US. Department of Justice

Office of the Deputy Attorney General

Office of the Deputy Attorney General 950 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.

Room 4113, RFK Main Justice Bldg.

Washington, D.C. 20530

July 22, 2019

Robert S. Mueller, III

Washington, D.C.

By email

Dear Mr. Mueller:

I write in response to your July 10, 2019 letter concerning the testimonial
subpoenas you

received from the House Judiciary Committee (HJC) and House Permanent Select
Committee on

Intelligence (HPSCI). Your letter requests that the Department provide you
with guidance

concerning privilege or other legal bars applicable to potential testimony
in connection with

those subpoenas.

On May29, 2019, with the Department’s authorization, you made a public
statement

about your work as Special Counsel. In that statement, you addressed a
possible appearance

before Congress, saying that you “hope and expect this to be the only time I
will speak to you in

this matter.” You also stated that if you testify before Congress, “any
testimony from this

office would not go beyond our report. It contains findings and analysis,
and the 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.” 

 

I understand that subsequently, you advised the committees that

you do not wish to testify concerning your work as Special Counsel, given
that you would not

add anything beyond what you already said in the now-public report and your
public statement.

As the Attorney General has repeatedly stated, the decision to testify
before Congress is

yours to make in this case, but the Department agrees with your stated
position that your

testimony should be unnecessary under the circumstances. 

 

The Department generally does not

permit prosecutors such as you to appear and testify before Congress
regarding their

investigative and prosecutorial activity. In addition, the Department
already has taken

extraordinary steps to make almost your entire report, as well as a
substantial volume of your

underlying investigative material, available to the committees. Should you
testify, the

Department understands that testimony regarding the work of the Special
Counsel’s Office will

be governed by the terms you outlined on May 29 — specifically, that the
information you discuss

during your testimony appears in, and does “not go beyond,” the public
version of your March

22, 2019 report to the Attorney General or your May 29 public statement.

 

Please note that there should be no testimony concerning the redacted
portions of the

public version of your report, which may not be disclosed because of
applicable laws, court rules

and orders(including Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e)), or
longstanding Department

policies. As you know, the U.S. v. Stone and U.S. v. Concord cases remain
pending, and local court rules and specific orders issued in those cases
substantially restrict the Department’s ability

to make public statements about those cases. 

 

In addition, it is the Department’s longstanding

policy not to discuss the conduct of uncharged third-parties. See Justice
Manual § 9-27.760.

Established Department policy also precludes any comment on the facts
developed and legal

conclusions by the Special Counsel’s Office with respect to uncharged
individuals, other than

information contained within the portions of your report that already have
been made public.

 

Finally, any testimony must remain within the boundaries of your public
report because

matters within the scope of your investigation were covered by executive
privilege, including

information protected by law enforcement, deliberative process, attorney
work product, and

presidential communications privileges. These privileges would include
discussion about

investigative steps or decisions made during your investigation not
otherwise described in the

public version of your report. Consistent with standard practice, Department
witnesses should

decline to address potentially privileged matters, thus affording the
Department the full

opportunity at a later date to consider particular questions and possible
accommodations that

may fulfill the committees’ legitimate need for information while protecting
Executive Branch

confidentiality interests.

 

I trust this information is helpful. Please do not hesitate to contact me if
you wish to

further discuss these issues. 

 

Associate Deputy Attorney General

 

Sincerely,

A_

Bradley Weihsheimer

Associate Deputy Attorney General

EM         -> { Trump for 2020 }

On the 49th Parallel          

                 Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in
anarchy"
                    Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni
katika machafuko" 

 

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