when robert mueller was fbi director, aaron zebley was his chief of staff at the fbi. and we thought that's what his role was in the special counsel's office, but today zebley was described as the deputy special counsel. in this statement from mueller's new spokesperson. "aaron zebley was the deputy special counsel and had day-to-day oversight of the investigations conducted by the special counsel's office. " oh. "he will accompany special counsel mueller to the wednesday hearings, as was discussed with the committees more than a week ago." that statement today by mueller's new spokesperson. well, if this has been the plan to have aaron zebley sitting there with mueller at his open testimony tomorrow and that was discussed with the two committees more than a week ago, i mean, that may be true. this is the first that we, the public, are hearing about it for sure. we had thought that maybe some of mueller's deputies including zebley might initially be testifying in closed sessions following mueller's open testimony. then that was reportedly either still in process or mayb

aaron zebley first worked with robert mueller when mueller was the director of the fbi and zebley was his fbi chief of staff. he then joined the same private law firm that robert mueller joined and left that law firm with robert mueller to work at the special counsel's office where aaron zebley was the deputy special counsel. aaron zebley had wide-ranging responsibilities oversees the entire mueller investigation. volume i and volume ii of the report. and he was the primary go-between with the justice department. that puts aaron zebley in a position to know everything about the mueller deep's communications with deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, who was supervising the investigation, and then attorney general william barr when he took over the supervision of the investigation. the chairman of the judiciary committee and the intelligence committee both said today that they believe robert mueller does not have to comply with the restrictions on his testimony that appeared in last night's letter from the justice department to robert mueller. >> i think it's incredibly arrogant of t

the intelligence committee in the afternoon after robert mueller's testimony to your committee aaron zebley, his deputy, who was variously described as the deputy special counsel or his chief of staff in the special counsel's office. he's going to be sworn in alongside robert mueller in the afternoon session with intel and will also be giving testimony, also be answering questions from members. as far as we understand it, at your committee zebley will be there but he won't be sworn in. he'll be there purely to advise mueller on his own responses. is that still operative at this time? >> you know, that's -- that's the last part that i heard.

>> the aides is aaron zebley, robert mueller's chief of staff. an accomplished counterterrorism investigator in his own right and robert mueller's chief of staff during the mueller investigation. and they are asking that he be sworn in to sit next to robert mueller during the judiciary committee part of the hearing. it's not clear that's going to be able to happen because of congressional rules. >> and to do what? and to say what? >> well, i mean, you know, robert mueller is 74 years old. he oversaw this sprawling investigation. it's conceivable he doesn't know the answer particularly with the details to every question and a guy like zebley could help him answer those questions and inform the public if only

i'll be joined today by deputy special counsel aaron zebley. mr. zebley has extensive experience as a federal prosecutor and at the fbi where he served as my chief of staff. mr. zebley was responsible for the day-to-day oversight of the investigations conducted by our office. i also want to again say thank you to the attorneys, 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 working onhis matter were of the highest integrity. let me say one more thing. over the course of my career, i have seen a number of challenges to our democracy. the russian government's effort to interfere in our election is among the most serious. as i said on may 29th, this deserves the attention of every american. thank you, mr. chairman. >> robert mueller ending his testimony. the questions will begin by chairman nadler. >> i will begin by recognizing myself for five minutes. director mueller, the president has repeatedly claimed that your report foun

the president also taking exception to aaron zebley testifying alongside robert mueller. he tweeted this out about the deputy special counsel writing, quote, it was never agreed that robert mueller could use one of his many democrat never trumper lawyers to sit next to him and help him with his answers. this was specifically not agreed to and i would never have agreed to it. the greatest witch hunt in u.s. history by far. we should point out it's not especially known that aaron zebley is a never trumper or he's a democrat. federal records indicate he's never donated to either political party. still the president wants to paint him a certain way just as he tried to paint robert mueller in a negative light suggesting he had conflicts of interest. as for whether the president will be watching earlier this week, he played coy. might watch parts of the testimony. knowing this president just how much he consumes cable news, it's safe to say he'll be watching. as for when we might hear from him outside of twitter, the president has a fund raider later tonight in west virginia. w

