A5
THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JULY 25, 2019
Mueller dismisses exoneration claims New British PM
Johnson faces
Brexit conundrum
By ERIC TUCKER,
MARY CLARE
JALONICK and
MICHAEL BALSAMO
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Rob-
ert Mueller on Wednesday
bluntly dismissed President
Donald Trump’s claims of
total exoneration in the fed-
eral probe of Russia’s 2016
election interference, tell-
ing Congress he explicitly
did not clear the president of
obstructing his investigation.
The former special counsel
also rejected Trump’s asser-
tions that the probe was a
“witch hunt” and hoax.
In hours of sometimes
halting and stilted testimony,
unfolding at a moment of
deep division in the coun-
try, Mueller also condemned
Trump’s praise of WikiLeaks,
which released Democratic
emails stolen by Russia. He
declared Russian election
interference one of the great-
est challenges to democracy
that he had encountered in
his career.
Russia, he said, is “doing
it as we sit here.”
Mueller’s reluctance at
the televised Capitol Hill
hearings to stray beyond his
lengthy written report, and
his reliance on terse, one-
word answers, produced few
if any new revelations to
move Americans who may
be hardened in their opinions
about the success of Don-
ald Trump’s presidency and
whether impeachment pro-
ceedings are necessary. But
that didn’t stop Republicans
and Democrats from their
own divergent paths to ques-
tion Mueller.
Trump’s GOP allies tried
to cast the former special
counsel and his prosecutors
as politically motivated. They
referred repeatedly to what
they consider the improper
opening of the investigation.
Democrats, meanwhile,
sought to emphasize the
most incendiary fi ndings of
Mueller’s 448-page report
and weaken Trump’s reelec-
tion prospects in ways that
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
Robert Mueller testifi es before the House Judiciary Committee.
Mueller’s book-length report
did not. They hoped that
even if his testimony did
not inspire impeachment
demands — House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi has made clear
she will not pursue impeach-
ment, for now — Mueller
could nonetheless unambig-
uously spell out question-
able, norm-shattering actions
by the president.
Yet Mueller appeared
unwilling or unable to offer
crisp sound bites that could
reshape public opinions.
He frequently gave sin-
gle-word answers to law-
makers’ questions, even
when given opportunities
to crystallize allegations of
obstruction of justice against
the president. He referred
time again to the wording
in his report. He declined to
read aloud hard-hitting state-
ments in the report when
prodded by Democrats to do
so.
But he was unfl inching on
the most-critical matters.
In the opening minutes of
the hearing, the chairman of
the House Judiciary Com-
mittee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler,
a New York Democrat, asked
Mueller about Trump’s
claims of vindication in the
investigation.
“Did you actually totally
exonerate the president?”
Nadler asked.
“No,” Mueller replied.
When Rep. Adam Schiff,
the Democratic chairman of
the House intelligence com-
mittee, asked, “Your inves-
tigation is not a witch hunt,
is it?”
“It is not a witch hunt,”
Mueller fl atly replied.
He gave Democrats a
fl icker of hope when he told
Rep. Ted Lieu of California
that he did not charge Trump
because of a Justice Depart-
ment legal opinion that says
sitting presidents cannot
be indicted. That statement
cheered Democrats who
understood him to be sug-
gesting that he would oth-
erwise have recommended
prosecution on the strength
of the evidence.
But Mueller later walked
back that statement, saying,
“We did not reach a determi-
nation as to whether the pres-
ident committed a crime.”
His team, he said, “never
started the process” of eval-
uating whether to charge the
president.
Though Mueller described
Russian government’s efforts
to interfere in American pol-
itics as among the most seri-
ous challenges to democ-
racy he had encountered in
his decades-long career —
which included steering the
FBI after the Sept. 11 terror-
ist attacks — Republicans
focused on his conclusion
that there was insuffi cient
evidence to establish a crim-
inal conspiracy between the
Trump campaign and Russia.
“Those are the facts of the
Mueller report. Russia med-
dled in the 2016 election,”
said Rep. Doug Collins, the
top Republican on the House
Judiciary Committee. “The
president did not conspire
with Russians. Nothing we
hear today will change those
facts.”
