WASHINGTON • Former special counsel Robert Mueller revealed little new information during a highly anticipated set of hearings Wednesday before two House committees, repeatedly directing lawmakers to his report and providing limited responses to Republican attacks on his investigation.

The hearings left Democrats without much of the ammunition they had sought to build support for an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, and denied Republicans admissions of missteps that could help them cast further doubt on the credibility of his team’s work.

Mueller defended his investigation as thorough and fair, restated that it didn’t exonerate Trump and called Russian election interference one of the gravest threats to U.S. democracy in his first extensive public remarks since he began his nearly two-year inquiry.

“I don’t think you’ve reviewed a report that is as thorough, as fair, as consistent as the report that we have in front of us,” Mueller said after more than two hours of repeated criticisms from Republicans, which he left largely unanswered. He later also rejected several of Trump’s favorite criticisms of his investigation, saying: “It is not a witch hunt,” and “it was not a hoax.”

Mueller also criticized 2016 tweets from Trump praising the website Wikileaks, which published Democrats’ emails that Mueller’s prosecutors alleged were hacked by Russian operatives.

“‘It’s problematic’ is an understatement…in terms of giving some hope or some boost to what is and should be illegal activity,” Mueller said in response to a question from Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill.

At the outset of the hearings before the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees, Mueller tried to lower expectations, saying he wouldn’t answer questions about key topics of interest related to his probe, including investigative steps taken early in the inquiry and internal deliberations about the decisions his team reached.

The 74-year-old former FBI director at times struggled to follow lawmakers’ questions and repeatedly asked for clarification, his voice sometimes cracking. In some ways, though, his demeanor was in line with his reputation as a taciturn former Marine who was known for his reluctance to appear before Congress.

Mueller’s office this year completed a 448-page report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, links between that effort and the Trump campaign, and whether Trump tried to limit the investigation.

The report said Mueller found insufficient evidence the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election, but drew no conclusion about whether the president obstructed justice, driven largely by longstanding DOJ policy against indicting a sitting president.

In the absence of a recommendation, Attorney General William Barr concluded President Trump’s conduct didn’t rise to the level of a crime. Under questioning from Republicans, Mueller acknowledged that his inquiry had never been impeded by the Justice Department.

During the hearing, Mueller stressed that the report spoke for itself.

“Over the course of my career, I’ve seen a number of challenges to our democracy. The Russian government’s effort to interfere in our election is among the most serious,” Mueller said.

Under questioning from the Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., who chairs the Judiciary panel,

Mueller said his findings didn’t clear the president, as Trump has repeatedly asserted. “The president was not exculpated for the acts that he allegedly committed,” Mueller said. A president could be indicted after leaving office, he added.

For much of their duration, the two hearings volleyed between Republican critiques of Mueller’s inquiry and Democrats’ recitations of sections of the report.

“It was not the special counsel’s job to conclusively determine Donald Trump’s innocence or to exonerate him because the bedrock principle of our justice system is a presumption of innocence,” Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, said in fiery remarks early in the first hearing as the lawmaker accused Mueller of violating standard prosecutorial procedure.

The Mueller report outlined a series of episodes in which Trump allegedly tried to interfere in the investigation, but said that Mueller’s team didn’t reach a decision on whether the president obstructed justice. It also said that if the team was confident Trump did not commit a crime, it would have said so.

Nadler kicked off the proceedings in a filled-to-capacity hearing room Wednesday morning saying that his panel had a “responsibility” to address the evidence Mueller uncovered and would make a recommendation to the full House when its related investigation concluded.

“We will do this work because there must be accountability for the conduct described in your report, especially as it relates to the president,” Nadler said.

After repeated attacks, Mueller defended his decision to hire several prosecutors who had donated to Democrats and include on his team two FBI employees who had exchanged hundreds of text messages critical of Trump. Republicans have long alleged the investigation was biased against Trump from the outset.

“I’ve been in this business for almost 25 years, and in those 25 years, I have not had occasion once to ask somebody about their political affiliation. It is not done,” Mueller said. “What I care about is the capability of the individual to do the job and do the job quickly and seriously and with integrity.”

Democrats tried — unsuccessfully — to get Mueller to explain his report in his own words.

Rep. Theodore Deutch, D-Fla., pressed Mueller on an episode from his report in which Trump asked former White House counsel, Don McGahn, to have Mueller removed.

“Director Mueller, did McGahn understand what the president was ordering him to do?” Deutch asked. Mueller responded: “I direct you to what we wrote in the report in terms of characterizing his feelings.” As Deutch continued to press him, Mueller again said: “I direct you again to the report.”

Former special counsel Robert Mueller testifies before the House Intelligence Committee hearing on his report on Russian election interference Wednesday on Capitol Hill in Washington.

the associated press