President Donald Trump told reporters on Friday that he will not be watching Robert Mueller’s testimony before Congress this week.
“No, I won’t be watching Mueller,” the president said before leaving the White House to attend a roundtable with supporters, according to The Hill.
The topic of Mueller’s testimony came up during questions about an impeachment resolution introduced by Rep. Al Green (D-TX) last week that failed to pass the House.
“As far as I’m concerned, they already took their impeachment vote, and the impeachment vote was so lopsided, it was a massive victory,” Trump said. “And you know what, at some point, they have to stop playing games, because they’re just playing games. No, I won’t be watching Mueller.”
Playing games with Bob Mueller
Mueller is scheduled to testify for five hours before the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees on Wednesday, The New York Times reports. Some Democrats hope that the former special counsel will provide information in that session that could lead to more support for impeachment proceedings against Trump.
Of course, Mueller’s team did not uncover sufficient evidence to charge Trump with any crime related to collusion or obstruction of justice, but some of the special prosecutor’s comments on the investigation have led Dems to believe that Trump might have engaged in wrongdoing that just couldn’t be proven by the Justice Department.
Still, it seems House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) isn’t buying it. She has repeatedly said that impeachment because of the Mueller investigation is not an option, and is instead encouraging House members to follow through on other investigations, including into Trump’s finances.
Going on a “witch hunt”
For his part, Trump has said repeatedly that Democrat efforts to get Mueller to testify before Congress are nothing but an attempt to “re-do” the special counsel’s probe. While Democrats have bristled at Trump’s characterization of the investigation as a “witch hunt,” some sources say that Mueller knew well before the 2018 midterm congressional elections that he didn’t have any prosecutable evidence against Trump.
But having the Mueller investigation hanging over Trump’s head could have been what cost Republicans a number of seats in the House in 2018. Indeed, the Mueller investigation itself was called a soft coup attempt by some conservatives, including Fox’s Sean Hannity.
Meanwhile, Democrats were left disappointed after Mueller failed to find impeachable evidence of wrongdoing by Trump. They’re hoping the special counsel’s Wednesday testimony will finally provide that smoking gun.
But Trump doesn’t need to worry about Mueller’s upcoming testimony. If the special counsel gives Democrats anything new, it could lead to perjury charges against him.
Mueller’s not going to take that chance.
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