Do You Want Mueller to Testify before Congress?

What’s the story?

• The top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee is urging the panel’s Democratic chairman to bring special counsel Robert Mueller to the Capitol to testify on his yet-to-be-released report on Russian influence in the 2016 Trump presidential campaign.
• Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) made the request of Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), arguing that questioning Mueller, and not Attorney General Barr, is the best path towards transparency.

What are both sides saying?

• "If you seek both transparency and for the American public to learn the full contours of the Special Counsel’s investigation, public testimony from Special Counsel Mueller himself is undoubtedly the best way to accomplish this goal," Collins wrote in a letter to Nadler.

Collins added: "[Y]ou refuse to head down that path for political reasons, and have chosen the path of greatest resistance, and least legality—attacking the attorney general for refusing to break the law while misleading the American public about what the law requires or allows."

• Collins letter comes a week after Democrats on the committee voted to authorize a subpoena for the full report by special counsel Mueller.

“The Constitution charges Congress with holding the president accountable for alleged official misconduct,” Nadler said at the outset of a meeting last week before lawmakers approved the subpoena. “That job requires us to evaluate the evidence for ourselves—not the attorney general’s summary, not a substantially redacted synopsis, but the full report and the underlying evidence.”

What do you think?

Do you agree with Collins? Should Mueller testify before – and in place of – Barr? Take action and tell your reps, then share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman

(Photo: Screen Capture)