is,more on who aaron zebley --oo!ews yesterday evening he worked in the fbi counterterrorism division for seven years as part of the team who chased members of al qaeda. when mueller left the fbi to join wilmer hale law firm, ze bley followed him a week later. after he joined the investigation into allegations of collusion, becoming mueller's closest associate, he served as the intermediary in the justice department, trump yesterday accusing him and other staffers of being supporters of hillary clinton because zebley previously represented a clinton aide. president trump with that tweet last night. forrt mueller has asked long time, never trump lawyer to sit beside him and help with answers. what's that about? the server guy who got free in the crooked hillary case. from members today of the judiciary committee. collins, the top republican on the committee, saying less than 24 hours before robert mueller arrives, the chairman is allowing the committee's business to devolve into chaos. this shows the length democrats w

i will be joined today by deputy special counsel aaron zebley, who has extensive experience as a federal prosecutor and at the fbi where he served as my chief of staff. mr. zebley was responsible for the day-to-day oversight of the investigations conducted by our office. i also want to, again, say thank you to the attorneys, the fbi agentsthe analysts, the professional staff who helped us conduct this investigation in a fair and independent manner. these individuals who spent on s matter were of the highest integrity. let me say one more thing. over the course of my career, i've seen a number of challenges to our democracy. the russian government's effort to interfere in our election is among the most serious. and as i said on may 29th, this deserves the attention of every american. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you. we will now proceed under the five-minute rule with questions. i will begin by recognizing myself for five minutes. director mueller, the president has repeatedly claimed that your report found there was no obstruction and that it completely and totally exonerated him. b

but what is unusual is aaron zebley is both a witness and counsel.nd in the first hearing with the house judiciary committee he's going to be sitting along side him but then in the second one he's been sworn in, and we could also be testifying alongside robert mueller, and so that is pretty unique. the president has been tweeting about this this morning. clearly this is on his mind. he's making a big deal out of the fact this is request from robert mueller and he's going to be helping with some of the answers, which is pretty rich because the president also conferred with his lawyers. >> and one of the questions i assume will be asked and maybe you can help us on this, why didn't you demand a sit down interview with the president of the united states? why did you only allow written questions and written answers? >> bob mueller addressed that in part in the report reciting how there are a lot of cases in which you either bring or decide not to bring an obstruction case without talking to the potential target. my view has always been he had a tough dec

do you have any reservations about allowing the deputy aaron zebley testify alongside him? >> my understanding is that he will not testify but be there so that robert mueller can occasionally seek his advice. but i hope that we're -- we're not going to be interrupted by consultations as much as mr. mueller has a chance to kind of speak his mind and tell us what is in the report and why it matters. >> will aaron zebley be formally sworn in as a witness or just sit there as an aide to the former special counsel and whisper in his ear from time to time? >> i'm not sure. i think that is being hashed out right now but it appears he will be at least accessible to mr. mueller. >> your colleagues on the house judiciary committee plan to focus their questions on issues surrounding potential obstruction of justice by the president. your committee, the intelligence committee, will focus in on russian interference in the 2016 election. what is the biggest question you have for the former special counsel on that front? >> i've several questions but i think the biggest question is what d

robert mueller's right-hand man, top deputy in the investigation, aaron zebley, will join him at the table. we had expected muler to appear alone. mueller will be asked to recount two years' worth of details from the investigation so perhaps it's not surprising he asked for help. zebley may also testify. mule her been very up front he was not going to say much. remember this. >> any testimony from this office would not go beyond our report. it contains our findings and analysis and the reasons for the decisions we made. we chose those words carefully and the work speaks for itself. >> so mueller was going to be tough to get anything new from. zebley we have less of a read on. now democrats are betting even if we hear nothing new, hearing it on television will finally get americans' attention. polls show only one in ten americans ever read the report. seeing it on tv could be more influential. just look what happened when attorney general bill barr gave the world his impression of the mueller report, before anybody could actually read it. many people took barr's interpretation as gosp

