For the better part of three years, Democrats on Capitol Hill have insisted that there was only one person who was able to get to the bottom of potential Russian collusion: Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
However, in his testimony to Congress, the man they crowned king cast more doubt on the Russian collusion theory than any other figure since the fairy tale began just a few days after Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.
Mueller appeared confused, dejected, and unfamiliar with the very report bearing his name. In fact, he seemed so disconnected from the material that he couldn’t have possibly written it himself.
While it is not uncommon for staff to prepare a first draft of a report, and while 438 pages is a lot to recall, it is clear that Mueller did not even possess a baseline command of the material with which he claimed to have spent the last two years.
His testimony revealed that he did not conduct most of the witness interviews himself — leaving those duties instead to his team of attorneys. When asked about key witness interviews, he had to refer to the report to find out what the witnesses had actually said.
Worse yet, he said he wasn’t “familiar with” Fusion GPS, the firm that produced the anti-Trump dossier leading to Mueller’s investigation.
And he appeared confused about what “collusion” was, or if it was even a criminal offense.
Isn’t that what the country has been waiting to hear after more than 700 days, 2,800 subpoenas, 500 search warrants, 500 witnesses and possibly up to $100 million in taxpayer money spent on what now appears to be a frivolous investigation?
His awkward testimony shows that perhaps Mueller was just a figurehead all along; a longtime trusted name, registered Republican and appointee of Republican Presidents George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. (Of course, it’s worth noting that he forgot about his appointment by Reagan.)
Mueller’s disastrous testimony begs the question of who actually drafted the report. Could it be that his politically-motivated Democratic deputies wrote the report, then handed it in to Mueller to rubber stamp? His testimony certainly makes it appear that way.
The fact that Mueller doesn’t appear to be the author of the report supports the suspicion that Mueller himself may have been used as a pawn by the Democrats.
After all, Democrats were the ones who pushed for a special counsel to be appointed, and the special counsel’s office was subsequently stacked with Democrats who were unleashed to investigate every detail of Trump’s life, his associates, his family, his inauguration committee and more.
Those “13 angry men,” as President Trump dubbed them, aren’t ordinary Democrats.
Thirteen of the special counsel’s attorneys are Democrats, and at least six of the attorneys in the special counsel’s office donated to Bill and/or Hillary Clinton. Nearly half of Mueller’s team donated campaign cash to Democratic candidates in other elections, with one of the special counsel’s team giving a whopping $35,000 to Democratic candidates. Knowing this, it’s reasonable to suggest those members were not without bias.
Perhaps the disconnect from his own report is the chief reason why Mueller signaled weeks ago that he had zero interest in testifying about it. During his May 29 press conference, Mueller announced, “My report is my testimony,” and stated that he looks forward to returning to private life.
No doubt Mueller feels that sentiment even more after his grueling testimony.
As pundits take to the airwaves to debate which lawmakers lobbed the best question at the special counsel, perhaps the best question of all might have been: “Mr. Mueller, Did you actually write this report? In fact, have you even read it?”
Upon the conclusion of his testimony, Mueller filed into his awaiting Suburban to return to that private life he so coveted. One can only hope he alerted his driver to the nearest Barnes and Noble bookseller. We hear that copies of “The Mueller Report” are still available if he’d like to pick up a copy.
Jen Kerns (@JenKernsUSA) served as spokeswoman for the California Republican Party; spokeswoman for California’s Proposition 8, which went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court; and as a Fox News writer for the 2016 U.S. presidential debates.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.