Mueller testifies before Congress, defends Russia investigation

Washington — Former special counsel Robert Mueller is testifying on Wednesday before Congress on his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

Mueller appeared before the House Judiciary Committee in the morning and is scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“It is unusual for a prosecutor to testify about a criminal investigation and given my role as a prosecutor there are reasons why my testimony will be limited,” Mueller told the House Judiciary Committee.

The former special counsel defended his investigation and refused to answer questions about how the probe originated.

“I am unable to answer questions about the FBI ‘s initial opening of the counterintelligence investigation,” Mueller said.

Regarding alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, which was the reason that the investigation was launched, Mueller reiterated the findings contained in his report.

“The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government in its election interference activities,” Mueller said.

The former special counsel clarified the scope of the collusion probe.

“We did not address ‘collusion,’ which is not a legal term. Rather, we focused on whether the evidence was sufficient to charge any member of the campaign with taking part in a criminal conspiracy. It was not.”

“We found insufficient evidence of the president’s culpability,” Mueller said.

The former FBI director told the committee that he could not answer questions about “matters relating to the Steele dossier,” a report compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele, who had been hired by President Donald Trump’s political enemies to look into the then-Republican presidential candidate’s ties to Russia and help derail his bid for the White House.

Among the salacious allegations contained in the dossier is one that Trump consorted with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel in 2013.

In his opening statement, Mueller discussed his prosecutorial team’s decision to not include a determination in the final report on whether the president committed a crime.

“As described in Volume II of our report, we investigated a series of actions by the president and based on Department of Justice policy and principles of fairness, we decided we would not make a determination as to whether the president committed a crime,” Mueller told the House Judiciary Committee.

Mueller said “it was our decision then and it remains our decision today.”

The declassified version of the special counsel’s report, which was released on April 18, said the “investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”

Regarding obstruction of justice, the other matter addressed by the probe, Mueller did not stray from the report’s conclusions.

“Based on Justice Department policy and principles of fairness, we decided we would not make a determination as to whether the president committed a crime. That was our decision then and it remains our decision today,” Mueller said. EFE

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