Thread by @BBuchman_CNS

Good morning.
The #MuellerHearing begins at 8:30AM ET. First, he will testify before members of the House Judiciary Committee on Vol. II of his report which focuses on obstruction of justice allegations. Then, expected to begin around noon, the House Intel Committee takes over.

That’s when Mueller will answer questions about Vol. 1 which focuses on hacking + Russia disinformation campaign.
Live stream here:
@CourthouseNews

The #MuellerHearing will be underway soon.
@CourthouseNews

The man of the hour, former special counsel Robert Mueller is now seated and House Judiciary Chairman Nadler begins with a brief opening stmt.

Nadler says Mueller conducted the probe with "remarkable integrity." He never publicly commented about his work, was repeatedly hit with insults and attacks on his integrity, but he marched ahead: 37 indictments of ppl and entities;

$42M was recovered from Paul Manafort so the cost to taxpayers for the probe was well paid for, Nadler notes.

Although Dept policy barred indictment of a sitting president, Nadler notes, "you made clear he was not exonerated"

"The Constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing," - Mueller's words from the report.
Nadler says, that work starts with the Judiciary Committee.

Ranking Republican Rep. Doug Collins is now up. "We're here to ask serious questions," he says. Acknowledges Russia hacked US servers but emphasizes there was no collusion between the campaign and Russia specifically.

Collins emphasizes that Trump never shut down the investigation. "The president knew he was innocent," Collins says. "Russia meddled, the president did not conspire with the Russians and nothing we hear today will change those facts."

Collins' stmt ignores the instances in which, according to the Mueller Report, POTUS tried to have Mueller fired.
But we'll be getting into that.

Mueller is now sworn in.

Mueller: In May 2017, the acting AG asked me to serve as special counsel. I undertook that role because I believed it was of paramount interest to the nation to determine whether a foreign adversary interfered in the election.

"The appointment was necessary for the American people to have full confidence in the outcome. We carried out this assignment with that critical objective in mind. To work quietly, thoroughly and with integrity so the public would have full confidence in the outcome." - Mueller

"The investigation needed to be conducted fairly and with absolute integrity. Our team would not leak or take other actions that would compromise the integrity of our work. All decisions were based on facts and the law." - Mueller

Nadler asks, did the report exonerate Trump? Is that what your report said, that it did not exonerate him?
Mueller: That is correct, yes.

At the outset of the probe, Mueller says, when it came to the president's culpability, we needed to go forward only after taking into account the OLC opinion which indicated that a sitting pres couldn't be indicted.

So, the report did not conclude that he did not commit obstruction of justice? Nadler asks again.
That is correct, Mueller says again.

Translation - the report did not exonerate the president of obstruction crimes.