this -- the fact is it bo came evidence, he admitted that aaron zebley ran the day-to-day operation, who happened to represent hillary clinton's i-t guy. it was a partisan witch-hunt run bipartisans, because. mueller -- this is first day he read parts of his report. kennedy: you did get to that sense, that is so strange. i don't to want to belittle robt mueller. a lot went out to point out his impressive career, service in vietnam into 4 different administrations, but you -- he knew this day was coming but he seemed rather unprepared. >> i give you that, i don't think he was best witness. but let's be clear, i think this is a first time in american history we have this conversation about men, women who serve the nation, fbi agents who go to work, prosecutor, who go to work every day to serve the country, we have a conversation who they vote for, instead of what they do for work every day, robert mueller was very clear, saying i hire the best people, not how they vote but how they do the job. kennedy: even ken starr -- ken starr who did the same job, he didn't do a bang up job, he bat

he asked for his long-time aide, aaron zebley, to be sworn in alongside him. republicans objected. jim jordan tweeting, you don't get to change the rules right before kickoff. in the end a compromise. zebley will be able to sit next to mueller and confer with him but will not testify. mueller himself didn't want this day to come. >> any testimony from this office would not go beyond our report. >> reporter: but the special counsel's in-person testimony is what democrats have been waiting for. they assume most americans have not read his report. >> for many americans, just learning what is in the report will be a revolution. >> reporter: even the fbi director acknowledged he hasn't read the whole thing. >> i -- i've reviewed it. i wouldn't say i've read every single word. >> reporter: a long-time public servant and fbi director for more than a decade, mueller has testified before congress 88 times. when he takes the oath tomorrow, president trump will be watching. he clearly had mueller on his mind. >> $40 million. interviewed 500 people. they had nothing. >> reporter: but mueller di

he will have his aide, aaron zebley sitting near him and will be able to consult over questions, something president trump is not happy about. the president tweeted it was inform agreed robert mueller could use one of his many democrat never trumper lawyers to sit next to him and help him with his answers and described executive branch. mu testifying today. muller spend three hours before the house committee this the morning and two hours before the house intelligence committee later in the afternoon. >> i don't know anybody who is more controlled than bob mueller in terms of being honest about his reaction and closed mouth about things. >> reporter: we can expect members to probe him about the conclusions of his report, mainly his investigation found evidence of russian interference in the election but did not establish that members oh the trump cam train conspired or coordinated with the government in the activities. for the first three hours of obstruction of justice and whether the report found president trump tried to stop the investigation. the mueller report was far less clear aing

congressman swalwell starting his round of questions special counsel muller is accompanied today by aaron zebley who served as deputy special counsel for may 2017 until may 2019 and had dated a oversight of the special counsel's investigation mr moller mr zebley resigned from the department of justice at the end of may 21000 when the special counsel's office was closed both mr moller and mr will be available to answer questions today i will be sworn in consistent with the rules of the house and the committee mr moller mr sublease appearance today before the committee is in keeping with the committee's longstanding practice of receiving testimony from current or former department of justice and f.b.i. personnel regarding open and closed investigative matters as this hearing is under oath and before before we begin your testimony mr mueller in zebley would you please rise and raise your right hands to be sworn swear. do you swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give at this hearing is the whole truth and nothing but the truth thank. thank you the record reflect that the witnesses hav

by mueller's side will be his attorney and longtime aide, aaron zebley. being billed as a last-minute decision. house judiciary committee is not going to swear aaron in both the house intelligence committee is which means that zebley may be a able to testify as well. exact details still being hashed out right now, shannon. speaker pelosi, she said tonight that she thinks the last minute request is acceptable. president trump describes it as a "last-minute change, allowing a never-trump her attorney to hh his testimony before congress tomorrow. what a disgrace to our system. never heard of this before. very unfair, should not be allowed. rigged witch hunt." somebody else would prefer to have miller testify alone. commerce and adam schiff, chairman of the second committee holding the hearings marketed adam schiff also upset about the letter from the department of justice instructing mueller to stick to what's in his report not go be on. said that the letter attempts to circumscribe her testimony and represents another attempt by the trump administration to o

