House Democrats announced Friday that Robert Mueller’s public hearing planned for July 17 would be delayed until July 24 to allow more time for questioning.
House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler and House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff issued a joint statement regarding the decision, adding that Mueller had agreed to the delay.
They wrote:
The House Judiciary Committee will convene on July 24 at 8:30am with Special Counsel Mueller testifying in public for three hours. After a brief break, the House Intelligence Committee will convene for additional public testimony beginning at 12:00 pm. All members — Democrats and Republicans — of both committees will have a meaningful opportunity to question the Special Counsel in public, and the American people will finally have an opportunity to hear directly from Mr. Mueller about what his investigation uncovered.
Reports state that two hours had been allotted for the Judiciary Committee and the Intelligence Committee to question Mueller about the contents of his 448-page report regarding so-called “Russian interference” during the 2016 election. The report was given to Attorney General William Barr for review in April.
“Mueller’s limited availability meant restrictions on the amount of time for some members to ask questions and also made it appear that some members wouldn’t be able to speak at all,” NPR reported.
During his last day on the special counsel, Mueller stated that he did not want to appear before Congress. However, congressional Democrats made it clear that they wanted to hear from him regarding the investigation and report.
Months later, he agreed to appear after he was subpoenaed in June by the House Judiciary Committee, Breitbart News reported.
In April, President Trump sharply criticized Democrats for turning on Mueller after the special counsel’s investigation did not reveal collusion or obstruction by the president involving Russian interference with the 2016 presidential campaign.
“Now that the long-awaited Mueller Report conclusions have been released, most Democrats and others have gone back to the pre-Witch Hunt phase of their lives before Collusion Delusion took over. Others are pretending that their former hero, Bob Mueller, no longer exists!” He wrote on Twitter.