Testifying on capitol hill about the Russian Investigation into the published report released by his office. The house judiciary hearing was the first of two hearings that focus on the reports findings relating to the Trump Administration and allegations of obstruction of justice. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] the Judiciary Committee will come to order. Without objection the chair is authorized to declare recess at any time. We welcome everyone to todays hearing on oversight of the report and the investigation into the russian interference in the 2016 president ial election. I will now recognize myself for a brief Opening Statement. Thank you for being here. I want to say just a few words about the themes today. Responsible for the coming integrity and accountability. Your career for example is a model of responsibility. You are a decorated marine officer. Awarded a purple heart and bronze star for valor. He usurped in the department of justice and immediate aftermath of 9 11 is the director of the fbi. Two years ago you returned to Public Service to lead the investigation into russian interference for the 2016 elections. You conducted the investigation was remarkable integrity. For 22 months, you never commented in public about your work even when you were subjected to repeated and grossly unfair personal attacks. Instead of having your indictments spoke for you and an astonishing detail. Over the course of your investigation, youve obtained criminal indictments against 37 people identities. Youve secured the conviction of president Trumps Campaign chairman, the Deputy Campaign manager, the National Security adviser in his personal lawyer among others. In the poll manafort case alone you recovered as much as with the 2 million through the course of the investigation to the taxpayers pushing zero. And in the report, you offered the country accountability as well. In volume one you find the russian government attacks our 2016 elections in a sweeping and a systematic fashion and that they were designed to benefit the campaign. Volume two through the separate incidences of obstruction of justice where in your words President Trump attempted to exert influence over your investigation. The president s behavior included, as i quote from your report, public attacks on the investigation, no public efforts to control it and efforts in both public and private to encourage witnesses not to cooperate. Among the most shocking of these incidences, President Trump ordered his counsel to have you fired and then to lie and deny that it happened. You ordered the former Campaign Manager to convince the attorney general to step in and limit your work and attempted to prevent witnesses from cooperating with your investigation. Although the Department Policy you made clear that he is not exonerated. Any other person that acted in this way would have been charged with crimes. And in this nation not even the president is above the law which brings me to this committees work, responsibility, integrity and accountability. These are the marks by which we serve on this committee and will be measured as well. We have the response ability to address the evidence youve uncovered and we recognize as much when you said the constitution requires the process other than the criminal Justice System to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing. That begins with the work of this committee. We will do this work because there must be accountability for the conduct described in your report especially as it relates to the president. Thank you again and we look forward to your testimony. It is now my pleasure to welcome the gentleman from georgia mr. Collins for his Opening Statement. Thank you mr. Chairman. For two years leading up to the release of the report and three months since americans were first told what to expect and then what to believe. It was in plain sight even if the special counsel didnt find it. When its provided no one was conspired with learning the depth of the malice towards america we are here to ask serious questions about the work, and we will do that after an extended investigation marking the end of the involvement in the investigation to close in april. The burden of proof for the accusations are extremely high and especially of the special counsels service. We are told this began as an inquiry into whether russia meddled in our election. You concluded that they did. They tricked campaign financiers and releasing information and also reviewed if the president sought assistance from the candidacy. He concluded that he did not. In fact the report concludes no one collaborate or conspired with the russians. The president watched the investigation of this in his guilt while he knew the extent of his innocence. Volume two, the report details the president s reaction to the frustrating investigations business and was established early on. The president s attitude towards the investigation was understandably negative, yet the president abused his authority to close the investigation. He asked his lawyer to disqualify mr. Mueller from the job, but he did not shut down the investigation. The president knew he was innocent. Those are the facts of the mueller report. Russia meddled in the election, the president did not conspire, and nothing that we here today will change those facts. One element of the story remains. At the beginning of the fbi investigation into president. I look forward to the testimony about what he found during his review of the origins of the investigation and in addition, the Inspector General continues to review how the baseless gossip can be used to launch an fbi investigation against a citizen. Individually, a president. Those results will be released coming and we need to learn from them to ensure that government intelligence and Law Enforcement power is never used again and