Mueller says he would not go beyond anything in his report if he appears before Congress

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III announced Wednesday he was closing his office and offered his first public comments on the results of his work, asserting that Justice Department legal guidance prevented him from accusing the president of a crime and noting cryptically that the Constitution “requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse the president of wrongdoing.”

Standing alone on stage in a room on the Justice Department’s seventh floor normally used for press conferences, Mueller said he was “speaking out today because our investigation is complete,” but added that he hoped “this will be the only time I will speak to you in this manner.”

Likely to the dismay of lawmakers, he said any congressional testimony he would give would not go beyond his 448-page report.

“We chose those words carefully, and the work speaks for itself, and the report is my testimony,” Mueller said.

The comments mark Mueller’s first televised comments on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and the first time he has sought to explain his work since the release last month of his report. Standing alone on stage in a room on the Justice Department’s seventh floor normally used for press conferences, Mueller said he was “speaking out today because our investigation is complete.”

“We are formally closing the special counsel’s office and as well I am resigning from the Department of Justice to return to private life,” Mueller said.

Mueller took no questions.