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Ken Dilanian and Tom Winter
2m ago / 11:26 AM GMT-4
Mueller did push back a bit against an attack by Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., but not nearly as forcefully as he could have. And he didn’t marshal any facts in his defense.
McClintock suggested the public can’t trust whether the Mueller team correctly characterized witness testimony and accused Mueller’s team of creating a political report. He also stated there was no connection between the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency (the Russian troll farm) and the Russian government, which is a laughable claim.
Mueller responded tersely, saying at one point, “I don’t necessarily credit what you’re saying occurred.” And: “I would again dispute your characterization of what occurred in that proceeding.”
McClintock: “It’s starting to look like, having desperately tried and failed to make a legal case against the president, you made a political case instead.”
Mueller: “I don’t think you have reviewed a report that is as thorough, as fair, as consistent as the report that we have in front of us.”
That is the most detailed sentence he has uttered in defense of his report.
Rep. Guy Reschenthaler’s questioning is another example.
The Pennsylvania Republican asked Mueller whether any of the witnesses he spoke with were cross-examined, but no witness gets cross-examined in the course of conducting an investigation. That only happens in court.
Yet there is little Mueller did to point this out.