Former special counsel Robert Mueller was told earlier this week that the Justice Department expects him to limit the scope of his congressional testimony to the public findings of his report, a current and a former U.S. official confirmed.
Ever since Muller was subpoenaed late last month, Department officials have stressed that the evidence gathered as part of his probe was “presumptively privileged” and shielded from public disclosure. The former U.S. official said that the DOJ was “taking the position that anything outside the written pages of the report are things about which presidential privilege hasn’t been waived.”
However, no lawyers for the White House or the Justice Department will be present at Mueller’s long-awaited testimony before the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees on Wednesday. Administration officials hope, nonetheless, that Mueller himself will decide to only speak about information that has already been disclosed, Politico informs.
President Donald Trump, on his part, has completely opposed the former special counsel’s testimony, tweeting that “conflicted Robert Mueller should not be given another bite at the apple.” He believes Mueller’s appearance before the panels is part of an effort by Democrats to conduct a “do-over” of the special counsel’s probe into Russian election interference.
Democrats are not likely to get much from Mueller, especially on obstruction of justice, although they have stressed that even if the American public only heard what was in his report, it would educate them on the President’s attempts to interfere in the Russia investigation.
Both Mueller himself and his spokesman Jim Popkin have noted that the testimony would be limited to what is contained within the 448-page report.
The report “contains our findings and analysis, and the reasons for the decisions we made. We chose those words carefully, and the work speaks for itself. The report is my testimony,” Mueller said back in May.
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