Former special Counsel Robert Mueller testified about his investigation. This was his second appearance on capitol hill wednesday. He appeared before the house judiciary ready earlier in the day. This two and a half hour hearing begins as mr. Mueller takes a seat at the witness table. This meeting will come to at the outset on behalf of my colleagues i want to thank special counsel mueller for a lifetime of service to your country. It tells the story of a foreign adversary sweeping and systemic intervention in a close u. S. Election. Intervention in a close u. S. Election. That should be enough to deserve the attention of every american as you well point out. But your report tells another story as well. The story of the 2016 election is also a story about disloyalty to country. About greed, and about lies. Your investigation determined the Trump Campaign including donald trump himself knew that a foreign power was intervening in our election and welcomed it, built russian meddling into their strategy and used it. Disloyalty to country. Those are strong words but how else are we to describe a president ial campaign which did not inform the authorities of a foreign offer of dirt on their opponent which did not publicly shun it or turn it away but which instead invited it, encouraged it and made full use of it. That disloyalty may not have been criminal, constrained by uncooperative witnesses, the destruction of documents and the use of encrypted communications, your team was not able to establish each of the elements of the crime of conspiracy beyond a reasonable doubt, so not a provable crime in any event. But i think maybe something worse, a crime is the violation of law written by congress, but disloyalty to country violates the very oath of citizenship, our devotion to a core principle on which our nation was founded that we, the people and not some foreign power that wishes us ill, we decide who governs us. This is also a story about money. About greed and corruption. About the leadership of a campaign willing to compromise the nations interest not only to win but to make money at the same time. About a Campaign Chairman indebted to pro russian interests who tried to use his position to clear his debts and make millions. About a National Security adviser using his position to make money from still other foreign interests. And about a candidate trying to make more money than all of them put together through real estate project that to him was worth a fortune. Hundreds of millions of dollars and the realization of a lifelong ambition, a trump tower in the heart of moscow. A candidate who, in fact, viewed his whole campaign as the greatest infomercial in history. Donald trump and his senior staff were not alone in their desire to use the election to make money. For russia too there was a powerful financial motive. Putin wanted relief from u. S. Economic sanctions imposed in the wake of russias invasion of ukraine and over human rights violations. The secret trump tower meeting between the russians and Senior Campaign officials was about sanctions. The secret conversations between flynn and the Russian Ambassador were about sanctions. Trump and his team wanted more money for themselves, and the russians wanted more money for themselves. And for their oligarchs. But the story doesnt end here either. For your report also tells a story about lies. Lots of lies. Lies about a gleaming tower in moscow and lies about talks with the kremlin. Lies about the firing of james comey and lies about efforts to fire you, and lies to cover it up. Lies about secret negotiations with the russians over sanctions and lies about wikileaks. Lies about polling data and lies about hush money payments. Lies about meetings in the se shells and about a secret meeting in trump tower. Lies to the fbi. Lies to your staff, and lies to this committee. Lies to obstruct an investigation into the most serious attack on our democracy by a foreign power in our history. That is where your report ends, direct mueller. With a scheme to cover up obstruct and deceive every bit as system attic as the Russian Campaign itself but far more pernicious since this rot came from within. Even now after 448 pages and two volumes, the deception continues. The president and his accolades say your report found no collusion, though your report explicitly declined to address that since it can involve criminal and noncriminal conduct. Your report laid out offmultipl offers of russian help and furtherance to most americans thats the very definition of collusion. Whether it is a crime or not. They say your report found no evidence of obstruction though you outlined numerous actions by the president intended to obstruct the investigation. They say the president has been fully exonerated though you declare you could not exonerate him. In fact, they say your whole investigation was nothing more than a witch hunt. That the russians didnt interfere in our election, that its all a terrible hoax. The real crime, they say, is not that the russians intervened to help donald trump but that the fbi investigated it when they did. But worst of all, worse than all the lies and the greed is the disloyalty to country. For that, too, continues. When asked if the russians intervene again, will you take their help, mr. President . Why not was the essence of his answer. Everyone does it. No, mr. President , they dont. Not the america envisioned by jefferson, madison and hamilton. Not for those who believe in the idea that lincoln labored until his dying day to preserve the idea animating our Great National experiments so unique then, so precious still that our government is chosen by our people through our franchise, and not by some hostile foreign power. This is what is at stake. Our next election, and the one after that for generations to come. Our democracy. This is why your work matters, director mueller. This is why our investigation matters. To bring these dangers to light. Ranking member nunez. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Welcome, everyone, to the last gasp of the russia collusion Conspiracy Theory. As democrats continue to foist this spectacle on the American People as well as you, mr. Mueller, the American People may recall the media first began spreading this serious theory in the spring of 2016 when fusion gps funded by the dnc and the Hillary Clinton campaign started developing the steele dossier. A collection of outlandish accusations that trump and his associates were russian agents. Fusion gps, steele, and other confederates fed this to naive or partisan reporters and to top officials in numerous Government Agencies including the fbi, the department of justice and the state department. Among other things the fbi used dossier allegations to obtain a warrant to spy on the Trump Campaign. Despite acknowledging dossier allegations as being salacious, and unverified, former fbi director james comey briefed the allegations to president obama and president elect trump. Those briefings conveniently leaked to the press. Resulting in the publication of the dossier and launching thousands of false press stories based on the word of a foreign exspy. One who admitted he was desperate that trump lose the election and who was eventually fired as an fbi source for leaking to the press. After comey himself was fired by his own admission, he leaked derogatory information on President Trump to the press for the specific purpose and successfully so, of engineering the appointment of a special counsel who sits here before us today. The fbi investigation was marred by further corruption and business zar abuses. Top doj officials whose wife worked on fusion gps antitrump fed information even after the fbi fired steele. The top fbi investigator and his lover, another top fbi official constantly texted about how much they hated trump and wanted to stop him from being elected. And the entire investigation was open based not on intelligence but on a tip from a foreign politician. About a conversation involving joseph nif have a, hes a diplomat who is widely portrayed as a russian agent but seems to have for more connections with western governments including our own fbi and our own state department than with russia. Ignoring the red flags as well as the transparent absurdity of the claims theyre making, the democrats have arguing for nearly three years that evidence of collusion is hidden just around the corner. They insist its thereven if no one can find it. Consider this. In march of 2017 democrats on this Committee Said they had more than circumstantial evidence of collusion but they couldnt reveal it yet. Mr. Mueller was soon appointed and they said he would find the collusion. Then when no collusion was found, and mr. Muellers indictments, the democrats said wed find it in his final report. Then when there was no collusion in the report, we were told attorney general barr was hiding it. Then when it was clear barr wasnt hiding anything, we were told it will be revealed through a hearing with mr. Mueller himself. And now that mr. Mueller is here, theyre claiming the collusion has actually been in his report all along. Hidden in plain sight, and theyre right. There is collusion in plain sight. Collusion between russia and the Democratic Party. The democrats have already admitted both in interviews and through their usual anonymous statements to reporters that todays hearing is not about getting information at all. They said they want to, quote, bring the Mueller Report to life. And create a Television Moment through ploys like having mr. Muell mueller recite passages from his own report. Its theater. Its trying to convince the American People that collusion is real and concealed in the report. Granted, thats a strange argument to make about a report that is public. Its almost like the democrats prepared arguments accusing mr. Barr of hiding the report and didnt bother to update their claims once he published the entire thing. Among Congressional Democrats the russia investigation was never about finding the truth. Its always been a simple media operation by their own accounts this operation continues in this room today. Once again, numerous pressing issues this committee needs to address are put on hold to indulge the political fantasies of people who believed it was their destiny to serve Hillary Clintons administration. Its time for the curtain to close on the russia hoax. The Conspiracy Theory is dead. At some point i would argue were going to have to get back to work. Until then, i yield back the balance of my time. To ensure fairness and make sure that our hearing is prompt, i know we got a late start, director mueller. The hearing will be structured as follows. Each member of the committee will be afforded five minutes to ask questions beginning with the chair and Ranking Member. As chair, i will recognize thereafter in alternating fashion and members of the majority and minority. After each member asks their questions, the Ranking Member will be afforded an additional five minutes followed by the chair with additional five minutes for questions. Ranking member and the chair will not be prepared to delegate or yield our five minutes to any other member. After six members of the majority and six members of minority have concluded their round of questions, well take a five or ten minute break. We understand youve requested it, before resuming the swal well round of questions. Aaron zebley served as deputy counsel until may 2019 and had day today oversight of the special counsels investigation. Mr. Mueller and mr. Zebley resigned at the end of may 2019 when the special counsels office was closed. Both mr. Mueller and mr. Zebley will be available to answer questions today and will be