that allegation deserves the attention of every american. thank you for being here today. >> sir, if you are subpoenaed to appear before congress -- >> no questions. counsel robert mueller in the first public comments we've heard from him since may of 2017 when he was announced as the special counsel on the russia investigation, announcing they are formally closing that investigation and he's resigning from the justice department and returning to private life. we will open up our phone lines to get your thoughts on what you just heard from the special counsel, robert mueller. democrats, call 202-748-8000. 920.2-748-800

921.blicans, 202-748-800 922.others, 202-748-8002 robert mueller went broadly through the investigation, focusing on the russian interference in the indictment, time tohey designed interfere in our elections in 2016. he made several comments about the allegations of obstruction of justice. we would love to hear from you. we go to our democrats line to hear from diana in livingston, new jersey. caller: good morning. haspe that now that mueller formally resigned from the department of justice that he will be allowed to testify publicly, not behind closed doors. this issue involves our election

security, which this trump administration and gop congress has failed to pass any bills or directives to our intelligence agencies to protect our elections. that is a main concern. it seems like they are trying to dismiss this whole thing is a big hoax. admit thatying to russia interfered but the trump administration had nothing to do with it or weren't eager to accept help. this needs to be explained to the people -- the difference between criminal prosecution and immoral acts. peoplea lot of innocent get let go because the state can't prove the crime. that doesn't mean the american people shouldn't review what

mueller revealed in the report about campaigns receiving help from foreign nations. jolene ons hear from our republican line. lewisburg, pennsylvania. caller: i'm glad to hear from robert. i'm glad to hear that everything is going to go forward. we've spent millions of dollars investigating this. they have answers. now, we need to move forward. the proof is there and that's all we need. i don't understand except that -- i don't understand why there a continued situation with this from the democrats or republicans who keep asking about this when all the investigation has been done. it doesn't make sense to me why people keep wanting more and more. we already have the evidence or

lack of evidence that the campaign was influenced in his favor or against hillary or whatever. millions of dollars to have this. why don't we review what we have? host: robert mueller going broadly over the indictments, the allegations of obstruction of justice by the president and the administration. here's some of what he had to say. if we had confidence that the president would clearly have not committed a crime, we would have said so. in phoenix, here's james on her independent line. that's our independent line. -- on our independent line. caller: in 2016, during the election, i was watching everything. hillary was leading all the way

12:00, sinclair would know -- ask this news thing. they broadcast results late to me the night of the election. -- check into the news people. they've done it before several times. i trust c-span. you guys know. unfortunately, i have robert mueller back -- please trust called the others, but i support you so much. host: let's hear from andrew in white plains, new york. caller: good afternoon. so far so good. i think mr. mueller just

declared that he will not be testifying before congress. message as keep his straightforward and clear as possible. he's given a lengthy report. it sets forth what his findings were and what his concerns are. he made a special point of emphasizing the fact that russia had attacked our democratic system and they will do so again and we need to pull together. the president needs to stop playing patsy with mr. putin. host: here's rebecca from nbc digital. mueller says he doesn't want to testify before congress. testimony before congress will not go beyond the report itself." we are getting your reaction to the 10 minute statement from the special counsel, announcing the

end of the investigation and his resignation, returning to private life. forlines are 202-748-800920 democrats. republicans.1 for 202-748-8002922.202-748-800 tammy in maryland. caller: he's stepped away from it so he doesn't have to be in the mess when it comes back on the democrats with hillary and the other investigation that needs to be done with them. they are the ones that started this whole thing in ththe first place and put it on trump. i hope they will consider investigating hillary and the rest of the democrats that were involved in this. host: william barr has ordered

an investigation into the intelligence that went into the creation of the russia investigation. matt on her independent line in daytona beach -- our independent line in daytona beach. caller: i'm more concerned with the fact that the allegations surrounding trump's corruption occur before he was even president. past. all in the the thing is that our elections were tampered with or messed with. we need to figure out how they were tampered with, why, and we need to secure our elections for ourfuture so that government is representative of our people or else it does not work. host: on the obstruction of justice charge, the special counsel said this. a president cannot be charged

