United States Government

"Here's the problem... The special counsel didn't do that. On Volume 1, you did. On Volume 2, with respect to potential obstruction of justice, the special counsel made neither a prosecution decision or a declination decision. You made no decision. You told us this morning, and in your report, that you made no determination. So... you didn't follow the special counsel regulations. It clearly says, "Write a confidential report about decisions reached." Nowhere in here does it say, "Write a report about decisions that weren't reached." You wrote 180 pages... about decisions that weren't reached, about potential crimes that weren't charged, or decided. And... by doing that, you managed to violate every principle in the most sacred of traditions about prosecutors not offering extra-prosecutorial analysis about potential crimes that aren't charged. So Americans need to know this, as they listen to the Democrats and socialists on the other side of the aisle... that Volume 2 of this report was not authorized, under the law, to be written. It was written to a legal standard that does not exist at the Justice Department. And it was written in violation of every DOJ principle about extra-prosecutorial commentary. I agree with the chairman... when he said, "Donald Trump is not above the law." He's not. But he damn sure shouldn't be below the law, which is where Volume 2 of this report puts him."

"Now, since you decided under the OLC opinion that you couldn't prosecute a sitting President, meaning President Trump, why do we have all of this investigation of President Trump that the other side is talking about when you know that you weren't going to prosecute him?"

"[I]f you're not going to indict the President then you just continue fishing. ...[Y]ou can indict other people, but you can't indict the sitting President, right?"

"Mr. Chabot and I were on this committee during the Clinton impeachment. Now, while I recognize that the independent counsel statute under which Kenneth Starr operated is different from the special counsel statute, he, in a number of occasions in his report, stated that... "President Clinton's actions may have risen to impeachable conduct," recognizing that it is up to the House of Representatives to determine what conduct is impeachable. You never used the term "raising to impeachable conduct" for any of the 10 instances... Is it true that there's nothing in Volume 2 of the report that says that the President may have engaged in impeachable conduct?"

"[T]here are a couple of statements that you made... that said that, "This is not for me to decide," and the implication is that this is for this committee to decide. Now, you didn't use the word "impeachable conduct" like Starr did. There was no statute to prevent you from using the word "impeachable conduct." ...I go back to what Mr. Ratcliffe said... even the President is innocent until proven guilty."

"[M]y Democratic colleagues were very disappointed in your report. They were expecting you to say something along the lines of here's why President Trump deserves to be impeached, much as did relative to President Clinton back about 20 years ago. Well, you didn't, so their strategy had to change. Now they allege that there's plenty of evidence in your report to impeach the President, but the American people just didn't read it. And this hearing today is their last best hope to build up some sort of groundswell across America to impeach President Trump. That's what this is really all about today."

"On page 103 of Volume 2 of your report, when discussing the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, you referenced... "the firm that produced Steele reporting". The name of that firm was Fusion GPS. Is that correct?"

"Fusion GPS produced the opposition research document... widely known as the Steele dossier, and the owner of Fusion GPA [sic Fusion GPS] was... Glenn Simpson. Are... are you familiar with..."

"Glenn Simpson was never mentioned in the 448 page Mueller report, was he?"

"[H]e's not mentioned in there. ...At the same time Fusion GPS was working to collect opposition research on Donald Trump from foreign sources on behalf of the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, it also was representing a Russian-based company, Prevezon, sanctioned by the U.S. government. Are you aware of that?"

"One of the key players in the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting was , who you described in your report as a Russian attorney who advocated for the repeal of the Magnitsky Act. Veselnitskaya had been working with none other than Glenn Simpson and Fusion GPS since at least early 2014. Are -- are you aware of that?"

"But you didn't mention that, or her connections to Glenn Simpson and Fusion GPS in... your report at all. ...NBC News has reported [in a story by Ken Dilanian] the following:... "Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya says she first received the supposedly incriminating information she brought to Trump Tower—describing alleged tax evasion and donation to Democrats—from..." none other than "Glenn Simpson, the Fusion GPS owner,..." [who had been hired to conduct research in a New York federal court case.] You didn't include that in the report, and I assume you..."

"[Y]our report spends 14 pages discussing the June 9th, 2016 Trump Tower meeting. ...It would be fair to say, would it not, that you spent significant resources investigating that meeting?"

"[I]n stark contrast to the actions of the Trump campaign, we know that the Clinton campaign did pay Fusion GPS to gather dirt on the Trump campaign, from persons associated with foreign governments. But your report doesn't mention a thing about Fusion GPS in it, and you didn't investigate Fusion GPS' connections to Russia. So let me just ask you this. ...Can you see, that from neglecting to mention Glenn Simpson and Fusion GPS' involvement with the Clinton campaign, to focusing on a brief meeting at the Trump Tower that produced nothing, to ignoring the Clinton campaign's own ties to Fusion GPS, why some view your report as a pretty one-sided attack on the President?"

