Rep. Krishnamoorthi on Mueller, Trump and Impeachment

It was a marathon day of questioning.

Last week, former special counsel Robert Mueller sat before Congress to testify about his two-year investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

The hotly anticipated hearings left many cold, as Mueller steadfastly refused to go beyond the bounds of his team’s report.

Still, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Illinois) thinks the televised hearings helped educate people who didn’t read the massive document.

“Let me put it this way: I think a lot more people watched ‘Godfather’ the movie than read the book,” Krishnamoorthi said.

Krishnamoorthi, whose 8th Congressional District includes Elgin, Schaumburg and Addison, questioned Mueller as part of his role on the House Intelligence Committee.

“We knew from the start that he was going to try to stay within the confines of the report. That being said, it was worth probing for more. In one particular instance, in my line of questioning he actually went further than what was in the report. He actually said that there’s an ongoing counterintelligence with regard to [convicted former National Security Advisor] Michael Flynn … and here we were thinking that all the investigations were over. So that was beyond the scope of the report,” Krishnamoorthi said.

While Mueller’s testimony doesn’t seem to have changed many opinions about the Trump campaign and subsequent administration, it has spurred more Democrats in the House to back impeachment. While Krishnamoorthi says the “offenses” described in the Mueller report are impeachable, he doesn’t support initiating proceedings.

“If we’re going to start something, we better finish it – meaning we need to be able to sustain a conviction,” Krishnamoorthi said. “I just don’t think that we should start and then have a situation where he’s cleared of wrongdoing and he can really say he’s exonerated, in which case I think it would a) embolden him; and b) I think it would almost reassure his re-election.”

Author: Nick Blumberg
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