As a special counsel, former FBI Director Robert Mueller would be in largely uncharted territory when it comes to testifying before Congress. | Alex Wong/Getty Images mueller investigation What to expect if Mueller gets hauled to the Hill Expectations will be sky high that the Russia investigator might reveal incriminating — possibly even impeachable — new evidence about the president. Don't bank on it.

It promises to be the hearing of the decade.

Sometime after special counsel Robert Mueller privately submits his final report on 2016 Russian election interference to the Justice Department, House Democrats plan to summon him to Capitol Hill to testify on his findings before the television cameras.


Expectations will be sky high that the Sphinx-like Russia investigator might reveal incriminating — possibly even impeachable — new evidence about President Donald Trump.

Those expectations would be wrong.

Instead, the by-the-books former FBI director is unlikely to stray from the findings detailed in the public version of a report the special counsel must submit to Attorney General William Barr, according to interviews with more than a dozen current and former DOJ officials, legal experts and lawmakers from both parties.

It’s a result that could frustrate Democrats, who are concerned Barr won’t release all the information they want about the Russia investigation. And if Mueller has concluded that Trump and his campaign are in the clear, the testimony could even backfire on them, fueling the Republican attack line that Democrats are obsessed with trying to throw Trump out of office with spectacle hearings that produce few revelations. Some GOP lawmakers even told POLITICO they’re chomping at the bit to turn the tables on Mueller at a hearing and press him about a probe they saw as biased from the start.

“My suspicion is he’ll pretty much say, ‘My report is what I have to say and there’s nothing really to add to it,’” said Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a senior member of the GOP leadership.

“Total dud,” added Paul Rosenzweig, a senior fellow at the non-profit R Street Institute and a former senior counsel to Clinton-era independent counsel Kenneth Starr. “I wouldn’t waste a minute on it if I were the Congress.”

That’s not the current game plan.

Top House Democratic committee leaders, including Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler and Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, say they’ll seek Mueller’s public testimony if Barr releases anything short of a complete version of the special counsel’s findings.

“We certainly would not take that off the table,” Schiff said Tuesday during an event hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

There could even be a scramble to hear first from Mueller that spills across the Capitol to the Senate, where Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham said he, too, is waiting for Barr to deliver the special counsel’s findings before deciding whether to seek Mueller’s public testimony.

“I’ll let you know when I get it,” the South Carolina Republican told POLITICO.

By any measure, the buildup for one or more public Mueller hearings would be enormous. Take former Donald Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s testimony last month before Nadler’s House panel. Then multiply it. Exponentially.

The anticipation stems in part from Mueller’s decision to not utter a single word in public about his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, a change from prior prominent special prosecutors like Starr and Archibald Cox , the original lead Watergate investigator.

Once Mueller’s work is done, however, the calls for him to comment will grow. People who know Mueller — the special counsel’s office declined comment for this story — expect he’ll avoid media interviews and rebuff offers to pen a tell-all book. But dodging a summons from Congress is another matter entirely.

“He’s such an important public figure and I think at some point he will be asked,” said a senior DOJ official who noted that Mueller’s 12 years of experience as FBI director and holding other high-ranking law enforcement positions have prepared him well to handle another grilling from lawmakers.

“He’s done it before hundreds of times,” the DOJ official added. “He’s not shy about calling balls and strikes.”

As a special counsel, Mueller would be in largely uncharted territory when it comes to testifying before Congress.

The last high-profile independent investigator, Pat Fitzgerald, didn’t even write a report upon the conclusion of his George W. Bush-era probe into who leaked undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity. And when Fitzgerald did go before Congress in February 2008, it happened nearly a year after his work was largely done and only in the context of a broader House subcommittee hearing examining the DOJ regulations used to launch investigations into the executive branch.

During Watergate, neither Cox nor Leon Jaworski — who took over the probe after President Richard Nixon ordered Cox’s firing — ever testified before Congress as it weighed impeachment proceedings against the Republican president. (A federal grand jury did send the House Judiciary Committee a so-called “ road map ” summarizing the evidence that Watergate prosecutors helped assemble).

Starr took a different approach, running straight into a partisan battle when he spent 12 hours answering questions from the GOP-led House Judiciary panel in mid-November 1998, just weeks before it voted to impeach President Bill Clinton. The all-day hearing — coming about two months after Starr issued his salacious report describing the president’s sexual affair with a White House intern — included Clinton’s personal lawyer sharply questioning the investigator and concluded with Republican lawmakers and staff giving Starr a standing ovation.

