Mueller had to clarify because it was already being misinterpreted. I took him at his literal word from the outset:that he did not indict Trump because he was not allowed to is simply not the same statement as he would have indicted if he had been allowed to. He knew (and we can quarrel with the OLC opinion but Mueller did not have that option) that he could not so he did not make an attempt to make a determination on that issue. That's not a misstep if some people cannot follow simple logic.Mueller had to be careful and precise because every word he said would be dissected. When he agreed with Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) that the reason he did not “indict Donald Trump is because of the OLC [Office of Legal Counsel] opinion stating you cannot indict a sitting president,” many took that to mean that Mueller had affirmatively concluded that he would have indicted Trump if he could do so. Mueller clarified that point in the afternoon session. It was a rare misstep and he knew he had to fix it without regard to how it might be perceived by either side.
I agree that Mueller, although occasionally confused (I was shouting the word 'conspiracy' at the screen while he was searching for it) did well. If the questioner referred to Page # inthe question, Mueller had to be given the time to find that. It might have helped to have a couple of assistants - one for the questioner who knew what the reference would be and one for Mueller to find the page - that would have speeded the process. And don't forget that all the questioners had their stuff written down while Mueller was thinking about each and every answer while he was searching for the reference. I thought he did well. The five minutes each format is not conducive getting to the truth.
