The announcement is the latest effort by Senate Republicans to press forward with an election-year bid to discredit the Trump-Russia investigation.
Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said on Sunday that he would call the former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to testify before his panel about the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and ties to the Trump campaign.
The announcement, part of an election-year bid by Senate Republicans to discredit the inquiry, came after Mr. Mueller broke a nearly yearlong silence on Saturday in an op-ed for The Washington Post in which he defended his office’s prosecution of Roger J. Stone Jr. and its broader investigation. President Trump had brought the investigation, which consumed much of his early presidency, to the fore again when he commuted Mr. Stone’s sentence on Friday, and the White House issued a lengthy statement denouncing Mr. Mueller’s investigation and the “overzealous prosecutors” who convicted Mr. Stone.
“Apparently Mr. Mueller is willing — and also capable — of defending the Mueller investigation through an oped in the Washington Post,” Mr. Graham wrote on Twitter. “Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have previously requested Mr. Mueller appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify about his investigation. That request will be granted.”
A spokeswoman for the committee confirmed on Sunday that it was preparing a formal invitation to Mr. Mueller.
While the special counsel’s investigation did not establish a criminal conspiracy between Mr. Trump’s campaign and Russia, it did outline numerous contacts between them and documented several instances when Mr.
