- The Washington Times - Thursday, July 25, 2019

Rep. Ted Lieu said Wednesday that the only conclusion anyone should have drawn watching former special counsel Robert Mueller’s hearings in the House is that President Trump was “not exonerated” and he had committed “multiple felonies.”

The California Democrat insisted that Mr. Mueller “answered yes and true to a number of devastating facts,” despite many critics finding his performance underwhelming.

“If the American people are watching this, the only conclusion they can conclude is that the Russians systematically and sweepingly interfered in our 2016 elections, the Trump campaign embraced that interference and then the president committed multiple acts of obstruction of justice to stop the investigation into that interference,” Mr. Lieu said.

“Robert Mueller himself brings up the fact that he did not exonerate the president. That’s essentially where I got him to commit to today, and if the American people watch these hearings, that’s the only conclusion they could come up with that the president of the United States committed multiple felonies,” he added.

Mr. Lieu had an impactful moment during the first hearing when he asked whether the guidelines from the Office of Legal Counsel prohibiting indicting a sitting president were the reason that Mr. Mueller didn’t bring charges against Mr. Trump.

“That is correct,” Mr. Mueller responded.

However, Mr. Mueller walked back that answer at the start of the next hearing, saying they hadn’t reached a determination about Mr. Trump’s criminal culpability one way or the other.

Stephen Dinan contributed to this report.

• Bailey Vogt can be reached at bvogt@washingtontimes.com.

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