Mueller, pressed as to
why he hadn’t investigated
a “dossier” of claims that the
Republicans insist helped
lead to the start of the probe,
he said that was not his
charge.
That was “outside my
purview,” he said repeatedly.
Mueller mostly brushed
aside Republican allegations
of bias, but in a moment of
apparent agitation, he said he
didn’t think lawmakers had
ever “reviewed a report that
is as thorough, as fair, as con-
sistent as the report that we
have in front of us.”
And when he was pressed
on the fact that multiple
members of his team had
made contributions to Dem-
ocratic candidates, Muel-
ler bristled at the implica-
tion that his prosecutors were
compromised.
“I have been in this busi-
ness for almost 25 years,
and in those 25 years I have
not had the occasion to ask
somebody about their politi-
cal affi liation,” Mueller said.
“It is not done. What I care
about is the capability of the
individual to do the job and
do the job quickly and seri-
ously and with integrity.”
Mueller, known for his
taciturn nature, warned
that he would not stray
beyond what had already
been revealed in his report.
And the Justice Department
instructed him to stay strictly
within those parameters, giv-
ing him a formal directive to
point to if he faced questions
he did not want to answer.
Trump lashed out ahead
of and during the hearings,
saying on Twitter that “Dem-
ocrats and others” were try-
ing to fabricate a crime and
pin it on “a very innocent
President.” That was a con-
tinuation of the past two
years during which Trump
has made Mueller a regular
target in an attempt to under-
mine his credibility.
retary, or interior minister.
Michael Gove, who ran the
2016 campaign to leave the
EU alongside Johnson, also
LONDON — Boris got a Cabinet job.
Over half of May’s Cab-
Johnson took over as
Britain’s prime minister inet quit or resigned, includ-
Wednesday, vowing to break ing ex-Foreign Secretary
the impasse that defeated his Jeremy Hunt, Johnson’s
predecessor by leading the defeated rival for the Tory
country out of the European leadership, who said he had
Union and silencing those turned down the chance to
he called “the doubters, the stay in government in a dif-
doomsters, the gloomsters” ferent job.
In his fi rst speech as
who believe it can’t be done.
But the brash Brexit prime minister, Johnson let
champion faces the same loose with a scattershot spray
problems that fl ummoxed of promises — from more
police on the streets
Theresa May during
to ending a ban on
her three years in
genetically modifi ed
offi ce — heading a
crops to faster inter-
government with-
net access.
out a parliamen-
To the many crit-
tary majority and
ics of the polarizing
with most lawmak-
politician who fi nd
ers opposed to leav-
ing the EU without a Boris Johnson the phrase “Prime
Minister Boris John-
divorce deal.
Johnson has just 99 days son” jarring, it was typical
to make good on his prom- of a verbal vim that is not
ise to deliver Brexit by always wedded to hard facts.
For the 55-year-old John-
Oct. 31 after what he called
“three years of unfounded son, walking into the Down-
ing Street residence was the
self-doubt.”
He optimistically pledged culmination of a life’s ambi-
to get “a new deal, a better tion. The fl amboyant, Lat-
deal” with the EU than the in-spouting former London
one secured by May, which mayor and foreign secretary
was repeatedly rejected by helped lead the 2016 cam-
paign to get Britain out of
Britain’s Parliament.
“The people who bet the EU and is now the dar-
against Britain are going to ling of Brexit backers who
lose their shirts,” he said, feel frustrated that, three
standing outside the shiny years later, the country is still
black door of 10 Downing in the bloc.
Judging by his words
St.
Trying to avoid the polit- on Wednesday, Johnson’s
ical divisions that plagued approach to the EU will be
May, Johnson swept many a mix of charm and threats.
He vowed to keep rela-
of her ministers from offi ce
to make way for his own tions with the EU “as warm
team, dominated by loyal and as close and as affec-
Brexiteers. He appointed tionate as possible” and
Sajid Javid to the key role promised the 3 million EU
of Treasury chief, named nationals in Britain “abso-
staunch Brexit supporter lute certainty” that they can
Dominic Raab as foreign stay. May made the same
secretary and made Priti promise, but it still is not
Patel the new home sec- enshrined in law.
By JILL LAWLESS
and DANICA KIRKA
Associated Press
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