"I guess it's just by chance, by coincidence, that the things left out of the report tended to be favorable to the President."

"[L]et me ask unanimous consent, Mr. Chairman, to submit this article, "Robert Mueller Unmasked", for the record."

"You and James Comey have been good friends or were good friends for a -- for many years, correct?"

"[B]efore you were appointed as special counsel, had you talked to James Comey in the preceding six months?"

"When you were appointed as special counsel, was President Trump's firing of Comey something you anticipated investigating, potentially obstruction of justice?"

"Actually, it goes to your credibility and maybe you've been away from the court room for a while. Credibility is always relevant. It's always material, and that goes for you, too. You're a witness before us."

"[W]hen you talked to President Trump the day before... you were appointed as Special Counsel, you were talking to him about the FBI Director position again..."

"Did he mention the firing of James Comey in your discussion with him?"

"But if he did, you could've been a fact witness as to the President's comments and state of mind on firing James Comey."

"[M]ost prosecutors want to make sure there was no appearance of impropriety, but in your case, you hired a bunch of people that did not like the President. Now let me ask you, when did you first learn of 's animus toward Donald Trump?"

"You didn't know before he was hired for your team? ...Peter Strzok hated Trump!"

"[W]hen did you [first] learn of the ongoing affair he was having with Lisa Page?"

"Did you ever order anybody to investigate the deletion of all of their texts off of [and reformatting] their government phones?"

"Regarding collusion or conspiracy, you didn't find evidence of any agreement, and I'm quoting you, "among the Trump campaign officials and any Russia linked individuals to interfere with our U.S. election" correct?"

"[A]n element of any of those obstructions you referenced requires a corrupt state of mind, correct?"

"[I]f somebody knows they did not conspire with anybody from Russia to affect the election, and they see the big Justice Department with people that hate that person coming after them, and then a Special Counsel appointed who hires a dozen or more people that hate that person, and he knows he's innocent, he's not corruptly acting in order to see that justice is done, what he's doing is not obstructing justice, he is pursuing justice, and the fact that you ran it out two years means you perpetuated injustice."

"Importantly, [in the report] the President never said, "fire Mueller" or "end the investigation", and one doesn't necessitate the other. ...McGahn, in fact, did not resign; he stuck around for a year and a half."

"When you submitted your report to the attorney general, did you deliver a redacted version of the report so that he would be able to release it to Congress and the public without delay, pursuant to his announcement of his intention to do so during his confirmation hearing?"

"Had the attorney general asked you to provide a redacted version of the report?"

"Is it your belief that an unredacted version of the report could be released to Congress or the public?"

"Did you write the report with the expectation that it would be released publicly?"

"Were there significant changes in tone or substance of the report made after the announcement that the report would be made available to Congress and the public?"

"During the Senate testimony of Attorney General ... Senator Kamala Harris asked Mr. Barr if he had looked at all the underlying evidence that... the special counsel's team had gathered. He stated that he had not. ...It's fair to say that in an investigation as comprehensive as yours, it's normal that different members of the team would have reviewed different sets of documents and few, if anyone, would have reviewed all of the underlying [evidence]?"

"How many of the approximately 500 interviews conducted by the Special [Counsel's Office] did you attend personally?"

"On March 27, 2019, you wrote a letter to the attorney general essentially complaining about the media coverage of your report. You wrote, and I quote, "The summery letter the Department sent to Congress and released to the public late in the afternoon of March 24 did not fully capture the context, nature and substance of this office's work and conclusions. We communicated that concern to the Department on the morning of March 25th. There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the result of our investigation." ...Did you authorize the letter's release to the media or was it leaked?"

"[T]he FBI interviewed Joseph Mifsud on February 10th, 2017. In that interview, Mr. Mifsud lied. You point this out on page 193, Volume 1, Mifsud denied, Mifsud also falsely stated. In addition, Mifsud omitted. Three times, he lied to the FBI; yet, you didn't charge him with a crime. Why?"

"You charged a lot of other people for making false statements. Let's remember this... in 2016 the FBI did something they probably haven't done before. They spied on two American citizens associated with a Presidential campaign: and . With Carter Page they went to the FISA court, they used the now famous dossier as part of the reason they were able to get the warrant and spy on Carter Page for a better part of a year. With Mr. Papadopoulos, they didn't go to the court, they used human sources, all kinds... from about the moment Papadopoulos joins the Trump campaign, you've got all these people all around the world starting to swirl around him, names like Halper, Downer, Mifsud, Thompson, meeting in Rome, London, all kinds of places. The FBI even sent... a lady posing as somebody else, went by the name Azra Turk], even dispatched her to London to spy on Mr. Papadopoulos. In one of these meetings, Mr. Papadopoulos is talking to a foreign diplomat and he tells the diplomat Russians have dirt on Clinton. That diplomat then contacts the FBI, and the FBI opens an investigation based on that fact. You point this out on page 1 of the report. July 31st, 2016 they open the investigation based on that piece of information. ... Papadopoulos tells the diplomat Russians have dirt on Clinton, diplomat tells the FBI. What I'm wondering is who told Papadopoulos? How'd he find out?"

