Robert Mueller is a man of few words. Once, when he was FBI director, he picked up complaints — passed along by his wife — that he was pushing his aides too hard. So, he called up Chuck Rosenberg, his chief of staff.

“How are you doing?” Mueller asked him.

“Fine,” Rosenberg replied. “What can I get you, boss?”

“Nothing,” replied Mueller, ending the conversation, satisfied he had done all he needed to do to check up on his overworked staff.

That exchange, recounted in “The Threat Matrix,” a penetrating book about the FBI by journalist Garrett Graff, is emblematic of the taciturn, strait-laced Marine who will take center stage Wednesday when he appears before the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees to testify about his landmark report on Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The hearings are being billed as a watershed moment in a political drama that has gripped Washington ever since Donald Trump was sworn in as president. Democrats clearly hope that simply hearing Mueller speak will give new life to a dry, dense 448-page report that they argue has damning evidence of presidential misconduct. “The Mueller book will never be read by most of the American public, but the Mueller movie will be watched,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said when it was announced that Mueller would testify before the congressional committees. Read more

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Robert Mueller is a man of few words. Once, when he was FBI director, he picked up complaints — passed along by his wife — that he was pushing his aides too hard. So, he called up Chuck Rosenberg, his chief of staff.

Robert Mueller is a man of few words. Once, when he was FBI director, he picked up complaints — passed along by his wife — that he was pushing his aides too hard. So, he called up Chuck Rosenberg, his chief of staff.