Special counsel Robert Mueller’s surprise press conference on Wednesday morning contained no surprises. He offered no new evidence that could be used against President Donald Trump, and reiterated what he’d already made clear in his report last month: Only Congress can hold Trump accountable for obstructing justice in the Russia investigation.

But Mueller’s brief media appearance wasn’t entirely pointless. It underscored the gravity of his findings—and House Democrats’ inexcusable failure to respond to them.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has often criticized the president for taking lawless actions, while tamping down impeachment chatter in her caucus. Steny Hoyer, Pelosi’s deputy, said after the Mueller report’s release that impeachment is “not worthwhile.” Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has suggested it’s a pointless endeavor as long as Republicans control the Senate. And Jerry Nadler, who would oversee the process as the House Judiciary chairman, has said that “all options are on the table,” but effectively ruled out impeachment under most circumstances.

Attorney General Bill Barr and the White House, meanwhile, have gone to great lengths to spin the Mueller report as an exoneration of a wronged president. Mueller made clear on Wednesday, however, that its damning accounts of Trump’s efforts to sabotage the Russia investigation point in a different direction. “If we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said that,” he told reporters. “We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime.”



The president’s defenders have often downplayed obstruction of justice as a “process crime” and suggested that it’s not worth pursuing if there’s no collusion charges. But Mueller made clear on Wednesday that the two lines of inquiry were inseparable. “The matters we investigated were of paramount importance,” he explained. “It was critical for us to obtain full and accurate information from every person we questioned. When a subject of an investigation obstructs that investigation or lies to investigators, it strikes at the core of the government’s effort to find the truth and hold wrongdoers accountable.”