Mueller speaks about the Russia investigation

It’s been a busy day in Washington.

Special counsel Robert Mueller spoke publicly for the first time ever about his 22-month-long investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. He also announced that he’s returning to private life and the special counsel’s office said today marked his last day in his position.

If you missed it all, here’s how the day played out:

Today is Robert Mueller’s last day as special counsel, according to special counsel spokesperson Peter Carr.

Earlier today, Mueller said he was resigning from the Department of Justice and returning to private life.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, speaking at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, said many of her constituents support starting impeachment proceedings against President Trump — but she wants to ensure that any case Congress makes is a “compelling” one.

Pelosi said that “nothing is off the table” but stressed the need for an “ironclad” case to convince Republican lawmakers.

“But we do want to make such a compelling case, such an ironclad case that even the Republican Senate would — at the time seems to be not an objective jury —will be convinced of the path that we have to take as a country,” she said.

A spokesperson for former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign told CNN that special counsel Robert Mueller’s statement today reiterated two points: one, that Russia continues to meddle, a reality Trump can’t ignore, and two, Congress continue to investigate.

“What is truly troubling is that we have seen this President and this Administration engaging in flagrant, open attacks on the rule of law by throwing up roadblocks early in the stages of Congress’ investigation,” the spokesperson said. “Not only that, President Trump is now directing an extraordinary internal vendetta against law enforcement and intelligence community investigators who were doing their job.”

On impeachment, Biden sides with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has urged caution from progressives who have pushed for impeachment proceedings to begin.

“Vice President Biden agrees with Speaker Pelosi that no one would relish what would certainly be a divisive impeachment process, but that it may be unavoidable if this Administration continues on its path,” the spokesperson said.

They added, “Vice President Biden will continue to make the case as to why President Trump should not be re-elected. That is the surefire way to get him out of office.”

Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler, after saying that he believed the Department of Justice’s policy preventing the president from being charged with a crime is “wrong,” told a reporter he wasn’t ruling out the possibility of impeachment.

House Judiciary chair Jerry Nadler, a Democrat, said President Trump has lied about special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

“Although Department of Justice policy prevented the special counsel from bringing criminal charges against the President, the special counsel has clearly demonstrated that President Trump is lying.”

He continued:

House Judiciary chair Jerry Nadler, a Democrat, is talking to reporters following special counsel Robert Mueller’s statement this morning on his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

After Mueller spoke, Nadler released a statement saying that it “falls to Congress to respond to the crimes, lies and other wrongdoing of President Trump.”

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said Congress believes its responsibility “to investigate and hold the President accountable for his abuse of power” is a sacred duty — but she did not call for impeachment proceedings.

Pelsoi has long said she does not want to begin impeachment proceedings, but in recent weeks, she has faced increasing pressure from some Democrats to do so.

She continued: The Congress holds sacred its constitutional responsibility to investigate and hold the President accountable for his abuse of power. The Congress will continue to investigate and legislate to protect our elections and secure our democracy.

Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale echoed the president’s comments, saying “the case is now closed.”

In a statement, he said:

Parscale added, “Now it’s time to turn to the origins of the Russia hoax and get to the bottom of why the Trump campaign was spied on by the Obama-era DOJ and FBI. Anyone who is for transparency, constitutional civil liberties, and the rule of law should want to know why human sources, wiretapping, and unmasking were used to infiltrate a presidential campaign.”

A senior Democratic strategist tells CNN that Mueller “should be subpoenaed the day he leaves the DOJ.”

Here’s more from the source:

A Trump legal team source said it was “gratuitous” of Special counsel Robert Mueller to make the statement, “if we had confidence the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.”

“Gratuitous,” the source said emphatically, arguing Mueller did not have to make that kind of statement, leaving the door open to interpretation that Trump could conceivably be accused of committing a crime. 

The source went on to say that Mueller during his remarks made it obvious he doesn’t want to appear before Congress. “He clearly doesn’t want to testify,” the source said. 

But the Trump legal team source says Mueller has not been ordered to avoid testifying. 

“He has not been instructed not to testify,” the source said. 

Senate Judiciary Committee member and presidential candidate Kamala Harris just told reporters:

She told reporters in Anderson, South Carolina, that “what we learned is that the special counsel did not return an indictment because of that memo. In other words, but for that memo, I believe that a fair inference from what we heard from Bob Mueller is that there would have been indictments returned against this President.”

She also accused Attorney General William Barr of misleading the American people.

Moments later, as she took the stage, some in the crowd chanted, “Defeat Trump now!”

A number of 2020 presidential candidates — all of them Democrats — tweeted that Mueller’s statement should lead to impeachment proceedings.

Elizabeth Warren:

Kamala Harris:

Seth Moulton:

Cory Booker:

Julián Castro:

The White House just released a statement from Press Secretary Sarah Sanders following Mueller’s press conference today, saying, “the report was clear—there was no collusion, no conspiracy” and that the Department of Justice “confirmed there was no obstruction.”

Here’s the full statement:

A source familiar with President Trump’s thinking says the President’s view on impeachment is this: “Let’s do it. This fight will end up on our side. American people will see this as a scam.”

Rep. Doug Collins, Ranking Member on the House Judiciary Committee, just released a statement that praised Robert Mueller and said the special counsel “confirmed today what we knew months ago when his report was released: there was no collusion and no obstruction.”

He added, “Relitigating the 2016 election and reinvestigating the special counsel’s findings will only further divide our country,” and it’s “time to move on.”

Sen. Cory Booker, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, just tweeted: “Robert Mueller’s statement makes it clear: Congress has a legal and moral obligation to begin impeachment proceedings immediately.”

Why it’s notable: This is the first time Booker has called for impeachment proceedings.

He has previously said he wanted to see the entire unredacted Mueller report before making a decision on whether or not President Trump should be impeached.

A senior White House official downplayed Mueller’s comments today, saying that his statement did little to add new information to what was already known about the probe.

“It was news one month ago,” the official said.

On the issue of whether the next step is impeachment, Trump aides don’t believe that Mueller did more than repeat what was in the report, the official said.

“Nothingburger,” is how the official described it.

Special counsel Robert Mueller stressed what he previously wrote in his 448-page report: If President Donald Trump had not committed a crime, investigators would have said so.

In other words: They never gave Trump that clean bill of health. 

Mueller made very clear that no matter what they discovered on obstruction, the overriding principle that a president could not be indicted prevailed. Those Justice Department guidelines, which say a sitting president has temporary immunity from federal prosecution, date back to the Nixon era and were reaffirmed in the Clinton administration.

Mueller’s statement Wednesday on this topic was not in line with Attorney General William Barr’s previous comments downplaying the role of the decades-old guidance from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.

The role of Congress: Additionally, Mueller made clear he believes Congress has a role, saying the Constitution allows for a process outside of the criminal justice system to hold federal officeholders accountable. This was also featured in his report, which explicitly said that Congress has the power to a President accountable for obstruction-of-justice offenses.

He also defended his team and the right to investigate the issue of obstruction, amidst repeated charges by the President that the investigation was a politically motivated “witch hunt” that was riddled with corruption. Mueller noted that the order appointing him as special counsel in May 2017 explicitly authorized his obstruction inquiry. 

Jerry Nadler, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, said it “falls to Congress to respond to the crimes, lies and other wrongdoing of President Trump.”

He was responding to special counsel Robert Mueller’s comments moments ago. (In his statement, Mueller stressed that if Trump had not committed a crime, investigators would have said so. They never gave Trump that clean bill of health.)

Here’s what Nadler said: