MUELLER HEARING | UPDATE Mueller condemns Trump's praise for WikiLeaks

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former special counsel Robert Mueller is condemning President Donald Trump's praise for WikiLeaks during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Testifying before the House intelligence committee, Mueller says calling it "problematic is an understatement."

During that campaign, WikiLeaks released troves of hacked emails from the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

U.S. intelligence agencies and Mueller's investigation determined Russian government entities were responsible for the hack and furnished the embarrassing correspondence to WikiLeaks in order to support Trump's bid for the presidency.

12:58 p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former special counsel Robert Mueller is pushing back on questions from Republicans about his prosecutors' connections to Hillary Clinton, saying political affiliations played no part in his hiring decisions.

Mueller is testifying before Congress about his investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election and possible ties to the Trump campaign.

North Dakota Republican Rep. Kelly Armstrong questioned Mueller about one of his prosecutors attending Clinton's election night party, and another who represented Clinton in a lawsuit.

Mueller strongly defended his team. He said he found some of the best prosecutors in the country to work for him.

The former FBI director said in 25 years in law enforcement, he has never asked anyone who worked for him about their political affiliation. Mueller said he only cares about the "capability of the individual to do the job and do the job with integrity."

Mueller will continue testifying this afternoon before the House Intelligence Committee, chaired by Democrat Adam Schiff.

11:14 a.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former special counsel Robert Mueller is affirming that a president can be charged with crimes after leaving office.

He says Justice Department guidelines prevented him from considering charges against President Donald Trump while he is in office.

Because of the longtime Justice Department guidance that a sitting president cannot be indicted, Mueller says "one of the tools a prosecutor would use is not there."

Mueller has said his investigators could not exonerate Trump on obstruction of justice. His report said they did not find sufficient evidence to establish charges of criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Mueller is testifying today before the House Judiciary Committee about his Russia investigation.

10:33 a.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) — With a barrage of morning tweets, President Donald Trump renewed his efforts today to undermine the credibility of Robert Mueller as the former special counsel appeared before Congress to lay out the findings of his investigation into the sitting president and possible ties between Trump's campaign and Russia.

Before Mueller even took his seat to testify, the president tweeted nine times about Mueller and his investigation, part of a two-year pattern of attacks in which Trump has made baseless claims about Mueller's probe and its findings.

Trump in recent days had claimed that he would not watch much, if any, of today's highly anticipated nationally televised hearings. But his morning tweets made clear he had his mind focused squarely on the proceedings unfolding at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.

"So Democrats and others can illegally fabricate a crime, try pinning it on a very innocent President, and when he fights back against this illegal and treasonous attack on our Country, they call It Obstruction?" Trump wrote in one tweet. "Wrong! Why didn't Robert Mueller investigate the investigators?"

In fact, the Mueller report did not declare there was no collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. Nor did the special counsel's report exonerate Trump on the question of whether he obstructed justice.

Trump also revived a baseless charge that Mueller was "highly conflicted." Mueller, a longtime Republican, was cleared by the Justice Department's ethics experts to lead the Russia investigation.

Trump over the last week had been speculating with confidants about how the hearings would go. And while he expressed no worry that Mueller would reveal anything damaging, Trump was irritated that the former special counsel was being given the national stage, according to two Republicans close to the White House. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.

10:08 a.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Special counsel Robert Mueller is disputing President Donald Trump's claim Mueller was rebuffed in a bid to fill the post of FBI director.

Facing questions from congressional lawmakers, Mueller said he spoke with Trump about the FBI job before he was named as special counsel, but "not as a candidate."

Then-White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has said while the White House invited Mueller to speak to the president about the FBI and thought about asking him to become director again, Mueller did not come in looking for a job.

Trump tweeted today there are "numerous witnesses," including Vice President Mike Pence, who could say that Mueller applied and interviewed for the job and was "turned down" for it.

Pence spokeswoman Alyssa Farah told the Associated Press the vice president "was present in the Oval Office when Robert Mueller interviewed for the job of FBI Director in May of 2017."

9:29 p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Trump-Russia special counsel Robert Mueller told lawmakers today he could not exonerate President Donald Trump of obstruction of justice and that the president's claims he had done so in his report are not correct.

"The president was not exculpated for the acts that he allegedly committed," Mueller declared at the opening of congressional hearings into his investigation of Russian interference to help Trump win the 2016 election.

The televised Capitol Hill appearances, Mueller's first since wrapping his two-year Russia probe last spring, are unfolding at a moment of deep divisions in Congress and the country. It is unclear to what extent his testimony could change Americans' hardened opinions about the future of Donald Trump's presidency.

Democrats hope his testimony will weaken Trump's reelection prospects in ways that Mueller's book-length report did not. Republicans immediately defended Trump and criticized the Democrats for continuing to go after him.

Though Mueller declared at the outset that he would be limited in what he would say, the hearings nonetheless carry the extraordinary spectacle of a prosecutor discussing in public a criminal investigation he conducted into a sitting U.S. president.

Mueller, known for his taciturn nature, has warned he will not stray beyond what's already been revealed in his report. And the Justice Department has instructed Mueller to stay strictly within those parameters, giving him a formal directive to point to if he faces questions he does not want to answer.

On Tuesday, Democrats on the House judiciary and intelligence committees granted his request to have his top aide in the investigation, Aaron Zebley, sit at the table with him. Zebley is not expected to be sworn in for questioning by the judiciary panel.

But he will be able to answer questions before the intelligence committee, where, a committee aide said, he will be sworn in. The aide was not authorized to discuss the hearing preparations publicly and requested anonymity.