Robert Mueller to testify publicly before House committees after being issued subpoena

The special counsel Robert Mueller has agreed to testify before Congress next month.

Mr Mueller agreed to testify before the House judiciary and House permanent select committee on intelligence in an open session on July 17 after being issued with subpoenas, the committee chairmen said on Tuesday.

He will testify about the Trump-Russia report he issued in April, House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler and House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff said in a joint statement.

The Justice Department has declined to comment and a representative for Mr Mueller did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mr Mueller has been hesitant to speak about the investigation beyond a public statement he issued last month.

"The American public deserves to hear directly from you about your investigation and conclusions," the committee chairmen said in a letter accompanying the Mueller subpoenas.

Mr Mueller’s report found Russia meddled in the 2016 US presidential election and that Republican President Donald Trump’s election campaign had multiple contacts with Russian officials.

But the report found insufficient evidence to establish a criminal conspiracy between the campaign and Moscow.

The report, which was partially redacted, also outlined instances in which Mr Trump tried to interfere with Mr Mueller’s investigation, but declined to make a judgment on whether that amounted to obstruction of justice.

Attorney General William Barr said there was insufficient evidence in Mueller's report to conclude that Mr Trump obstructed justice.

Mr Trump said the report was a complete exoneration from what he called a witch hunt mounted by Democrats frustrated by his election victory.

But some Democrats have said the president should be removed from office through impeachment proceedings because of Mueller's findings.

"Americans have demanded to hear directly from the Special Counsel so they can understand what he and his team examined, uncovered, and determined about Russia’s attack on our democracy, the Trump campaign’s acceptance and use of that help, and President Trump and his associates' obstruction of the investigation into that attack," Mr Nadler and Mr Schiff said in their statement.

Mr Schiff told MSNBC in an interview: "We never felt it was sufficient to rely simply on a written report or a 10-minute statement without the ability to follow up with questions."

Mr Mueller, in his first public comments since starting the investigation in May 2017, said on May 29 that his probe was never going to end with criminal charges against Mr Trump and indicated it was up to Congress to decide whether he should be impeached.

"If we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so," he said.

"We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime."