NY grand jury indicts former President Trump
(CNSNews.co) - Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said again on Wednesday that Democrats may end up launching a formal impeachment inquiry, "but there does not appear to be the support for it now."
"Right now we have to get the facts out, we have to educate the American people," Nadler said.
And a big part of that is having former Special Counsel Robert Mueller testify in public, something Mueller has said he wants to avoid.
"Why are you so confident that the former Special Counsel Robert Mueller will appear in public before your committee without a formal subpoena?" CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked Nadler.
"Well, I didn't say without a formal subpoena. Hopefully, it won't come to that, but it may," Nadler said.
"He's an honest, honorable person, unlike the White House, which is defying Congressional subpoenas. There is no legal excuse for denying these -- defying these subpoenas, and I can't imagine that Mr. Mueller would defy the law. He's an honorable person."
Mueller told a news conference last month that his report, two years in the making, speaks for itself. "There has been a discussion about an appearance before Congress. Any testimony from this office would not go beyond our report. It contains our findings, analysis, and the decision we made," Mueller said. "The report is my testimony."
But Nadler told CNN on Wednesday that Mueller "may give information without realizing it."
He apparently -- he is a consummate civil servant and a very honest one, and I think he's internalized that people read the 448-page report carefully, and certainly some lawyers do, and hopefully most members of Congress have, and other people, but most people don't.
And it's important to -- it's important for him to answer the questions.
For example, what was the difference between him and (Attorney General William) Barr, when he said that the attorney general was misrepresenting the spirit of the -- of the report? What did he mean? That's not in the report, but what did he mean? He may want to -- we may want to ask him questions about, well, Barr says this about the report, is that true?...I think he's an honest man. He'll answer the questions."
Nadler said he fully expects the full House to vote to hold Barr and former White House Counsel Don McGahn in contempt of Congress next Tuesday.
Barr has refused to turn over the full, unredacted Mueller report to Congress; and McGahn refused a subpoena to testify before Nadler's committee.