A ‘Breakdown in Communications’ May Postpone Mueller’s House Testimony

Multiple sources have told Fox News that Mueller’s long awaited testimony has been pushed out to July 24th due to a ‘breakdown in communications’ between House Democrats and Team Mueller. He had been originally slated to appear on Wednesday, July 17.

However, the Democratic majority of the House Judiciary Committee maintains, “At this moment we still plan to have our hearing on the 17th and we will let you know if that changes.”

That said, every major media outlet is now reporting that a one week delay is likely.

It is unclear what format the hearings will take. At first, Mueller was said to be testifying in a public hearing, two hours before each committee. Members complained they would have insufficient time to question him. This was followed by discussions about a subsequent private session.

One source told Fox:

The Democrats plan to have Mueller testify behind closed doors–yet it remained unclear whether Mueller himself would participate in that setting, or if his deputies would answer questions instead.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., has said that the closed-door session would only be with the special counsel’s staff, but House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., left the door open to the possibility that Mueller could testify privately as well. It also remains unclear whether the two committees would hold a joint closed-door session or two separate ones.

According to sources, the House Judiciary Committee is “negotiating with Mueller to allow Democrats and Republicans each 30 minutes of additional questioning at the hearing.”

There are 41 members of Congress on the Judiciary Committee and 22 on the Intelligence Committee, so it’s likely that not all Judiciary Committee members will have time to question Mueller. Understandably, many members are frustrated.

Former special counsel Robert Mueller has been subpoenaed to appear before both the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees. This is not something he would choose to do voluntarily. In a nine-minute public statement on May 30th, Mueller managed to muddy the waters considerably. Although his lengthy report had found insufficient evidence to recommend charges against President Trump, his message was widely interpreted as a call for House Democrats to initiate impeachment proceedings.

Mueller indicated, that as far as he was concerned, the investigation was over for him and said that the report speaks for itself. Insinuations made in the statement, which sounded as if it had been written by Andrew Weissmann, an overzealous prosecutor who is known for his aggressive tactics and who was Mueller’s appointed leader of the special counsel team, had to be walked backed later that evening in a joint statement between the DOJ and the Special Counsel.

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