i think it is significant aaron zebley will listen to him.y is sitting next to him, they want their understanding what their work produced is clear to the american people? >> that is what they want. i think what they should be concerned about, what that looks like. we've had a lot of commentary about mueller being very staff driven. that he was kind of a detached, some of the lawyers worked on the case basically said he was detached, he was not hands on, his staff ran everything, while president trump tweets about the staff being a bunch of angry democrats, right? having him there, look, i testified in front of this committee like three weeks ago. you don't usually get to have somebody there to help you along. i don't think it's a great look for him. bret: house judiciary committee chairman jerry nadler, as the rest of the committee starts filing in the rayburn house office building getting underway. juan, we have a poll out, just out, a "fox news poll," the chance that mueller testimony could change your mind about president trump. none 49%

i will be joined today by deputy special counsel aaron zebley who has extensive experience as a federal prosecutor and at the fbi where he served as my chief of staff. aaron zebley was responsible for the day-to-day oversight of the investigations conducted by our office. i also want to say thank you to the attorneys, fbi agents, analysts, facial staff who helped us conduct this investigation in a fair and independent manner. these individuals who spend nearly two years working on this matter were of the highest integrity. . over the course of my career, i have seen a number of challenges to our democracy. government's efforts to interfere in our election is among the most serious. as i said on may 29, this deserves the attention of every american. thank you, mr. chairman. rep. nadler: thank you. we will now proceed under the five-minute will of questions. i will recognize myself for five minutes. director mueller, the president has repeatedly claimed your report found there was no obstruction and a completely and totally exonerated him. that is not what your report said, is it? mr. mue

tonight a spokesman for mueller said aaron zebley was a deputy special counsel. he will accompany special counsel mueller to the hearing as was discussed more than a week ago. mueller's more than 148-page report clearly shows conduct by the president that at the absolutely most charitable, if you really bend over backwards, demonstrates a profound failure to uphold his oath to faithfully execute the laws of the united states. at the worst, it constitutes not only high crimes and misdemeanors, but actual crimes. for all the coverage we've seen about how the american people haven't read the mueller report and don't care about it and don't know what's going on, a quinnipiac poll taken just after the poll was released found 57% of voters said trump committed crimes before he became president. 54% said trump attempted to derail or obstruct the investigation into the russian interference in the 2016 election. and 51% said the mueller report did not clear trump of any wrongdoing. but that was almost three months ago. at a certain point the idea tomorrow for this spectac

. >> so, john, to that effect you have aaron zebley sitting next to bob mueller.was the deputy special counsel, ran the day to day oversight of the investigation. now we understand he won't be lourd to be worn sworn in about i the judiciary but the intelligence committee chaired by chairman schiff will answer technical questions. why does mueller want him there to give more information or to have a shield from questions he would prefer not to answer himself. >> it's hard to speculate on precisely what he has in mind. he may feel more comfortable with somebody who was much more granular in building the report than he was. he was sort of a big picture guy and then probably made corrections. but he didn't work up the report in the same kind of detail that his chief aide did and can probably, you know, either whisper in his ear to refresh his recollection. and i think if the committee is shrewd, notwithstanding the fact he is not there as a witness, democrats could certainly ask him a question. there is no rule that prohibits that. so we'll see how that plays out. >>

no. >> let's talk about the presence of aaron zebley, this sort of turn of events as of yesterday.e's not necessarily going to be a witness but he's going to be the council to bob mueller. how significant is this? >> on the one hand, robert mueller is going to be aided by having someone that he trusts nearby, maybe even to help him or remind him or point to areas -- remember, robert mueller didn't personally author the entire mueller report. he had a team. so, with a team like that, it's always good to have your r right-hand person there. you know, i've been thinking about that, too, this whole time, how will robert mueller navigate his own report so quickly? it's a lot of pages, he doesn't have it committed to memory. he might need the help. >> it's interesting it's a last-minute change. they've been preparing for this for a couple weeks. we've known that bob mueller was going to testify for a couple weeks. actually, it was last week and the date got switched to this week. moved a week later. it's interesting that this change happened so quickly, just 24 hours before he's set to a

