House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler blasted the Justice Department Tuesday for sending a letter instructing special counsel Robert Mueller to “remain within the boundaries of your public report,” calling it “incredibly arrogant.”
When asked whether Monday’s letter changed House Democrats’ strategy, Mr. Nadler said it wasn’t an “impediment” because Mr. Mueller said several times that was his intention.
“Bob Mueller had indicated repeatedly that he was going to do exactly that. I think it’s incredibly arrogant for the department to try to instruct him in what to say. It’s part of the ongoing coverup by the administration to keep information away from the American people but I think it’s not going to have a real impact,” he said on CNN’s “New Day.”
While Mr. Mueller was formerly a Justice Department employee, he retired after the investigation’s conclusion and the release of his report.
If the special counsel follows the Justice Department’s advice, House Democrats will be unable to ask questions outside of the report, including whether President Trump would have been indicted if he wasn’t president.
Mr. Nadler said the goal of the Mueller hearings were to tell the “story” of the Mueller report to the American people.
“The president and the attorney general have repeatedly lied about the investigation’s findings. They repeatedly said the investigation found no collusion, no obstruction and it completely exonerated the president. Each of those three statements is simply not true. The investigation certainly found 10 instances of obstruction by the president, the president repeatedly lied to the American people. They welcomed the assistance of the Russians, they knew about it,” he said.
“We want to get these facts out so the American people know what we are dealing with and hear it from Mueller himself — rather than the lies that are coming from the President and the attorney general who has been functioning as the president’s personal lawyer and not as the attorney general of the United States,” he added.
“Our goal is to break the lies of the president,” the Judiciary chairman said. “The report is chalk full of damning information against the president. Again, as I said, it found ten instances of the president obstructing justice, it found instances of the president instructing people to lie to investigators and lie to the American people, and people need to hear this from Mueller,” he said.
Mr. Mueller will testify before the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees Wednesday, starting at 8:30 a.m.
• Bailey Vogt can be reached at bvogt@washingtontimes.com.
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