Former special counsel Robert Mueller appeared unwilling or unable to answer a basic question about the scope of his investigation into potential conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, striking another odd note in testimony Wednesday that appeared at times off-kilter and confused.

In his second hearing of the day before the House Intelligence Committee, Mueller struggled with a question about whether there was evidence that the Trump campaign was involved in the Russian efforts to steal and disseminate Clinton campaign emails, despite that issue being at the very heart of his mandate as special counsel and his own report providing hundreds of pages of details about it.

Rep. Brad Wenstrup, a Republican from Ohio, asked Mueller whether it was “accurate to say that your investigation found no evidence that members of the Trump campaign were involved in the theft or publication of Clinton campaign-related emails?”

Mueller first paused and then asked Wenstrup to repeat the question, which the congressman did.

Mueller paused again, and then answered, “I don't know. I don't know. Uh, uh, what they've, well, uh — ”





Wenstrup got specific, quoting from Mueller's report. “On page five, it says your report ‘did not establish that any members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.’ So therefore it would be inaccurate, based on this, to describe that finding as open to doubt, that finding being that the Trump campaign was involved in the theft or publication of the Clinton campaign emails," he said

“Are you following that, sir?” Wenstrup asked.

“I do believe I am following it,” Mueller replied. “But it is, um, that portion of that matter does not fall within our jurisdiction, or fall within our investigation.”

But this statement from Mueller seems to contradict the very basis for his appointment as special counsel, since he was specifically selected to investigate Russian election interference efforts — which, in his own report, he concludes involved the Russian intelligence’s hacking of Democratic emails and their provision of those emails to Wikileaks to publish — and to what extent, if any, the Trump campaign was involved in those efforts.

When then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel on May 17, 2017, the formal appointment order said the former FBI director was picked to “ensure a full and thorough investigation of the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election” and that his top mandate was to investigate “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump.” The subsequent scope memo from Aug. 2, 2017, again makes it clear that the question of whether the Trump campaign was involved in the Russian effort to hack or leak emails stolen from Democrats was certainly within the jurisdiction of Mueller’s investigation.

Mueller’s own report additionally makes that mandate clear and concludes that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election through a variety of cyberattacks and other means, but does not establish that there was any coordination or conspiracy between the Kremlin and Trump campaign — or any Americans.

Mueller struggled to be coherent in his hours of testimony to the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees on Wednesday. At times, he showed unfamiliarity with his own investigation and contradicted himself. The former special counsel, for example, appeared unfamiliar with Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, opposition research firm Fusion GPS, and the source of some of the information in his 448-page report.

At the start of the second hearing, Mueller backtracked on a response to he gave to Rep. Ted Lieu hours earlier about the reasoning behind not charging Trump. In the first hearing, he said he did not charge Trump because of Justice Department guidelines that prevent a sitting president from being indicted. Mueller corrected that statement before the House Intelligence Committee, saying his team did not reach a conclusion on whether Trump committed a crime.