turn on a private citizen or a potential candidate as a result of the leanings of a handful of fbi agents. The origins and conclusions of the investigation are the same, what it means to be american. Every american has a voice in the democracy we must protect the sanctity of their voice by combating the election interference. Every american enjoys the presumption of innocence, and guaranteeing the due process. If we carry nothing of anything away today, it must be that we increase our vigilance against before an election interference while we ensure they do not organize their power against the Constitutional Rights guaranteed to every u. S. Citizen. On a bipartisan basis with many of my friends sitting on the dais with me today. However this year because of the majority of the dislike of this president and his investigation causes us to accomplish nothing except talking about the problems of the country but the border is on fire and Everything Else has stopped for go this hearing is long overdue for go we need to let the truth bring us confidence and i hope mister chairman this brings closure and i yelled back. I will now introduce todays witness. Robert mueller served as the director of the fbi from 2001 to 2013 most recently served as special Counsel Department of justice overseeing of russian involvement in the investigation of elections. Is 80 from the university of virginia serving as deputy special counsel on the investigation we welcome our distinguished witness thank you for participating in todays hearing. So please rise i will spare you in. Major right hand. Do you swear and affirm under penalty of perjury the testimony will give is the best to your beliefs so help you god . The witness answer the affirmative and please be seated. Please note your written statement will be entered into the record in its entirety please summarize your testimony for five minutes you may begin. Good morning chairman nadler. Ranking member collins and the members of the committee. As you know may 2017 the attorney general asked me to serve as special counsel i undertook that role because i believed it was apparent tantamount interest to the nation to see if there is an adversary interfering in the president ial election. As the acting attorney general said at the time the appointment was necessary in order for the American People to the full confidence in the outcome. My staff and i carry out this assignment with that critical objective in mind with integrity so that the public would have full confidence in the outcome. The order above appointing me to investigate russian interference in the 2016 president ial election. This included investigating any links or coordination between the russian government and individuals associated it also included investigating efforts if they would appear to obstruct the investigation. Throughout the investigation i continually address the teams we had assembled. First we needed to do our work as thoroughly as possible and expeditiously as possible. Within the Public Interest for our investigation to complete and not last one day longer than necessary. Second, the investigation needed to be conducted securely and with absolute integrity. Our team would not leak or take other actions to compromise the integrity of the workforce. All work was based on facts and the law. During the course of our investigation we charge more than 30 defendants with federal crimes including 12 officers of the russian military. Seven defendants convicted or pled guilty. With those charges that we brought some are pending today the indictments contain allegations and they are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. In addition to the criminal charges we brought come as required by the Justice Department regulations, we submitted a confidential report to the attorney general at the conclusion of our investigation. The results of our work and the reasons for charging and declaration of decisions. The attorney general later made the report largely public. As you know i made a few limited remarks about the report with a special counsels office may of this year and they bear emphasis and first the investigation found the russian government interfered in our election in a systematic fashion. And second investigation did not establish members of the Trump Campaign conspired with the russian government and the election interference activities. If you want to address collusion which is not a legal term focusing on whether the evidence was sufficient to charge anyone on the campaign to take part in a criminal conspiracy and it has not. Third, the investigation of efforts to obstruct the investigation and life investigation investigators was critical. Obstruction of justice strikes at the core of the governments effort to find the truth and hold others accountable. Finally it was described in volume two of our report we investigated a series of actions by the president toward the investigation. Based on justice Department Policy and principles of fairness, we decided we would not make a determination whether to the president committed a crime. That was our decision and it remains our decision today. Let me say a further word about my appearance today. It is unusual for a prosecutor to testify about a criminal investigation. Given my role as a prosecutor there are reasons why my testimony will necessarily be limited. First, public testimony has several ongoing matters. Some of these matters are judicial orders of limited 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 to affect the ongoing matter. With those deliberations at the office and these are those that i respect the Department Head discuss the restrictions on my testimony. And therefore cannot answer questions about certain areas that i know are of Public Interest. For example i am unable to address questions of the initial opening of the fbi russia