The kind persons translating my posts thought it might be a good idea to revive the summary I gave at the time of Robert Mueller’s hearing a little over a year ago. Here it is.
HEARING OF ROBERT MUELLER (07/24/2019)
A SUMMARY BY P. JORION (07/25/2019)
Mr. Robert Mueller is an elderly man. He will turn 75 in a few days (August 7), and several American commentators have complained about this. They were hoping yesterday for someone with more punch, with a more assertive voice. They said that nowadays a 74 year old has more confidence, doesn’t search for his words, as was sometimes the case yesterday.
I guess unlike Robert Mueller and, among others, Paul Jorion, they did not attend the whole 7 hours of hearings, so they did not suffer from exhaustion.
I have been reporting to you live for seven hours. I went this morning to see what the others had observed. Basically, we noted the same thing: Mueller emphasizing that he hadn’t exonerated Trump, that his investigation was neither a witch-hunt nor a hoax, that Trump could be accused at the end of his term, that there was still the hidden part of the iceberg: the things that counterintelligence is right now busy with.
What didn’t I pick up yesterday that I probably should have? I imagine because of lingering friendly feelings towards Julian Assange, when asked to characterize Trump’s rave reviews of WikiLeaks (which one participant read extensively), Mueller said: “They’re problematic, to say the least.” Mueller also said that, in relation to WikiLeaks specifically, Donald Trump Jr. is under investigation as we speak, in connection with comments made by him that could be construed as active collaboration with WikiLeaks.
What did I notice that the others didn’t notice? Perhaps the furtive tear that Robert Mueller subreptitiously wiped away when Adam Schiff, Chairman of the Congressional Intelligence Committee, solemnly asked him if the saddest of it all was not the blatant lack of loyalty of the President for the Republic’s institutions? If you moved your cup of coffee in front of you a little to the right at that moment, you didn’t see it, because it happened very quickly, in the blink of an eye. In order to have seen it, you must indeed have been riveted to your screen, your eyes glued to it, as I was.
Democrats or Republicans, who won yesterday? The Democrats, who imagined Mueller would prove to be the equal of the Batman putting Gotham City back in order, must have been disappointed to see the elderly man who was a shadow of the second lieutenant of the Marines who continued to lead his platoon in Vietnam, despite having been shot in the thigh. The Republicans, who wanted to pulverize Mueller-the-Democratic-mole they were denouncing, backed down, since the Democrats had skillfully highlighted the faultless life of an American Hero, darling of all Republican presidents before Trump: from Reagan to Bush Jr., via Bush Sr.
The Republicans also made a major strategic error, the importance of which they will only realize later. They repeatedly cited the Steele dossier, a source of misinformation in their view, as the origin of the Mueller commission. They said that an investigation should now be launched into who circulated that report. “Why weren’t so-and-so worried, now that the falsehood is proven? ». Its falsehood has never been established and Mueller suggested yesterday, on several occasions, that the investigation was ongoing. An indirect answer to the Republicans was given by Adam Schiff, the Democrat chairing the Commission, and Mueller jointly, in a nice little dialogue, which was addressed to History, which will prove them right, rather than to those House Republicans who are already sidelined for not being in the know:
Schiff: « and so we have Candidate Trump who is saying “I have no dealings with the Russians,” but if the Russians had a tape recording, they could expose that, could they not? »
Mueller: « Yes. »
Schiff: « That’s the stuff of counterintelligence nightmares, is it not? »
Mueller: « It has to do with counterintelligence and the need for a strong counter-intelligence entity. »
What’s going to happen now? The ranks of Congress in favor of impeaching the President will continue to grow slowly but surely. And Ms. Pelosi, who leads the Democratic majority in Congress, will continue to repeat on her side: “Let justice move forward! “. She will not add “… as well as counterintelligence in parallel”, but the little pas-de-deux of Schiff and Mueller yesterday will perhaps help more government personnel understand her subtle game.
July 25th 2019