Robert Mueller’s appearance before the House Judiciary Committee, on Wednesday, may be most memorable for his deflections. Mueller, who at times spoke so softly as to be inaudible, deferred to his report or declined to answer questions more than a hundred and twenty-three times during his three hours of testimony, according to NBC. He also frequently slowed the proceedings by asking committee members to repeat their questions or, when they cited his report, to identify the exact location in the text.
This approach frustrated and made awkward both the Republican and Democratic lines of inquiry. “When you talk about the President’s pattern of conduct,” Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat from Texas, asked, “that would include the ten possible acts of obstruction that you investigated, correct?”
“I direct you to the report for how that is characterized,” Mueller replied.
Mueller’s findings—particularly that, as Mueller put it during the hearing, “the President was not exculpated” for alleged acts of obstruction of justice—remain as important as they were the day the report was released, and surely deserve the public airing that hearings offer. But Mueller has been a palpably grudging participant. As he said in his report and at his last public appearance, a press conference on May 29th, he believes that he has already fulfilled the obligations of the role of the special counsel. “The report is my testimony” is how he put it at the press conference. “I would not provide information beyond that which is already public in any appearance before Congress.”
In the report, he noted that the Justice Department will not prosecute a sitting President, because that could “potentially preëmpt constitutional processes for addressing Presidential misconduct.” Toward the end of the hearing, Representative Veronica Escobar, another Texas Democrat, asked Mueller to provide a layman’s definition. “For the non-lawyers in the room, what did you mean by ‘potentially preëmpt constitutional processes?’ ”
“I’m not going to try to explain that,” Mueller replied.
“That, actually, is coming from page one of Volume II. In the footnote is the reference to this. What are those constitutional processes?”
“I think I heard you mention at least one.”
“Impeachment, correct?”
“I’m not going to comment.”
Before proceeding with “those constitutional processes,” Democrats clearly want Mueller’s blessing. It isn’t, as far as Mueller is concerned, his to give. Dragging him before the House, so far, hasn’t changed his mind, or introduced much new information for the public or legislators to consider.