"Yes, you can, because... Page 192.... 's the guy who told Papadopoulos, the mysterious professor who lives in Rome and London, works and teaches in two different universities. This is the guy who told Papadopoulos. He's the guy who starts it all, and when the FBI interviews him, he lies three times and yet you don't charge him with a crime. You charge Rick Gates for false statements. You charge Paul Manafort for false statements. You charge Michael Cohen with false statements. You charge Michael Flynn, a three star general, with false statements, but the guy who puts the country through this whole saga, starts it all—for [the] three years we've lived this now—he lies and you guys don't charge him. And I'm curious as to why."

"Is Mifsud western intelligence or Russian intelligence?"

"A lot of things you can't get into. What's interesting, you can charge 13 Russians no one's ever heard of, no one's ever seen. No one's ever going to hear of them. No one's ever going to see them. You can charge them, you can charge all kinds of people who are around the President with [making] false statements, but the guy who launches everything, the guy who puts this whole story in motion, you can't charge him. I think that's amazing."

"Well I'm reading from your report, Mifsud told Papadopoulos, Papadopoulos tells the diplomat, the diplomat tells the FBI, the FBI opens the investigation [on] July 31st, 2016. And here we are three years later, July of 2019, the country's been put through this, and the central figure who launches it all, lies to us and you guys don't hunt him down and interview him again, and you don't charge him with a crime. Now here's the good news... The President was falsely accused of conspiracy. The FBI does a 10 month investigation and James Comey, when we deposed him a year ago told us, at that point, they had nothing. You do a 22-month investigation... you find no conspiracy and what... [do the] the Democrats want to do? They want to keep investigating. They want to keep going. Maybe a better course of action... is to figure out how the false accusations started. Maybe it's to go back and actually figure out why Joseph Mifsud was lying to the FBI. And here's the good news... That's exactly what Bill Barr is doing. And thank goodness for that. That's exactly what the attorney general and John Durham doing, they're going to find out why we went through this three year... saga and get to the bottom of it."

"[T]he third FISA renewal happens a month after you're named Special Counsel. What role did your office play in the third FISA renewal... of ?"

"[C]an you state with confidence that the Steele dossier was not part of Russia's disinformation campaign?"

"Yea, but Paul Manafort's alleged crimes regarding tax evasion predated you. You had no problem charging them, and as a matter of fact, this Steele dossier predated the Attorney General, and he didn't have any problem answering the question. When Senator Cornyn asked the Attorney General the exact question I asked you... [he] said... "No, I can't state that with confidence, and that's one of the areas I'm reviewing. I'm concerned about it, and I don't think it's entirely speculative." Now, if something is not entirely speculative, then it must have some factual basis, but you identify no factual basis regarding the dossier or the possibility that it was part of the Russia disinformation campaign. Now, 's reporting is referenced in your report. Steele reported to the FBI that senior Russian foreign ministry figures,.. along with other Russians, told him "that there was"—and I'm quoting from the Steele dossier—"extensive evidence of conspiracy between the Trump campaign team and the Kremlin." So here's my question. Did Russians really tell that to Christopher Steele, or did he just make it all up, and was he lying to the FBI?"

"No, it is exactly your purview... and here's why. Only one of two things is possible... Either Steele made this whole thing up and there were never any Russians telling him of this vast criminal conspiracy that you didn't find, or Russians lied to Steele. Now if Russians were lying to Steele to undermine our confidence in our duly elected President, that would seem to be precisely your purview, because you stated in your opening that the organizing principle was to fully and thoroughly investigate Russia's interference, but you weren't interested in whether or not Russians were interfering through Christopher Steele, and if Steele was lying, then you should have charged him with lying like you charged a variety of other people. But you say nothing about this in your report. ...Meanwhile, Director, you're quite loquacious on other topics. You write 3,500 words about the June 9 meeting between the Trump campaign and Russian lawyer Veselnitskaya. You write on page 103... that the President's legal team suggested... "that the meeting might have been a set up by individuals working with the firm that produced the Steele reporting." So I'm going to ask you... on the week of June 9, who did Russian lawyer Veselnitskaya meet with more frequently, the Trump campaign or Glenn Simpson, who was functionally acting as an operative for the Democratic National Committee?"

"It is absurd to suggest that a operative for the democrats was meeting with this Russian lawyer the day before, the day after the Trump Tower meeting and yet that's not something you reference. Now Glenn Simpson testified under oath he had dinner with Veselnitskaya the day before and the day after this meeting with the Trump team. Do you have any basis as you sit here today to believe that Steele was lying?"