with a federal crime while in office. not an option we could consider based on long-standing justice department policy." clover, south carolina. sylvia is on our democrats line. caller: hi. since mr. mueller has made his statement and now he's pulling out of the investigation, it is that he wasfusing to be bipartisan, he's a republican and we the american people have paid all this money for this investigation. it does appear to be suspect that everyone is able to pull go beforetually not congress. larry is next in colorado

on our republican line. what did you hear from the special counsel? caller: not what i wanted to hear. i've been a registered republican for 50 years. there's an old saying, the people get the government they deserve. we are all on the same log floating to the falls. impeachment isn't called for in this case, they ought to abolish it. there's nothing worse than what we've been seeing. this guy is an absolute criminal. he needs to be impeached. if the democrats take the easy way out, they will lose in 2020. they should investigate beyond the russian thing. that's just a part of what he's been doing. he's run every stop sign there is to run as far as being the president and he's gotten by

with it. there's suspicious that something else going on that the people have no awareness of whatsoever. agenda isced trump's to dismantle every single protective measure we've got in this country to divide and conquer us and take us over. i might be thrown in the basket of nutcase or conspiracy theorist, but we can talk in another year. if i'm wrong, i will profusely apologize to everybody. i hope i am wrong. mueller is an extreme disappointment to me. the whole thing is a cover-up. i think mueller is covering up. i think he's compromised. he's going to bailout now and take his retirement and go home. host: john in san francisco on our independent line. listening to robert

mueller, one of the interesting things he said was as he was talking about the indictments with the russian companies, he emphasized that people are innocent, there's a presumption of innocence. i thought that was rather big of him given that these indictments will probably never get worked out in court, which he knew. admitted there is no russian collusion. dnc, the back to the servers, everything hinges around the dnc servers. they were never checked into. robert mueller's report, he just took the information that was previously done. do an independent investigation of the server to see if it was hacked into.

ofpan has shown the veterans intelligence. they pointed out a lot of interesting discrepancies in the official story of the dnc server. i would point to the analogy, whenever anybody like tom perez from the dnc -- rarely do you the server say turn over to the fbi and let them examine them. will you agree to have the squash this crazy conspiracy talk? give us the server and let the admit even comey had to that the dnc did not fully cooperate. host: do you think under the auspices of the new attorney general and some of the

investigations he's allowing now into what happened ahead of the russia investigation, do you think the attorney general will allow the fbi to do that or ask the fbi to do that? caller: i think it would be a great starting point. for some reason, when the fbi wants material from anybody else, they just go and get it. strike wasy cloud hired to do the analysis. they have an obvious conflict of interest where the guy who's in charge of it is part of the atlantic council. host: let's hear from bristol, pennsylvania. this is chanel on our democrats line. caller: i'm just wondering if you had any thoughts about aboutr's careful speech not saying who has the authority to bring charges against the president. he mentioned he had no authority. will it help the american people

them whoe could tell has the authority so they would have more transparency in the process? host: brian in santa rosa, california on our republican line. caller: i was expecting that i was hopeful that there would be culpa frombut -- mea mueller. is insufficient. what we have seen is not so much russian meddling but british meddling. 2015, theback to announcement of donald trump. and robert ofmi6 gc hq. if you look at this and just

think that russia's purchasing of facebook ads and a handful of trolls online swung the election, you are missing the fact that we just spent 2.5 years investigating a crime that didn't exist and it looks like the fbi along with the cia under john brennan and james clapper of nsa actually colluded with british intelligence. why? probably because of the tariff policy. our others, this is line. unfortunately, the statement mueller gave was a bit lacking, in my opinion, but that's ok. there's something really important i would like to read to you quickly. aynn's council received

voicemail from trump's counsel that said if there's any information that implicates the president, we have a national security issue. we need some sort of heads up. innocent, they don't ask for a heads up for being implicated. one of the people from the asked what the impeachment steps are. is the trial by jury is done by the senate, which is holding a majority of republicans. if the democrats were to try to start in impeachment, it would be whatevered in the senate. host: chad tweets that will probablyrks ramp up some demands for impeachment.

