Asked by Swalwell if the investigation was hampered by encryption and deletion of electronic messages, Mueller replied, "True." He also agreed that other info protected by attorney-client privilege hampered the investigation. He won't discuss whether he wanted to subpoena or interview Junior, but he will say he wanted to interview Senior. Does this indicate there's still an investigation out there that includes Junior? Perhaps a counterintelligence investigation? That may explain why it seems Junior got off. Maybe he's not clear yet. Maybe that's one of the aspects that Mueller's team passed off to another office.*
Will Hurd (R) mimicked Justin Amash's performance in an earlier Congressional hearing in that he actually asked questions designed to get information about intelligence and counterintelligence and what we can do to prevent Russia from interfering again, which is ostensibly why this committee is having this hearing. Kudos to one more Republican. Hopefully, he won't be driven out of the Party because of it, as Amash was. Looking back, I see Hurd has been cross-ways with Trump before: on the border wall, and on reopening some agencies Trump shut down.
John Ratcliffe (R), who was also on the previous committee and very aggressive there, declined to ask any questions, and tried to look gracious by thanking Mueller, acting like he respects the man. Even Devin Nunes has been respectful (while his opening statement as Ranking Member was highly critical of the Dems and generally disparaged the Mueller report).
Republicans on both committees brought up the idea that Konstantin Kilimnik, whom Manafort provided polling data to and is characterized in the report as a Russian agent, is actually connected to US intelligence. That has surely come out before, but I don't recall hearing it (although I may have and just forgot). Mueller won't comment. I wonder, if this is true, whether Manafort would have known that, or if he were being played as part of the intelligence scheme/investigation that was already underway when the Special Counsel was appointed.
Peter Welch (D) read out a list of evidence of conspiracy in the Mueller report, which Republicans have been repeatedly saying the report found no evidence of.
Welch asks if accepting information and help from foreign countries is now going to be the new normal. Mueller says he hopes not, but "I fear it is." In fact, Trump has said he'd accept it again.
Patrick Maloney (D) asks why Mueller didn't subpoena the president. He answers they negotiated for over a year to get an interview, but finally, having had no success, they didn't want to subpoena because of the "necessity of expediting the end of the investigation," and that a subpoena would drag it out. He says the written responses "were not as useful." Incomplete, inadequate, imprecise, etc. Maloney asks why it stopped being vital to get the president's interview, something Mueller had claimed when asking for a face-to-face. Maloney wonders if Mueller didn't think he needed it in the end. Did you have sufficient evidence without it to show the president's intent to obstruct? "We had to make a balanced decision....We didn't do the interview because of the length of time it would take," is all Mueller would admit to.
Val Demings (D) asks if they asked all the questions of the president they wanted to, and Mueller says no. He says he "can't get into" what he thinks of Trump's credibility. Trump's incomplete answers included those related to the Trump Moscow Project, and he didn't answer follow-up questions. In fact, there were several questions he didn't answer. Mueller finally admits that "generally" the president's answers were not always truthful. And Demings says she finds the fact that Trump was allowed to get away with that "a disgrace" to US law inforcement.
This was certainly a better showing for the Democrats than the Judiciary Committee hearing.
* I went back over Mike Quigley's questioning because Mueller said something was "subject to investigation," but I'd missed what it was. In fact, it was about Junior. After establishing Mueller's and the US Intel community's belief that Wikileaks is a "hostile intelligence service," Quigley showed this slide...
...and asked Mueller's reaction. "Problematic is an understatement...in terms of some hope, or some boost, to what is and should be illegal activity," he responded. Then Quigley quotes from the report about Junior having direct contact with Wikileaks during the campaign period.
"On October 16, Wikileaks sent another direct message to Trump Jr. asking 'you guys' to help disseminate a link alleging candidate Clinton had advocated a drone to attack Julian Assange. Trump Jr responded back he 'had already done so.' Same question. Is this behavior, at the very least, disturbing?" Mueller responds, "Disturbing, and also subject to investigation."
I'd say that's pretty indicative that Junior is still under investigation. And he's not president. I wonder who's handling it. SDNY maybe.
UPDATE:
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