Thank you, mr. Chairman. Welcome, everyone, to the last gasp of the russia collusion Conspiracy Theory. As democrats continue to voice this expect tackle on the American People as well as you, mr. Mueller, the American People may recall the media first began spreading this Conspiracy Theory in the spring of 2016 when fusion gps, funded by the dnc and the Hillary Clinton campaign started developing the Steele Dossier, a question of outlandish accusations that trump and his associates were russian agents. Fusion gps, steele and other confederates fed these theorys to naive reporters and top officials in numerous government agencies, including the fbi, Department Of Justice and the State Department. Among other things, the fbi used Dossier Allegations to obtain a
warranty to spy on the Trump Campaign. Despite acknowledging Dossier Allegations as being salacious and unverified, former fbi director james comey briefed those 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 was fired, by his own admission, he leaked derogatory information to the press 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 abuses. Top official bruce orr, who his own wife worked on fusion gpss antitrump operation, fed steeles information to the fbi, even after the fbi fired steele. 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 opened, based not on intelligence but on a tip from a foreign politician about a conversation involving a maltese diplomat widely portrayed as a russian agent but seems to have far more connections with western governments, including our own fbi and our own State Department than with russia. Braisingly ignoring all these
red flags, as well as the transparent absurdity of the claims theyre making, democrats have argued for nearly three years that evidence of collusion is hidden just around the corner. Like the lochness monster, they insist its there, even if no one can find it. Consider this. In march 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 we would 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 that 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 Cloouded with russian sources to develop the Steele Dossier, russian lawyer gnat ala Veselnitskaya Cloouded with glenn simpson. Through interviews and 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. Mueller recite passages from his own report. This is political theater, hail mary attempt to convince the American People that collusion is real and that its 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 Russian 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 deserve 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 descending order members of the majority and minority. As each member is asked his or her questions, the Ranking Member will be afforded an additional five minutes, followed by the chair, who will an additional five minutes for questions. Ranking member and the chair will not be permitted to delegate or yield our final round of questions to any other member. After six members of the majority and six members of the minority have concluded their fiveminute rounds of questions, well take a five or tenminute break. We understand youve requested before resuming the hearing with congressman swalwell, starting his round of questions. Special counsel mueller is accompanied today by aaron zebley, who served as deputy Special Counsel from may 2017 until may 2019 and had
daytoday oversight of the investigation. Mr. Zebley resigned 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. Mr. Mueller and mr. Zebleys appearance is in keeping with the committees longstanding 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 that the testimony youre about to give at this hearing is the whole truth and nothing but the
truth . Thank you. The record will reflect that the witnesses have been duly sworn. Ranking member . Thank you, mr. Chair. I just want to clarify that this is highly unusual for mr. Zebley to be sworn in. Were here to ask Director Mueller questions. He is 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 Hillary Clinton campaign aide. I just want to voice that concern that we do have and wont be addressing any questions to mr. Zebley today. I thank the Ranking Member. I realize as probably do mr. Zebley that there is an angry man down the street who is not happy about your being here tod 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, you are recognized for any opening remarks you would like to make. Good afternoon, chairman schiff, Ranking Member nunes and members of the committee. I testified before the House Judiciary Committee this morning and asked that that Opening Statement be incorporated into the record here. Without objection. Unique jurisdiction and you are interested in further understanding the Counterintelligence Implications of our investigation. Let me say a word about how we handled the potential impact of our investigation on Counter Intelligence matters. As we explained in our report, Special Counsel regulations effectively gave me the role ofUnited 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 on to the fbi. Members of our office periodically briefed 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 Counter Intelligence 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 affect ongoing matters, limiting 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 affect an ongoing matter. Second, the Justice Department has asserted privileges regarding information, decisions, on did ls going 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, 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. Flienl as i said this morning over the course of my career, ive 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 that the committee agrees. Now before we go to questions i want to go back to one thing that was said this morning by mr. Lieu 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. 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 and systematic effort by russia to influence our president ial election. Is that correct . That is correct. And during the course of this russian interference in the election, the russians made outreach to the Trump Campaign, did they not . That occurred over the course of yeah, that occurred. Its also clear from your report that during that russian outreach to the Trump Campaign, no one associated with the Trump Campaign ever called the fbi to report it, am i right . I dont know that for sure. In fact, the Campaign Welcomed the russian help, did
they not . I think we report in our Report Indications that that occurred, yes. The president s son said when he was approached on dirt about Hillary Clinton, the Trump Campaign would love it . Thats generally what was said, yes. The president himself called on the russians to hack hillarys emails . Theres a statement by the president in those general line lines. Numerous times during the campaign, the president praised the releases of the russianhacked emails through wikileaks . That did occur. Your report found that the Trump Campaign planned, quote, a press strategy, Communications Campaign and messaging, unquote, based on that russian assistance. I am not familiar with that. That language comes from volume i, page 54. Apart from the russians wanting to help trump win, several individuals associated with the Trump Campaign were also trying to make money during the campaign and transition, is that
correct . That is true. Paul manafort was trying to make money or achieve Debt Forgiveness from a Russian Oligarch . Generally that is accurate. Michael flynn was trying to make money from turkey . True. Donald trump was trying to make millions from a real estate deal in moscow . To the extent youre talking about the hotel in moscow . Yes. Yes. When your investigation looked into these matters, numerous individuals lied . Number of persons we interviewed in the investigation, it turns out, did lie. Mike flynn lied . He was convicted of lying, yes. George papadopoulos was convict fd lying . True. Paul manafort was convicted of lying . True. In fact, went so far as to encourage other people to lie . That is accurate. Deputy rick gates lied . That is accurate. Michael cohen, the president s lawyer, was indicted
for lying. True. He lied to stay on message with the president . Allegedly, by him. When donald trump called your investigation a witch hunt, that is also false, is it not . I like to think so, yes. Your investigation is not a witch hunt, is it . It is not a witch hunt. When the president said the russian interference was a hoax, that was false, wasnt it . True. When he said it publicly, it was false. He did say it publicly that it was false, yes. When he told it to putin, that was false, too, wasnt it . That, im not familiar with. When the president said he had no Business Dealings with russia, that was false, wasnt it . Im not going to go into the details of the report along those lines. When the president said he had no Business Dealings with russia, in fact, he was seeking to build a trump tower in moscow, was he not . I think there is some question about when this was accomplished. You would consider a billion
dollar deal to build a tower in moscow to be Business Dealings. Wouldnt you, mr. Mueller . Absolutely. In short your investigation found evidence that russia wanted to help trump win the election, right . Generally, i think that would be accurate. Russia informed Campaign Officials of that . Im not certain to what conversations youre referring to. Intermediary informed papadopoulos that they could help in stolen emails . Accurate. Committed crimes in order to help donald trump