RPT - Mueller Testimony To Congress Exposes Fake Image Of Competent Crusader - FBI Whistleblower

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th July, 2019) Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's testimony before the House Judiciary Committee completely shattered the false image of him in the US mainstream media as a fair, competent and unbiased prosecutor, FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley told Sputnik.

Mueller, author of the report on alleged Russian collusion with the Trump campaign in the 2016 US presidential elections gave seven hours of testimony before the congressional committee on Wednesday during which time he declined to answer 198 queries put to him by members of Congress.

"I watched that whole seven excruciating hours," Rowley, who served as FBI Principal Legal Adviser, said. "Clearly the 'Sherlock Holmes' magazine cover image was way off the mark."

Rowley a former FBI Special Agent was jointly named "Person of the Year" by Time magazine in 2002 with two other whistleblowers. In a May 2002 memo to Mueller who was then FBI Director, she exposed some of the FBI's pre-9/11 failures and testified in front of Congress.

Rowley said Mueller's disappointing performance was consistent with his actual track record in his career in striking contrast to the worshipful image that had been created for him in the US media.

"Even as FBI Director, Mueller was... someone whose appearance, expensive suits [and] Vietnam medals exceeded his actual competency. Sycophancy carried him through. But his feebleness is even more apparent now," she said.

Mueller's poor memory, acknowledged ignorance of many key facts and inability to answer hundreds of questions revealed that he had always been an empty figurehead who knew very little about the investigation and controversial conclusions that were published in his name, Rowley pointed out.

"He was hired to serve as the figurehead and did not actually do the work. That was done by the sharper, younger attorneys, some of them HRC [Hillary Rodham Clinton] supporters," she observed.

Mueller had insisted on having other attorneys involved in the investigation at his side during the hearings because his own ignorance of the report he was supposed to have written was so striking, Rowley noted.

"That's why Mueller wanted that Aaron Zebley at his side," she said.

Zebley served as chief of staff to Mueller when he was FBI Director and in 2014 followed him to the law firm WilmerHale as an expert in cybersecurity. Zebley's clients included 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.