[F]ormer special counsel Robert Mueller will testify in front of the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees on Wednesday, giving House Democrats the chance to ask Mueller questions about his report on Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., who sits on the intelligence committee, said Monday Democrats are first and foremost interested in hearing Mueller read his report to the American public.
“Ideally, Mueller will speak freely and fluidly about what he found and just recite what is in the report,” Welch told reporters after a town hall meeting in Montpelier Monday evening.
In the intelligence committee, Mueller will be testifying on the efforts of the Russian government to influence the 2016 election, while the House Judiciary Committee will be listening to the former special counsel review his 448-page report on possible obstruction of justice by the Trump campaign.
Welch said that he does not expect House Democrats to ask many questions of the stoic former special counsel.
“There’s not going to be too many questions. It really is an opportunity for Mr. Mueller to tell the American people what he found,” Welch said. “And whether he will do that, I don’t know. He’s a very reluctant witness, very respected, but very reluctant.”
Welch’s expectations aren’t shared by all of his colleagues. In an article outlining six possible lines of inquiry during Wednesday’s hearings, National Public Radio’s Philip Ewing wrote “lawmakers have so many questions they may not have enough time to ask them all.”
Justice Department officials told Mueller this week to limit his testimony to information in his report, arguing that anything else remains covered by presidential privilege. Mueller will also be joined on the stand by Aaron Zebley, his closest aide and renowned investigator.
House members and political pundits have argued that there is significant value in Mueller repeating the findings of his report in a televised hearing, simply because it will drastically expand the audience. Mueller’s report has been a best-seller since its release in April. What it says or doesn’t say has been a matter of furious debate and political spin ever since.
Garrett Graff, a Burlington based journalist and a foremost expert on Mueller, was reached by email this week as he was on a flight to Washington D.C. to cover the hearing. Asked what he was expecting from the former special counsel, Graff pointed VTDigger to his recently published “guide to Robert Mueller’s mind” in Wired.
Graff writes that Mueller’s reputation as a “friendly but uncooperative witness” will pose a challenge to Democrats in the committees and that in the past he has used “silence” and “deflection” during public hearings.
However, Graff says in his article that Democrats will have to strategically ask the former special counsel questions if they want to delve deeper into the report and Mueller’s findings.
“I can tell you it’s not a great bet to rest the fate of U.S. democracy on an unambiguous statement from Robert Mueller — particularly on the obstruction issue,” Graff writes. “Instead, Democrats will need to structure their questioning carefully, which requires a thorough understanding of the man at the witness table.”
In January, when it was announced Welch had been named to the intelligence committee, Graff said “it has become the highest profile position in the House.”
“It’s really interesting and significant that Peter Welch has been named to it, in many ways because he doesn’t have a clear national security background himself,” Graff told VTDigger at the time.
Welch traveled back to Washington D.C. from Vermont on Tuesday after holding a town hall meeting Monday evening where he told Vermonters why he has now decided to support impeaching President Donald Trump.
Until last week, Welch had voiced his support for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and her opposition to pursuing Trump’s removal from office.
“The reason I came to the conclusion I did last week, and overcame really an enormous reservation about taking this step — because of my respect for the outcome of elections — was because I have become increasingly alarmed that the guardrails of our democracy are under attack,” said Welch Monday evening.