democrats will allow special counsel robert mueller's long time aide, lawyer aaron zebley to appear with him at today's hearings. president trump tweets "very unfair. that should not be allowed." >> it shows they're desperate to have mr. mue not speak. and intelligence committees, answering questions about his non.t on russian election there's no nothing. they're wasting their time. >> reporter: the report found evidence that president trump tried to obstruct the investigation, but it did not and according to mueller could not recommend prosecution. >> the mueller investigation revealed a lot of conduct by the president which the american people should be aware of. >> those are pretty compelling facts that paint a portrait of a deeply unethical candidate for president and a deeply unpatriotic campaign. >> reporter: the justice department has warned muler to stick with what's in the report. >> bob mueller is of to question whether bad information led to this investigation, and highlight fbi misconduct. now we've got a pew research poll that's relevant to what's happening today, because it

i don't know if you saw otherwise t will be interesting to see how much in this hearing aaron zebley, who has been sworn in before the committee, will actually be testifying. and i think also in terms of looking ahead, previewing, robert mueller made it clear we're not going to learn more about whether the trump campaign or president trump had advanced knowledge of the wikileaks dump. he made it very clear he doesn't want to go near that because of the ongoing stone case. >> i want to read this statement from president trump's lawyer, jay sekulow. this morning's testimony exposed troubling deficiencies of the special counsel's investigation. the testimony revealed that this probe was conducted by a small group of politically biased prosecutors who, as hard as they tried, were unable to establish obstruction, conspiracy or collusion between the trump team and russia. he conducted his two-year investigation unimpeded. the american people understand that this investigation is over and that the case is closed, unquote. laura, what were you going to say? >> nice try, first of all, on tryin

aaron zebley will sit alongside mueller not as a witness. a house aide tells nbc that zebley will be sworn in for the second round. on twitter, president trump blasted the news. just got back to hear the last minute change allowing a never trumper attorney to help robert mueller with his testimony before congress tomorrow. what a disgrace to our system. never heard of this before. very unfair. >> wait, donald trump talking about what a disgrace to our system. when yesterday he was speaking, but some young americans saying that the constitution gave him the right to do whatever he wanted to do, and i have to think back to that financial times article yesterday talking about how the nazis would rail against quote the system, constantly railing quote against the system because the quote system was actually still stopping them in the early 1930s from doing what they wanted to do so they attacked quote the system just generally until finally they were able to break it down and do whatever they wanted. this keeps -- well, let me go to you matt mil

aaron zebley in case he needs to consult on any responses or reactions about the investigation. that request was approved. zebley will not be directly questioned and he will not provide any answers. zebley, just to give you some background here, was a key figure in the hillary clinton email investigation. he then moved over with robert mueller to the russia probe. and then tonight in totally separately -- in other big news as we head into an election year, attorney general barr dropped another bombshell. there will be a justice department probe into the work of firms such as google, facebook, and amazon. they didn't name the firms, but that's the kind of company that we believe we are talking about here. all of that in a moment. tonight we get the story from two lawmakers who will be the questioning tomorrow. in moments congressman matt gaetz but first we go to eric swalwell, a member of the house judiciary committee. congressman, thank you very much for being here. >> of course, of course, good evening. >> martha: good evening to you. so first of all, why do you think there was

jordan already objecting to a late request from special counsel mueller to have his longtime aide aaron zebley sworn in alongside him. president trump weighing in saying zebley's appearance should not be allowed and calling the investigation a rigged witch-hunt. >> $40 million. interview 500 people. they got nothing. >> reporter: now, president trump has been going back and forth as to whether or not he'll watch as mueller is testifying and mueller has said he's not going to be revealing anything other than what's been written. he has said, quote, the report is my testimony. janai, kenneth. >> trevor, thank you. stay with abc news for live coverage of the hearings beginning this morning at 8:15. abc's powerhouse political team will be standing by. >>> well, breaking local media outlets are reporting puerto rico's embattled governor is resigning. ricardo rossello will reportedly step down in a video address later today. the governor's office is not commenting on the reports. this would be an abrupt about-face by rossello who had refused to step aside despite nearly two weeks of sometimes violen

