For those of you who could not find the time in your busy schedules to watch 2 separate hours-long House hearings, fear not. I could. The much-anticipated, heavily publicized and deeply controversial Mueller hearings have been predicted to be monumental by some, a waste of time by others. Having sat through hours and hours of the same general dynamic, I feel I have some authority in briefing the testimonies.
Here's a little context before I begin: Mueller testified before two House committees today, the Judiciary and Intelligence. The former emphasized Volume 2 of the Mueller Report while the latter focused entirely on Volume 1. Volume 1 of the Report regarded Russian interference into the 2016 election and Volume 2 investigated the possibility of obstruction of justice on the part of Donald Trump.
It is worth noting that Trump's triumphant mantra, "No collusion, no obstruction", is not entirely true. As Mueller confirmed today, the intent of obstructing justice counts as obstruction of justice. The Mueller Report details several separate instances where Trump attempted to interfere in his own criminal investigation and Mueller has refused to exonerate Trump on multiple occasions. That said, Mueller made clear that there is no formal legal conclusion on Trump's actions within the bounds of obstruction of justice due to the Office of Legal Counsel's opinion that a sitting president cannot be indicted. But for anyone who read the Mueller Report - or even Barr's four-page summary of nearly 450 pages - none of this is news.
What was most striking during the hearings was Mueller's evident disdain for political theater. NBC reported that he deflected questions 198 times during his testimony. As far as Mueller is concerned, the report speaks for itself. He refused to answer any questions regarding the FBI investigation (which many Republicans consider to be the true crime) or the Steele dossier, and refused to characterize the report beyond what it says. No summaries, no further explanations. In a stunning display of ulterior motive, Congresswoman Escobar (D-TX) asked Mueller if his findings could be used to begin impeachment proceedings.
Six hours of testimony later, I feel tired and mildly frustrated. We knew from Mueller's May press conference that he was not going to elaborate on the findings of the report. It is a stand-alone work. I'm not sure what Democrats were expecting - it would be comically out-of-character (and in terribly bad taste) for Mueller to endorse impeachment. During the House Judiciary hearing, the disconnect between the Democratic and Republican questionings were borderline overwhelming as the parties bounced back and forth - Republicans repeatedly attempted to discredit Mueller if they weren't focusing on how Trump was cleared of "collusion," while Dems only asked about obstruction of justice. Some Democrats even projected a handy checklist with the three components of obstruction of justice (spoiler alert: all three boxes were checked).
Honestly, I'm glad the hearings are over and Bob Mueller can fade into obscurity. He deserves it. It will be interesting to see which 2020 candidates will harp on potential obstruction of justice charges as a running platform - once Trump is out of office, there will be nothing in the way of prosecuting him. I think there was one major takeaway from today's hearings: If you have any questions about Trump, his campaign, or Russian interference, you should read the Mueller report. It's very thorough and does not hesitate to name names. Read it, look up all the impermeable legal jargon on dictionary.com, and come to your own conclusion. Time may shed further light on the findings on the report, but God knows Mueller isn't going to.
