Etymology of 'I take your question' meaning 'I don't know'

I do not buy the explanation given in the link from the OP states:

"M. Tia Johnson, a visiting law professor at Georgetown Law School and former assistant secretary for legal affairs at the US Department of Homeland Security, tells Quartz that this is a standard legal response. [bolding mine]

“‘I take your question’ is used often when the witness doesn’t know the answer to the question,” she said. It’s distinct from a straight “no” because it indicates that the answer may well be knowable, just that this witness doesn’t know it."

• I have never heard this phrase used in the way Mueller used it, on its own.
• "I take your question." here could mean: I hear your question.
• As far as I'm concerned, it is Mueller's ideolect and non-standard, semantically, in this context.
• It does not mean the witness doesn't know the answer. On its own, followed by silence, it suggests "I will not answer this question."
• Special counsels are not usually questioned by Congressional committees.
• The phrase "standard legal response" merely sounds silly here.
• A legal response to something would probably mean something in writing, and not speech.

It's a huge stretch to claim that witnesses have "standard legal responses" to questions. Witnesses come in all shapes and sizes and though they may be coached in terms of answering at trials, persons appearing before Congressional committees are also subject to the vagaries of language. Each has her/his own way of speaking, and there is no "standard legal response" by a witness, before Congress or on the witness stand in a trial. Witnesses aren't expected to provide "standard legal responses".

Also, Mueller was a Special Counsel (aka, prosecutor). Generally speaking, prosecutors do not act as witnesses at Congressional hearings. This was an anomaly. In fact, lawyers do not usually take the stand in cases they are involved in.

It is not correct to say Mueller "couldn't answer this or that question", as if he did not have the knowledge to answer it. All the questions he didn't answer were because he chose not to answer them or because he said "I don't know".

special counsel

I agree that the law professor’s response is merely her interpretation of the phrase-twenty five years in litigation and I’ve never heard anyone say that. I feel like the response was more dismissive of the question, kind of like “I take you question [but I ain’t answering it]” or akin to “I take your abuse or BS!” Oh, how about this: he’s taking the question like a batter “takes” a pitch, meaning he just watches it and doesn’t swing. BINGO!