talked about it with the committee over a week ago but it was certainly granted at the last minute aaron zebley, a long-time aide, another lawyer, deputy in the russia investigation, is going to accompany robert mueller today for his testimony. he is not expected to be sworn in or speak but he will be sitting there to advise robert mueller when lawmakers on both sides start firing questions president trump tweeting about this, saying it was very unfair. trump supporters saying that this was a last-minute attempt to try to change things because democrats simply do not have a case here. robert mueller is expected to testify for at least five hours today. three with the judiciary committee, two with the intelligence committee, about his report on russian election interference and specifically about evidence of obstruction of justice by the president of the united states, president trump. now, that evidence did not turn into an indictment, could not have been an indictment according to mueller because the justice department had ruled that you cannot indict a sitting president. and the justice depar

long-time mueller aide aaron zebley is going to serve as his lawyer.he'll be sitting beside mueller in one hearing and he'll be sworn in for testimony in another. he's mueller's former chief of staff and top 5id on the russia investigation. thuss change comes as the jtice department is asking mueller to be talk beyond his report on russian election interference. the justice department sent a letter to mueller outlining a broad range of restrictions including testifying about only what is in the muler report. he's being zruk ing instructed talk about redactions, nf privileged imation decisions made during the investigation, and any communication with the president. of course, as you can guess, d.c.'s going to buzzing about this tomorrow and d.c. bars are ready to take advantage. bars like shaw's tvern, duffy's, and union pub will open n early for watch parties. in fact, you nd a listing of places like that on the nbc washington app. and of course we'llave live coverage starting just after00 8: a.m. right here on nbc 4. dorine? >> all right, leon, thank

>> that's aaron zebley. president trump frustrated. they go back to the fbi days. robert mueller requested to have him sworn in to testify alongside him. that's causing a bit of a problem. in the first hearing he'll be next to him, he'll be robert mueller's counsel. in the second hearing in front of the intelligence committee he'll also be sworn in so he, too, can answer questions ability the investigation. president trump tweeted a little bit ago this.ever agreed to. >> trevor, we appreciate the report. we'll have a live special report starting at 5:15 this morning. we're going to be streaming the entire testimony for you on abc7news.com. >>> it's 4:32. another check on weather and traffic. we start with mike nicco. >> thank you very much. glad you're feeling better. low clouds along the coast will make a feeble attempt november in to the bay. it will be much brighter and quicker than yesterday. that's going to lead to the warmest temperatures so far this week. we're in the upper 80s inland by noon. mid 70s around the bay, 60s at the co il kdf toasty inland. 86 ar

he asked for his long-time aide, aaron zebley, to be sworn in alongside him. republicans objected. congressman jim jordan tweeting, "you don't get to change the rules right before kickoff." in the end, a compromise. zebley will be able to sit next to mueller and confer with him, but will not testify. mueller himself didn't want this day to come. >> any testimony from this office would not go beyond our report. >> reporter: but the special counsel's in-person testimony is what democrats have been waiting for. they assume most americans have not read his report. >> for many americans, just learning what's in the report will be a revelation. >> reporter: today, even the fbi director acknowledged he hasn't read the whole thing. >> i've reviewed it. i wouldn't say i've read every single word. >> reporter: as a long-time public servant and fbi director for more than a decade, mueller has testified before congress 88 times. when he takes the oath tomorrow, president trump will be watching. today, he clearly had mueller on his mind. >> $40 million, interviewed 500 people, they got nothing.

. >> reporter: he was at mueller's side throughout the atvestigation, but aaron zebley will not be allowedtestify with him tomorrow. mueller's late request rejected today. his deputy can be there to utvise him, but mueller will be the sole witness. >> it's an important day for the american people. >> reporter: tonight, house democrats headed into one last prep session. >> i'm going into a mock hearing. >> reporter: tomorrow may be their only chance to grill the former special counsel about his 450-page report, which did not identify evidence of a conspiracy between the trump campaign and russia, but did lay out 10 acts of potential obstruction of justice by ruesident trump. >> he owes the american people some answers on some really lyportant questions, like why he chose not to interview the president. >> reporter: connecticut jmocrat jim himes has been practicing at mock hearings. e' he's a one-word guy. i mean, we're going to get "yeses and no's" and very short answers so how do you draw a guy rtke that out. >> reporter: the department of .ustice hopes they don't, reminding mueller in a l

