U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, the ranking Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee, expressed regret Wednesday that former Special Counsel Robert Mueller III won't be testifying.

Moments before, Mueller offered his first public remarks on his two-year investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and obstruction of justice. He said his work was complete and his office was closing.

U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the House committee, has said Mueller expressed a willingness to testify before Congress but would prefer to speak behind closed doors to avoid a “political spectacle.”

Mueller on Wednesday expressed a reluctance to testify and said any public remarks would not go beyond the report issued by his office.

“I hope and expect this to be the only time that I will speak about this matter,” Mueller said. “I am making that decision myself — no one has told me whether I can or should testify to speak further about this matter.”

In a statement after Mueller's remarks, Collins said, “While I had hoped he would come before the committee and answer questions from lawmakers, Robert Mueller has led an extraordinary life of public service and is entitled to his life as a private citizen once again.”

Collins, representing Georgia's northeast corner, welcomed a change of subject for the Judiciary Committee, saying: “It is time to move on from the investigation and start focusing on real solutions for the American people, like fixing the crisis at the southern border and stopping China from stealing our intellectual property. I look forward to working with Chairman Nadler on these important initiatives.”

Citing Justice Department policy governing his investigation, Mueller said charging a sitting president with a crime was “not an option we could consider.”

“It would be unfair to potentially accuse somebody of a crime when there could be no court resolution of the actual charge,” Mueller said, speaking alone at a podium at Main Justice in Washington. “That was Justice Department policy. Those were the principles under which we operated. We would not reach a determination one way or the other whether the president committed a crime.”

He added, “We will not comment on any other conclusions or hypotheticals about the president.” Mueller declined to take questions after speaking for about 10 minutes.

The special counsel's office found no evidence Trump's campaign coordinated with Russia's efforts to sow conflict into the presidential election.

On the question of whether Trump obstructed the probe, Mueller's team identified 10 instances of potentially obstructive acts committed by the president. Those acts included Trump's efforts to convince the White House counsel at the time, Donald McGahn, and other subordinates to fire Mueller, and Trump's removal of James Comey as the FBI director.

Mueller's office did not draw a conclusion on whether Trump should be charged with obstruction of justice.

“As set forth in our report, after that investigation, if we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said that,” Mueller said Wednesday.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr and his then-deputy, Rod Rosenstein, concluded the identified acts did not amount to obstruction of justice. That decision fueled criticism from former federal prosecutors, who argued in a widely shared blog post that Trump would have faced “multiple felony charges” were he not president.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi

Mueller's investigation resulted in several prosecutions of close Trump allies, including his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, who was convicted of charges tied to his lobbying work for the Russia-aligned government of Ukraine. Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, is awaiting sentencing in Washington on a charge of lying to federal agents. Several other Mueller-related prosecutions are pending, including a case against longtime Trump aide Roger Stone.

Mueller's 448-page report on the Russia investigation has become a wedge between the Justice Department and House Democrats, who've demanded access to the unredacted copy of the document. The Justice Department offered to allow a select group of lawmakers and their staffs to review what Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd has described as “98.5 percent” of the report, with only grand jury-related information redacted. But Democrats have refused to back down.

Mueller, who left his partnership at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr after being named special counsel in 2017, has not publicly announced his next steps. He said Wednesday he is returning to “private life” but did not say where.