REVIEW - Mueller Withstands Republican Assault In Public Hearings, Both Sides Declare Victory

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th July, 2019) Former US Special Counsel Robert Mueller faced a relentless barrage of questions and accusations of political bias from Republican lawmakers in public hearings yet revealed practically no new information while both sides, somehow, declared victory.

In April, Mueller issued a final report on his investigation and said the probe found no evidence of collusion between Trump and his campaign with Russian officials in the run-up to the 2016 US presidential election. However, Mueller described ten instances that may constitute obstruction of justice by the US president.

After reviewing the facts, US Attorney General William Barr said he concluded the evidence provided by Mueller failed to establish that Trump committed an obstruction-of-justice offense.

However, because Democrats were not satisfied with the redacted version of the report and Barr's conclusion, they called on Mueller to testify publicly, thus leading to Wednesday's testimonies before both the House Judiciary and House Intelligence committees.

Mueller faced a feisty group of Republicans who appeared determined to undermine the findings of his report. In the first couple hours, in fact, the former Special Counsel seemed a bit rattled and nervous.

Early on, in a statement the US President underscored in tweets later in the day, Mueller said that the investigation did not uncover direct evidence of any conspiracy between Trump's campaign and the Russian government.

"The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government in its election interference activities," Mueller told lawmakers.

Republican lawmakers accused Mueller and his team of omitting important facts due to a political bias that aims to portray Trump in a negative light.

Mueller pushed backed against those assertions aside, saying that not once in 25 years did he ask for the political affiliation of a job candidate.

"It is simply not done," Mueller said.

When asked if he was aware how many times the Special Counsel's office relied on major US media reports in its investigation, Mueller said he did not know.

The lawmaker then informed Mueller that the Special Counsel's report cited the New York Times 75 times, the Washington Post 50 times, and FOX news five times.

Defending his team's reputation was practically the only time Mueller deviated from his script, which saw him sticking closely to his written words in the report during the more than 3.5-hour testimony.

Mueller also refused to answer many specific questions about his team's nearly two-year investigation. On numerous occasions, Mueller answered a question by simply referring to the office's nearly 450-page report.

Mueller also made clear that he would not answer any questions about the origins of the FBI's Russia investigation, which Republicans believed is based on a "fake" dossier written by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele.

The Special Counsel would not comment on the recent ruling in the trial involving Russia's Concord Management in which the judge argued that the public release of the Mueller report violated a local rule by revealing information about the case that was not included in the original internet Research Agency indictment.

The Mueller report claims the group is linked to the Russian government, a charge not in the indictment in a DC court.

Anybody hoping that new evidence would be uncovered during the hearing was left disappointed.

The biggest news of the hearing came when Mueller said that the evidence laid out in the report would be enough to charge Trump with obstruction of justice once he leaves office.

"Yes," said the special council when asked whether the president could be charged after his term in office ends.

He also reiterated that the report does not "fully exonerate" the president from any wrongdoing, therefore contradiction Trump's conclusion of the report's findings.

A democratic congressman asked Mueller whether Trump was not always being truthful in his written answers during the investigation.

"Generally," Mueller told the US House of Representatives Intelligence Committee.

Mueller said that Russia's efforts to interfere in US elections is "among the most serious" challenges to American democracy.

Mueller also revealed that his staff traveled abroad as part of the Russia investigation, but he refused to say where and with whom they met.

When asked whether any member of the Special Counsel's office staff traveled overseas as part of the investigation, Mueller said, "Yes, but I can't go further than that."

Both sides of the debate claimed victory, with many Democrats suggesting Mueller's testimony underscores the need to impeach Trump while Republicans said it was a waste of time.

As participants paused for a break in the testimony, the White House slammed the proceedings and the Democratic Party.

"The last three hours have been an epic embarrassment for the Democrats. Expect more of the same in the second half," White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a Twitter post.

The US president about mid-day expressed the same conclusion and even thanked his rivals.

He observed that the special counsel was subjected to questions from Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff, a lawmaker who continues to push the collusion conspiracy.

"I would like to thank the Democrats for holding this morning's hearing. Now, after 3 hours, Robert Mueller has to subject himself to #ShiftySchiff - an Embarrassment to our Country!" Trump said in a tweet.

US Senator Tim Scott in a statement also said the hearings were a waste of time.

"The continuation of this drawn out saga has finally come to a close. No new information has come out of this unnecessary interrogation and we are all left with the same conclusion we had months ago - no collusion. I sincerely hope we can now close this chapter in American history and build on the good work we've done in the past two and a half years," Scott said.

The Democrats, for their part, vowed to move forward and plan to enforce subpoenas to force former White House lawyer Don McGahn to testify.

Trump has repeatedly called Mueller's investigation a political witch hunt. Russia has also denied any claims of interference in the US political system, saying the allegations were made up to excuse the election loss of Trump's opponent Hillary Clinton and deflect public attention from actual instances of election fraud and corruption.