3 Main Takeaways From Robert Mueller's Testimony

It’s been nearly four months since special counsel Robert Mueller and his team concluded their 22-month investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and nearly three months since he released the 448-page report. On Wednesday, July 24, he testified before Congress to tell each person that, despite Donald Trump’s insistence, the report did not exonerate the President from anything.


in case you didn’t get the chance to sit via the complete hearing, don’t worry. We watched the full thing and can report that, well, Mueller didn’t mention anything new — although he did reiterate some most crucial points that politicians and pundits alike have misconstrued while in the past weeks. Here are a few of the key takeaways from Mueller's testimony:


1. Russia absolutely did interfere in the 2016 presidential election — and Mueller believes they’re still interfering


We knew this even before Mueller released his report, and were reminded of it in the aftermath of report. The individual Counsel reiterated it throughout his Wednesday testimony by condemning Trump’s praise of WikiLeaks, which released emails from Hillary Clinton and other Clinton campaign staffers that had been stolen by Russian operatives. Then, he mentioned that Russia was “doing it as we sit here,” suggesting that the foreign government may also be planning to interfere with the 2020 election — which Trump has glibly welcomed as recently as last month.


2. Trump was not exonerated


New York Democrat Congressman Jerry Nadler straight-up asked Mueller, “Did you actually completely exonerate the president?” In response, Mueller mentioned, “No.”


At another point throughout the hearing, California Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff asked: “We should hold our elected officials to a common higher than mere avoidance of criminality, correct?”


Mueller’s response: “Absolutely.”


This disputes what the president has been tweeting about since the starting of his presidency: that he was fully exonerated by the findings of the individual counsel’s report. And it also seems that Trump might not directly have been paying attention, because immediately following the hearing, his campaign manager, Brad Parscale, falsely stated in a press statement that “Robert Mueller confirmed what we already knew: No collusion, no obstruction, and the way President Trump has been treated is unprecedented.” Which brings us to our next point...


3. There’s one huge reason Trump wasn’t charged with obstruction of justice, and it also isn’t that he wasn’t noticed guilty


Congressman Nadler asked Mueller whether or not it was true that even if Mueller had concluded that Trump committed the crime of obstruction, he wouldn’t have the ability to publicly state that. Mueller mentioned yes, as the Department of Justice explicitly prohibits bringing criminal bills against a sitting president. Nadler asked, “But he might would be prosecuted right after he leaves office?” And Mueller responded: “True.”


Republican Congressman Ken Buck drove that point residence any time as soon as he asked Mueller, “You believe he committed — you can charge the President with obstruction of justice soon after he left office?” To that point, Mueller simply said: “Yes.”


The special counsel also reiterated the same statement to representative Ted Lieu. While in another line of questioning, he appeared to mention that he would have indicted Trump if it weren’t for the “OLC opinion,” which is a precedent from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel stating that the “indictment or criminal prosecution of a sitting President would unconstitutionally undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally designated functions.”


Nevertheless while a sitting president cannot be indicted, he can be impeached: Already, Representatives Al Green from Texas, New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar, Massachusetts’s Ayanna Pressley, Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib, California’s Maxine Waters, and more than 80 other Residence Democrats are calling for an impeachment inquiry. Your move, Nancy Pelosi.