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Mueller won’t testify next week, talks ongoing: House Democrat
WASHINGTON, May 11, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Robert Mueller, the US special counsel
whose report on Russian election interference has shaken a divided
Washington, will not testify before Congress next week, a top Democrat said
Friday.
House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler had wanted Mueller to
testify on May 15, but he said a date for the highly anticipated appearance
before lawmakers remained under discussion.
“It won’t be next week,” Nadler told reporters. “But we’re negotiating
with him, we’re talking to him and the Justice Department.”
Nadler has said that the committee would subpoena Mueller if necessary,
but expressed hope that such a step could be avoided.
Nadler’s comments came two days after his committee — the panel empowered
to initiate impeachment proceedings against a president — voted along party
lines to recommend that Attorney General William Barr be held in contempt of
Congress for refusing to turn over the unredacted Mueller report and its
underlying evidence.
Mueller has said that Barr, in his own four-page summary of the report,
mischaracterized the nature and substance of the investigation’s conclusions,
which resulted in “public confusion” about the findings.
That dispute, and Barr’s refusal to provide the special counsel’s full
report, has intensified congressional interest in hearing from Mueller
himself.
Barr has said he does not object to Mueller testifying to lawmakers.
President Donald Trump, whose campaign was accused by Democrats of
colluding with Moscow, has flip-flopped on the issue.
He has gone from saying he would not object to Mueller testifying, to
tweeting on Sunday that “Bob Mueller should not testify.”
He reversed himself again Thursday, saying “I’m going to leave that up to
our very great attorney general, and he’ll make the decision on that.”
BSS/AFP/MSY/1354 hr