Pelosi declines to say whether Mueller should testify

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday declined to say whether special counsel Robert Mueller should testify before Congress, as House Democrats clamor to obtain his final report.

“I’m not going into that. I think they should release the report. That’s where the evidence is, the information is. Let’s see the report,” Pelosi told reporters when asked if Mueller appear before lawmakers. “If they don’t have anything to hide, they shouldn’t worry.”

Asked if Mueller should testify, Pelosi says, “I’m not going into that. I think they should release the report.”

“If they don’t have anything to hide, they shouldn’t worry. If they don’t have any concern about their taxes, they shouldn’t be worried” https://t.co/GCdK2bKhe4 pic.twitter.com/7KevYtKMl7

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) April 4, 2019

Her comments come a day after the House Judiciary Committee voted to approve a subpoena to compel the Justice Department to provide Congress with Mueller’s report, including accompanying exhibits and its underlying evidence. The resolution also empowers Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) to subpoena testimony related to the special counsel’s report.{mosads}

Attorney General William Barr has said he will hand over Mueller’s final conclusions to Congress by mid-April or sooner after he redacts any classified information and grand jury materials. Democrats have expressed frustration with his timeline.

“If we cannot reach an accommodation then we will have no choice but to issue subpoenas for these materials,” Nadler said. “And if the department still refuses, then it should be up to a judge — not the president and not his political appointee — to decide whether the committee can review the complete record.”

Mueller finished his 22-month investigation in March. The probe examined possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in 2016 and obstruction of justice.

Barr has said Mueller did not find any evidence of collusion, but that the special counsel did not make a determination on obstruction, adding that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein determined there was no evidence to support obstruction charges after reviewing Mueller’s report.

Democrats have pounced on Barr and Rosenstein’s determination, saying it should not be up to two Trump appointees to make that call. Reports have also surfaced that members of Mueller’s team are unsatisfied with the four-page summary that Barr sent to Congress, saying the evidence they found regarding obstruction of justice was stronger than he suggested.

“In the public domain there are comments that people on the Mueller team think that there’s a mischaracterization by the attorney general, I don’t know. There’s an easy answer to this: Release the Mueller report as soon as possible,” Pelosi said Thursday.