Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller was frequently tripped up and forced to ask lawmakers to repeat their questions during his rapid-fire questioning on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, though he reportedly prepared at length for the hearings.
At one point, he even said he wasn’t familiar with Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm behind the controversial anti-Trump dossier.
The longtime lawman was known to be reluctant to testify, having made clear he would largely stick to the boundaries of his original report. He reiterated Wednesday that his testimony before House committees would be based on the text of his report on Russian election interference and potential obstruction of the investigation.
But that didn’t stop a barrage of detail-rich questions that seemed to throw off the usually stone-faced investigator.
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., focused his questions on the former Special Counsel’s findings that the investigation did not establish any conspiracy between President Trump and Russia. Collins asked Mueller if “conspiracy” and “collusion” were colloquially the same thing, and Mueller said no. Collins then quoted Mueller’s own report, which indicated otherwise.
EX-SPECIAL COUNSEL ROBERT MUELLER TESTIFIES TO CONGRESS — LIVE BLOG
“As defined in legal dictionaries, collusion is largely synonymous with conspiracy as that crime is set forth in the general federal conspiracy statute,” Collins read from the report. “Now, you said you chose your words carefully. Are you contradicting your report right now?” – READ MORE