Audience laughs when Mueller jokes about member of Congress lying

The crowded hearing room in which former special counsel Robert Mueller delivered his three-hour testimony broke into a rare bout of laughter Wednesday morning when Mueller joked that a lawmaker could get away with making false statements because “it’s Congress.”

“What if I had made a false statement to an investigator on your team — could I go to jail?” Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas) asked Mueller.

{mosads}”Yes,” Mueller replied. “Although, it’s Congress, so…” he quipped. 

Mueller then grinned as the audience broke into laughter.

“What if I had made a false statement to an investigator on your team—could I go to jail?”

“Yes,” Robert Mueller replies. “Although, it’s Congress, so…” he adds to laughter from the room. https://t.co/PIsGWtGws2 #MuellerHearings pic.twitter.com/IPN0rMK66t

— Evan McMurry (@evanmcmurry) July 24, 2019

The moment came as a rare reprieve from an otherwise tense few hours of testimony from the special counsel as he recounted his report on Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Mueller repeatedly pointed back to the contents of his more than 400-page report when pressed by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to clarify details on the origins of his report and its findings.

Mueller on Wednesday told Congress that he generally agreed that lies by Trump campaign officials and administration officials impeded his nearly two-year investigation. He also testified earlier that President Trump refused to sit down for an in-person interview during his investigation.

The former special counsel will also testify before the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday.