[SIZE=7]Robert Mueller agrees to testify before House lawmakers July 17 after subpoena, Nadler and Schiff announce[/SIZE]
By Louis Casiano | Fox News
Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller has agreed to testify before the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees on July 17 after they subpoenaed the special counsel Tuesday, according to the committees’ chairmen, Reps. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., and Adam Schiff, D-Calif.
Congressional Democrats have fought to get access to Mueller and his unredacted report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and whether President Trump obstructed justice. Weeks of negotiations between House Democrats and the Justice Department ultimately ended with the subpoena.
Fox News has learned Mueller would appear only under a subpoena, which has been described as a “friendly” subpoena, one that in essence had been planned. Mueller is expected to stick to the “four corners” of his report.
Fox News also was told the Democrats did not tell Republicans about the Mueller subpoena, and most Republican lawmakers found out on the House floor or from reporters.
“Americans have demanded to hear directly from the Special Counsel so they can understand what he and his team examined, uncovered, and determined about Russia’s attack on our democracy, the Trump campaign’s acceptance and use of that help, and President Trump and his associates’ obstruction of the investigation into that attack,” Nadler and Schiff said in a joint statement.
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Then-special counsel Robert Mueller walking past the White House in March 2019. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)
House Republicans likely will try to press Mueller on anti-Trump text messages between former FBI Agent Peter Strzok and attorney Lisa Page and on an anti-Trump dossier authored by British ex-spy Christopher Steele. Democrats likely will ask about how Mueller reached his conclusion not to charge Trump and if there was pressure by Attorney General Bill Barr not to go after Trump more forcefully.
Barr said previously that he had no problem with Mueller testifying and would not stand in the way.
Trump did not comment at first, but in a possible dig at the Democrats, posted a simple tweet: “Presidential Harassment!!”
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“The Mueller Report revealed that the Russians waged a ‘sweeping and systematic’ attack on our elections, and America’s top intelligence and law enforcement officials have warned that the Russians will attack our elections again," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. “Yet, sadly the President calls it a hoax, and suggests that he would welcome Russian interference again.”
Mueller did not immediately comment on the subpoena. In a news conference last month in which he delivered his first public remarks in more than two years, the special counsel said he did not wish to appear before lawmakers.
“The report is my testimony,” he said.