he left open a big hole for democrats to go down the impeachment road. pelosi's job just got harder. -- that's opposite of what the attorney general said mueller told him. more of your calls and comments coming up. we want to show you the 10 minute briefing, the statement from robert mueller. >> this included investigating

any links or coordination between the russian government and individuals associated with the trump campaign. i have not spoken publicly during our investigation. i'm speaking out today because our investigation is complete. the attorney general has made the report of our investigation largely public. we are formally closing the special counsel's office. as well, i'm resigning from the department of justice to return to private life. make a few remarks about the results of our work. it is these few remarks, important that the office's written work speaks for itself. let me begin where the appointment order begins. that is the 2016 presidential election. as alleged by the grand jury in an indictment, russian

intelligence officers who were part of the russian military launched a concerted attack on our political system. the indictment alleges they used sophisticated cyber techniques to hack into computers and networks used by the clinton campaign. informationrivate and then released that information through fake online and did a nice desk online -- fake online identities and wikileaks. the information was intended to damage a presidential candidate. as the grandime, jury alleged in a separate indictment, a russian entity engaged in a social media citizens where russian posed as americans to influence an election. these indictments contain allegations. we are not commenting on the guilt or innocence of any

specific defendant. every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. and thectments allege other activities in our report describe efforts to interfere in our political system. they needed to be investigated and understood. that is among the reasons why the department of justice established our office. that is also a reason we investigated efforts to obstruct the investigation. the matters we investigated were of paramount importance. it was critical for us to obtain full and accurate information from every person we questioned. a subject instructs that investigation or lysed obstructs that- investigation or lysed investigators -- lies to investigators -- the report has

two parts. addressing the two main issues we were asked to investigate. the first volume of the report details numerous efforts emanating from russia to influence the election. includes the trump campaign's response. the report volume, describes the results and analysis of our obstruction of justice investigation involving the president. the order appointing me special counsel authorized us to investigate actions that could obstruct the investigation. investigationhat and kept the office of the acting attorney general apprised of our work. confidence that the

president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. we did not make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime. the introduction to volume two of our report explains that decision. under long-standing apartment policy, a president cannot be charged with a federal crime while he's in office. underf the charge is kept seal and hidden from public view, that is prohibited. the special counsel's office is part of the department of justice. it was bound by that department policy. charging the president with a crime was therefore not an option we could consider. opinionrtment's written explaining the policy makes several important points that

further informed our handling of the obstruction investigation. opinion explicitly permits the investigation of a sitting president because it is important to preserve evidence while memories are fresh and documents available. that evidence could be used if there were co-conspirators who could be charged now. the opinion says the constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing. beyond department policy, we were guided by principles of fairness. it would be unfair to accuse somebody of a crime when there can be no court resolution of the actual charge.

that was justice department policy. those were the principles under which we operated. we concluded we would not reach a determination one way or the other about whether the president committed a crime. that is the office's final position. we will not comment on any other conclusions or hypotheticals about the president. we conducted an independent criminal investigation and reported the results to the attorney general, as required by department regulations. the attorney general concluded it was appropriate to provide a report to congress and the american people. i one point in time, questioned whether certain portions of the report be released -- the attorney general preferred to make the entire report public all at once. and i do not that

question the attorney general's good faith in that decision. i hope and expect this to be the only time i will speak to you in this manner. i'm making that decision myself. no one has told me whether i can or should testify or speak further about this matter. abouthas been discussion an appearance before congress. any testimony from this office would not go beyond our report. it contains our findings and analysis and reasons for the decisions we made. we chose those words carefully and the work speaks for itself. the report is my testimony. i would not provide information beyond that which is already public in any appearance before congress. in addition, access to our underlying work product is being decided in a process that does

