"It is the department's long-standing policy not to discuss the conduct of uncharged third parties," the letter to Mueller warns.
July 23, 2019

Will tomorrow's public Mueller hearing be a nothingburger? If you want to hear something new, probably. If you've never heard the report, you will hear the things Fox News didn't want you to hear.

"Tomorrow morning at 8:30 eastern, Robert Mueller will appear before the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees, and the Department of Justice is telling Mueller to keep his promise and stick to the report," Mika Brzezinski said.

"The letter came from the associate deputy general who is -- who is writing in response to a request for guidance from Mueller earlier this month. and implies that Mueller cannot discuss his disagreements with Attorney General William Barr. Quote, 'Any testimony must remain within the boundaries of your public report because matters within the scope of your investigation were covered by executive privilege, including discussion about investigative steps or decisions made during your investigation, not otherwise described in the public version of your report.'

"The letter adds, 'It is the department's long-standing policy not to discuss the conduct of uncharged third parties.' A spokesman for Mueller said Monday that Mueller will have a brief opening statement and will then offer the entire report of the special counsel investigation as his full statement for the hearing record. He said that Mueller intends to abide by the commitment he made in his own only public statement. 'Any testimony from this office would not go beyond our report.' "

"Well, you know, Mike Barnicle, it's outrageous that Robert Mueller can't talk about the concerns that he might have with Barr. Especially when Barr made misstatements about the nature of his report," Scarborough said.

"They had conversations about those disagreements. And it really -- this entire situation is going to be fodder for constitutional lawyers and law -- constitutional law professors for years to come. Because you have a president who, it was suggested in the report, could have been charged on ten separate occasions for obstruction of justice. But Mueller said he couldn't do that because the Justice Department told him he couldn't do that.

"Now the Justice Department is saying you can't talk about the president of the United States obstructing justice because we told you that you couldn't do -- couldn't charge him. Again, it's circular logic and again, everything the Justice Department is doing now is to protect Donald Trump politically.

"it has nothing to do with what's the law, or what's right."

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