Former special counsel Robert Mueller said his team decided against going to court to compel President Trump to testify because it would have resulted in a prolonged legal battle that would have eaten up crucial time as the investigation was nearing its conclusion.

Mueller said an interview with Trump was one of the things “we anticipated wanting to accomplish” and his investigators negotiated with the Trump White House for over a year without result.

As Mueller’s team got closer to the end of their investigation they realized they had “little success” in getting an interview.

“We decided that we did not want to exercise the subpoena powers because of the necessity of expediting the end of the investigation,” Mueller told the House Intelligence Committee. “If we did subpoena the president, he would fight the subpoena and we would be in the midst of the investigation for a substantial period of time.”

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) asked Mueller if he thought that he had compiled enough substantial evidence of Trump’s intent to obstruct justice so he opted not to follow through with the interview.

“No,” Mueller said. “The reason we didn’t do the interview is because of the length of time it would take to resolve the issues attendant to that.”

Mueller eventually allowed Trump to respond to questions in writing.