Two of Maine’s four members of Congress – Rep. Chellie Pingree and Sen. Susan Collins – responded Wednesday to a request for comment about the testimony that special counsel Robert Mueller gave to the House Judiciary and House Intelligence Committees about his two-year investigation into Russian election interference.
Sen. Angus King, an independent, was in committee hearings and did want to comment because he was not able to closely monitor the hearings where Mueller testified. Rep. Jared Golden, D-2nd District, also was in committee hearings and planned to watch Mueller’s testimony Wednesday night and issue a statement Thursday.
Pingree said Mueller’s testimony and his report strengthened her belief that an impeachment inquiry should begin. Maine’s 1st District Congresswoman is one of 93 House members calling for impeachment.
“All of our intelligence agencies – from the CIA and FBI to the NSA – have reached the same conclusion as special counsel Mueller: Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election in a sweeping and systematic fashion,” Pingree said in a statement. “It’s crazy this even needs to be said, but any foreign attack on our nation should be handled seriously by our commander in chief. Yet, Mr. Mueller made clear that President Trump has not responded appropriately to this foreign attack. Instead he has obstructed the Department of Justice’s investigation.”
“Today the special counsel testified that President Trump made multiple attempts to obstruct his investigation into foreign election interference, including lying to investigators. As a decorated former Marine and former director of the FBI under Republican and Democratic presidents, Mr. Mueller today emphasized the gravity of these obstruction findings and reiterated that his report does not exonerate President Trump of impeachable acts.”
Collins, a Republican, didn’t hear any new information in Mueller’s testimony.
“From what I was able to watch of the hearings today, I’m not sure there was much new information added to what I had already read in the report,” Collins said in a statement. “I called for Mr. Mueller to come testify before Congress, and I’m glad that he did. This was a taxpayer funded investigation, and it’s appropriate that the American people were able to hear directly from him,” Collins said.
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