Congressional Democrats appear to be stuck between a rock and a hard place.

At first, they pinned all their hopes on special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian collusion, with the expectation that it’d spur President Donald Trump’s removal from office.

That never happened …

Then they began pinning their hopes on Mueller’s final report on the basis that it would contain damning information about Trump that could be used to at least impeach him from office.

That never happened …

All that’s left for glum Democrats to pin their hopes on now is Mueller himself. But alas, it doesn’t appear this will be happening either — and there’s nothing they can do about it.

First, Attorney General Bill Barr confirmed Wednesday that he has no intention of stopping the special counsel from testifying before the Democrat-led House Judiciary Committee.

“It’s Bob’s call whether he wants to testify,” he reportedly told The Wall Street Journal.

There goes any chances of Democrats like Judiciary Committee chair Jerry Nadler being able to claim that Trump and Barr are “obstructing justice” by somehow stonewalling his investigation.

Originally, Democrats thought they might have an obstruction case after the president casually tweeted that, in his opinion, the special counsel should not testify.

After spending more than $35,000,000 over a two year period, interviewing 500 people, using 18 Trump Hating Angry Democrats & 49 FBI Agents – all culminating in a more than 400 page Report showing NO COLLUSION – why would the Democrats in Congress now need Robert Mueller……. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 5, 2019

….to testify. Are they looking for a redo because they hated seeing the strong NO COLLUSION conclusion? There was no crime, except on the other side (incredibly not covered in the Report), and NO OBSTRUCTION. Bob Mueller should not testify. No redos for the Dems! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 5, 2019

The president eventually backtracked on this moody social media rant, telling the media, “I’m going to leave that up to our very great attorney general. He’ll make a decision on that.”

Second, Mueller himself appears to have very little interest in testifying.

“Mr. Mueller, who was invited to testify by the chairmen of the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees a month ago, has not agreed to do so,” The New York Times reported Wednesday.

And this, in turn, has left Democrats stuck between a rock and a hard place:

“His absence has left a disappointed House majority with little option but to stage political theatrics like Thursday’s 12-hour reading of the entire unredacted Mueller report in a hideaway Capitol committee room before a few reporters, a guest appearance by the liberal activist actor John Cusack and the unblinking eye of a C-Span camera.”

And yes, Democrats were slammed for reading the entire report — that as a reminder is available for anyone to read online — on the House floor Thursday …

Watch:

Sad!

Of course, Democrats know full well that such stunts will do nothing.

“We cannot count on anyone but Mueller to tell us what he was thinking, and it should not be filtered through anyone else — seeing is believing, hearing is believing,” House Intelligence Committee chair Adam “Pencil Neck” Schiff lamented to the Times.

“If the people who are referenced in the Mueller report won’t testify, then we need to hear from the author of the report,” Congressman Ted Deutch, a member of the Judiciary Committee, added.

And that’s another thing. Democrats are desperate for former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify in regard to claims that the president once asked him to fire Mueller.

I was NOT going to fire Bob Mueller, and did not fire Bob Mueller. In fact, he was allowed to finish his Report with unprecedented help from the Trump Administration. Actually, lawyer Don McGahn had a much better chance of being fired than Mueller. Never a big fan! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 11, 2019

HERE’S WHAT YOU’RE MISSING …

Thus far, however, McGahn has seemingly refused to reply: “The House Judiciary Committee has set May 21 as the date for former White House Counsel Don McGahn to testify, although McGahn has not yet confirmed his attendance,” CBS News reported earlier this week.

“House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler also threatened Tuesday to hold McGahn in contempt if he didn’t respond to a congressional subpoena for Mueller’s documents.”

Will Democrats do the same if Mueller never responds?

Congressional Democrats are also trying to bark up the obstruction of justice tree again by claiming that the president is attempting to engage in witnesss tampering.

This allegation is based on reports that White House officials have repeatedly asked McGahn to publicly acknowledge that the president never obstructed justice in the Mueller investigation.

BREAKING: White House officials asked Don McGahn twice in the past month to publicly say Trump didn’t obstruct justice. This is witness tampering. Obstruction of ongoing federal & Congressional probes. People need to go to prison over this & every other crime they’ve committed. — Scott Dworkin (@funder) May 10, 2019

What Democrats don’t seem to understand is that witness tampering usually involves intimidation. Yet in McGahn’s case, there was no attempted intimidation or manipulation.

“We did not perceive it as any kind of threat or something sinister,” his attorney, William Burck, reportedly said to the media. “It was a request, professionally and cordially made.”

Nice try, though …

Democrats are, as noted earlier, stuck. The only chance they have now is if they choose to impeach the president. But given that recent polls show that a 57 percent majority of Americans oppose impeaching the president, that really isn’t much of an option either. Oh well.

HERE’S WHAT YOU’RE MISSING …