Robert Mueller denied that he had any conflicts of interest that would have pre𓃲vented him from ethically conducting an investigation into President Trump — refuting a charge the president has re🥃peatedly leveled at the former special counsel.
In terse, mostly one-word replies to questioning from Democratic Georgia Rep. Hank Johnson during a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Mueller replied “True” when asked whether his investigation discovered that Trump told then-White House counsel Don McGahn to🌃 fire him.
“And the president ♛claimed he wanted to fire you because you had supposed conflicts of interests, isn’t that correct?” Johnson asked.
“True,” Mueller replied.
The former FBI director then answered “True♊” when asked if he did not have any conflicts.
🍃Johnson then noted that Mueller’s report said that McGahn refused Trump’s order to give the special counsel the ax.
The president has said Mueller was conflicted because he had once quit a Tr💜ump golf club after moving and didn’t get a refund he’d asked for, and because he had applied for the FBI’s top job before he was appointed special counsel.
Texas GOP Rep. Louie Gomert then grilled Mueller about his relationship with former top G-man James Comey and why he hired “a bunch of people that did not like the president,” referring to former FBI agent Peter Strzok and others on his team.
“We were friends,” Mueller said of Comey.
Gomert also zeroed in on just when Mueller first learned that Strzok — who exchangꩲed anti-Trump messages with his colleague and then-lover, Lisa Page — disliked the president.
“Let me ask you when did yo﷽u first learn of Peter Strz🎶ok’s animus towards Donald Trump?” Gomert asked.
“In the summer of 2017,” Mueller replied. “And when I d✨id find out, I acted swiftly to hav🐼e him reassigned.”
Gomert scoffed at the notion that Muelle♐r took swift action, and then dismissed allegations of presidential obstruction⛄ as Trump simply defending himself against a stacked investigation.
“If somebody knows they did not conspire with anybody from Russia to affect the election and they see the big Justice Department with people who hate that person coming after them and then a special counsel appointed𒅌 who hires a dozen or more people that hate that person and he knows he’s innocent, he’s not corruptly acting in order to see that justice is done,” Gomert declared.
“What he’s doing is not obstructing justice. He is 🌌pursuing justice, and the fact that you ran it out two years means you perpetuated injustice,” he continued.