Robert Mueller Cites Parkinson’s, Refuses to Testify in Epstein Probe
Former FBI Director and Trump special counsel Robert Mueller said he “cannot comply with a request to testify this week before a congressional committee investigating the government’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigations” due to having Parkinson’s disease, the New York Times reported.
The sudden Parkinson’s diagnosis came shortly after the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said it would subpoena Mueller to testify on Tuesday over the FBI’s handling of Jeffrey Epstein while he was director of the FBI.
Committee chair James Comer (R-KY) wrote in a letter to Mueller:
“Because you were F.B.I. director during the time when Mr. Epstein was under investigation by the F.B.I., the committee believes that you possess knowledge and information relevant to its investigation.”
In 2008, U.S. attorney in Miami Alexander Acosta negotiated a so-called nonprosecution agreement with Mr. Epstein’s lawyers.
Under the deal, federal prosecutors declined to charge Mr. Epstein, but he pleaded guilty to a lesser state charge of soliciting a minor for prostitution.
Epstein served 13 months at a local prison as part of that agreement, where he was allowed to leave custody and work out of his office six days a week.
Zero Hedge reported:
After federal prosecutors indicted Mr. Epstein in 2019, the deal reached in 2008 was widely criticized, as it was seen as far too favorable to Mr. Epstein, who, according to court documents, continued to abuse underage girls in the years that followed.
It is not clear how much involvement Mr. Mueller had in the Epstein investigation. -NYT
The Times then spends a considerable portion of the article presenting the notion that Mueller is too sick to testify over Jeffrey Epstein – with people such as former AG Bill Barr (also linked to Epstein) noting Mueller’s relatively recent frailty in his memoir.
During a key meeting to discuss the findings of Mr. Mueller’s investigation in 2019, Mr. Mueller’s hands “were trembling” and his voice was “tremulous,” Mr. Barr wrote in a memoir published in 2022.
“I knew he wasn’t nervous, and I wondered if he might have an illness,” Mr. Barr wrote.
Mr. Barr wrote that after the meeting, he and the deputy attorney general at the time, Mr. Rosenstein, discussed Mr. Mueller’s condition.
“Wow,” Mr. Barr said he said to Mr. Rosenstein. “Bob has lost a step.”
Others in Comer’s crosshairs include James Comey, the former F.B.I. director; Hillary and Bill Clinton; and Eric H. Holder Jr., Merrick B. Garland, Alberto R. Gonzales, Jeff Sessions and Mr. Barr, all former attorneys general.
Did you catch that Bill Clinton’s been seen walking around with a defibrillator? Poor guy might not be able to testify either. These things happen.