Investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election. Next, we show you the first hearing, which was focused on potential obstruction of justice by President Trump. This Judiciary Committee hearing is three and a half hours. [indistinct chatter] [indiscernible] [gavel] gavel. Gavel. [indiscernible] idiot. He should wait for someone to Say Something when the cameras are here. [gavel] rep. Nadler the Judiciary Committee will come to order. Without objects in the chair is authorized to declare recesses of the committee at any time, we anytime. We welcome everyone to the hearing on oversight of the report in the investigation into russia interference in the 2016 president ial election. I will now recognize myself for a brief Opening Statement. Director mueller, thank you for being here. I want to say a few words about our themes today, responsibility, integrity, and accountability. Your career is a model of responsibility. You are a decorated marine officer, awarded a purple heart, and a bronze star for valor in vietnam. You served in senior roles at the department of justice, and in the immediate aftermath of 9 11, as director of the fbi. Two years ago, you return to returned to Public Service to lead the investigation into russia interference in the 2016 elections. You conducted that investigation with remarkable integrity. For 22 months, you never commented in public about your work, even when subjected to repeated and grossly unfair personal attacks. Instead, your indictments spoke for you and in astonishing detail. Over the course of your investigation, you obtained criminal indictments against 37 people and entities. You secured the conviction of president Trumps Campaign chairman, Deputy Campaign manager, National Security advisor, and his personal lawyer, among others. In the Paul Manafort case alone, you recovered as much as 42 million, so that the cost of your investigation to the taxpayers approaches zero. In your report, you offered the country accountability. In volume one, you find the russian government attacked the 2016 elections in a sweeping and systematic fashion. And, that the attacks were designed to benefit the Trump Campaign. Volume two walks us through 10 separate instances of possible obstruction of justice, where, in your words, President Trump id. To do exert undue influence over your investigation. The president s behavior included, and i quote from your report, attacks on the investigation, nonpublic efforts to control it, and efforts in both public and private to encourage witnesses not to cooperate. Among the most shocking incidents, President Trump ordered his white House Counsel to have you fired. And then, to lie and deny it had happened. He ordered his former Campaign Manager to convince the recused attorney general to step in and limit your work, and he attempted to event witnesses from cooperating with your investigation. Although Department Policy barred you from indicting the president for this conduct, you made it clear he is not exonerated. Any other person who acted in this way would have been charged with crimes. In this nation, not even the president is above the law. Which brings me to this committees work, responsibility, integrity, and accountability. These are the marks by which we who serve on this committee will be measured as well. Director mueller, we have a responsibility to address evidence you have uncovered. You recognized as much when you said, the constitution requires a process other than the criminal Justice System do formerly accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing. That process begins with the work of this committee. We will follow your example, director mueller. We will act with integrity, follow the facts where they lead, we will consider all appropriate remedies, we will make our recommendation to the house when our work concludes. We will do this work because there must be accountability for the conduct described in your report, especially as it relates to the president. Thank you again, director mueller. We look forward to your testimony. It is now my pleasure to recognize the Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee from georgia, mr. Collins, for his Opening Statement. Rep. Collins thank you. Thank you, mr. Mueller, for being here. For the two years leading up to the report and in three months since, americas were first told what to expect and what to believe. Collusion was in plain sight, even if the special counsel did not find it. When mr. Mueller produced his report and attorney general barr provided it to every american, we read no russian interfered learned the depth of russias malice for america. We are here to ask serious questions about mr. Muellers work and we will do that. After an extended and unhampered investigation, today marking the end of his involvement in the investigation that closed in april. The burden of proof for accusations that remain unproven is extremely high and especially in light of the special counsels thoroughness. We are told this investigation began as an inquiry into whether russia meddled in our 2016 election. Mr. Mueller, you concluded they did. Russians accessed democrat servers and disseminated Sensitive Information by tricking campaign insiders into revealing protecting protected information. The investigation reviewed whether donald trump sought russian assistance as a candidacy to win candidate to win the presidency. Mr. Mueller, you concluded he did not. His family or advisors did not. In fact, the report concludes no one in the president s campaign colluded, collaborated, or conspired with the russians. The president watched the public narrative surrounding the investigation, others assumed his guilt while he