Mueller to Testify in Open Congressional Hearing

Special counsel Robert Mueller has agreed to provide open testimony before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee and the House Intelligence Committee next month.

The chairmen of the two panels, Rep. Jerrold Nadler and Rep. Adam Schiff, announced in a letter late Monday that Mueller would appear July 17, and that they and all Americans looked forward to hearing from him.

Mueller led a nearly two-year investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and allegations that President Donald Trump obstructed justice by trying to shut down the probe.

He issued a report, a redacted version of which was made public in April, that concluded the Trump campaign had not colluded with Russia during the election, but reached no conclusion on the question of obstruction of justice.

Trump has been highly critical of the process, repeatedly calling the investigation a "witch hunt."

Mueller's only public comments to this point have been at a news conference in May during which he read a prepared statement, but took no questions.

Nadler and Schiff had issued subpoenas seeking to compel Mueller to testify, explaining that while they noted the special counsel's desire for his written report to stand on its own, the public deserves to hear directly about not only his conclusions but also the investigation itself.

"Americans have demanded to hear directly from the special counsel so they can understand what he and his team examined, uncovered, and determined about Russia's attack on our democracy, the Trump campaign's acceptance and use of that help, and President Trump and his associates' obstruction of the investigation into the attack," Nadler and Schiff said in their letter Monday.

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