House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler showed up at the Justice Department and announced that he will take action against Special Counsel Robert Mueller, following Mueller’s announcement that he wouldn’t testify before Congress, according to The Hill.
Mueller, who spent almost two years investigating the Trump campaign, disappointed Democrats when he was unable to find collusion between President Donald Trump and Russians.
Nadler, a frustrated Democrat from New York, didn’t mention impeachment in his statement on Wednesday, however, he said that it was up to Congress to potentially address it following Mueller’s explanation.
“Given that Special Counsel Mueller was unable to pursue criminal charges against the President, it falls to Congress to respond to the crimes, lies and other wrongdoing of President Trump – and we will do so,” Nadler said in a statement.
Mueller’s first public comments since he released his full report, weeks ago, Mueller said that charging Trump with a crime on obstruction of justice “was not an option we could consider.”
Mueller cited that the DOJ is unable to charge a sitting president for a crime, and that he was making no recommendations as such.
“If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so,” Mueller said.
On Wednesday, Nadler said that he believed Mueller has “clearly demonstrated that President Trump is lying about the Special Counsel’s findings,” according to The Hill.
“Although Department of Justice policy prevented the Special Counsel from bringing criminal charges against the President, the Special Counsel has clearly demonstrated that President Trump is lying about the Special Counsel’s findings, lying about the testimony of key witnesses in the Special Counsel’s report, and is lying in saying that the Special Counsel found no obstruction and no collusion,” he said.
However, on Wednesday Mueller said that he would not testify before Congress, which could spell trouble for Nadler, whose committee has been pursuing their investigation into the president consistently.
“I hope and expect that this will be the only time that I will speak to you in this manner,” Mueller said Wednesday. “I am making that decision myself — no one has told me whether I can or should testify or speak further about this matter.”
