Mueller speaks, but he’s still an enigma

As last Thanksgiving approached, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyers drove to the Justice Department for a hastily arranged meeting.

Passing mentions of Trump had cropped up in a draft document prepared by special counsel Robert Mueller’s office that detailed Roger Stone’s efforts to obtain hacked materials from WikiLeaks in 2016. And while Trump was not accused of any wrongdoing, the document’s references to the President irked his lawyers to the point of nearly derailing plans for the President to submit written answers to prosecutors’ questions after months of protracted negotiations.

It was the kind of crisis that members of the President’s legal defense team thought called for Mueller to be in attendance.Mueller apparently didn’t agree and didn’t attend.

For nearly two years, indictments bore the signature of the 74-year-old Justice Department veteran, as he served as the public face of the most high-profile investigation in decades, but he never uttered a single public word about his work.

Breaking his silence for the first time on Wednesday, Mueller said the work of the special counsel’s office “speaks for itself.” But the contours of his role on the investigation are still largely cloaked in secrecy.

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