Special counsel Robert Mueller, breaking a two-year silence on his investigation into ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, says charging a president with a crime was "not an option" his team could consider in the Russia investigation.

Mueller says that he was bound by long-standing Justice Department opinions that say a president can't be indicted while in office.

In his first public comments in the probe, Mueller said on Wednesday "it would be unfair" to potentially accuse someone of a crime when the person couldn't stand trial to defend himself.

Mueller's comments echoed the findings in his public report.

Mueller's report revealed that US President Donald Trump tried to seize control of the Russia probe and force Mueller's removal to stop him from investigating potential obstruction of justice by the Republican president.

Trump has called the investigation a "witch hunt."

POOL

Washington, DC - 29 May 2019

1. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Mueller, Special Counsel:

SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Mueller, Special Counsel:

"Two years ago the acting attorney general asked me to serve as special counsel and he created the special counsel's office.  The appointment order directed the office to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. This included investigating any links or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump campaign. Now I have not spoken publicly during our investigation. I'm speaking out today because our investigation is complete. The attorney general has made the report on our investigation largely public. We are formally closing the special counsel's office and as well, I'm resigning from the Department of Justice to return to private life. I'll make a few remarks about the results of our work, but beyond these few remarks it is important that the office's written work speak for itself. Let me begin where the appointment order begins and that is interference in the 2016 presidential election. As alleged by the grand jury in an indictment, Russian intelligence officers, who were part of the Russian military, launched a concerted attack on our political system. The indictment alleges that they use sophisticated cyber techniques to hack into computers and networks used by the Clinton campaign. They stole private information and then released that information through fake online identities and through the organization WikiLeaks. The releases were designed and timed to interfere with our election and to damage a presidential candidate. And at the same time, as the grand jury alleged in a separate indictment, a private Russian entity engaged in a social media operation where Russian citizens posed as Americans in order to influence an election. These indictments contain allegations and we are not commenting on the guilt or the innocence of any specific defendant. Every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. The indictments allege and the other activities in our report describe efforts to interfere in our political system. They needed to be investigated and understood and that is among the reasons why the Department of Justice established our office. That is also a reason we investigated efforts to obstruct the investigation.  The matters we investigated were of paramount importance. It was critical for us to obtain full and accurate information from every person we questioned. When a subject of an investigation obstructs that investigation or lies to investigators, it strikes at the core of the government's effort to find the truth and hold wrongdoers accountable. Let me say a word about the report. The report has two parts, addressing the two main issues we were asked to investigate. The first volume of the report details numerous efforts emanating from Russia to influence the election. This volume includes a discussion of the Trump campaign's response to this activity as well as our conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to charge a broader conspiracy. And in the second volume, the report describes the results and analysis of our obstruction of justice investigation involving the president. The order appointing me Special Counsel authorized us to investigate actions that could obstruct the investigation. We conducted that investigation and we kept the office of the acting attorney general apprised of the progress of our work and as set forth in the report, after that investigation, if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime we would have said so. We did not however make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime. The introduction to the volume 2 of our report explains that decision. It explains that under long standing department policy a president cannot be charged with a federal crime while he is in office. That is unconstitutional. Even if the charge is kept under seal and hidden from public view, that too is prohibited. The special counsel's office is part of the Department of Justice and by regulation it was bound by that department policy.  Charging the president with a crime was therefore not an option we could consider."

++ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++

RESTRICTION SUMMARY: AP CLIENTS ONLY

SHOTLIST:

ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP CLIENTS ONLY

Washington - 2 May 2018

1. SOUNDBITE (English): Chad Day, Associated Press Writer:

"What we've now learned is that in March, during a meeting between special counsel Robert Mueller's prosecutors and President Donald Trump's lawyers, the Muellar team actually kind of floated or broached the subject of possibly subpoena--subpoenaing the president and compelling him to testify as part of the Russian probe."

ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP CLIENTS ONLY

Bejing - 30 January 2008

2. FILE: Former FBI Director Robert Mueller at news conference (partly coves soundbite)

POOL - AP CLIENTS ONLY

++NIGHT SHOT++

Washington - 28 April 2018

3. US President Donald Trump walking across White House lawn (partly coves soundbite)

ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP CLIENTS ONLY

Washington - 2 May 2018

4. SOUNDBITE (English): Chad Day, Associated Press Writer:

"So these have been ongoing negotiations where they're trying to secure an interview with the president where they can question him about a number of different topics. And this is all part of, not only an investigation into Russian election interference and possible coordination with the Trump campaign but also whether or not the President obstructed justice in any way through his firing of Jim Comey and some of the conversations that and actions that he took regarding the firing of Michael Flynn. And then also pressure that he exerted on Attorney General Jeff Sessions."

ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP CLIENTS ONLY

New York - 29 April 2011

5. Various STILLS former Trump attorney John Dowd (partly covers soundbite)

ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP CLIENTS ONLY

Washington - 2 May 2018

6. SOUNDBITE (English): Chad Day, Associated Press Writer:

"So John Dowd is actually President Donald Trump's former personal attorney. He was on his legal team and leading the legal team. He was the key person in the negotiations between the president's legal team and an Muller's team. But then he resigned last month. Now what we're learning though is that a meeting that occurred in earlier in March when he was still leading this legal team, that's what this whole subpoena issue came up where there was a conversation where they were trying to negotiate the terms of the interview and Mueller's team basically said well you know we could at some point try to compel the President's testimony."

ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP CLIENTS ONLY

New York - 12 January 2017

7. Rudy Giuliani talks to reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower (partly coves soundbite)

ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP CLIENTS ONLY

Washington - 2 May 2018

8. SOUNDBITE (English): Chad Day, Associated Press Writer:

"Right now we're in a little bit of a reset on President Donald Trump's legal team because recently you know Dowd left and they brought in Rudy Giuliani they also brought in two really seasoned former federal prosecutors, Marty and Jane Raskin out of Florida. And so, we're not it's not exactly clear what this kind of what kind of impact this would have on the negotiations currently. I think what why this is important is that any time something like this becomes public it really fires up the president and as we've seen over the last few days and few weeks he has really upped his attacks on the special counsel and the Justice Department at large."

9. SOUNDBITE (English): Chad Day, Associated Press Writer:

"Even if there was a subpoena issued, that doesn't necessarily mean that Trump would actually have to do, to answer any questions. What what would happen is that either they would try to go to court to get the subpoena quashed or they could go into the grand jury room and basically take the Fifth the entire time. Everybody has the Fifth Amendment protection against self incrimination and they cannot compel you to testify against yourself."

POOL - AP CLIENTS ONLY

Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Michigan - 28 April 2018

10. Trump steps off Air Force One, waves (partly coves soundbite)

STORYLINE:

The special counsel leading the Russia investigation raised the prospect in March of issuing a grand jury subpoena for President Donald Trump, his former attorney said, confirming that investigators have floated the extraordinary idea of forcing a sitting president to testify under oath.

Attorney John Dowd told The Associated Press on Tuesday that special counsel Robert Mueller's team broached the subject during a meeting with Trump's legal team while they were negotiating the terms of a possible interview with the president.

AP reporter Chad Day says Trump's legal team is in the midst of a reset.

"We're not it's not exactly clear what this kind of what kind of impact this would have on the negotiations currently. I think what why this is important is that any time something like this becomes public it really fires up the president and as we've seen over the last few days and few weeks he has really upped his attacks on the special counsel and the Justice Department at large," Day said.

It was not immediately clear in what context the possibility of a subpoena was raised or how serious Mueller's prosecutors were about the move. Mueller is probing not only Russian election interference and possible coordination with Trump associates but possible obstruction of justice by Trump.

Trump lashed out against the investigation in a familiar fashion Wednesday, saying on Twitter: "There was no Collusion (it is a Hoax) and there is no Obstruction of Justice (that is a setup & trap)."

Even if Mueller's team decided to subpoena Trump as part of the investigation, he could still fight it in court or refuse to answer questions by invoking his Fifth Amendment protection from self-incrimination.

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The House Judiciary Committee questioned former White House counsel Don McGahn behind closed doors on Friday, two years after House Democrats originally sought his testimony as part of investigations into former President Donald Trump.

The long-awaited interview is the result of an agreement reached last month in federal court, and a transcript will be publicly released within a week.

House Democrats - then investigating whether Trump tried to obstruct the Justice Department's probes into his presidential campaign's ties to Russia - originally sued after McGahn defied an April 2019 subpoena on Trump's orders.

That same month, the Justice Department released a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller's report on the matter.

In the report, Mueller pointedly did not exonerate Trump of obstruction of justice but also did not recommend prosecuting him, citing Justice Department policy against indicting a sitting president.

Mueller's report quoted extensively from interviews with McGahn, who described the Republican president's efforts to stifle the investigation.

While the Judiciary panel eventually won its fight for McGahn's testimony, the court agreement placed limits on it.

The two sides agreed that McGahn would be questioned privately and will only be compelled to answer questions about publicly available portions of Mueller's report.

House Democrats kept the case going, even past Trump's presidency, and are moving forward with the interview to make an example of the former White House counsel after dozens of Trump administration officials refused to answer questions from Congress on various matters.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said the agreement for McGahn's testimony was a good-faith compromise that "vindicates the congressional subpoena."

