Here’s how Mueller’s testimony could damage Trump
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By Greg Sargent,
With Robert S. Mueller III set to appear before Congress on Wednesday, the Justice Department is trying to constrain Mueller’s testimony. In a new letter, the department just warned the former special counsel not to “go beyond” what’s in his report.
Whether intentional or not, this directive serves to pre-frame the hearings, potentially in a manner that politically benefits President Trump.
The obvious game here is to frame the hearings as leaving Democrats with only the last ditch hope of prodding Mueller into revealing new information — and to spin any failure to make that happen as a fizzle for Democrats and a victory for Trump.
In reality, if Democrats can simply bring to life what Mueller did document — and convey that to a national audience — that alone will be a real victory, and an important public service.
What might that look like? Former FBI director James B. Comey has suggested asking direct questions designed to get Mueller to reiterate his findings.
In this scenario, Mueller would state clearly that Trump and his advisers eagerly expected to gain from a massive foreign attack on our political system designed to elect Trump. That Trump World repeatedly sought to coordinate with those efforts, in the full knowledge of who was behind them. That Trump secretly pursued a lucrative real estate deal with Kremlin involvement while voters picked the GOP nominee. That Trump and his advisers repeatedly lied to cover all of this up.
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