investigation which what took place months before my appointment or matters related to the dossier these are subject of review by the department any questions on these topics should be directed to the fbi or Justice Department. As i explained when we close the special counsels office today with findings and analysis through those decisions that we made to conduct an extensive investigation for two years and then to scrutinize it we do not intend to summarize the results and as a set on may 29 the report is my testimony and i will stick with that. As stated in may will not commit the actions of the attorney general or of congress to be appointed as a prosecutor and i intend to adhere to that role into the department standards. Am joined today by the chip deputy special counsel who has extensive experience as a prosecutor and the fbi where he served as my chief of staff. He was responsible for the daytoday oversight of the investigation conducted by our office. I also want to again say thank you to the attorneys and fbi agents and analysts and professional staff who helped us conduct this investigation in a fair and independent manner. Individuals to spend two years working on this matter with the highest integrity. Let me say one more thing. Over the course of my career i have seen a number of challenges in our democracy. With the effort to interfere in our election is among the most serious. And as i said on may 29, this deserves the attention of every american. Thank you mister chairman. Thank you know we will proceed under the five minute rule with questions i begin by recognizing myself for five minutes. Mister mueller, the president has repeatedly claimed your report found there was no obstruction that is completely and totally exonerating him. That is not what your report said is it. Correct it is not. On page two of your report you wrote if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice we would so state based on the facts and the Legal Standards however we are unable to reach that judgment. Does that say there was no obstruction quick. Know. You were unable to conclude the president did not commit obstruction of justice. No. At the outset we had determined that when it came to the president s culpability we needed to go forward only after taking into account the opinions that a seated president cannot be indicted. What about total exoneration cracks did you totally exonerate the president quick. No. So in fact you did not exonerate the president. The investigation actually found multiple acts by the president capable of exerting undue influence over Law Enforcement investigations including russian interference. Is that correct. Correct. So now can you explain what that finding means so the American People can understand it quick. The finding indicates that the president was not exculpated for the axial edge of the committed. In fact you were talking about the incidents in which the president sought to use outside of usual channels to exert undue influence. Is that right quick. Correct. In my correct on page 70 wrote the president became aware they were investigated in the obstruction of justice inquiry. At that point he engaged in the second page of condit nonpublic efforts to control efforts in public and private to encourage witnesses not to cooperate with the investigation. So President Trump exerts undue influence on your investigation and testified after he became aware after he personally was investigated. I stick with the language in front of you. From page seven volume two. Is it correct that if the president committed the crime of obstruction you could not publicly state that . Repeat the question. If it is correct that you had concluded the president committed the crime of obstruction you could not publicly state that. The statement that you would not indict under the oc opinion a sitting president cannot be indicted. Under department of Justice Policy the president could be prosecuted for obstruction of justice after he leaves office. Correct sue mckenneys senior white house official refused to be interviewed. I dont believe so. Let me take that back perk i would have to look but i am not certain that is the case directed the president refuse quick. Yes civic is it true you tried for more than a year to secure an interview with the president. Yes. That you advise the team it is vital to the investigation . Yes. Is it true you also stated it is in the interest of the presidency and the public for an interview to take place quick. Yes. That he still refused to sit for an interview by your team . True. Did you ask him to provide written answers under those obstruction of justice claim. Yes. Did he provide any answers to a single question if he engaged in obstruction of justice. I have to check on that i am not certain. We are grateful youre here and having reviewed your work that that conduct would be prosecuted and to the American People in this committee because nobody is above the law. I now recognize the gentleman from georgia. I know many of questions which you just answered so i will go through these fairly quickly and i know that i talk fast. You said any testimony from your office does not go beyond the report so you said the word speaks for itself i would not provide information beyond that before congress do stand by that statement. Yes. In may 2019 did you conduct any Additional Information in your role as special counsel quick. In the wake of the report quick. Since the closing of the office. Did you do any new interviews or appointments quick. You can confirm your no longer special counsel. Correct. At any time under investigation was it curtailed or stopped quick. No. You wont provide any questions by anybody here today quick. No. Investigative team with the numbers are those accurate quick. 40 fbi agents 19 lawyers and forensic accountants. Generally yes. Is it also true y