Intel Chair Adam Schiff Tells Mueller To Ignore DOJ Guidance on His Testimony
Former special counsel Robert Mueller will once again be in the spotlight with appearances Wednesday before two House committees, but House Democrats on Tuesday were already doing their best to spin his testimony even before it started.
In a letter to Mueller, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff urged him to disregard Justice Department advice and Mueller’s own previous statement about testifying before Congress, according to The Hill.
And the goal of slamming President Donald Trump is clear.
The Department of Justice had advised Mueller in a letter Monday that he should keep his testimony limited to the contents of the 448-page report on the “Russia collusion” investigation released in April, according to Fox News.
On Tuesday, Schiff told Mueller that advice was out of bounds.
“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 wrote in the letter, which was provided to The Hill by an aide.
“The Committee categorically rejects the Department’s overly expansive and baseless ‘prophylactic’ assertion of executive privilege in all its various forms. Accordingly, I fully expect that the DOJ Letter will have no bearing on your testimony before the Committee tomorrow.,”
“While I understand that it is your intention to focus on the public version of your report, the Department’s attempt to restrict your testimony finds no support in law, regulation, or Department policy,” Schiff wrote.
House Intel Committee Chair @RepAdamSchiff, tonight in a just-released letter to Robert Mueller, rebuts DOJ’s attempts to muzzle testimony, offering this whammer:
“…the Department’s attempt to restrict your testimony finds no support in law, regulation, or Department policy.” pic.twitter.com/NEyc2RZ1MD
— Rob Bennett (@rob_bennett) July 24, 2019
There are two problems with Schiff’s letter.
The first is that it makes only a passing reference to – and virtually dismisses — what Mueller himself said in his public statement on the closure of the problem.
In a public appearance at the Justice Department in late May, Mueller vowed to keep any public testimony he gave limited to what the report his investigation had submitted.
The second is that, according to Attorney General William Barr, it was Mueller himself who requested the Justice Department’s input in how far his testimony should go.
In a Fox News interview on Tuesday
“At his press conference, Bob had said that he intended to stick with the public report and not go beyond that,” Barr said.
“And in conversations with the department, his staff was reiterating that that was their position and they asked us for guidance in writing to explain or to tell them [what] our position was. So we responded in writing. The department sent the guidance that they requested.”
When Barr was asked specifically if it was Mueller who asked for the letter, Barr replied, “Yes.”
By basically dismissing Mueller’s own statements on his testimony and painting the picture of a Justice Department actively trying to limit witness testimony before Congress, Schiff, a vocal Trump opponent, was already framing Mueller’s testimony in a way that would benefit Democrats.
And make slamming Trump in the media all the easier.
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