Special Counsel Robert Mueller III, making his first public remarks on his two-year investigation of Russia's interference in the 2016 election, said Wednesday that charging a sitting president with a criminal violation 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 said he was “speaking out today because our investigation is complete. We are formally closing the special counsel's office.” Mueller declined to take questions from the throng of news reporters who had assembled in the room. He spoke for about 10 minutes.

Read Mueller's prepared remarks below:

Mueller's remarks came as U.S. House Democrats seek his testimony on the investigation he oversaw into ties between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign, along with the president's reported efforts to obstruct the probe.

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

Mueller expressed reluctance Wednesday to testifying, but said that any public remarks would not go beyond the report that his office prepared.

“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.”

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.

Still, Mueller's team did not make a final conclusion on whether Trump should be charged with obstruction of justice. “While this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime,” Mueller's team wrote, “it also does not exonerate him.” Mueller's report pointed to Justice Department policy that counsels against prosecutors bringing criminal charges against a sitting U.S. president.

“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 testifies before the House Appropriations Committee during a U.S. Department of Justice FY 2020 budget hearing, on Tuesday, April 9, 2019. Photo by Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

Mueller's investigation resulted in several prosecutions of close allies of Trump, including his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, who was convicted on charges related 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 full, unredacted copy of the document. The Justice Department has 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.

Other members of his prosecution team have returned to earlier posts. Greg Andres returned to Davis Polk & Wardwell, and Andrew Weissmann has taken a post at New York University School of Law.