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Mueller Testimony Before Congress ‘Inevitable,’ Schiff Says

Mueller Testimony Before Congress ‘Inevitable,’ Schiff Says

(Bloomberg) -- House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said he sees it as a foregone conclusion that Special Counsel Robert Mueller will face questioning by Congress following the release of his report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

“I think it’s inevitable that Bob Mueller is going to have to testify before Congress,” Schiff said Wednesday on MSNBC. The committee has “a statutory requirement that the Intelligence Community, FBI, brief us on any significant counterintelligence or intelligence activity. And it’s hard to imagine something that rises more to that level than this investigation.”

Schiff’s comments came hours before a scheduled vote in the House Judiciary Committee to authorize a subpoena to obtain Mueller’s full report on his investigation into Russian meddling into the election and whether now-President Donald Trump’s campaign had any involvement.

Mueller Testimony Before Congress ‘Inevitable,’ Schiff Says

Attorney General William Barr released a summary of that report last month that said Mueller didn’t establish that Trump or anyone associated with his campaign conspired or coordinated with Russia.

However, Mueller didn’t exonerate Trump on the question of whether he obstructed the investigation, according to Barr’s summary. Rather, Mueller said the report provided evidence “on both sides of the question.”

Nonetheless, Barr said that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein reached their own conclusion that there wasn’t sufficient evidence to establish that Trump committed a crime.

Schiff said that -- along with his panel, others including Judiciary and Oversight and Reform would have an interest in a Mueller appearance.

To contact the reporter on this story: Terrence Dopp in Washington at tdopp@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kasia Klimasinska at kklimasinska@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Wasserman, Kathleen Hunter

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