. >> we are, my questions will be directed to robert mueller, not to aaron zebley .rv special counsel. this under scores insphie inspif fact you had 19 lawyers out to get president, they found no collusion, they found nothing, for 10 months prior they opened this investigation july 31 -- fbi. >> yes, they can 10 months, we deposed jim comey after he was fired, he said up until the point he was fired, they still didn't have anything. robert mueller 22 month investigation, they find nothing, tha 32 months they fine nothing, but this big hearing they will bring in zebleyto sit bebeside mueller hoping to find something. lou: they found someone that needs to be held accountable for breaking laws, for breaking the guidelines of the department of justice, and it is a member of the deputy of justice or the -- department of justice or fbi who right now should be prosecuted, they are not. i am sure mueller would like to speak to that. will he be given the opportunity to account for this nonsense, this is a ruse. >> you are right, i love what attorney general barr said, there w

. >> reporter: he was at mueller's side throughout the investigation, but aaron zebley will not be allowedo testify with him tomorrow. mueller's late request rejected today. his deputy can be there to advise him but mueller be the sole witness. >> it's an important day for the american people. >> reporter: tonight house democrats headed into one last prep session. tomorrow may be their only chance to grill the former special counsel about his 450-page report which did not identify evidence of a conspiracy between the trump campaign and russia but did lay out ten acts of potential obstruction of justice by president trump. >> he owes the american people some answers on some really important questions like why he chose not to interview the president. >> reporter: connecticut democrat jim himes has been practicing at mock hearings. he is a one-word guy. we're going get yeses and no's and very, very short answers. so how do you draw a guy like that out? >> reporter: the department of justice hopes they don't, reminding mueller in a letter last night to stick to the boundaries of his public rep

muller have his aid aaron zebley near him and will be able to consult with him over questions duringhis obe him o found interference but didn't establish that trump conspired with the russian government. the first three hours of testimony before the committee will focus on the question of obstruction of justice and whether the report found president trump tried to stop the investigation. on that question, mueller's report was less clear saying while this does not conclude the president committed a crime, it does not exonerate him. >> i don't know anybody who is more control than bob mueller in terms of being honest about his reaction and closed mouth about things. >> we want to take you to the live picture of the hearing room where robert mueller is seated there. you see him there. speaking in the background is the chairman of the house judiciary committee. jerry nadler of new york. brief introductions from the chairman and then the ranking member of this house committee and then robert muller be giving his introduction and taking questions and expected to take questions from all 41

career and all the experience of bob mueller that he is asking that his deputy also be sworn in, aaron zebleyo, i guess, act as a helper at the hearing. what about that? was that surprising? >> it was very surprising. the helper can sit behind him and he can turn to him and whisper in his ear, or he can say look, i don't know the answer that question. why don't you ask my helper. call him to testify. the idea that he needs to have an assistant sitting next to him, it would be like in a criminal trial of witnesses l called and saying i'm not going to answer this questions. i'm bringing my lawyer or my wife or my friend or somebody else, somebody who worked for me, to sit next to me in the chair and then you can ask me all the questions. mueller has to be able to answer these questions by himself. most of the answers are going to be, at least to the questions asked by the democrats, i'm not willing to go beyond the report. the report speaks for itself. read the report. what i said, i said. i'm not going to go beyond what i've said. he doesn't need help to give that kind of answer. >> laura: i t

and also ask him, how can you hire people like andrew weissmann, jeannie rhee, and aaron zebley who hadould challenge him about things that he misrepresented io his report. individuals that he claims were spies for russia when, in fact, they were providing intelligent information to the united states. so again, there is so much to go over here. if i had three hours, i could triple the number of 37 questions that i came up with in just an hour. >> sean: that's because you are really smart. and i'm going to be looking at your questions, probably will steal a few. but i will give attribution, unlike the rest of the media that never does so. great report, sara, great analysis, gregg. when we come back, james comey,s super patriot. cannot help himself. giving his list of questions to the democrats for wednesday's hearings. i have a bunch of questions that i want james comey to answer. about the deep state.in a about his involvement in things. statements about things. we will do that next. jim, i hope you are watching. you have the right to remain silent. ♪ my experience with usaa has been ex

