Carl Bernstein: Mueller Has The ‘Power’ To Change America’s Perceptions Of Trump

CNN contributor Carl Bernstein said Wednesday morning that former special counsel Robert Mueller’s upcoming testimony can change people’s perceptions about President Donald Trump.

“Mueller has enormous power here to move the perception of Americans,” writer Bernstein told a CNN panel, referring to Mueller’s Congressional testimony. Bernstein, best known for his Watergate coverage in the 1970s, bungled a report in 2018 involving Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen.

Mueller will testify before the House Judiciary Committee for three hours and before the House Intelligence Committee for two hours Wednesday. He will be pressed for details of his 22-month investigation into whether the Trump campaign conspired with Russia.

Mueller’s report was unable to establish that any Trump associates colluded with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election. But the report was vague on obstruction. Mueller declined to charge Trump on obstruction, but also said that the Republican was not exonerated by the investigation.

Bernstein and CNN’s Jim Sciutto reported in July 2018 that Cohen was planning to tell the special counsel that he overheard Donald Trump Jr. telling his father in June 2016 about a now-infamous meeting at Trump Tower with a group of Russians. The report fell apart after one of the story’s sources, Cohen’s lawyer Lanny Davis, stated that the report was inaccurate.