Mueller says on camera that Trump wasn’t exonerated from obstruction of justice

In just five minutes, House Judiciary Committee Chair Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) prompted special counsel Robert Mueller to knock down President Donald Trump’s main talking points about “no obstruction.”

Nadler, as the panel’s chair, got to ask the long-anticipated hearing’s first questions. He used the opportunity both to set the tone for Wednesday morning and to get Mueller to refute the president’s repeated claim that he didn’t obstruct justice during Mueller’s investigation into collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

And it worked. Here’s the exchange:

NADLER: Director Mueller, the president has repeatedly claimed your report found there was no obstruction and completely and totally exonerated him. That is not what your report said, is it?

MUELLER: Correct, not what the report said.

NADLER: You wrote, “If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are not able to reach that judgment.” Does that say there was no obstruction?

MUELLER: No.

For good measure, Nadler kept going, asking about Mueller to explain why Trump wasn’t exonerated:

NADLER: Your investigation found “multiple acts by the present that were capable of asserting undue influence over law enforcement investigations, including the Russian interference and obstruction investigations.” Is that correct?

MUELLER: Correct.

NADLER: Can you explain what that finding means so the American people can understand?

MUELLER: The finding indicates that the president was not exonerated for the act he allegedly committed.

NADLER: In fact, you were talking about incidents in which the president sought to use this official power outside of usual channels to exert undue influence over your investigations. Is that right?

MUELLER: Correct.

This is not new information — it’s all in Mueller’s publicly available report.

Yet the exchange between Nadler and Mueller on live television was still monumental. Trump and his Republican allies continue to falsely claim that the report found that he didn’t obstruct justice while in office (in fact, the president did so just a few hours before Wednesday’s hearing).

Hearing Mueller unequivocally state that his report did not say Trump was exonerated of that crime was powerful, especially considering that many Americans (including members of Congress and even the current FBI director) have not read every word of the Mueller report.

What’s more, Nadler later asked if Trump could be prosecuted for obstruction of justice after he leaves office. Mueller simply responded: “True.”

Let’s be clear about what happened: At the very beginning of the hearing, Nadler got Mueller to say that Trump could still be in potential legal trouble once he leaves office for possibly obstructing justice, and that the president’s claims about the report’s findings are false.

Nadler came prepared — and now Trump has a lot of backtracking to do (not that he will).