Watch: Robert Mueller’s Full Opening Statement At House Intelligence Hearing | NBC News — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00do you swear or affirm that the
2. 0:01testimony you are about to give at this
3. 0:03hearing is the whole truth and nothing
4. 0:05but the truth
5. 0:07thank you
6. 0:09the record will reflect that the
7. 0:10witnesses have been duly sworn ranking
8. 0:14member Thank You mr. chair I just want
9. 0:17to clarify that this is highly unusual
10. 0:19for mr. Zell be to be sworn in we're
11. 0:24here to ask director molar questions
12. 0:29he's Harris counsel our side is not
13. 0:32going to be directing any questions to
14. 0:34mr. Zeb Lee and we have concerns about
15. 0:36his prior representation of the Hillary
16. 0:41Clinton campaign aid so I just want to
17. 0:44voice that concern that we do have and
18. 0:47we will not be addressing any questions
19. 0:49to mr. Sibley today I think the ranking
20. 0:52member I realize as you probably do mr.
21. 0:56zeppeli that there is a angry man down
22. 0:59the street who's not happy about your
23. 1:00being here today but it is up to this
24. 1:02committee and not anyone else who will
25. 1:05be allowed to be sworn in and testify
26. 1:07and you are welcome as a private citizen
27. 1:09to testify and members may direct their
28. 1:12questions to wherever they choose with
29. 1:14that director Muller you are recognized
30. 1:18for any opening remarks you'd like to
31. 1:19make good afternoon chairman shiven
32. 1:25ranking member Nunez and members of the
33. 1:28committee I testified this morning
34. 1:30before the House Judiciary Committee I
35. 1:33asked that the opening statement I made
36. 1:35before that committee be incorporated
37. 1:38into the record here without objection
38. 1:40director I understand that this
39. 1:42committee has a unique jurisdiction and
40. 1:45that you are interested in further
41. 1:47understanding the counterintelligence
42. 1:49implications of our investigation so let
43. 1:53me say a word about how we handled the
44. 1:55potential impact of our investigation on
45. 1:58counterintelligence matters as we
46. 2:02explained in our report the special
47. 2:04counsel regulations effectively gave me
48. 2:06the role of the United States Attorney
49. 2:08as a result we structured our
50. 2:11investigation around Evan
51. 2:13for possible use in prosecution of
52. 2:15federal crimes we did not reach what you
53. 2:19would call counterintelligence
54. 2:20conclusions we did however set up
55. 2:24processes in the office to identify and
56. 2:27pass counterintelligence information on
57. 2:29to the FBI members of our office
58. 2:33periodically briefed the FBI about
59. 2:35counterintelligence information in
60. 2:38addition there were agents and analysts
61. 2:40from the FBI who were not on our team
62. 2:43but whose job it was to identify
63. 2:45counterintelligence information in our
64. 2:48files and to and to disseminate that
65. 2:51information to the FBI for these reasons
66. 2:55questions about what the FBI has done
67. 2:57with the counterintelligence information
68. 3:00obtained from our investigation should
69. 3:03be directed to the FBI I also want to
70. 3:07reiterate a few points that I made this
71. 3:09morning I am not making any judgments or
72. 3:13offering opinions about the guilt or
73. 3:15innocence in any pending case it is
74. 3:20unusual for a prosecutor to testify
75. 3:21about a criminal investigation
76. 3:24and given my role as a prosecutor there
77. 3:27are reasons why my testimony will
78. 3:29necessarily be limited first public
79. 3:33testimony could affect several ongoing
80. 3:35matters in some of these matters Court
81. 3:38rules or judicial orders limit the
82. 3:40disclosure of information to protect the
83. 3:43fairness of the proceedings and
84. 3:46consistent with long-standing Justice
85. 3:48Department policy it would be
86. 3:50inappropriate for me to comment in any
87. 3:52way that could affect an ongoing manner
88. 3:56second the Justice Department has
89. 3:59asserted privileges concerning
90. 4:01investigative information and decisions
91. 4:03ongoing matters within the Justice
92. 4:05Department and deliberations within our
93. 4:08office
94. 4:09these are Justice Department privileges
95. 4:12that I will respect the Department has
96. 4:15released a letter discussing the
97. 4:17restrictions on my testimony but I
98. 4:20therefore will not be able to answer
99. 4:22questions about certain areas that I
100. 4:24know are of public interest
101. 4:26for example I am unable to address
102. 4:29questions about the opening of the FBI's
103. 4:31Russia investigation which occurred
104. 4:34months before my appointment or matters
105. 4:36related to the so-called steel and
106. 4:38dossier these matters are the subject of
107. 4:42ongoing review by the department any
108. 4:45questions on these topics should
109. 4:47therefore be directed to the FBI or the
110. 4:50Justice Department the third as I
111. 4:53explained this morning it is important
112. 4:55for me to adhere to what we wrote in our
113. 4:57report the report contains our findings
114. 5:01and analysis and the reasons for the
115. 5:03decisions we made we stated the results
116. 5:06of our investigation with precision I do
117. 5:11not intend to summarize or describe the
118. 5:13results of our work in a different way
119. 5:15in the course of my testimony today as I
120. 5:19stated in May I also will not comment on
121. 5:22the actions of the Attorney General or
122. 5:24of Congress I was appointed as a
123. 5:27prosecutor and I intend to adhere to
124. 5:29that role and to the department
125. 5:31standards that government finally as I
126. 5:35said this morning over the course of my
127. 5:38career I have seen a number of
128. 5:40challenges to our democracy the Russian
129. 5:43government's efforts to interfere in our
130. 5:45election is among the most serious and I
131. 5:48am sure that the committee agrees now
132. 5:51before we go to questions I want to add
133. 5:53one correction to my testimony this
134. 5:55morning I want to go back to one thing
135. 5:58that was said this morning by mr. Liu
136. 6:00who said and I quote you didn't charge
137. 6:03the president because of the OLC opinion
138. 6:06that is not the correct way to say it as
139. 6:09we say in the report and as I said at
140. 6:11the opening we did not reach a
141. 6:13determination as to whether the
142. 6:15president committed a crime and with
143. 6:18that mr. chairman great answer questions
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