Schiff Accuses Justice Department of Trying to Restrain Mueller
Schiff Accuses Justice Department of Trying to Restrain Mueller
(Bloomberg) -- On the eve of Robert Mueller’s appearance before two House committees, the chairman of one of the panels accused the Justice Department of attempting to “circumscribe” Mueller’s testimony.
Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, in a letter to the former special counsel on Tuesday night, attacked the department for telling Mueller in a letter that he shouldn’t discuss ongoing cases or uncharged individuals and that some details of his work might be covered by executive privilege.
“The DOJ letter attempts unduly to circumscribe your testimony and represents yet another attempt by the Trump administration to obstruct the authorized oversight activity and legitimate investigations of the committee,” Schiff, a California Democrat, wrote in his letter.
The Justice Department letter had been a response to a request by Mueller for the department’s guidance on his appearance at the hearings before the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees scheduled for Wednesday.
Department policy “precludes any comment on the facts developed and legal conclusions by the Special Counsel’s Office with respect to uncharged individuals, other than information contained within the portions of your report that have already been made public,” Bradley Weinsheimer, an associate deputy attorney general, wrote to Mueller on Monday.
While Mueller has already indicated publicly that he has no intention of going beyond what’s in his 448-page report, the guidance may disappoint Democrats who want him to offer more details about multiple instances where he investigated Trump for possible obstruction of justice.
But House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler said in a CNN interview Tuesday that Mueller was no longer a Justice Department employee and the letter restricting his testimony “asks things that are beyond the power of the agency to ask even if he still worked for them.”
“I think it’s incredibly arrogant of the department to try to instruct him as to what to say,” Nadler said. “It’s part of the ongoing coverup by the administration to keep information away from the American people.”
At the hearings on Mueller’s investigation into President Donald Trump and the 2016 election, his former chief of staff will sit next to him and act as his counsel, according to a House Judiciary official.
Aaron Zebley served as Mueller’s chief of staff when he was FBI director and later followed him into private practice and the Trump probe.
House Republicans complained about the last-minute change to the hearing lineup, criticizing reports that Democrats wanted Zebley to be sworn in alongside Mueller as a witness. The House official stressed that Zebley will be serving as Mueller’s counsel.
Mueller is set to testify Wednesday for three hours before the Judiciary Committee beginning at 8:30 a.m. Washington time and for two hours starting at noon before the Intelligence Committee.
Lowering Expectations
Schiff sought to lower expectations that Mueller’s testimony will make a big difference in public opinion on Trump and the Russia probe because “people are pretty dug in” already.
He said in an appearance at the Center for American Progress on Tuesday that he hoped Wednesday’s hearings bring a better public understanding of Russia’s election interference “and the gravity of what the Trump campaign did, and what our president did -- how unethical it was, how unpatriotic it was.”
Opening Remarks
Mueller plans to deliver an opening statement on Wednesday, but the prepared remarks haven’t been vetted by the Justice Department, according to Jim Popkin, a spokesman for Mueller.
“No, they have not -- and will not,” Popkin said.
Trump said Monday that he won’t bother to watch Mueller’s testimony but then confessed he probably can’t resist sneaking a peek.
“I’m not going to be watching,” Trump told reporters Monday at the White House before adding, “Probably, maybe I’ll see a little bit of it.”
Mueller said he didn’t find enough evidence to prove that those around Trump conspired in Russia’s interference in the 2020 election and that he couldn’t exonerate the president on whether he sought to obstruct justice by impeding the probe.
Nadler said on Tuesday that he didn’t believe the Justice Department letter will be much of an impediment to Mueller’s testimony. “We’ve been operating under the assumption” that Mueller will “stay more or less within the bounds of the report.”
--With assistance from Josh Wingrove and Kathleen Miller.
To contact the reporters on this story: Billy House in Washington at bhouse5@bloomberg.net;Chris Strohm in Washington at cstrohm1@bloomberg.net;Terrence Dopp in Washington at tdopp@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kevin Whitelaw at kwhitelaw@bloomberg.net, Justin Blum
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