On Wednesday, former Special Counsel Robert Mueller is scheduled to testify before two House committees. Democrats have been excited for this for the past couple of months since the release of the Mueller report and Mueller’s statement. Media organizations across the country have been gearing up for the anticipated testimony on Wednesday. For Democrats, this is their last hope for impeachment of President Trump.
While Democrats have seemed excited about Mueller’s testimony for weeks, they’ve been significantly quiet about it over the past couple of weeks about the testimony. I have been suspicious of this over the past few weeks, but I think the clarity surrounding the issue is becoming more clear, specifically following a statement from the Department of Justice on Monday.
The DOJ told Mueller that his testimony must remain within the boundaries of the public redacted report. This means that nothing Mueller states in his testimony will be new or unheard of before. The DOJ suggested that there were concerns regarding privilege and other legal bars if he provided testimony outside of the report. A copy of the letter can be found here.
So Democrats believe that having Mueller testify will continue to degrade public trust in President Trump, but that appears unlikely given the DOJ’s guidance to Mueller. So what’s the likely outcome of the Mueller testimony? I believe there are two possible outcomes.
The most likely outcome is that there is nothing new that comes from the testimony and Republicans continue to push back at Democrats that the testimony was a waste of time. Republicans have argued that the report provided no information and was a waste of taxpayer money. If the testimony does not provide any new information, Republicans win.
Another likely outcome is that Mueller does make statements outside of his report, but it contradicts the story that the Democrats have been telling. The reason I believe this is the case, if Mueller had any potential way to go after President Trump, I believe he would have. Mueller presented no evidence of obstruction in his report and could not prove collusion. Even as members of his team were set against President Trump and made attempts to get “dirt” on him.
While the Mueller report may have tried to create the thought of potential obstruction, there was no proof submitted and Mueller’s testimony will most likely not reveal additional details. Failing to prove anything against Trump will be a major failure for Democrats and their efforts to paint Trump into a corner going into the 2020 election. In the end, they have the testimony they asked for. Now, they hope that the results do not backfire.
You can contact JD through the Liberty Loft website or by Twitter.