not involve our office. today what i've said here and what is contained in our written work, i do not believe it is appropriate for me to speak further or comment on the actions of the justice department or congress. for that reason, i will not be taking questions today as well. attorneys,hank the the fbi agents, the analysts, the professional staff who helped us conduct this investigation in a fair and independent manner. these individuals who spent nearly two years with the special counsel's office were of the highest integrity. i will close by reiterating the central allegation of our indictments. there were multiple systematic efforts to interfere in our election. that allegation deserves the attention of every american.

thank you. thank you for being here today. subpoenaed,ou are will you appear before congress? >> no questions. the statement of robert mueller, the special counsel, announcing the end of the special counsel's investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election and his return to private life, detailing some of the broad scopes of the report. here on c-span and c-span radio, we will get your reaction, what you heard from robert mueller and what you think might be ahead in congress. 920 four democrats -- for democrats. republicans.1 for all others, 202-748-800922.

release -- given that special counsel mueller was unable to pursue criminal charges against the president, it falls to congress to respond to the crimes, lies and wrongdoing of president trump, and we will do so. the president has a tweet. we will bring that up momentarily. ohio on ournd, republican line. caller: i think you mean democrat. things thatfew really stand out to me. the first being that mueller went ahead and rejected what the theident keeps saying about

russians not interfering in the election. the russians did intervene very heavily. at the end, he reiterated that again. another thing that stood out to me, he rejected something the president and the attorney general are saying, that trump is innocent. that nothingeeted changes from the mueller report, there was insufficient evidence, the case is closed, thank you. that's just paul's. -- that's just false. mueller said the only reason he did not press charges was because he's the president. if trump were anybody else, he would have indicted him. i respect the fact that mueller is recognizing the system of checks and balances and he keeps telling congress it's your turn

now. you have to take charge from here. that's why i respect the representative from michigan who went ahead and said the mueller report does have some grounds for impeachment. he's putting his country over his party. reading through the report instead of just playing a partisan hack. he just tweeted "the ball is in our court, congress." "the special counsel explains report.licitly in his he's asking us to do what he wasn't allowed to -- hold the president accountable." carolina on our others line.

caller: thank you. first of all, giving honor to god in the name of our lord and savior, jesus christ, and may the lord continue to bless america with men and women of integrity. the scripture tells us to pray for those in leadership. that all voters and people around the world continue to pray for those in office in washington, d.c. and abroad. it is very important that we continue to put god first and politics second. we want to continue to pray for with who come into office full cognitive intelligence and integrity. and may the lord bless you as well.

thank you very much. host: alexandria, louisiana. this is our republican line. what did you think of what the special counsel had to say? caller: i've had personal dealings with the special counsel. paperworkd in some years ago where i was getting death threats and stuff like that. i was a corrections officer -- this guy is a pony and a fraud. --t's a phony and a fraud this guy is a phony and a fraud. robert mueller has put innocent people behind bars. i salute you, c-span, for putting anything on that's the truth. he tried to destroy president trump. mueller put people behind

bars illegally. andtrying to prove my case get a present on so pardon. that's presidential pardon -- get a presidential pardon. host: how long did you serve? caller: they said i threatened to kill the warden. complaint and got death threats and stuff. the fbi knew about it and wouldn't help me. they said i threatened to kill the warden at work to keep me behind bars. host: robert mueller was the former fbi director, announced as special counsel in may of 2017. two years later, the first public comments on the investigation.

kathleen in fort worth, texas. caller: how are you doing? host: doing fine, thank you. caller: good. just a quick comment. we've had 2.5 years of an incredibly extensive investigation into trump in regards to collusion. mueller did everything he could to try to prove that trump did collude. this is not new. this has gone on for years and years. every election we've ever had, there's been collusion. this time, they tried to prove that trump was involved. in order to be guilty of obstruction, there has to be a crime. probably veryas adamant about trying to shut the investigation down but he never did. he surrounded himself with people who hated trump.

