and didn t indict him. he refused to take a stance in the report about obstruction because he said since he won t go on trial, he has no opportunity to defend himself. he didn t indict his son because he said his son was ignorant of the law. he didn t force the president to come in and answer questions. he didn t force the president to answer all of the written questions. and the worst thing he said about all of that is the president wasn t completely straight forward in his answers. he got a break from this special counsel. now we have this letter. obviously, your committee, there are two volumes in the mueller report. so the judiciary focuses on obstructi obstruction. you are focussing on russian collusion. what s your top question for mr. mueller? i thought i knew that until last friday when the southern district of new york released
we had no collusion, no obstruction. we had no nothing. we had a total no collusion finding. it said no collusion. there was no obstruction. of course, he can t say it so many times without reminding you about the fact that mueller did not clear trump of obstruction and is likely to say again and again and again pretty much this when he testifies. if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. they did not say so. abby philip is outfront at the white house. you now have the department of justice saying to bob mueller, you better stay in your lane and stay to the contents of the report which mueller has always said he would do, because of executive privilege. and the president, of course, is going on about this today. this certainly sounds like there is concern.
part of these back-to-back blockbuster hearings on wednesday. they will not get to see his opening statement. of course, despite the fact that bill barr was the one who framed the narrative in april. it will be the special counsel himself choosing the words that americans will hear in just two days. we do expect those words to stay within the bounds of the report. mueller s spokesman tells me that justice department officials will not see mueller s opening statement prior to its delivery and it s really something that robert mueller has been working diligently on. i m told that mueller has been prepping with members of his team. it s a small group from the special counsel s office that he has worked closely with. they have been meeting in an office at mueller s former law firm here in washington, d.c. when i asked mueller spokesman how the former special counsel has been preparing for and how he will answer the sure to be asked if donald trump weren t president, would he be charged wit
concludes no collusion, no obstruction. it didn t conclude that on obstruction. on collusion, the report does not use that word. it uses the word conspiracy and mueller does say concluded no conspiracy could be established in a criminally defined sense. is there anything more to learn from his decision of when to use the word coordinate or conspire instead of clooud? i think that is something within the constraints of the letter that bob mueller would be able to explain that his job as a prosecutor was to determine whether criminal conduct occurred and particularly in the context of campaign finance violations that requires a fairly high standard. saying there was not sufficient proof for criminal conspiracy is not the same as no collusion. in fact, his report is full of evidence of instances where the trump organization had contact with the russians, was willing
provide that information or whether he will say it s too much in the weeds of my investigation and not in the report, i won t talk about it. mueller wrote that if he could exonerate the president he would when it comes to obstruction. we are left with the question of how the absence of incense is not guilt. will mueller be able to explain that? will he be able to explain it inprobably but not to the committee. i think he is just not geeg to go beyond what we saw in the report. the obvious question that everybody wants the answer to is if he were not president, would you have indicted him? that is the big question. and he s not going to go there. and he s not going to go beyond his report. you saw what the justice department sent out tonight at his request as the letter states. so i think he s looking for more and more reasons to say i really can t answer those questions. i m not going to answer those