Washington — The Home Oversight Committee has withdrawn a request for testimony from Robert Mueller concerning the case involving convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein on account of new info on the previous particular counsel’s well being, a committee aide instructed CBS Information.
“We have discovered that Mr. Mueller has well being points that preclude him from having the ability to testify. The Committee has withdrawn its subpoena,” the aide mentioned in an announcement.
Mueller, who led the investigation into Russian meddling within the 2016 presidential election and delivered the long-anticipated report in March 2019, served as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for 12 years. The New York Occasions reported Sunday that the 81-year-old has Parkinson’s illness, in line with his household, who instructed the paper that he was recognized in 2021.
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The committee issued the subpoena to Mueller final month amid a slew of subpoenas searching for depositions from former Justice Division officers, amongst others. Mueller served as FBI director from 2001 to 2013.
“Since you have been FBI Director through the time when Mr. Epstein was below investigation by the FBI, the Committee believes that you just possess information and data related to its investigation,” committee chairman James Comer wrote in an Aug. 5 letter to Mueller, directing him to look for deposition on Sept. 2.
The event comes as controversy has swirled across the Epstein recordsdata in current months, following the Justice Division’s issuing of the findings of an inner evaluate, which discovered no “shopper checklist” or proof that Epstein had blackmailed outstanding figures. However the concern has spurred requires higher transparency, whereas dividing President Trump’s base.
Late final month, the administration launched transcripts of a two-day interview with Epstein’s longtime affiliate, Ghislaine Maxwell. And the Home Oversight Committee plans to make some recordsdata it acquired from the DOJ associated to Epstein public after redactions have been made.