The day after the hearing, Starr’s ethics adviser, Sam Dash, resigned in protest, saying his boss had “unlawfully intruded on the power of impeachment.”

Congress to this point has largely tiptoed around Mueller, whose end game still remains uncertain nearly two years into a probe that has included criminal charges filed against several longtime Trump associates and expansive indictments detailing Russian interference in the 2016 White House campaign. Mueller is also examining whether Trump obstructed justice in the firing of FBI Director James Comey.

For Democrats, Mueller’s finished product could determine whether they try to impeach Trump. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently told The Washington Post that she doesn’t want to impeach the president unless probes like Mueller’s produce “something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan.”

On Capitol Hill and among DOJ veterans, the prevailing view is that Mueller will certainly give lawmakers private, closed-door testimony. And they also expect he’ll ultimately make a public appearance, if for no other reason than to add his stamp of approval to the conclusions that have been released.

But it’s another matter entirely to expect the special counsel to explain in detail more sensitive items, including how he made his investigative decisions or whether he had any clashes with DOJ supervisors or the Trump White House.

“If it’s not something that DOJ made public, I don’t think he’ll talk about it,” said Matthew Miller, a former Obama-era DOJ spokesman.

All of which could end up frustrating Democrats, whose interest in hearing from Mueller stems in large part from their own concerns that Barr won’t release all the information they want about the Russia investigation.

The underlying DOJ regulations used to appoint Mueller require him to submit a confidential report to the attorney general explaining his decisions on who he prosecuted and who he declined to prosecute. Given DOJ’s long-standing protocol that a sitting president can’t be indicted, Democrats are worried about a Catch-22 — Barr’s summary of Mueller’s work won’t say much about Trump’s behavior since he can’t be charged, and Mueller will deflect questions about subjects not covered in the report.

“You can’t allow the executive branch to investigate itself and hide the results from Congress,” said Rep. Hank Johnson, a senior member of the Judiciary Committee who added that testimony from Mueller appeared “inevitable.”

“Momentum is building,” the Georgia Democrat said. “So, when and if it gets to that point, I think it will be one of the more notable moments in the history of Congress.”

While leading House Democrats aren’t dishing out specific hearing dates yet for Mueller, they’re also not being shy about their intentions. Schiff on Tuesday said forcing the special counsel’s testimony “may very well be necessary” if DOJ conceals Mueller’s report or his underlying evidence. Nadler told POLITICO in January he planned to subpoena DOJ for the special counsel’s report if Barr won’t release it. “We’d also invite Mueller to testify,” the New York Democrat said.

Among Republicans, the importance of a Mueller hearing depends on what’s in his findings. Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, a frequent Mueller critic and member of the Judiciary panel, said the special counsel’s testimony should primarily be “dependent upon the extent to which the report lances the boil.”

Trump’s closest allies on Capitol Hill have spent much of the last two years attempting to undermine the legitimacy of Mueller’s probe, questioning the biases of the investigators and prosecutors, disparaging the evidence used to launch the original investigation into Trump’s campaign. They’ve also clashed with the Justice Department by demanding internal documents and testimony from top officials that they say will back up their malfeasance allegations.

A Mueller appearance would give Republicans a chance to air these grievances, as Democrats can’t fully control the hearing’s agenda. Indeed, several members said they’d be eager to put the special counsel on the defensive.

“I’d love that opportunity,” said Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, a senior GOP member of the Judiciary Committee. “There’s a lot of questions I’ve got that’d lead to investigating Mueller for potential wrongdoing rather than about his investigation.”

Putting Mueller on the record could also backfire on Democrats if the special counsel ultimately determines Trump and his campaign are in the clear.

“If he concludes that there was no evidence that the president or his senior advisers broke any laws I think then that the leadership in the House needs to decide how many times they want him to say that on the record and on video,” said Will Moschella, the former George W. Bush-era head of DOJ’s congressional affairs office.

Ultimately, legal experts predict Mueller will probably find himself caught in the crossfire of partisan congressional grandstanding.

“That’s a lose-lose situation for him,” said Shanlon Wu, a defense attorney who previously represented former Trump campaign deputy Rick Gates. “I think it would be cathartic for the American people to finally hear from him. And I think it’s highly unlikely to put to rest any of the issues. I think it’s just going to provide more ammunition for both sides to go on fighting about it.”

Andrew Desiderio contributed to this report.