Mueller will testify under oatht for at lea five hours day. President trump repeatedly called the Mueller Investigation a witch hunt. Today Robert Mueller, the lifelong republican and now a private citizen wil have his say and the consequences could be enormous. Well be followinghis all throughout the day and standing by to help us is our team correspondents and analysts. I am going to start out with kasie hunt on the hill for us. A hisric day, t years in the making savannah. Well see Robert Mueller in a few short mutes here sit down with the House Judiciary Committee thats going to begin at 8 30. Thats the larger of the two committees. There are 41 members on theig intellce committee. Each one is going to get about five minutes to speak. This is going to focus on alged obstruction, volume two of the Mueller Report. You will see all of those instances laid out and the report during the course of the hearing then well have a little bit of a break and the intelligence will take over. There is only 22 members and theyll get five minutes. Thats when you wil hear about the russian collusion conspiracy questions that are laid out in the first volume of the Mueller Report. Toats what they are tasked to dig in. Thats going to take us about 5 hours of total testimony here. The person thats sitting with him, we had last minute developments, Robert Muellers number two in the t course ofs investigation. Hes a former Deputy Council to Robert Mueller. In the judiciary hearing hell act as muellers lawyer. Hes counsel and hes going to sit next to mueller. Hes not going to be sworn in for that hearing. The Intelligence Committee will be a sworn witness. This is something that has concerns some democrats. Presidt trump tweeting this morning about Robert Mueller being able to get help from one of his lawyers. Again, savannah, the political question at stakes could not be higher here. This is really a critical test for democrats who are looking to imach this president , this may be their final moment to lay out for the American Public why this is something that should be on the table. Savannah. That testimony is expected to get underway in about 12 minutes from now. We expect mr. Mueller to refer a lot of this report. This is the version of it, various form of media. The whole thing i a best seller. A lot of folks have not read it. 448pa s. 951 blacked out redactions. Volume two covers ten instances of possibleon obstructif justice by President Trump including ordering the fire of mueller himself. Pete williams will be with us r all of todays testimony. The mueller invesltgation resu in seven convictions including five men who worked for trump on the campaign or the white house. Among them, Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen, former trumps lawyer and Michael Flynn, National Security adviser and roger stonen goes o trial in november and two groups of russians were charged with meddling in they campaign b stealing and publicizing democratic emails and planning phony social media. The report says this, russia perceived it would benefit from the trump presidency. The investigation did not establish that members of the campaign conspire or coordinated with the russians. As for the president ms hif, the report sites 10 possible acts of on obstructions. The couil team never got the point deciding whether any of that amounts to a crime because a long standin president ld not be indicted. Cou miler said though if the teamnf had coence that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justiceth report would said so. Thank you, pete. T halie jackson, the president may tune in himself. He left it open to interpretations. If you are a m betting or woman, i think you will be confident of is engeof thadetnts psi happerenim where we are right now. Hes up and tweeting about all of this this morning. It is the greatest hit of his talking point, no collusion and no collusion or obstruction. With aaron zebley will beear with Robert Mueller for both of the hearing toda here is what we understand what the preslient is fee right now,si the prent is capaciirrit and Robert Mueller is the dominating headline into the Trump Administration. T we ared the president is not overly furious as we have seen him inast instances when mueller is front and centered. Folks are feeling battered heard. They have been here before and kind of here we go again at attitu attitude. But if you have seen from the public, the president is frustrated by muellers team. He had nothing on his public schedule which morning which is in ndication hell bethu tuned on everything going down. Well get a chance to see the president in person andk potentially him some questions here at the white house before he heads to a fundraiser in West Virginia lester and savannah. We are under eight minutes away from the schedule starting. Here is our chuck todd and Andrea Mitchell and our analyst, former acting general of the obama administration, he wrote a New York Times oped identifying of what he calls the three questions that robert needs to answer. What may we expect to hear a lot about, let me turn to paragraphs a, b and c, what questions may be played through . Thisti investi is enormouslyca techni the questions that have to come 442, h are not page subparagraph a, number 2 but rather the simple one. When the Mueller Report was given to the attorney general, trump said this found no obstruction and no collusion and totally exonerates the president. The first three questions would have to be mr. Mueller, you wrote this rert, did you find this report, did you find no obstruction or no collusion . Did you totally exonerate the president. As Pete Williams