Trump just said Mueller shouldn't testify before Congress and claimed that Democrats were 'looking for a redo'

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Trump just said Mueller shouldn't testify before Congress and claimed that Democrats were 'looking for a redo'

President Donald Trump pauses while speaking during a meeting with Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, May 3, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Associated Press

On Sunday, President Trump suggested in a pair of tweets that special counsel Robert Mueller shouldn't testify before Congress.

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  • On Sunday, President Trump suggested in a pair of tweets that special counsel Robert Mueller shouldn't testify before Congress.
  • Mueller was called to do so last month by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee.
  • Trump claimed that Democrats were "looking for a redo" after the Mueller investigation left unanswered the question of whether his administration obstructed justice.
  • Read more stories like this on the Business Insider homepage.

On Sunday, President Trump suggested in a pair of tweets that special counsel Robert Mueller shouldn't testify before Congress after he was called to do so last month by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee.

Trump claimed that Democrats were "looking for a redo" after the Mueller investigation left unanswered the question of whether his administration obstructed justice. The report failed to show that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia but laid out extensive evidence of situations in which Trump may have willfully interfered with legal processes.

"Bob Mueller should not testify. No redos for the Dems!" Trump's tweet read.

Trump also incorrectly tweeted on Sunday that the report showed "no obstruction." In fact, the report presented evidence of several instances in which obstruction may have occurred, but did not say definitively whether it had or had not.

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Part of the reasoning behind the call for Mueller's testimony could be to try and help answer that question.

Earlier this month on the heels of Attorney General William Barr's press conference on the Mueller report, House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler called on Mueller to testify in front of Congress on or before May 23.

Mueller, the former FBI director, has not yet officially responded to the request, despite a confusing morning appearance on "Fox News Sunday" by Democratic Rep. David Cicilline in which he mistakenly suggested that Mueller had tentatively agreed to testify on May 15.

Cicilline later walked back that claim on Twitter, writing, "Just to clarify: we are aiming to bring Mueller in on the 15th, but nothing has been agreed to yet. That's the date the Committee has proposed, and we hope the Special Counsel will agree to it. Sorry for the confusion."

In his Sunday tweets, Trump also argued that the Mueller probe cost more than $35 million. The real cost of the investigation remains somewhat unclear, however, as it could be partially covered by the money seized from former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, who was imprisoned in March as a result of financial fraud convictions.

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For context, the investigation of President Bill Clinton cost roughly $69 million, while the probe into the Iran-Contra affair cost about $47 million, not adjusted for inflation, according to the Washington Post.

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