DOJ hasn't reviewed Mueller's opening statement

Former special counsel Robert Mueller has prepared an opening statement for Wednesday’s hearing before Congress, and it has not been reviewed by the Justice Department ahead of time, according to Mueller spokesman Jim Popkin. 

Mueller is no longer a DOJ employee, but it is notable that he is not coordinating with the department, run by Attorney General William Barr. The Justice Department has declined to answer repeated questions about whether it was coordinating with Mueller ahead of the highly anticipated hearing.

Mueller’s testimony before the House intelligence and judiciary committees begins Wednesday morning, and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler said he expects Mueller to be asked about evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the president that was included in his report.

The president, however, isn’t sure he’ll be watching.

“No I’m not going to be watching, probably, maybe I’ll see a little bit of it,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office Monday. “I’m not going to be watching Mueller because you can’t take all those bites out of the apple. We had no collusion, no obstruction. We had no nothing, we had a total no collusion finding. The Democrats were devastated by it they went crazy they’ve gone off the deep end they’re not doing anything they’re not doing health care.”

Paula Reid contributed to this report.