Within minutes of beginning his testimony before Congress on Wednesday, Robert Mueller, the former special counsel, directly contradicted one of President Donald Trump’s primary claims regarding the Mueller investigation. Speaking in lawyerly terms, Mueller said that his report had not exonerated the President on allegations of obstruction of justice.

“The President was not exculpated for the acts that he allegedly committed,” Mueller said.

In a series of exchanges with the House Judiciary Committee chairman, Jerry Nadler, and other Democrats, Mueller also confirmed the basic outlines of his report. He said that the Russians engaged in sweeping interference in the 2016 election. And he noted that Trump’s campaign manager shared campaign strategy with a suspected Russian operative. Nadler repeatedly pressed Mueller, however, about his findings on obstruction.

“The President has repeatedly claimed that your report found there was no obstruction, and that it completely and totally exonerated him,” Nadler said. “But that is not what your report said, is it?”

“Correct, that is not what the report said,” Mueller replied.

After several other questions, Nadler again asked Mueller the same question. “So the report did not conclude that he did not commit obstruction of justice,” Nadler said. “Is that correct?”

“That is correct,” Mueller said.

Nadler then asked, “And what about total exoneration? Did you actually totally exonerate the President?”

“No,” Mueller replied.

The hearing then quickly devolved into partisan lines of questioning. Republicans accused Mueller of unfairly smearing the President. Democrats tried to elicit more confirmations from Mueller of the most damaging elements of the report.

Mueller, who is seventy-four, struggled to answer some rapid-fire questions from members of Congress. He asked members to repeat their questions or to give him the citations for the section of the report they were citing. He stammered at times. Under attack from Republicans, he largely declined to defend himself.

More dramatic moments could unfold on Wednesday, but congressional hearings are often summarized by single moments. (Think of President Nixon’s White House counsel, John Dean, describing a “cancer” growing on the Presidency.)

In the first minutes of Mueller’s testimony, Democrats achieved a basic aim: contradicting Trump’s claims of innocence.

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Mueller Revealed the Conspiracy-Theory-Driven State of American Politics

David Rohde  – The New Yorker

Politics is a battle of narratives. During Robert Mueller’s five-hour appearance on Capitol Hill, three starkly different story lines emerged. Democrats insisted that Trump was guilty of obstruction of justice and rampant lies. Republicans insisted that Trump was the victim of a vast conspiracy involving a cabal of F.B.I. agents. A final, unexpected narrative was that Mueller, who is seventy-four, was “Dazed and Confused”—as the Drudge Report put it—and unable to clearly answer questions regarding his investigation and report.

Questions from Democrats followed a predictable script. Over and over, they tried to coax the former special counsel into recounting the most damaging findings of his report. On some points, Mueller helped. On others, he did not. Mueller said that Russia had systematically intervened in the election to aid Donald Trump and that his investigation had not exonerated the President of obstruction. But Mueller declined to comment on whether Trump should be impeached, repeatedly saying, “I’m not going to talk about that issue.”

Questions from Republicans drove a polar-opposite narrative: that the Clinton campaign had conspired with Russia against Trump. G.O.P. representatives repeated long-running claims that a group of politically biased F.B.I. officials used a dossier of allegations, funded by the Clinton campaign and assembled by the former British spy Christopher Steele, to launch a spurious criminal investigation. (F.B.I. officials have said that they launched their investigation based on other evidence, not the dossier.) In some cases, Mueller declined to aid their narrative, stating, “I do not accept your characterization of what occurred.” At another point, though, he did say for the record that he had not uncovered evidence that Russia had compromising material on Trump.

The most surprising element—and the one that may impact voters most directly—was Mueller’s own demeanor. At times, he answered questions quickly and directly. He aggressively defended his team, for example, from Republican charges of political bias, calling it “absolutely exemplary.” At other times, the former special counsel appeared confused or unable to hear, asking both Republicans and Democrats to repeat their questions. In a significant gaffe, he answered questions in the morning sessions from the Democrat Ted Lieu and the Republican Ken Buck that suggested he believed that Trump had committed a crime. In the afternoon session, he corrected himself and said that he had not arrived at a conclusion about whether Trump had committed a crime. Near the end of his testimony, Mueller also struggled to remember the word “conspiracy.” The Democrat Peter Welch asked whether he had found collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Mueller said, “Well, we don’t use the word ‘collusion.’ The word we usually use is, well, not ‘collusion’ but one of the other terms that fills in when ‘collusion’ is not used.” Welch replied, “The term is ‘conspiracy’ that you prefer to use?” Mueller responded, “ ‘Conspiracy,’ exactly right.” Voters will find Mueller’s manner a reason to have greater—or lesser—faith in his findings.

Stepping back, the hearings were most remarkable for what they revealed about the state of American politics. Each political party is accusing the other of committing treason. The F.B.I. is being accused of mounting a sham investigation to smear a Presidential candidate. And the President is being accused of attempting to illegally obstruct it. The country is locked in an endlessly escalating political arms race—often based on conspiracy theories—that will intensify through 2020. Distrust is the defining dynamic of American politics. The President is the primary instigator. But there are legions of liberals and conservatives eager to think the worst of one another. On Wednesday, Mueller failed to ease that division. It is likely that no one will.