Nadler: 'You Can't Expect People To Read Lengthy' Mueller Report, 'They Have Their Own Lives'
One Democrat leading the drive to have former special counsel Robert Mueller testify before two House panels said it is wrong to expect Americans to learn about Mueller’s report by simply reading it.
The report’s 448 pages are at the center of House Democrats’ effort to use the report to attack President Donald Trump. Mueller, who was commissioned to investigate allegations that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia in 2016, said he found no proof of collusion.
However, Mueller, whose probe was bitterly opposed by Trump, did not issue a definitive answer on whether Trump obstructed the investigation. Questions on that section of the report are expected to loom large when Mueller appears before the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees on July 17.
But is there a need for the testimony? In May, Mueller thought not, and said, “My report is my testimony,” Newsweek reported.
If that’s the case, most Americans cannot be expected to ever know what Mueller said because the report is a reading task beyond most Americans, House Judiciary Charmain Jerrold Nadler has said.
“You can’t expect people to read lengthy documents in large numbers. They have their own lives to lead,” the New York Democrat said, Politico reported.
Nadler has said that hearings are an integral part of the Democrats’ plan.
“Impeachment is a political act, and you cannot impeach a president if the American people will not support it,” Nadler said in May, according to Politico.
“The American people right now do not support it because they do not know the story. They don’t know the facts. We have to get the facts out. We have to hold a series of hearings, we have to hold the investigations.”
It is possible that Mueller’s testimony might enlighten a few legislators as well. In surveying legislators about having read the full report, Politico found many with good intentions who did not get very far.
“It’s tedious,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski said. She said she started reading, but then other things came along.
“In fairness, I haven’t picked it up in at least two weeks,” the Alaskan Republican said last month. “I think most will read like the Reader’s Digest condensed version.”
However, she vowed to try.
“I do think it’s important to read it, and that’s why I’m poring through it. I just don’t have 18 hours that I can just sit down and give it a read. So, I get 15 minutes here and 25 minutes there. But I do think it’s important to read and that’s why I’m going to commit to it,” she said.
Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine said he should not be required to read the report.
“I didn’t have to read it. I lived it. I intended to read cover to cover, but there was nothing in it that was a surprise to me,” he said.
Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma admitted to skimming here and there.
“I would tell you, have I read every single page? No. Have I gone through it? Yes. Some sections more so than others,” he said.
Lankford said some of the report was “old news” that he could “flip through quickly.”
Attorney General William Barr on Monday said that from his perspective, House Democrats were not out to share the results of the Mueller report, but to “create some kind of public spectacle,” The New York Times reported.
“I don’t really feel it’s a useful exercise” to have Mueller testify, he said.
“I don’t see the point in subpoenaing him and bringing him up to testify if he’s going to stick with his report, which I think he will,” Barr said.
Democrats appear poised to not only investigate the report but also its sources of information, Politico reported.
The House Judiciary Committee is expected to vote Thursday to subpoena 12 witnesses who include Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former White House chief of staff John Kelly and one-time Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.
“Mr. Mueller’s team issued more than 2,800 subpoenas before concluding that no Americans conspired with Russia,” Republican Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement.
“Even if Chairman Nadler still believes subpoenas are conversation starters, it’s hard to imagine this handful of subpoenas will do anything but reinforce the principal conclusions we’ve been able to read about for months.”
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