When is Robert Mueller set to testify to Congress and what can we expect?
Democrats and Republicans will be pursuing very different goals
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Your support makes all the difference.Robert Mueller will testify before the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees on July 17. The highly anticipated appearance comes three months after the special counsel released the 400-page report on Russian efforts to interfere with the 2016 US presidential election.
The testimony will take place over two open sessions with Mr Mueller and two closed sessions with his staff. The House judiciary committee will choose 22 of its 41 members to question the special counsel during the open sessions, an aide told NBC. Each chosen member will be allowed five minutes of questioning. They, along with those not chosen for the open sessions, will be given time to follow up during closed session.
They’ll be allowed to ask anything they want, but are expected to stay within questioning that deals with information given in the report.
There will be no transcript of the closed session of the House intelligence committee, for which members will have access to the un-redacted version of volume 1 of the Mueller report. There will likely be a transcript of the session with the House judiciary Committee, for which members will be given an un-redacted version of the volume II.
The first volume deals with collusion and conspiracy with the Russian government, while the second one deals with obstruction of justice. Neither committee will be given access to redacted information that protects information provided to the grand jury.
Republicans on both committees include some of the president’s most ardent supporters, like representatives Jim Jordan, Matt Gaetz, Devin Nunes. Several representatives told Politico that they planned to stick to a line of questioning that relies on the conclusion that there was “no collusion” found by the lengthy report.
On the Democrats' side, members are likely to push for more clarification.
“It’s clear that most Americans – and even some Members of Congress – have not read Mueller’s report, and understand the deeply unethical, unpatriotic and corrupt behaviour that he uncovered by the Trump campaign and President Trump,” said a spokesperson for representative Eric Swalwell, a Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. “That’s why it is so important that Americans hear directly from Mueller himself.”
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