just said the actual report said simply the opposite. If he could exonerated the president , weul wo the testimony is not happening in a vacuum, it is happening on capitol hill. It is happening among democts who are themselves divided over whether or not impeachments proceedingould be started against the president. Nancy the pressure of pelosi facing right now . This feels like in some way the Mueller Report, it was out and now we are going to hear it verbalized and theyll put it over the package and focus on the president s campaign. There is a part of me wonders is that what today will feel like. I think thats the challenge because i think today underscores just how much the House Democrats have struggled to do accountability on this white house. A lot of this is because the white house is stone walled and prevented and blos subpoenas or not yabided b them. They have not hadt any sor of big moment where they feel oh, this is why democrats are inng charge of coress and this is the accountability you promise to bring. This is their biggest moment yet presenting accountability on this president. If they dont deliver, it could become a political divide. Is this an opportunity for democrats to regain the narrative. If you think back four months ago, william barr, put uphat brief summary on a saturday evening and th tone has not anged of what he said in that brief summary. Actually william barr in that mome e isctly right. He created the narrative and donald trump through social dia through his media feed ran this, witch hunt, all of the rest of this. This may well be democrats last chce. Theyre not like yet on again and the delays and altercation and l the impediments including this last minute letter to Robert Mueller, guard rails that no one thinks it is required. He may well feel he has to abide by it and being someone who is so much a man of the system of the institutions. And so they have obstructed in every possible way not criminally obstructed but just in terms of stopping the white hous and stopping the House Democrats from making their case. If theyre ever going to make their case politically or legally towards article impeachments, it is today. One of the reasons we are here because people have not read the muellerreport. Theyre trying to figure out how doe you get peopl consume this Mueller Report . The current fbi director admitted he did not read the report. One of the greatest travesty of washington is the lack of urgency of this report. Yesterday of chris wray, that was the moment. If the fbi director have not read the full report. The first 30 or 40 pages ine here be we get to the political de are about the depths of the russian efforts undermining the elections. It is readable. It is not hard to read. It reads like a spine novel. It is where Robert Mueller in nine minutes started and ended his verbal, he never took questions. It is not so much of the struction which is hard to prove intent. You are a lawyer and you know better than i as a career prosecutor how hard that case may be. The fact the matter of the russian interference is clear. There is nome cri of collusion as we know so the president misdirected that by saying no collusion and completely exonerated. Did you prove no collusion in your report . He could say we never addressed coll as you well know there is a differenceetween what a prosecutor is looking to indict may have to esbeblish proof nd reasonable doubt. I did not entertain thaes qution because i am not allowed to indict a sitting president. The political question before this committee is whether the conduct that Robert Mueller is going to testify to is a etlitical problem. It is somng that may warrant impeachment which is a separate issue than whether it is truth beyond ana reasoble doubt in the courtroom. Absolutely. Do you want this person sittier the Mueller Report found while they could not find the criminal standards for conspiracy which is beyond a reasonable doubt. It never said there was no attempts to conspire or anything like that. On a lower level of prism. Thats whats so frustrating. The lack of urgency around this and the fact that democrats saw this as as political problem as opposed to a kind of rule of law or governance problem. If you ask ourself, would you accepted a ceo of any Public Company that does anything likes th i got 30 seconds. Nancy pelosi who is a shrewd politician is looking at Public Opinion polls. People do not support impeachment proceedings and thats what shes looking at. This is short term longterm. I think it is the iraq war vote for democrats and the moment you think politics look one way and the five yea politics could be a 180. Thats what i think democrats are not thinking enough about. We are looking athis hearing room in washington, d. C. In a few moment well start fiver hrs of testimony from Robert Mueller, former fbi director. Hell take the witness stand in just a few. I want toause and let some other stations join us. Good morning, 8 30 on the eastern time zone, as we come on the air, you are seeing in the hearing room in washington, d. C. Where Robert Mueller will be sworn into testimony before the ouse commission and judiciary committee. I am joining with lester holt and our chrman, jerry nadler. Hes sitting down and getting ready to start this oaring. Fair t say a reluctant witness this morning. He is. Emat leads to a bigger challenge for drats in particular. They want him to narrate the story. Narrate, give us the audio version of your book and tell us a story and dont bore us. Is it the story or the sound oote they are looking for . I think theyng for him to help confirm the itory. Will be different ways