Mueller insists his report did not exonerate Trump on obstruction charges

The former US special counsel Robert Mueller methodically demolished Donald Trump’s central claims about his Russia investigation – insisting the results did not exonerate Trump – but he did not provide the fireworks that supporters of impeachment had been craving as he testified to Congress on Wednesday.

Testifying for almost seven hours at back-to-back hearings on Capitol Hill, Mueller rejected the US president’s claims that his investigation was “a witch-hunt”, that Russian election interference was “a hoax” and that Mueller’s report provided Trump with “total exoneration”.

Yet for those who had billed the hearings as a made-for-TV-moment that would convey the Mueller report to millions of people unaware of its contents, there was also a sense of anti-climax. It was political theatre without much drama as Mueller stuck rigidly to his published conclusions and provided few new revelations.

Worse, he was a star witness lacking star power, often struggling to keep up as questions pinballed from one member of Congress to another and providing only halting answers. At times he seemed uncertain of the contents of his own report.

Nevertheless, Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the House intelligence committee, teased some specific answers out of Mueller likely to grab the attention of TV viewers. “It is not a witch-hunt,” the special counsel said, refuting one of the president most repeated assertions.

Democratic congresswoman Jackie Speier asked: “Would you agree that it was not a hoax that the Russians were engaged in trying to impact our election?” Mueller, who became most animated when warning of the threat of Russia, replied: “Absolutely. That was not a hoax.”

Earlier in the day, at the start of the judiciary committee hearing, its chairman, Jerry Nadler, asked if Mueller’s report exonerated Trump, as the president has frequently claimed. Mueller answered: “No.”

The report did not reach a conclusion on the question of obstruction of justice, he added, and “the president was not exculpated for the acts that he allegedly committed”.

Mueller spent 22 months investigating Russian interference in the 2016 US election and Trump campaign ties to Moscow, publishing his redacted report in April. He made clear in a press conference in late May that, if required to testify on Capitol Hill, he would not go beyond the content of his 448-page report. He was as good as his word.

A somewhat reluctant witness, Mueller refused to read directly from the report, robbing Democrats of some theatrics. Instead, he often gave monosyllabic responses such as “Yes”, “No” or “Correct”. There were moments when Democrats led him to a conclusion but, instead of providing clarity, he obfuscated.

Mueller’s testimony was not the game changer that some had hoped in the debate over whether to impeach Trump, currently supported by more than 90 House Democrats, including several 2020 presidential candidates.

Following his testimony, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told a joint press conference: “My position has always been whatever decision we make in that regard would have to be made with the strongest possible hand, and we still have some outstanding matters in the courts… This isn’t endless.”

Pelosi recalled that in the Watergate scandal, it was the emergence of tapes that “broke the case”, and said Democrats should go to the people “in the strongest possible way”.

Nadler noted upcoming court actions seeking grand jury material and a subpoena against former White House counsel Don McGahn.

Nadler expressed satisfaction that the American people had heard directly what Mueller’s investigation uncovered. “Anyone else who acted in this way, if they were not the sitting president, would face criminal prosecution, would face indictments,” he told reporters.

He added: “Today was a watershed day in telling the facts to the American people.”

Schiff said Mueller’s testimony about the threat from Russia had been powerful. “One of the most chilling moments in our committee was when he expressed the fear that this becomes the new normal…

“Even after the nightmare of the last two and a half years, the president of the US will not foreswear accepting foreign help again… We go into this election more vulnerable than we should be.”

Despite having appeared before congressional committees 88 times before, the slow and methodical former FBI director, wearing a suit, white shirt and blue patterned tie, looked ill at ease and sometimes asked for questions to be repeated. If, as some argued, the report was the book and this was the movie adaptation, it was a movie without a leading man.

David Axelrod, chief strategist for Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns, tweeted: “This is delicate to say, but Mueller, whom I deeply respect, has not publicly testified before Congress in at least six years. And he does not appear as sharp as he was then.”

Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law at professor at Harvard University, tweeted: “Much as I hate to say it, this morning’s hearing was a disaster. Far from breathing life into his damning report, the tired Robert Mueller sucked the life out of it.”

As the day wore on, Democrats did land some blows, however.

Mueller was questioned on why he did not bring criminal charges against the president, who had refused to be interviewed. The congressman Ted Lieu of Hawaii asked: “The reason, again, that you did not indict Donald Trump is because of OLC [Office of Legal Counsel] opinion stating that you cannot indict a sitting president, correct?” Mueller replied: “That is correct.”

Later he sought to clarify his answer: “As we say in the report, we did not reach a determination as to whether the president committed a crime.” Even so, his assertion directly contradicts a past claim by Trump’s attorney general, William Barr, who had argued the OLC guidelines played no part in Mueller’s thinking.

Mueller also acknowledged that a president could be prosecuted after he left office. The Republican congressman Ken Buck asked: “You believe that he committed … you could charge the president of the United States with obstruction of justice after he left office?”

Mueller replied: “Yes.”

In the latest measure of bitter partisanship in Washington, Democrats repeatedly pressed the point that no one is above the law while Republicans attacked Mueller’s credibility and accused his team of political bias. They argued that Mueller’s team was made up of Democrats who had donated to Trump’s 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton. The Republican Devin Nunes declared: “Welcome, everyone, to the last gasp of the Russian collusion conspiracy theory.”

It appears that Trump himself was following the day’s events closely. He tweeted allegations of bias against Mueller, accusing him of seeking revenge after being turned down in his job application for director of the FBI. Mueller stated under oath that he was not, in fact, a candidate for FBI director under Trump.

Later, at the White House, Trump told reporters: “We had a very good day today, the Republican party … There was no defence of what Robert Mueller was trying to defend … There was no defence to this ridiculous hoax, this witch-hunt.”

He added: “Today proved a lot to everybody.”