The Most Interesting Exchange in the Mueller Hearing

To me, anyway. Not much media play.

Here's a version I've cut down a little (where you see ellipses) to get it to more readable size. You can read the un-cut version here.

US REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN (R-OH): Director, the FBI interviewed Joseph Mifsud on February 10th, 2017. In that interview, Mr. Mifsud lied. You point this out on page 193, Volume 1, Mifsud denied, Mifsud also falsely stated. In addition, Mifsud omitted. Three times, he lied to the FBI; yet, you didn't charge him with a crime. ... why didn't you charge him with a crime?

MUELLER: I can't get into internal deliberations with regard to who or who would not be charged.

JORDAN: You charged a lot of other people for making false statements. ... from about the moment Papadopoulos joins the Trump campaign, you've got all these people all around the world starting to swirl around him, names like Halper, Downer, Mifsud, Thompson, meeting in Rome, London, all kinds of places. The FBI even sent -- even sent a lady posing as somebody else, went by the name Azmiturk, even dispatched her to London to spy on Mr. Papadopoulos. In one of these meetings, Mr. Papadopoulos is talking to a foreign diplomat and he tells the diplomat Russians have dirt on Clinton. That diplomat then contacts the FBI and the FBI opens an investigation based on that fact. You point this out on page 1 of the report. July 31st, 2016 they open the investigation based on that piece of information. Diplomat tells Papadopoulos Russians have dirt -- excuse me, Papadopoulos tells the diplomat Russians have dirt on Clinton, diplomat tells the FBI. What I'm wondering is who told Papadopoulos? How'd he find out?

MUELLER: I can't get into the evidentiary filings.

JORDAN: Yes, you can because you wrote about it, you gave us the answer. Page 192 of the report, you tell us who told him. Joseph Mifsud, Joseph Mifsud's the guy who told Papadopoulos, the mysterious professor who lives in Rome and London, works at -- teaches in two different universities. This is the guy who told Papadopoulos he's the guy who starts it all, and when the FBI interviews him, he lies three times and yet you don't charge him with a crime. You charge Rick Gates for false statements, you charge Paul Manafort for false statements, you charge Michael Cohen with false statements, you charge Michael Flynn a three star general with false statements, but the guy who puts the country through this whole saga, starts it all for three years we've lived this now, he lies and you guys don't charge him. And I'm curious as to why.

MUELLER: Well I can't get into it and it's obvious I think that we can't get into charging decisions.

JORDAN: When the FBI interviewed him in February -- FBI interviews him in February, when the Special Counsel's Office interviewed Mifsud, did he lie to you guys too?

MUELLER: Can't get into that.

JORDAN: Did you interview Mifsud?

MUELLER: Can't get into that.

JORDAN: Is Mifsud western intelligence or Russian intelligence?

MUELLER: Can't get into that.

Is it possible that the whole "Russiagate" fiasco -- in which, need I remind you, a two-year investigation found no evidence of a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russian state actors -- started with an intentional entrapment attempt by a US intelligence asset?