Nadler on possible Mueller subpoena: He ‘told us a lot of what we need to hear’

The head of the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday sidestepped a question about whether to subpoena special counsel Robert Mueller in order to compel his testimony before Congress.

“Mr. Mueller told us a lot of what we need to hear today,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said during a press conference when asked if he would subpoena Mueller to testify before his panel.{mosads}

Nadler added that Mueller “reaffirmed” the findings of his 22-month investigation, which examined Russian election interference in 2016 and possible cases in which President Trump sought to obstruct justice.

Nadler spoke hours after Mueller delivered his first public remarks on the Russia probe, saying during a press conference at the Justice Department that his 448-page report speaks for itself and he does not want to testify before Congress.

“He reaffirmed what was in the report about the investigation, which found substantial evidence that Russia attacked our political system, that the Trump campaign benefitted from Russia’s interference, that Trump and the people around him repeatedly welcomed Russia’s support, and that throughout the investigation, Trump sought to obstruct justice and undermine Mueller and the investigation over and over again,” Nadler said.

Nadler’s press conference largely echoed a statement he issued earlier in the day in which he said Mueller’s first public remarks on Wednesday have placed the ball in Congress’s court to respond to Trump’s “lies and other wrongdoing.”

While the chairman did not mention impeachment in his statement, he emphasized that it was up to Congress to take action after Mueller reiterated that he followed a current Justice Department guidelines that say a sitting president cannot be indicted.

“Given that Special Counsel Mueller was unable to pursue criminal charges against the President, it falls to Congress to respond to the crimes, lies and other wrongdoing of President Trump — and we will do so,” Nadler said in a statement.

In his first public remarks since concluding the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, Mueller said that charging Trump with a crime on obstruction of justice “was not an option we could consider.”

“If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so,” Mueller said.