Former special counsel Robert Mueller will appear publicly before Congress next month after weeks of speculation about whether he would testify about his almost two-year investigation into the Trump campaign.
The House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees announced Tuesday that Mueller will honor subpoenas they issued to him to testify on July 17 on his over 400-page final report, which he submitted to the Justice Department in March.
“Americans have demanded to hear directly from the Special Counsel so they can understand what he and his team examined, uncovered, and determined about Russia’s attack on our democracy, the Trump campaign’s acceptance and use of that help, and President Trump and his associates’ obstruction of the investigation into that attack,” read a joint statement from House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler and House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff.
The report concluded that the Trump campaign did not conspire with Russians to influence the election, but said investigators could not reach a conclusion on obstruction. Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein concluded Trump had not committed obstruction when Mueller did not make a decision on the matter, saying they “felt it was necessary for us as the heads of the department to reach that decision.”
Their decision did not satisfy congressional Democrats, however, who then took the reigns of the investigation.
“It falls to Congress to respond to the crimes, lies and other wrongdoing of President Trump—and we will do so,” Nadler said.
Mueller has been reluctant to speak further on his findings, saying in May that the report “speaks for itself.”
“Any testimony from this office would not go beyond our report,” he said at the time. “It contains our findings and analysis and the reasons for the decisions we made. We chose those words carefully and the work speaks for itself. And the report is my testimony.”
“We will work with you to address legitimate concerns about preserving the integrity of your work, but we expect that you will appear before our Committees as scheduled,” the chairmen wrote in a letter to Mueller.