knew his innocence. Volume two of the report detailed the president s reaction to frustrating investigation where innocence was established early on. The president s attitude toward the investigation was understandably negative. Yet, the president did not use his authority to close investigation. He asked his lawyer if mr. Mueller was disqualified but he did not shutdown the investigation. The president knew he was innocent. Those are the facts of the Mueller Report. Russia meddle in the 2016 election and the president did not conspire with russia and nothing we hear today will change those facts. One element of the story remains. The beginning of the fbi investigation into the president. I look forward to mr. Muellers testimony of what he found during the review of the origins of the investigation. In addition, the Inspector General continues to review how baseless gossip can be used to watch an fbi investigation against a private citizen. And eventually, a president. Those results will be released and we will need to learn to ensure government and Law Enforcement powers are never again used on a private citizen or potential political candidate as the result of the political leanings of a handful of fbi agents. The origins and the conclusion of the Mueller Investigation on the same thing, what it means to be american. Every american has a voice in our democracy, and we must protect the sanctity of their voice by combating election in election interference. Every american enjoys the presumption of innocence and guarantee of due process. We carry nothing away today, it must be to increase vigilance against foreign election interference while we make sure government officials do not weaponize their power against the Constitutional Rights guaranteed to every u. S. Citizen. Finally, we must agree the opportunity cost is too high. The month we have been investigating has failed to in and end the border crisis or contribute to the growing job market and instead we have gotten stuck in his paralyzed this committee and this house. As a side note, every week i leave my family and kids, the most important things to me to come here because i believe we can actually do things and help people. 6. 5 years ago, i came to work on behalf of the people of the ninth district of this country, and we accomplished a lot in the first six years on a bipartisan basis with many of my friends at was the aisle sitting with me today. However, this year, because the majority is disliked, this president , and the endless hearings into a closed investigation have caused us to accomplish nothing but talk about the problems of our country while our border is on fire and crisis and Everything Else is stopped. This hearing is long overdue. We have had truth for months, no american conspired to throw our election and we need to let the truth bring us confidence and i hope, mr. Chairman, closure. Rep. Nadler thank you, mr. Collins. I will now introduce todays witness. Robert mueller served as director of the fbi from 20012013, and most recently special counsel and the department of justice, overseeing the investigation into the russian interference in the 2016 special election. He received his ba from princeton university, an and ma, and jd from virginia and he is accompanied by counsel aaron zebley who was that the special calcium on the investigation. We welcome our distinguished witness and thank you for participating in todays hearing. If you would please rise, i will begin by swearing you in. Would you raise your right hand, please . Do you swear or affirm under penalty of perjury the testimony you are about to give is true and correct to the best of your knowledge, information, and believe, so help you god . Let the record show, the witness answered affirmatively, thank you and please be seated. Please note, your written statement will be entered into the record in its entirety. Accordingly, ask accordingly, i ask that you summarize your testimony in five minutes. You may begin. Mr. Mueller good morning, chairman nadler. And Ranking Member collins and the members of the committee. As you know, in may of 2017, the acting attorney general asked me to serve as special counsel. I undertook the role because i believe it was of paramount interest to the nation to determine whether a foreign adversary had interfered in the president ial election. As the acting attorney general said at the time, the appointment was necessary in order for the American People to have full confidence in the outcome. My staff and i carried out this assignment with that critical objective in mind. To work quietly, thoroughly, and with integrity so that the public would have full confidence in the outcome. The order, appointing me as special counsel, directed our office to investigate russian interference in the 2016 president ial election. This included investigating any links or coordination between the russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign. It also included efforts to interfere with or obstruct our investigation. Throughout the investigation, i continually stressed two things to the team we had assembled. First, we needed to do our work as thoroughly as possible and as expeditiously as possible. It was in the Public Interest for our investigation to be complete and not to last a day longer it was necessary. Longer than was necessary. Secondly, the investigation needed to be conducted fairly and with integrity. Our team would not leak or take any other actions to compromise the integrity of our work. All decisions were made based on the facts and the law. During the course of our investigation, we charge more than 30 defendants with committing federal crimes. Including 12 officers of the russian military. Seven