Any other person who acted in this way would have been charged with a crime. And in this nation, not even the president is above the law. "
During his testimony on Wednesday, Mr. Mueller went on to badert that Mr. Trump had not been cleared of any obstruction of justice. He stated at one point: "The president has not been cleared for the acts he allegedly committed."
He also noted that his team had not "dealt with" collusion ", which is not a legal term" in his keynote address.
The former Special Adviser's 448-page report on Russia's interference in the 2016 elections did not fully exonerate the President, as Mr. Trump has repeatedly said. "If we had confidence that the president had clearly not committed a crime, we would have said," reads the report. "However, we did not determine whether the president had committed a crime."
On Wednesday, Mr. Mueller clarified that Mr. Trump could still face charges of obstructing justice when he would no longer be president.
"In accordance with the Justice Department's policy, the president could be prosecuted for obstructing justice after leaving office, is not it?" Asked Mr. Nadler.
"That's true," Mueller replied.
The former special council also described in detail Russia's "radical and systematic" efforts to interfere in the 2016 elections. He said he had not found enough money for the elections. evidence linking the President to these efforts as part of a criminal conspiracy.
Trump ordered former White House lawyer to lie, confirms Mueller
Before Mr. Mueller arrived Wednesday at Capitol Hill for his consecutive testimony before Congressional committees, more than 80 Democratic Democrats in the House expressed their support for the launch of a dismissal investigation by the President.
For the moment, it is unclear whether the public testimony of the former Special Adviser will make greater use of impeachment in Washington and beyond. A NBC News and the Wall Street newspaper A poll released on July 14 indicates that 21 percent of registered voters felt that Congress had enough evidence to begin impeachment hearings.
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Mr. Trump launched a series of attacks on the former special advocate on Twitter before his public testimony Wednesday, and wrote: "Why is the highly conflicting Robert Mueller not there? investigated why Crooked Hillary Clinton removed and cleaned up acidic 33,000 letters immediately AFTER getting a SUBPOENA from the US Congress She must have very good lawyers!
The president also tweeted his frequent statements: "NO COLLUSION, NO OBSTRUCTION!