Speaking before a surprisingly large turnout of over 200 at a town hall at Edison High School in Franconia Tuesday night, U.S. Rep. Donald S. Beyer Jr., a Democrat who represents the 8th District of Virginia that includes the City of Falls Church, said he’s “confident” the full report submitted by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller last week will be made public soon. He cited the earlier 420-0 vote in the House favoring its release to the public, and praised Mueller, whom he said, “I know pretty well,” for being an “honest, careful man.”

He noted that while Mueller may have chosen not to include new indictments with the report, 17 persons have been indicted as a result of the probe, and the report clearly “did not exonerate” the president, leaving open the potential for action by the Southern District of New York, the New York Attorney General and others.

Beyer reported his new role as a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, which recently voted unanimously to preserve the mandate for accepting “existing conditions” in U.S. health care law, as the chair of the Climate Change Task Force of the New Democratic Caucus, and as the principal fundraiser for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Caucus, adding that he’s challenged fellow male members of Congress to take the “Gender Avenger” pledge not to agree to serve on any panel or board of three or more where at least one is not a woman.