that goes. There is mueller. Hes not the most dynamic story. We have not heard a lot of his voice. He came out several weeks ago and gave a brief statement that ame report speaks for itself. His voice is not fiar to a lot of americans. Well hear several hours of it neil, on this issue hes being forced to testify here today. He came out when he made his nineminute statement, please dont call me. My report is myim testy, you are barking up the wrong tree. Hes going to sit down and answer the questions before him. Hes not reachin out to make this good for democrats or republicans. Mueller t saidhe entire time has been not in the public eye, hes been in the public eye a couple of times to correct t record. On the date of the trump tower meeting perhaps we have a protesher inside troom. O question wants him early. That happens on this type ofl profg hearing on capitol hill. There is always an outburst. They have not belnled in. I have to say the chief defendant sit ting i the front row. Jim jordan is on judiciary. Hes a defender and a frequent fox news. Freedom caucus the house ofo republicans are dead set against mit. R. Mueller is not taking his seat yet but hell be i sworn here shortly. Hell give an opening remark. Judiciary committee willome to order. We welcome everyone to todays hearing on oversight of the report on thvestigation into russia interference of the 2016 president ial election. Will now recognize myself for a brief Opening Statement. Director mueller, thank you for being here. I want to say just a few words about our themes today, responsibility, integrity and accountability. Your career is a model of responsibility. You are a decorated marine officer. You awarded the purple heart and ithe bronze star vietnam. You served the senior role at the department of justice and the immediate after math of ner 9 11, you served as director of the fbi. Two years ago you returned to publicervice to lead the investigation into russia interference of the 2016 elections. You conducted that investigation with remarkable integrity. For 22 months, you never commted in public about your work even y when were subjected and grossly, unfair attacks. Your indictment spoke for you in astonishing details. Over the course of your investation, you obtained criminal indictments against 37 people. Youed secur his department Campaign Manager and his personal lawyer and adviser among others. In the Paul Manaforts case. You recovered as much as 42 million. Taxpayers approaches zero. And in yourreport, accountability as well. In volume one, you find that the russian government attacked our 2016 elections quote, in a sweeping and systematic fashion, the attack is designed to benefit the Trump Campaign. Volume two, wk us through ten incidents of possible obstruction. President attempted to exert undo influence over your investigation. The president s behavior included, public attacks on the investigation and non efforts to control it and efforts in both public and private to encourage witnesses not cooperate. Among the most shocking of thesi innts, President Trump ordered his White House Council to have you firednd a happen. T he ordered his formeampaign manager to convince to recuse attorney general to step attemp witnesses from cooperating with your investigation. Gh the depary barred you from indicting the president from this conduct. You made clear that hes n. Exonerated any other person who acted in this way would have been charged with crimes. In this natn and 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 will be measured as well. Director mueller, we have a responsibility to aresshe evidence that you have uncovered. You recognize as much when you say quote the constitution requires the process other than the criminal Justice System tor foly accuse a sitting president of wrong doing, that process begins with thek w of this committee. Well follow your example director mueller, well act with tegrity. Well follow the facts with a lead. Well consider all of appropriate remedies well make our recommendations to the house when our work c conclud concludes. Well do this work because there must be accountability of the ennduct describing your reportp pees athank you director mueller, w lo forward to your testimony. It is now my pleasure to recognize the Ranking Member, mr. Collins for his Opening Statement. Thank youmar. Chair andthank here. For two years leading up to the ueller report and the three told what to expect and what to lubelieve. Coon we are told was in plain sight even when the special counsel did notd fin it. General barr provided to every american, we read no american conspired interference. We are here s to askerious questions about mr. Muellers work and well do that. Today marks the end of mr. Muellers investigation that closed in april. The burden of proof remains ely trhighem. We are told this investigation began as an inquiry whether russia meddle into our 2016s. Election mr. Muller, uconn colludedddi t mr. Mueller concluded he did not. His family or advisers did not. The report concludes no one in the president s campaign colluded or collaborated or conspire with the president. The president asses his guilt ile he knew the extent of his pr idency. The president s attitude towards the investigation was negative. The prident didot use authority to close the investigation. He asked his lawyer and 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. Ia ru meddle into the 26 elections. Nothing we hear today will change those facts. One element of the story remains, the beginningf the fbi investigation. I look forward to mr. Muellers testimony of what he found during his review and in addition