Well, former special counsel Robert Mueller’s first round of testimony is over. The House Judiciary Committee is done, but the Intelligence Committee is about to begin. So we have to endure a few more hours of this circus. If the Democrats were hoping to reignite the Russian collusion nonsense, they’ve overdone it. Mueller seemed unconcerned. He had trouble hearing. He forgot parts of the report. As Fox News’ Chris Wallace aptly observed, it was an unmitigated disaster for the Democrats. One area where he stalled was the Trump dossier compiled by former MI6 spy Christopher Steele. It was a political opposition research project funded by the Clinton campaign and used as key evidence in securing a FISA spy warrant against former Trump campaign official Carter Page.
Jordan: What role did your office play in the third extension of the FISA agreement against Carter Page?
Mueller: I won’t answer that question.— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) July 24, 2019
This was the Hindenberg of congressional testimony. Yeeesh.
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) July 24, 2019
This document is the epicenter of the entire Russian collusion/interference circus. It’s the Holy Grail. And it was riddled with bullets by the Mueller report. It was already largely unverified. It was largely seen as junk. The Mueller report only confirmed that, but the former special counsel chose not to talk about Fusion GPS, even though he quotes it in his report, which he may or may not have written. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has aptly pointed out that if anti-Trump Russians are feeding Steele disinformation, isn’t that part of his job description? Mueller has repeatedly said that this is outside his mandate, which led to Gaetz taking him to the garage. He also addressed what appears to be blatant bias throughout the investigation, specifically involving fired and disgraced FBI agent Peter Strzok, who reportedly signed off on the initial counterintelligence probe into collusion with Russia when it was solely the bureau’s investigation, and “number two lawyer” who worked for Mueller and was later fired, although the former special counsel also declined to elaborate on that issue during the hearing.
Mueller can’t remember who uttered one of the most racy lines in the Report, in which Trump allegedly exclaimed, “I’m done.” (It was Jody Hunt, Sessions’ chief of staff.) Isn’t that something you’d remember? Did he prepare for this hearing at all?
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) July 24, 2019
Mueller says he is not “unknown” to Fusion GPS and that this is beyond his purview. That is a joke. Fusion GPS’s actions in connection with the 2016 election were within his purview and he knows it. Transparent Obfuscation
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) July 24, 2019
Chris Wallace called it “a disaster for Robert Mueller’s reputation… it raises questions about the extent to which he actually had responsibility for and control over the report.”
— Jonathan Easley (@JonEasley) July 24, 2019
Thank you. Gaetz asks why Mueller didn’t investigate the dossier as potential Russian disinformation. It was central to the task of investigating Russian interference. #MuellerHearing
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) July 24, 2019
TO WATCH: @RepMattGaetz is questioning Robert Mueller because his team included people who were clearly negative about President Trump. #MullerHearings photo: twitter.com/o8bFH6K397
— MRCTV.org (@mrctv) July 24, 2019
Page: “Trump Will Never Be President, Right? Right?”
Strzok: “No…we’ll keep him”
Gaetz: ‘Did Bob Mueller ever ask you about that text message?’
Strzok: “He didn’t do it.”#MuellerHearings photo: twitter.com/4rzC54AHA9
– Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) July 24, 2019
Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer at the center of the “Trump Tower Meeting,” got most of her information from Fusion GPS and Glenn Simpson, the same firm that developed the imitation Trump Dossier. #MuellerHearings photo: twitter.com/Qx6GDgw94i
– Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) July 24, 2019
Gaetz: ‘Can you say with certainty that the Steele dossier was not part of a Russian disinformation campaign?’
Mueller: “As for Steele… that’s beyond my purview.”
Gaetz: “That’s Exactly Your Purpose! The Organizing Principle Was to Fully Investigate Russia’s Interference!” photo:twitter.com/z5E5Gl7xZU
– Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) July 24, 2019
Mueller is finished.
Toast.
Done.
Libertine. @mattgaetz they buried him.Gaetz: Can you confirm that the Steele dossier was not Russian disinformation?
Mueller: The dossier is still ahead of my time.
Gaetz: As are Manafort’s crimes. You charged him.
Mueller: Not my thing.
Gaetz: IT’S IN YOUR REPORT! photo:twitter.com/e0hHqW0wcC— Benny (@bennyjohnson) July 24, 2019
It was not the Special Prosecutor’s job to determine guilt or innocence. His job was to determine whether there was a basis for the charge: There was none. #MuellerHearings photo: twitter.com/dfhuSHX5N8
– Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) July 24, 2019
Back to the dossier, Mueller played dumb at Fusion GPS, which hired Steele after he was hired by the Clinton campaign to find dirt on Trump, which just seems too good to be true. WeX’s Philip Klein wondered how that was possible (via Washington Examiner):
Mueller “doesn’t know” Fusion GPS? So why did he IN HIS OWN REPORT call them “the company that produced the Steele report” and quote a reference to a NYT article that mentions Fusion GPS? ?????? photo:twitter.com/bp6pmqRgvT
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) July 24, 2019
The bizarre exchange occurred when Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, tried to bring up Fusion GPS, an opposition research firm that was hired by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee to dig up Trump and eventually hired British spy Christopher Steele to compile juicy and unverified information about Trump’s ties to Russia.
[…]
Mueller, looking at the binder containing a copy of the report, asked, “Are you on page 103?”
Chabot asked again, “When you talk about the company that produced Steele’s report. The name of the company that produced it was Fusion GPS. Is that correct?”
Mueller replied, “I don’t know anything about that.”
How is that even possible? It’s one thing to say he won’t answer questions about Fusion GPS (which he did in subsequent questions, using the phrase “that’s out of my scope”), but how the hell could he not know about a company that played such a key role in Russian history?
This is becoming one huge material contribution to Trump’s re-election campaign. Fortunately, Attorney General William Barr is investigating the origins of the Russia investigation. Hopefully, that will be cleared up in due time.
#MuellerReport #Witch-hunt photo:twitter.com/6Mhdrl7rRF
— Dan Scavino (@DanScavino) July 24, 2019
The Clinton campaign and their party have enlisted the facilitate of a foreign spy working with Russia to leak discredited Russian op-ed materials to the press and utilize the subsequent stories as justification for surveillance of private citizens for political reasons. That should scare people.
— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) July 24, 2019