It is unclear what House Democrats will do with the testimony, which they sought before twice impeaching Trump. The Senate acquitted Trump of impeachment charges both times.

At a break during the interview, Nadler said McGahn is being "somewhat difficult" at times during the interview, but did not characterize what he had said.

Nadler said there were a handful of Democrats and Republican lawmakers in the room in addition to staff who were leading the questioning.

As White House counsel, McGahn had an insider's view of many of the episodes Mueller and his team examined for potential obstruction of justice during the Russia investigation.

McGahn proved a pivotal - and damning - witness against Trump, with his name mentioned hundreds of times in the text of the Mueller report and its footnotes.

McGahn described to investigators the president's repeated efforts to choke off the probe and directives he said he received from the president that unnerved him.

He recounted how Trump had demanded that he contact then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to order him to unrecuse himself from the Russia investigation.

He also said Trump had implored him to tell the deputy attorney general at the time, Rod Rosenstein, to remove Mueller from his position because of perceived conflicts of interest - and, after that episode was reported in the media, to publicly and falsely deny that demand had ever been made.

McGahn also described the circumstances leading up to Trump's firing of James Comey as FBI director, including the president's insistence on including in the termination letter the fact that Comey had reassured Trump that he was not personally under investigation.

And he was present for a critical conversation early in the Trump administration, when Sally Yates, just before she was fired as acting attorney general as a holdover Obama appointee, relayed concerns to McGahn about new national security adviser Michael Flynn.

She raised the possibility that Flynn's conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak - and his subsequent interview by the FBI - left him vulnerable to blackmail.

Trump's Justice Department fought efforts to have McGahn testify even after District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson in 2019 rejected arguments that Trump's close advisers were immune from congressional subpoena.

President Joe Biden's administration helped negotiate the final agreement.

++SOUNDBITES SEPARATED BY BLACK FRAMES++

POOL

Washington, DC - 4 June 2021

1. Tracking shot of Rep. Jerry Nadler walking to reporters

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Jerrold Nadler, (D) House Judiciary Committee Chairman:

"Well, it vindicates the congressional subpoena rights. That's the main one.

3. Tracking shot of Nadler walking into committee room, UPSOUND (English)" And we'll see what comes out of that."

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Jim Jordan, (R) of the House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member:

"Mr. McGahn already testified for 30 some hours and of course, we have the Mueller report, we've had it for two years. We've had (Special Counsel) Bob Muller testify in front of this very committee. And you yet the Democrats there doing a five, six hour deposition."  

++BLACK FRAMES++

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Matt Gaetz, (R) Florida:

"We've learned nothing new. The expectation was that Don McGahn would be some sort of essential witness, bringing new information worthy of years of litigation and countless taxpayer dollars spent on this endeavour. And my perception of the events is that Mr. McGahn is unable to identify any unlawful conduct on the part of the president or any other member of the president's administration, and that the four corners of the Mueller report largely reflect what Mr. McGahn has remembered."

++BLACK FRAMES++

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, (D) Texas:

"I will say, as I started out this morning, it was crucial that Don McGahn come before the Judiciary Committee as one of the central witnesses of the report. I believe we have been vindicated in terms of the intimacy of his involvement and, of course, the ultimate conclusions of the Mueller report."

++BLACK FRAMES++

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, (D) Texas:  

"All that we can see and hear is that there was certainly a continuing problem in the former administration. And as the Judiciary Committee and the work that has already been done in impeachment proceedings and unfortunately, impeachment occurred, but conviction did not occur. I obviously believe there should have been a conviction. But at this point, I think the main point I want to render here is three equal branches of government have to be able to be respected and the Congress has to be respected with a subpoena and oversight responsibilities in compliance with executive privilege and constitutional parameters."

++BLACK FRAMES++

8. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Madeleine Dean, (D) House Judiciary Committee Vice Chairman:

"This was a good day for democracy. We were able to finally enforce after more than two years, our subpoena power as a coequal branch of government, doing our duty of oversight. You saw that the previous administration put up something like blanket immunity and other false legal concepts to do everything that they possibly could not to come before a coequal branch of government."

++BLACK FRAMES++

9. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Madeleine Dean, (D) House Judiciary Committee Vice Chairman:

"Mr. McGahn really brought to life volume two of the Mueller report and the chaos that must have been going on in that White House. You can read it in the report yourself. It's still the redacted version. But he literally brought to life that what was going on, the pressure that he was under, the pressure that other aides were under by the president to direct Rod Rosenstein to oust Special Counsel Mueller. The president being very upset over the investigation of Russian interference in the election, Russian connection to his campaign, as well as, of course, the possible obstruction of justice by a sitting president."

++EDIT ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++