it was just on and on. unfortunately for him, thank god for us, he wasn't able to close it. once again, he leaves it open. this is just his hatred of trump. instead of saying no collusion, no obstruction, he says no collusion but maybe obstruction. congress, go ahead and impeach. go for it. try to impeach the man. i don't think pelosi has the backbone for it because she knows what's going to happen. host: do you think this statement by the special counsel changes that? more towards the likelihood that the speaker would allow impeachment proceedings to go forward? caller: it gives her no chance to stop it. dot mueller really wanted to was find trump guilty of something. anything to throw him out.

there was no collusion, so he tried for the obstruction. .e's now opened the door and try to getn him impeached. this just pushes it forward more that they will go forward with impeachment. york on ourn in new democrats line. caller: hi. thing, i just saw mr. mueller represent what he had done in a very clean way. --also made the statement made the point that he doesn't want to be dragged as a human reporteparate from the ito media politics so that

becomes about a person instead of about the law. my heart is breaking that there's so many people who are reacting to this report not from having read the report but from defending the people who are giving them what to think on fox news. that is breaking my heart. host: the chairman of the judiciary committee tweeting out the entire statement. the report found substantial evidence that russia attacked our political system and the president sought to obstruct the investigation over and over again. maggie on our republican line in pittsburgh. caller: thank you again, c-span, especially for showing it twice. i had a different take on it when i heard it a second time.

overall, i believe robert mueller is a professional. he acted as a professional. he didn't lie about this to get media attention like folks are doing these days. he's basically saying this is done. i'm out of here. interesting, ind thatber barr saying mueller told him that their decision was not based on the fact that they couldn't invite a sitting president -- indict a sitting president. today, mueller said that was the case. i don't doubt that he could have said that to barr. was he saying it so that people would let up on him? it's interesting that he doesn't want to be dragged into

congress. i thought it was pretty cool that he stood up for the integrity of his team. he's trying to focus people on the first part of the report regarding russian interference. that was pretty good. saying read the report and take us at our word. when i heard it the second time, i wondered if he's saying things for us to read between the lines. host: we will give you a chance to see it again shortly. you can watch it online anytime at www.c-span.org. "mueller" in the search box. the first of the presidential candidates we've seen, cory booker saying --

a few more minutes of your phone calls. patricia in nebraska. hi there. caller: hey. thank you for broadcasting that and doing this. think you taking calls is a very dangerous thing. when you get people like cornelius and kathleen -- first off, i fully believe robert mueller is a man of highest integrity. i agree with maggie, the last caller. speechvered his little with the highest integrity and by the book. he didn't beat around the bush. what the american people need to do is listen. we need to read the report. to know and understand

our constitution. robert mueller has given this service,o much including the last 2.5 years. he has every right to go and enjoy his private life as he chooses. host: sandra is next in the york. -- in new york. caller: good morning. i would say that robert mueller has sterling credentials above reproach. really wanted to call and say is i plead with every american citizen to read the book. it is stunning, the crimes that were committed. testimony.ull is available on amazon

for nine dollars. many of the people who are calling in support of this president and barr blocking everything, any hearings, anything, it is so upsetting. i've lived a long life. i'm over 70. but i worry about how dangerous this president is for the future, for my grandchildren, for my children. please, people, read the book. host: one more tweet from elizabeth warren -- it's up to congress to act. they should. line in our republican brooklyn. brooklyn, alana?

good morning. go ahead. you are on the air. you there? your calls.ll much more tomorrow morning on "washington journal." one more time, the statement from this morning from robert mueller. mueller: good morning, everyone. thank you for being here. two years ago, the acting toorney general asked me serve as a special counsel and he created the special counsel's office. the appointment order directed the office to investigate russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. this included investigating any links or court nation -- coordination