Robert Mueller to testify publicly before House committees on Russia report

Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller will testify before the US House of Representatives’ Judiciary and Intelligence Committees today.

Today’s testimony concerns Mr Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election and has been hotly anticipated since a congressional subpoena was issued last month. Since the report was released on April 18, House Democrats have pushed for hearings to give the report’s contents greater public scrutiny, to the chagrin of President Donald Trump and Republicans who argue that Mr Muller’s report speaks for itself and that hearings are redundant.

Mr Mueller will address only the publicly available portions of his report—a demand of Attorney General William Barr’s Justice Department. Democrats are therefore unlikely to elicit a bombshell discovery out of today’s testimony.

However, Mr Muller’s testimony may serve to further discredit Attorney General Barr’s four-page summary of the report, which notably skirted obstruction of justice issues—charges of which Mr Trump was not exonerated. House Democrats will likely try to emphasise the ambiguities of the report in how it addresses obstruction of justice. Indeed, if obstruction of justice questions do take centre stage today, Democrats will have more opportunities to put President Trump’s re-election campaign on the defensive.

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