sworn in consistent with the rules of the house and the committee. Their appearance before the committee is in keeping with the long standing practice of receiving testimony from current or former department of justice and fbi personnel regarding open and closed investigative matters. As this hearing is under oath and before we begin your testimony, mr. Mueller and zebley, would you please rise and raise your right hands to be sworn . Do you swear or affirm the testimony youre about to give at this hearing is the whole truth and nothing but the truth . I do. Thank you. The record will reflect the witnesses have been duly sworn. Ranking member. Thank you, mr. Chair. I want to clarify that this is highly unusual for mr. Zebley to be sworn in. Were here to ask director mueller questions. Hes here as counsel. Our side is not going to be directing any questions to mr. Zebley, and we have concerns about his prior representation of the Hillary Clinton campaign aide, so i just want to voice that concern that we do have. And we will not be presenting any questions to mr. Zebley today. I thank the Ranking Member. I realize as probably do mr. Zebley that there is an angry person not happy about you being here today, but it is up to this committee and not anyone else who will be allowed to be sworn in and testify, and you are welcome as a private citizen to testify and members may direct their questions to whoever they choose. With that, director mueller, youre recognized for any opening remarks youd like to make. Good afternoon, chairman schiff and members of the committee. I testified this morning before the house judiciary committee. I asked that the Opening Statement i made before that committee be incorporated into the record here. Without objection, director. I understand that this committee has a unique jurisdiction. That you are interested in further understanding the counterintelligence implications of our investigation. So let me say a word about how we handle the potential impact of our investigation on counterintelligence matters. As we explain in our report, the special counsel regulations effectively gave me the role of United States attorney. As a result, we structured our investigation around evidence for possible use in prosecution of federal crimes. We did not reach what you would call counterintelligence conclusions. We did, however, set up processes in the office to identify and pass counterintelligence information onto the fbi. Members of our office periodically brief the fbi about counterintelligence information. In addition there were agents and analysts from the fbi who are not on our team but whose job it was to identify counterintelligence information in our files and to disseminate that information to the fbi. For these reasons, questions about what the fbi has done with the counterintelligence information obtained from our investigation should be directed to the fbi. I also want to reiterate a few points that i made this morning. I am not making any judgments or offering opinions about the guilt or innocence in any pending case. 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 necessarily be limited. First public testimony could effect several ongoing matters. In some of these Matters Court rules or judicial orders limit the disclosure of information to protect the fairness of the proceedings. And consistent with Longstanding Justice Department policy, it would be inappropriate for me to comment in any way that could effect an ongoing matter. Second, the Justice Department has asserted privileges concerning investigative information and decisions ongoing matters within the Justice Department, and deliberations within our office. These are Justice Department privileges that i will respect. The department has released a letter discussing the restrictions on my testimony. I, therefore, will not be able to answer questions about certain areas that i know are of public interest. For example, i am unable to address questions about the opening of the fbis russia investigation which occurred months before my appointment. Or matters related to the socalled steele dossier. These matters are the subject of ongoing review by the department. Any questions on these topics should, therefore, be directed to the fbi or the Justice Department. Third as i explained this morning, it is important for me to adhere to what we wrote in our report. The report contains our findings and analysis and the reasons for the decisions we made. We stated the results of our investigation with precision. I do not intend to summarize or describe the results of our work in a different way in the course of my testimony today. As i stated in may, i also will not comment on the actions of the attorney general or of congress. I was appointed as a prosecutor, and i intend to adhere to that role and to the Department Standards that govern. Finally as i said this morning, over the course of my career i have seen a number of challenges to our democracy. The russian governments efforts to interfere in our election is among the most serious. I am sure the committee agrees. Now, before we go to questions, i want to add a correction to my testimony this morning. I want to go back to one thing that was said this morning by mr. Lou who said, and i quote, you didnt charge the president because of the olc opinion. That is not the correct way to say it. As we say in the report and as i said at the opening, we did not reach a determination as to whether the president committed a crime. And with that, mr. Chairman, im ready to answer questions. Thank you, director mueller. I recognize myself for five minutes. Director mueller your report describes a sweeping effort by russia to influence our president ial election. Is that correct . Thats correct. And during the course of this russian interference in the election, the russians made outreach to the