CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview With New York Congressman Jerrold Nadler
Interview
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BLITZER: Yes, supposedly about a $1 billion debt as far as that property, 666 Fifth Avenue, is concerned. Jessica Schneider, thanks very much.
Let's get a little bit more on all of this.
Congressman Jerrold Nadler is joining us. He's the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.
Congressman, thanks very much for joining us.
REP. JERROLD NADLER (D), NEW YORK: You're welcome, Wolf.
BLITZER: Let me get your reaction to the breaking news you just heard from Jessica, that your state, New York state's banking regulator is investigating Jared Kushner's financial relationship with Deutsche Bank and two other smaller lenders.
NADLER: Well, I'm glad they're investigating it.
The whole question of Trump and Jared Kushner and all their financial relationships with Russia, with Deutsche Bank, which is an agent of Russia in many cases...
BLITZER: Why do you say it's an agent of Russia?
NADLER: Because there have been a lot of deposits from Russia in it, I gather from news. And a lot of its capital came from Russia.
BLITZER: But is that just from news reports, or do you have other information?
NADLER: No, no, no. No, I do not have other information. It's from news reports.
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: Just to be precise. Because that's a serious allegation, that Deutsche Bank is an agent of Russia.
NADLER: It's just from news reports.
BLITZER: OK.
NADLER: In any event, there are a lot of questions, obviously.
I mean, we know that Trump Jr. said back in 2008 lots of our money, a disproportionate part of our money comes from Russia.
We know the Russians tried to help the -- did help the Trump campaign. Whether he colluded on it is another question. But there are all sorts of relationships and motives that have to be examined.
BLITZER: Do you believe the Russia investigation played a significant role in the decision by Hope Hicks, the communications director at the White House, a longtime aide to the president, to resign?
NADLER: I don't know. I have no facts on that.
All I do know is that when the communications people for the president admits she lied to the American people, that's a terrible betrayal. And it's a terrible thing that the representative of the president lies to the American people.
BLITZER: She says she was engaging in what she called just little white lies, nothing substantive.
NADLER: So she says, and maybe they weren't too substantive. But when you're the spokesman for the president, you should not be lying to the American people.
BLITZER: Let's get to another sensitive issue. And you're on the Judiciary Committee, which looks at the Justice Department. The president tweeted this today about the attorney general of the United States.
"Why is Attorney General Jeff Sessions asking the inspector general to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse," Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuse? "Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power, and already late with the reports on Comey, et cetera. Isn't the I.G., the inspector general, an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL."
What do you think the president's goal was in this extraordinary tweet?
[18:15:01]
NADLER: The president's goal was to undermine Sessions for some reason, and to take more attention away from the investigation.
This whole question of the FISA warrant, first of all, it's based on lies in the Nunes memo, which have definitively shown to be lies by direct quotes from the underlying documents in the Democratic memo.
They showed quite clearly that the court was told that some of the allegations came, formed the basis of the warrant came from politically motivated sources. They were told that. And any allegation to the contrary was not true.
It also showed that the entire investigation was not even based on that. So the whole question of the FISA court and that particular warrant is a distraction, a deliberate distraction from the Mueller investigation, which, as far as we can tell, there have been no leaks from it, has been a very substantive investigation, which has gained a number of guilty pleas, a number of indictments.
And the president apparently believes that the walls are closing in on him and he is trying anything to divert attention.
BLITZER: Is this public humiliation by the president of his attorney general, the attorney general of the United States, designed to get Sessions to resign?
NADLER: It may very well be, because if Sessions were to resign -- remember, he's recused from the Russia investigation. The president could appoint someone else who was not recused who might then be able to fire Rosenstein or Mueller and sabotage the investigation.
And that clearly would be very much to the detriment. We must get to the bottom of the Russian interference in our election. And we must get to the bottom of why the president refuses now to authorize our intelligence agencies to protect us against the Russian interference in our next election, which Admiral Rogers, the head of the NSA, said yesterday in -- I think it was the Senate.
That, to me, is one of the biggest questions now. The president is tasked, his oath of office is to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. And he seems to be refusing to do that, because we know that the Russians attacked our election. We know that they're going to do it again. And he is refusing to give the NSA and the other intelligence agencies the directive and the authority to properly protect us.
BLITZER: Yes. Admiral Mike Rogers, he did testify before the Senate, the head of the National Security Agency, also the chief of the U.S. Cyber Command. He said he hasn't received any orders to do so. And as a result, he can't go ahead simply on his own.
NADLER: And the question is why the president won't do anything to offend Putin. And maybe it has something to do with financial entanglements in Russia. That ought to be investigated.
BLITZER: They're investigating, I suspect, as well.
Congressman Nadler, thanks so much for joining us.
NADLER: Thank you.
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