Congressman Bradley Byrne, R-Montrose, Mike Rogers, R-Saks, and Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville, commented after the conclusion of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s testimony before the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees. Former State Representative Perry O. Hooper Jr., R-Montgomery also released a statement critical of the hearing.
“Democrats’ last desperate attempt to change the narrative on the Mueller report and generate support for their delusional impeachment fantasy landed with a thud,” Byrne said. “I’ve read the Mueller report cover to cover, and there was no collusion and no obstruction. Today’s hearings should once and for all clear President Trump and his campaign.”
Brooks appeared on One America News and called Wednesday’s hearing, “A sideshow circus act.”
“I’m an attorney by trade. I’ve been a prosecutor in the Tuscaloosa district attorney’s office. I’ve also been district attorney of Madison County, Alabama,” Brooks said. “I’ve also been on the defense side, and my general reaction to what has transpired with Mueller, and before him, Comey, and President Trump and all of this interaction, is the American people have been subjected to a dog and pony show, a circus act, that has in effect diverted the American public’s attention and Washington’s attention from major issues that face us as a nation. Deficit and debt that is out of control, that is threatening us with a national bankruptcy and insolvency, border security that has cost thirty-thousand Americans their lives each year that we don’t have border security.”
“We should be having a healthy debate over free-enterprise versus socialism, but instead we are mired in this kind of Mueller report nonsense,” Brooks added. “In my judgement, Mueller and Comey, the Mueller Team, President Trump, they all knew early on, that there was zero evidence of collusion or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia. As such, the Russia investigation, at least in so far as there is an interaction with President Trump’s campaign, or alleged interaction, it should have been ended long ago, years ago. In fact, in my judgement, the President of the United States should have terminated the Mueller investigation long ago, in as much as there was zero evidence that dealt with collusion with the Russians by President Trump or his campaign. Since he had a right to do that, he also had a duty to do that, and as such he cannot be accused of obstructing from a legal standpoint, he cannot be accused of obstructing what he had a right to do and a legal obligation to do, in order to save taxpayer tens of millions of dollars that was wasted on this sideshow circus act.’
Congressman Mike Rogers said that the Mueller hearing was a waste of money and just an attempt by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, to make President Donald J. Trump “look bad.”
“When it comes to the business of the People’s House, it seems Democrats just cannot focus in on what matters to the American people like a booming economy, job creation and securing our porous border,’ Rep. Rogers said. “Over four months have passed since Attorney General William Barr announced there was no collusion nor obstruction in The Mueller Report, but somehow this week Democrats are having Robert Mueller on Capitol Hill to try to waste even more time and taxpayer dollars to try to do whatever they can to make President Trump look bad.”
Former State Rep. Hooper currently serves on the National Trump/ Victory Campaign Committee.
“The Mueller hearing put on today by Chairman Nadler and the Democrats was a Circus!’ Hooper told the Alabama Political Reporter. “It was a very bad and sad day for Robert Mueller and a huge disaster for the Democrats. Today’s hearing confirms that the witch Hunt is over but begins the Investigation of the Investigators.”
Congressman Byrne also urged that there be an investigation of how this investigation came about.
“As the curtain closes on today’s carefully orchestrated theater production, now is the time to turn to the important questions regarding the origins and acceleration of this investigation during the Obama administration—and why more disturbing investigations into Secretary Clinton were squashed,” Rep. Byrne said. “I renew my call on Congress to pass my bill to investigate the investigators and make sure this never happens again.”
In May, Byrne introduced the Investigate the Investigators Act of 2019, H.R. 3028, to begin an investigation of the origins of the Russia investigation and ensure no similar partisan investigations happen again.
The bill calls for a formal Department of Justice investigation into all the actions taken during the 2016 presidential election as it relates to federal investigations regarding President Trump and Secretary Clinton and requires an automatic and independent oversight investigation anytime an investigation of a federal political campaign is opened by the DOJ in the future.
Robert Mueller testimony before the House Intelligence Committee did not shed much light on that.
Congressman Rick Crawford, R-Arkansas asked Mueller: “There’s a quote attributed to Peter Strozk. He texted about his concern that there’s ‘no big there, there’ in the Trump campaign investigation. Did he or anyone else who worked on the FBI’s investigation tell you that around 10 months into the investigation, the FBI still had no case for collusion?”
Mueller answered, “No.”
Crawford followed up: “Is the inspector general report correct that the text messages from Peter Strozk and Lisa Page’s phones from your office were not retained after they left the special counsel’s office?”
“I don’t—it depends on what you’re talking about,” Mueller replied. “The investigation into those—Peter Strozk went on for a period of time, and I’m not certain what it encompasses. It may well have encompassed what you’re referring to.”
Crawford: “Let me move on just real quickly. Did you ask the department to authorize your office to investigate the origin of the Trump Russia investigation?”
Mueller: “I’m not going to get into that. It goes to internal deliberations.”
Crawford: “So the circumstances surrounding the origin of the investigation have yet to be fully vetted then. I’m certainly glad that Attorney Barr and U.S. Attorney Durham are looking into this matter.”
Various versions of the ‘Steele dossier’ alleged that there was collusion between the Trump 2016 campaign and the Russian government. The dossier was prepared by former British spy Christopher Steele, who was paid to produce it by the Hillary Clinton campaign. Portions of the dossier were leaked to the media, to Democrat friendly members of the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. A copy was even given to now deceased U.S. Senator John McCain, R-Arizona.
Republican critics of the whole investigation argue that the Steele Dossier was used to create damning media reports, which together with the dossier itself were used to get FISA warrants authorizing electronic monitoring of both the Trump campaign and then the Trump transition team. After Trump’s election win the dossier and the existence of an FBI investigation during the Barack H. Obama (D) Administration were used to present the case to the Department of Justice, Congress, and the public through the media that a special counsel was needed and even that the President would be impeached. All of this traces back, apparently solely to the Steele dossier, the sources of which remain a mystery to this day.
Some Republicans argue that the Steele dossier was a complete work of fiction designed in the waning days of the 2016 campaign to create “fake news” swaying the election in favor of Hillary Clinton. When that effort failed it was then used by certain Democratic operatives working with members of the mainstream media and certain allied members of the government itself to create a narrative that could be used to justify the impeachment and removal of the President of the United States and help Democrats take back control of the Congress.
To see the full video of the Mo Brooks interview.
(Original reporting by Fox News, the Washington Post, One America News, the Patriot Channel, and CNS News’ Melanie Arter contributed to this report.)
