The GOP's plan to smear Mueller is a 'monumental absurdity' -- and it'll backfire on Trump: columnist

Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller is set to testify before Congress on July 17th.

As Greg Sargent notes in the Washington Post, Republicans have a battle plan ready to undermine his testimony -- which is ironic, given the President's claim that Mueller' findings exonerate the president.

Politico reports that Trump allies like Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) are readying a battle plan. "They intend to press him on long-held articles of Trumpian faith: that Mueller's team was biased against the president from the start and that the Russia investigation was tainted by inappropriate surveillance," Politico writes.

But Trump's boosters in Congress can't have it both ways, Sargent notes.

"If Mueller’s investigation exonerated Trump, you would think the best strategy for Trump’s allies would be to simply sit back while Mueller describes his findings in as detailed and unvarnished way as possible," Sargent writes. "Oddly enough, that’s not what they’re planning on doing."

"The monumental absurdity at the core of this disconnect is the reason this strategy is likely to backfire on Trump," Sargent writes.

"Yet, at the same time, the very existence of this strategy, despite its obvious ridiculousness, opens a window on how the Trump propaganda network wields disinformation, and how in certain respects, it does serve his ends."