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Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., suggested Sunday that former special counsel Robert Mueller III may be invited to testify before his panel, although Graham did not give any details on the timing of any potential invitation.
Graham’s statement came one day after Mueller defended his office’s prosecution of Roger Stone, President Donald Trump’s longtime friend and political adviser, in a Washington Post op-ed.
Trump commuted Stone’s 40-month prison sentence on Friday night, using his presidential authority after a unanimous finding by a jury that Stone broke the law multiple times by lying to Congress and obstructing justice.
In his statement Sunday, Graham suggested that he had reconsidered his position on allowing Mueller to testify in light of the former special counsel’s op-ed.
“Apparently Mr. Mueller is willing – and also capable – of defending the Mueller investigation through an op-ed in the Washington Post,” Graham said. “Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have previously requested Mr. Mueller appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify about his investigation. That request will be granted.”
Taylor Reidy, a Graham spokeswoman, said a formal invitation to Mueller is in the works, but did not provide details on the timing of any potential testimony. There are only about three dozen legislative days remaining for the Senate before the November election.
A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment on Graham’s statement.
Stone’s ongoing appeal still pits him against feds
Roger Stone’s commutation by President Donald Trump spares him from spending more than three years at a federal lockup, but his legal journey is far from over.
Even after Trump’s controversial act of clemency, Stone’s conviction from November – for lying to Congress during the probe into Russian election interference – is still intact. That’s because Trump’s act of clemency wasn’t the full pardon he could have handed down.
A pardon would have required Stone to abandon the appeal he filed in April after U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington denied his request for a new trial. Stone, 67, has said he’s eager to clear his name and overturn a conviction he says is the result of a politically biased judge and jury – claims frequently echoed by Trump.
“A pardon includes acceptance of guilt and ends the appeals process. The commutation allows me to go forward with the appeals,” Stone said in a text Saturday.
Mimi Rocah, a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan who wasn’t involved in Stone’s case, predicted that Stone’s push for a new trial “will fail, but that is at least part of why” he was only commuted by the president.
The commutation could also benefit Trump by making it easier for Stone – a self-described political dirty trickster – to plead his Fifth Amendment constitutional right against self-incrimination if he’s subpoenaed. That would be harder to do if he’s been pardoned, said Rocah.
An appeal means Attorney General William Barr’s Justice Department will continue to defend its case against Stone.
From wire reports