July 17 seems an eternity away. At least it does in the chaos days of Donald Trump.
How many crazy rants and tweets will we have to endure as the minute hands ticks toward Robert Mueller's scheduled public testimony starting on that day in front of the House Judiciary Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence?
Mueller was subpoenaed Tuesday, after weeks of negotiations by the committee chairmen who had hoped to obtain the former special counsel's voluntary testimony.
To date, Mueller has spoken in public about the two-year probe for all of about nine minutes. During that brief soliloquy, he maintained that his 448-page report on Russian interference into America's 2016 presidential election should stand as his testimony.
The redacted Mueller report that the Department of Justice finally made public shows how Moscow interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election in Trump's favor, and it details Trump's many attempts to impede Mueller's probe. Nonetheless, the report found there was "insufficient evidence"- not no evidence, just insufficient evidence - to conclude that a criminal conspiracy between Moscow and the Trump campaign had taken place. Further, it made no recommendation on whether Trump obstructed justice, leaving that question up to Congress, but adding, "If we had had confidence that the President clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so."
The trouble is, the report by itself doesn't stand as Mueller's testimony - especially not when most Americans haven't and won't read it, and far too many get their news about it only from the very partisan Fox news. This is especially true given the continuing baloney that comes out of Trump and his administration about the probe and report.
It didn't even take the president 24 hours after Mueller agreed to honor the House subpoenas to start ranting and lying. Without evidence, Trump in an interview with Fox Business Network accused Mueller of a crime, falsely saying Mueller had "terminated" FBI communications as part of his Russia investigation.
Trump has done a disgustingly good job so far at blockading testimonies and document requests before the House committees investigating him. He has claimed executive privilege and instructed former aides like Hope Hicks and former White House counsel Don McGhan to either not answer questions or not even show up.
Politico reported that Democrats are eyeing a new strategy: calling witnesses who never worked in the White House but had starring roles in Mueller's report - like former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who served for a short time on Trump's transition team.
As of June 16, Democrats had issued more than two dozen subpoenas targeting the Trump administration since taking control of the House in January. And in early June, a House panel voted to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt for defying subpoenas for documents about why a citizenship question was added to the 2020 census. (Just in the last week, House panels have also subpoenaed a number of Trump staffers and associates who had failed to show up for scheduled hearings, including former Trump business partner Felix Sater and White House counselor Kellyanne Conway.)
Trump's continuing obstruction is not sitting well with most Americans.
A USA Today/Suffolk University Poll taken in mid-June found that 55% think the White House should comply with those subpoenas for witnesses and documents. And by a nearly 2-1 margin, they said they wanted to hear former special counsel Robert Mueller testify publicly about his inquiry into the 2016 election.
And the views were not just partisan: Four in 10 Republicans said it is important that Mueller testify, and three in 10 Republicans said the White House should stop telling staffers and former officials to defy the congressional subpoenas. Democrats and independents overwhelmingly agreed.
So now we wait.
By comparison, Mueller's team in two years issued more than 2,800 subpoenas and executed nearly 500 search warrants in its probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election and any potential involvement by Trump's campaign. Oh the things he could tell us, beyond what's in that lengthy report.
In two and half weeks, Mueller, 74, will "take the biggest stage of his long public career to answer questions on live television" according to The New York Times. "He will face lawmakers from both parties who believe his testimony can help them drive divergent narratives."
The Times continues: Democrats hope Mueller will tell a story of presidential misconduct worthy of the public's censure. Republicans want to draw him out on allegations of misconduct by supposedly crooked FBI agents bent on taking down a president.
Don't wait for the movie. Read the report at timesfreepress.com/muellerreport, or listen to one of the audio versions available from online booksellers. Then on July 17, get some popcorn for Mueller's testimony during the hearings.