he seemed to cede substantial responsibility to his top deputies, including aaron zebley, who managed date-day operations. as negotiations with president trump's lawyers about interviewing him dragged on, for example, mr. mueller took part less and less. is that, frank, what you think we saw today? >> well, we didn't see the man that i served as fbi director. but we saw a man who is approaching age 75 in a couple of weeks. the question we have to ask ourselves is so what? what is the impact of that age factory if any? and my response to that is this. we are living in a society that likes drama and noise and elevated voices. and seemingly over facts and findings. so mueller's facts and findings would not be any different. the team's findings would not be any different if he were 62 or 52 or 75. that's the reality. but sadly, people who tune in to tv expect to see entertainment and drama and not facts and findings. we saw a stark contrast today between a professional prosecutor and professional politicians. and now we have a choice to make. are we going to choose the facts or are we goi

aaron zebley represented hillary clinton's aide who set up the upper and mashed her blackberries withsorts of folks, again, that were close to the clinton foundation and, you know, so the bias that was involved there, i think, are fair things to talk about. and i think that's why in light of the disastrous testimony from robert mueller, you know, the democrats paid a heavy price for bringing a reluctant witness to testify. they. played their hand -- they overplayed their hand and did it in front of a a national television audience. it was a great week for donald trump because of that. to your point, maria, now the things that bob mueller said he didn't know about and his team clearly didn't look at, those are things that are there for bill barr and the department of justice to look at. because we know that things happened in the obama administration that haven't been answered. there's been no accountability for that yet. maria: let's take a short break, and i want to ask you where the crime and the wrongdoing really was, because we know that barr's looking at it, and john durham is lo

the investigation was really called into question, particularly even looking at the facts that aaron zebleya i guy who represented justin cooper a top hillary clinton aide who both set up the private server and destroyed evidence, also what representative rad cliff pointed out is the fact that president trump was denied his presumption of innocence by mueller and his team. so for those three reasons, mueller did a lot of dodge democrats' impeachment narrative snail sure looks that way. thanks for that explanation, lisa boothe. >> i always appreciate being on. thank you. >> thank you. in a resurfaced interview from 2018, i will and omar told al jazeera that america ought to engage in racial profiling of white men who she blamed for most of the deaths within this country. in the same interview omar said american shouldn't worry about young muslims leaving her state of minnesota to fight for isis oral sha bob. i have to pause. we're not making this up. this is real. omar said the real concern was the rhetoric of local politicians which apparently drove these young terrorists into terrorism. in

his depuputy, aaron zebley, is expected to alsoso be present tn an advorory capacityty and will -- after a requeuest from robert mueller.r. he will l reportedly be sworn io the house intelligence hearing. ahead of today's highly anticipated hearings, house intelligence chair jerrold nadler slammed the justice department's directive that mueller remain within the boundaries of the public version of the report. the department also said that mueller could not discuss the conduct of uncharged third parties, which includes president trump, his family, and his close associates. on tuesday, trump railed against former special counsel robert mueller's investigation during a spspeech at t an event for conservative high school students in washington. pres. trump: i have an artrticle where i have the right to do whatever i want as president, but i don't even talk about that anduse they did a report the was no obstruction. after looking at it, our great attorney general read it. he is a total professional. he said, there is nothing here. there is no obstruction. the trumpeport found administration o

one of your other hosts brought up aaron zebley, who is probably one of the best attorneys i've ever nown him for years. the team he took on with these investigations was better bar none. essentially aaron if he can tell the director some of the answers to this is substantial. i don't think in my mind you'll get him to at least say the president should have or possibly could be indicted. >> greg, republicans on the committee, a lot of speculation maybe the questioning will revolve more around the origins of the counter-intelligence investigation, everything that led to mueller being put in that position in the first place. what are you expecting from them tomorrow and how do you think mueller will handle the republican lines of questioning tomorrow? >> steve, i expect the republicans, for the most part, to overreach and potentially embarrass themselves by doing so. those issues in my view are red herrings. there's no fact rual basis for virtually any issues brought up before. it's a side show and distraction. let me just suggest one further point with respect to bob mueller's reluctan