Mueller testimony tentatively set for May 15, House Democrat says

The House Judiciary Committee has set a “tentative date” of May 15 for testimony by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, according to one of the panel’s Democratic members, foreshadowing one of the most keenly awaited events in Washington, D.C., in decades.

“We hope the special counsel will appear,” Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) said on “Fox News Sunday.” “We think the American people have a right to hear directly from him.”

Democrats have been eager for Mueller to testify since last month, when his report on Russian election interference in 2016 and President Trump’s subsequent actions became public.

Full coverage: Mueller’s investigation into President Trump’s 2016 campaign »

An appearance by former FBI Director Mueller, whose public utterances during the two-year investigation consisted of court filings, would promise to be a dramatic day in the nation’s capital, with Democrats pushing him to expand on his inability to exonerate Trump on obstruction of justice and his differences with Atty. Gen. William Barr over the presentation of his findings.

Cicilline said a Mueller representative has agreed to the appearance, “but obviously until the date comes, we never have an absolute guarantee.” In a later tweet, the lawmaker clarified that the committee had proposed the date “but nothing has been agreed to yet.”

The committee’s chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), had previously said he was hoping for an appearance by Mueller on that date.

Cicilline also said that if Barr doesn’t comply with the committee’s demands for Mueller’s report and underlying documents by the Monday 9 a.m. EDT deadline, he thinks Nadler “will ask the committee to move forward with a contempt citation.”