Robert Mueller To Testify In Washington Wednesday
ALLEN: Welcome back. All eyes in Washington will be on Congress Wednesday.</s>VANIER: That's when former Special Counsel Robert Mueller will answer questions in two hearings before the House about his Russia investigation. Here's Jerry Nadler, a top Democrat whose committee will be questioning Mueller.</s>REP. JERRY NADLER (D-NY): I think there is very substantial -- well, the report presents very substantial evidence that the president is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors, and we have to present -- or that Mueller present those facts to the American people and then see where we go from there. Because the administration must be held accountable and no president can be -- can be above the law.</s>ALLEN: CNN's Manu Raju has the latest from Capitol Hill.</s>MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Lawmakers are intensely preparing for the most anticipated hearing in decades when Special Counsel Robert Mueller testifies about the findings of his two-year investigation. Democrats and Republicans both sharpening their questions and their strategy as they hold mock hearings with top aides sitting in as Mueller. CNN has learned that Democrats and the House Judiciary Committee will focus on five areas of potential obstruction of justice laid out in the Mueller report including Trump order to then-White House Counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller. His efforts to have McGahn deny that the President had ordered him to have the special counsel removed. Also, Trump's ordered to former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to tell the then-Attorney General Jeff sessions to limit the investigation to exclude the president and later threatening to fire sessions if he did not meet with Lewandowski. There are also episodes in the Mueller report of alleged witness tampering including Trump encouraging former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen not to cooperate with federal prosecutors.</s>NADLER: Just if he says what was in the report and says it to the American people so they hear it, that would be very, very important.</s>RAJU: Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee plan to press Mueller about the extent of Russian interference in the 2016 elections and contacts between Russians and the Trump campaign and we'll ask Mueller about his finding that Trump publicly expressed skepticism that Russia was responsible for the hacks at the same time that he and other campaign officials privately sought information about any further plan WikiLeaks releases of Clinton campaign e-0mails.</s>REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Well, we're going to ask him questions beyond the report and we're going to expect him to answer.</s>RAJU: With the stakes enormous, Democrats say they are preparing carefully rereading the entire 448-page report.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not going to be a whole bunch of numbers freelancing. This will be organized.</s>RAJU: Republicans meanwhile, plan to press the special counsel about whether his team was biased as well as anti-Trump text sent by FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page.</s>REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): We got a lot of questions about how Robert Mueller's team was assembled.</s>RAJU: And they plan to raise questions about why the investigation started in the first place.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's the basic questions of understanding a conclusion, you got to understand where it started.</s>RAJU: But Mueller has already indicated he won't go beyond the four corners of his report.</s>ANDREW MCCABE, FORMER DEPUTY DIRECTOR, FBI: Director Mueller will be impeccably prepared. He's not a verbose and dramatic witness but he knows his stuff.</s>ROBERT MUELLER, FORMER SPECIAL COUNSEL: Good morning.</s>RAJU: But some Democrats are trying to lower expectations including Jim Himes of Connecticut who sits on the Intelligence Committee and told me he doesn't expect much news out of this hearing because of the expectation that the special counsel will simply stick to the report. And also -- but other Democrats are saying it could drive more people towards the impeachment camp because of the special counsel even delivering the details from the report. People will hear it for the first time. Their views could change about opening up an impeachment inquiry. The question is will someone like Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker ultimately come down. She, of course, is opposed to opening up impeachment proceedings. She's privately told her members to approach this calmly, seriously, don't raise expectations, don't lower expectation. But at the moment, the expectation is you'll still oppose opening up an impeachment inquiry even after the special counsel testifies. Manu Raju, CNN Capitol Hill.</s>VANIER: Joining us is New York Times White House Correspondent and CNN Political Analyst Michael Shear. Michael, Robert Mueller already set the stage for this back in May. This is what he said.