Rep. Mike Quigley said Thursday that special counsel Robert Mueller treating President Trump with “extreme fairness” is ultimately “protecting” him from being indicted.
“The irony of yesterday was the special counsel is an honorable person who follows the rule of law more than anyone I’ve ever witnessed. At the same time, in his moment of extreme fairness, he is protecting a president of the United States, who has absolutely no concern for the rule of law, who is flaunting it,” the Illinois Democrat said in an interview with CNN’s “New Day” show.
Mr. Mueller, in a statement to reporters Wednesday, said Justice Department policy precludes charging or prosecuting a president for federal crimes, so he didn’t make a determination on whether crimes were committed.
But Mr. Mueller added, “if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.”
Additionally, Mr. Mueller responded to calls for him to testify in front of Congress, saying, “The report is my testimony” and any additional inquiries “would not go beyond [his office’s] report.”
Mr. Quigley said Mr. Mueller “doesn’t get to decide” the parameters of his testimony.
“I have the greatest respect for the special counsel, but he doesn’t get to decide whether or not he testifies before the American people. And he doesn’t get to decide which questions he can talk about. He clearly can’t decide that he’s only going to talk about what’s already in the report,” Mr. Quigley said.
• Bailey Vogt can be reached at bvogt@washingtontimes.com.
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