Post by Deleted on Jul 24, 2019 11:13:45 GMT -5
GOHMERT: Who wrote the 9-minute comments you read at your May 29th press conference?
MUELLER: I’m not going to get into that.
GOHMERT: Okay, so that’s what I thought. You didn’t write it. A 2013 puff piece in the Washingtonian about Comey said basically when Comey called you’d drop everything you were doing. It gave examples – you having dinner with your wife and daughter, Comey calls, you’d drop everything and go. The article quoted Comey as saying if a train were coming down the track and I quote, ‘at least Bob Mueller would be standing on the tracks with me. You and James Comey have been good friends or were good friends for many years, correct?
MUELLER: We were business associates. We both started off in the Justice Department about the same time—
GOHMERT: You were good friends. You can work together and not be friends, but you and Comey were friends.
MUELLER: We were friends.
GOHMERT: That’s my question. Thank you for getting to the answer. Now before you were appointed as special counsel, had you talked to James Comey in the preceding six months?
MUELLER: No.
GOHMERT: When you were appointed as special counsel, was President Trump’s firing of Comey something you anticipated investigating potentially obstruction of justice?
MUELLER: I can’t get into that - FBI internal deliberations in the Justice Department.
GOHMERT: Actually it goes to your credibility, and maybe you’ve been away from the court—most prosecutors want to make sure there’s no appearance of impropriety, but in your case, you hired a bunch of people that did not like the president. Let me ask you, when did you first learn of Peter Strozk’s animus toward Donald Trump?
MUELLER: In summer of 2017.
GOHMERT: You didn’t know before he was hired?
MUELLER: I’m sorry, what’d you—
GOHMERT: You didn’t know before he was hired for your team?
MUELLER: Know what?
GOHMERT: Peter Strozk hated Trump. You didn’t know that before he was made part of your team. Is that what you’re saying?
MUELLER: I did not know that.
GOHMERT: Alright, when did you first learn—
MUELLER: And when I did find out, I acted swiftly to have him reassigned elsewhere in the FBI.
GOHMERT: Well there’s some discussion about how swift that was, but when did you learn of the ongoing affair he was having with Lisa Page?
MUELLER: About the same time as I learned from Strozk.
GOHMERT: Okay, did you ever order anybody to investigate the deletion of all of their texts off of their government phones?
MUELLER: Once we found that Peter Strzok was author of—
GOHMERT: Did you ever order—
MUELLER: Can I finish?
GOHMERT: Well you’re not answering my question. Did you order an investigation into the deletion and reformatting of their government phones?
MUELLER: No, there was an IG investigation ongoing.
GOHMERT: Well listen, regarding collusion or conspiracy, you didn’t find evidence of any agreement - and I’m quoting you – ‘among the Trump campaign officials and any Russia-linked individuals to interfere with our U.S. election,’ correct?
MUELLER: Correct.
GOHMERT: So you also note in the report that an element of any of those obstructions you referenced requires a corrupt state of mind, correct?
MUELLER: Corrupt intent, correct.
GOHMERT: Right, and if somebody knows they did not conspire with anybody from Russia to affect the election, and they see the big Justice Department with people that hate that person coming after them, and then a special counsel appointed who hires dozen or more people that hate that person, and he knows he’s innocent, he’s not corruptly acting in order to see that justice is done. What he’s doing is not obstructing justice, he is pursuing justice, and the fact that you ran it out two years, means you perpetrated injustice.
MUELLER: I take your question.
MUELLER: I’m not going to get into that.
GOHMERT: Okay, so that’s what I thought. You didn’t write it. A 2013 puff piece in the Washingtonian about Comey said basically when Comey called you’d drop everything you were doing. It gave examples – you having dinner with your wife and daughter, Comey calls, you’d drop everything and go. The article quoted Comey as saying if a train were coming down the track and I quote, ‘at least Bob Mueller would be standing on the tracks with me. You and James Comey have been good friends or were good friends for many years, correct?
MUELLER: We were business associates. We both started off in the Justice Department about the same time—
GOHMERT: You were good friends. You can work together and not be friends, but you and Comey were friends.
MUELLER: We were friends.
GOHMERT: That’s my question. Thank you for getting to the answer. Now before you were appointed as special counsel, had you talked to James Comey in the preceding six months?
MUELLER: No.
GOHMERT: When you were appointed as special counsel, was President Trump’s firing of Comey something you anticipated investigating potentially obstruction of justice?
MUELLER: I can’t get into that - FBI internal deliberations in the Justice Department.
GOHMERT: Actually it goes to your credibility, and maybe you’ve been away from the court—most prosecutors want to make sure there’s no appearance of impropriety, but in your case, you hired a bunch of people that did not like the president. Let me ask you, when did you first learn of Peter Strozk’s animus toward Donald Trump?
MUELLER: In summer of 2017.
GOHMERT: You didn’t know before he was hired?
MUELLER: I’m sorry, what’d you—
GOHMERT: You didn’t know before he was hired for your team?
MUELLER: Know what?
GOHMERT: Peter Strozk hated Trump. You didn’t know that before he was made part of your team. Is that what you’re saying?
MUELLER: I did not know that.
GOHMERT: Alright, when did you first learn—
MUELLER: And when I did find out, I acted swiftly to have him reassigned elsewhere in the FBI.
GOHMERT: Well there’s some discussion about how swift that was, but when did you learn of the ongoing affair he was having with Lisa Page?
MUELLER: About the same time as I learned from Strozk.
GOHMERT: Okay, did you ever order anybody to investigate the deletion of all of their texts off of their government phones?
MUELLER: Once we found that Peter Strzok was author of—
GOHMERT: Did you ever order—
MUELLER: Can I finish?
GOHMERT: Well you’re not answering my question. Did you order an investigation into the deletion and reformatting of their government phones?
MUELLER: No, there was an IG investigation ongoing.
GOHMERT: Well listen, regarding collusion or conspiracy, you didn’t find evidence of any agreement - and I’m quoting you – ‘among the Trump campaign officials and any Russia-linked individuals to interfere with our U.S. election,’ correct?
MUELLER: Correct.
GOHMERT: So you also note in the report that an element of any of those obstructions you referenced requires a corrupt state of mind, correct?
MUELLER: Corrupt intent, correct.
GOHMERT: Right, and if somebody knows they did not conspire with anybody from Russia to affect the election, and they see the big Justice Department with people that hate that person coming after them, and then a special counsel appointed who hires dozen or more people that hate that person, and he knows he’s innocent, he’s not corruptly acting in order to see that justice is done. What he’s doing is not obstructing justice, he is pursuing justice, and the fact that you ran it out two years, means you perpetrated injustice.
MUELLER: I take your question.