The US is looking for a hero – but Robert Mueller doesn't want to be one

Mueller’s testimony this week was hotly anticipated by Democrats and certain Republicans, but it’s doubtful it will alter much unless Nancy Pelosi changes her mind

This week has been a big one on both sides of the Atlantic: hours after Boris Johnson was signed in as the UK’s new prime minister and Theresa May faced Jeremy Corbyn in her final Prime Minister’s Questions, Robert Mueller began his final testimony before US congress. Ever since his report became available to the American public, the former special counsel has been a controversial figure: his carefully worded dossier did not claim “no obstruction, no collusion” but it was summarised as such by Donald Trump in those exact words on Twitter, and by attorney general William Barr in his own official summary.

There are, to put it lightly, some mixed feelings about Barr here in the US. Molly Jong-Fast wrote for our Voices section this week that he has become Trump’s own Ray Cohn (Cohn famously helped blacklist scores of people during McCarthyism, and was seen as an “attack dog” for the administration.)

During Mueller’s testimony on Wednesday, Representative Steve Cohen asked Mueller if the attorney general is supposed to serve the American people or if he is the “consigliere” of the president, a mafia reference which made waves in the newsroom. Mueller, of course, responded that the attorney general is supposed to be the representative of the American people – but nobody was supposed to care about the answer.