After hours of non-answers and referrals back to the report, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) managed to get a compelling answer out of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller with a very direct question: "Why didn't you subpoena the president?"
Mueller in response to Maloney's question about the lack of a subpoena during this House Intelligence Committee hearing explained that his team spent a year attempting to secure an interview with Trump to no avail.
"We decided that we did not want to exercise the subpoena powers because of the necessity of expediting the end of the investigation," Mueller said. "The expectation was if we did subpoena the president, he would fight the subpoena, and we would be in the midst of the investigation for a substantial period of time."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Trump ultimately answered some questions for Mueller in writing, but the former special counsel admitted during his testimony that these written responses were "certainly not as useful as the interview would be."
Maloney seemed critical of this decision by Mueller, suggesting either that he "flinched" or that he "didn't think you needed it" because there was already a "substantial body of evidence" against Trump without an interview. But Mueller, clearly, would directly not comment on this, only saying they had to balance "how much evidence" they had with "how much time" they were "willing to spend in the courts."
Later, when asked by Val Demings (D-Fla.) if it's "fair to say that the president's written answers ... showed that he wasn't always being truthful," Mueller said that it "generally" is. Brendan Morrow
-
House posts lewd Epstein note attributed to TrumpSpeed Read The estate of Jeffrey Epstein turned over the infamous 2003 birthday note from President Donald Trump
-
Supreme Court allows 'roving' race-tied ICE raidsSpeed Read The court paused a federal judge's order barring agents from detaining suspected undocumented immigrants in LA based on race
-
South Korea to fetch workers detained in Georgia raidSpeed Read More than 300 South Korean workers detained in an immigration raid at a Hyundai plant will be released
-
DC sues Trump to end Guard 'occupation'Speed Read D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb argues that the unsolicited military presence violates the law
-
RFK Jr. faces bipartisan heat in Senate hearingSpeed Read The health secretary defended his leadership amid CDC turmoil and deflected questions about the restricted availability of vaccines
-
White House defends boat strike as legal doubts mountSpeed Read Experts say there was no legal justification for killing 11 alleged drug-traffickers
-
Epstein accusers urge full file release, hint at own listspeed read A rally was organized by Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie, who are hoping to force a vote on their Epstein Files Transparency Act
-
Court hands Harvard a win in Trump funding battleSpeed Read The Trump administration was ordered to restore Harvard's $2 billion in research grants