</s>MUELLER: The report is my testimony. I would not provide information beyond that which is already public in any appearance before Congress.</s>VANIER: So we're not expecting any bombshells. So that said, what's the strategy for Democrats?</s>MICHAEL SHEAR, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, there's sort of two different strategies. I mean, I think you're right. They're definitely playing down expectations that there's going to be some sort of humongous bombshell that it's revealed. They don't expect that. But they sort of have two different strategies. One is that they hope that even if all they do is extract a verbal description of the report and oral description of the report by Mueller, that that is a more sensational way for the American public to digest what it was that Mueller said. Let's face it, most people aren't going out and reading a 450-page report and so they hope that just the visual, the verbal description of it will captivate Americans and the way in a way that the written report didn't. And second, I think they --</s>VANIER: Hold on, Michael. Before you get to the second point then, let me interrupt you for a second because Adam Schiff, that is exactly what he said. He was on Face the Nation. He's the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. I want you to listen to him.</s>SCHIFF: Since most Americans you know, in their busy lives haven't had the opportunity to read that report, and it's a pretty dry prosecutorial work product, we want Bob Mueller to bring it to life, to talk about what's in that report. It's a pretty damning a set of facts.</s>VANIER: So Michael, that is to your point. Essentially they want Robert Mueller to narrate his report for the American people on T.V. And also to your point, a CNN poll a couple of months ago showed that three percent of Americans had read the full report, only three percent. Ten percent say that they've read some. That means three-quarters haven't read any of it. So I'm just putting the numbers to your -- to your point there that the Democrats apparently really want this to want Mueller to materialize the report for people.</s>SHEAR: Right. I'm actually surprised a full three percent would have read the whole thing. I mean --</s>VANIER: Yes, that would be nine million people. I have my doubts about that.</s>SHEAR: Right. I suspect maybe not. I mean, I also -- I also think that you know, the Democrats probably have even privately some limited expectations even about this you know, sort of televised broadcast of it because let's face it, most Americans aren't you know, going to watch the whole thing. Maybe they get snippets of it on the news. I mean, I think you know, the other piece that they're hoping for a little bit is that even though Mueller says that he won't you know, go beyond the literal written words that he put on paper, you know, there's always the kind of hope that you can push Mueller into some kind of a sound bite, some kind of you know, just a little bit further than he was willing to go in the report. And there's some evidence in past appearances by Mueller in front of Congress that you know, that he has at times kind of gone beyond where he was initially willing to go, and I think that they hope that if they get that there might be a sound bite that can then play kind of on a continuous loop that might help them you know, sort of going forward.</s>VANIER: And look, that makes sense for them right, because there are some very, very gray areas in the report especially the obstruction of justice part of the report. And Mueller has this quote where he says if we could exonerate the president, if we had material, if we had the basis to exonerate the president we would exonerate him but we're not doing that.</s>SHEAR: Right. And you know -- and it's funny I think in some ways the irony of all of this is that if Robert Mueller gets annoyed enough in response to questioning, it maybe the questioning by the Republicans that actually gets his go, right. You know, if the Republicans are pushing him you know, sort of challenging the reports, saying that he's just a you know, leader of a bunch of angry Democrats, I mean, you could you can sort of see a you know, a kind of guy like Mueller getting annoyed enough at that kind of -- those kinds of attacks that maybe he sort of lashes out and says something that ultimately helps the Democrats. So it could be the Republican questioning that gets -- that gets the Democrats what they want not you know, not a bunch of Democrats pushing on him.</s>VANIER: All right, Michael Shear, so there will be two, three-hour sessions in front of different committees in Congress by Robert Mueller this week. We'll be watching those and airing those on CNN. Michael, thank you very much.</s>SHEAR: Sure. I'll talk to you soon.</s>ALLEN: U.S. Immigration agents have been in the spotlight as the Trump administration targets undocumented immigrants who they say present a threat to national security. Next here, CNN rides with agents in California who are making arrests of what they call a routine operation.