defendants have been convicted or pled guilty. Certain charges we brought remain pending today. For those matters, i stress, the indictments contain allegations and every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. In addition to the criminal charges we brought, as required by Justice Department regulations, we submitted a confidential report to the attorney general at the conclusion of our investigation. The report set forth the results of our work and the reasons for our charging and declination decisions. The attorney general later made the report largely public. As you know, i made a few limited remarks about our report when we closed the special counsels office in may of this year. There are certain points of points that bear emphasis. First, our investigation found that the russian government interfered in our election in sweeping and systematic fashion. Second, the investigation did not establish members of the Trump Campaign conspired with the russian government in the election interference activities. We did not address collusion, which is not a legal term. Rather, we focused on if the evidence was sufficient to charge any member of the campaign with taking part in a criminal conspiracy, and it was not. Third, our investigation of efforts to obstruct the investigation and lie to investigators was of critical importance. Obstruction of justice strikes at the core of the governmenst effort to find the truth and hold wrongdoers accountable. Finally, as described in volume two of our report, we investigated a series of actions by the president towards the investigation. Based on justice Department Policy and principles of fairness, we decided we would not make a determination as to whether the president committed any crimes. A crime. It was our decision then and remains our decision today. Let me say a further word about my appearance today. It is unusual for a prosecutor to testify about a criminal investigation. Given my role as a prosecutor, there are reasons why my testimony will necessarily be limited. Dir. Mueller first, public testimony could affect several ongoing matters. In some of these matters, court rules or judicial orders limit the disclosure of information to protect the fairness of the proceedings. And consistent with longstanding justice Department Policy would be inappropriate for me to comment in any way that could affect an ongoing matter. Second, Justice Department has asserted privileges concerning investigative information and decisions. Ongoing matters within the Justice Department and deliberations within our office. These are Justice Department privileges that i will respect. The department has released the letter discussing the restrictions on my testimony. I, therefore, will not be able to answer questions about certain areas i know are of Public Interest. For example, i am unable to address questions about the initial opening of the fbi Russian Investigation which occurred months before my appointment. For matters related to the socalled steele dossier, these matters are subject of ongoing review by department, any by the department. Any questions on these topics should therefore be directed to the fbi or the Justice Department. As i explained when we closed the special counsels office in may, our report contains our findings, and analysis, and reasons for the decisions we made. We conducted an extensive investigation over two years, desh years. In writing the report, we years. In writing the report, we stated the results of our investigation with precision. We scrutinized every word. We do not intend to summarize or describe the work of the results in a different way in my testimony today. As i said on may 29, the report is my testimony, and i will stay within that text. As i stated in may, i will not comment on the actions of the attorney general or of congress. I was appointed as a prosecutor and i intend to adhere to that role and to the Department Standards that govern it. I will be joined today by deputy special counsel aaron zebley who has extensive experience as a federal prosecutor and at the fbi where he served as my chief of staff. Mr. Zebley was responsible for the daytoday oversight of the investigations conducted by our office. I also want to say thank you to the attorneys, fbi agents, analysts, professional staff who helped us conduct this investigation in a fair and independent manner. These individuals, who spent nearly two years working on this matter, were of the highest integrity. Let me say one more thing. Over the course of my career, i have seen a number of challenges to our democracy. The russian governments efforts to interfere in our election is among the most serious. As i said on may 29, this deserves the attention of every american. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Rep. Nadler thank you. We will now proceed under the five minutes rule fiveminute rule with questions. I will recognize myself for five minutes. Director mueller, the president has repeatedly claimed your report found there was no obstruction and that its completely and totally exonerated him. But, that is not what your report said, is it . Mr. Mueller correct, not what the report said. Rep. Nadler you wrote if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable Legal Standards, we are not able to reach that judgment. Does that say there was no obstruction . Mr. Mueller no. Rep. Nadler in fact, you were unable to conclude the president did not commit obstruction of justice, is that correct . Mr. Mueller at the outset, we determined that when it came to the president s culpability we needed to go forward only after taking into account the olc opinion that a sitting president cannot be indicted. Rep. Nadler