CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: House Republicans Shutting Down Investigation

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Senator Mark Warner says he's seen no evidence to the contrary. And as Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee shut down their investigation, Warner says there are growing, he says growing questions of collusion. Let's get more from Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro of Texas.

He's a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Congressman, the Republicans on your committee, they say they're shutting down their investigation. Will your fellow Democrats try to keep it going? Can you keep it going if the Republican majority says it's over?

REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO (D), TEXAS: You're right.

It's a shame, Wolf, that Republicans are shutting down this investigation. It is a betrayal of the public trust to get to the bottom of what happened.

And, as Democrats, we're going to do everything that we can, obviously, within our limitations, being in the minority party, to try to collect more information, find out facts, invite folks who may know something that's relevant to our investigation to reach out.

BLITZER: What does that mean, to try to do more, to try to do whatever you can?

If the majority on the committee says there's no more House Intelligence Committee investigation into Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election, you don't have the authority to do anything, do you?

CASTRO: Well, to hold formal hearings, that may be true, that we're limited in not being able to do that.

But we certainly can hear from folks who may have relevant information and members of Congress, and also the committee staff can continue to do its own investigation and research on the information that we do have.

BLITZER: Some of your Republican colleagues on the committee seem to acknowledge that Vladimir Putin wanted to hurt Hillary Clinton in the election, but they reject the U.S. intelligence community's assertion that the Russian campaign's goal was to help Donald Trump be elected president.

Why do they say that?

CASTRO: I'm not sure. I'm baffled by that.

When you look at even just a few facts, first that George Papadopoulos, who, of course, is under indictment now, was approached by "The Professor," a Russian operative, who clearly said that they had dirt on Hillary Clinton, had e-mails that could be damaging to her, the idea there was perhaps they could turn these over to the campaign.

Remember, they knew that he was part of the Trump campaign. You consider also the fact that Roger Stone, who was one of the first Trump campaign employees and is a longtime associate of the president, knew ahead of time about the Clinton e-mail dump, was in communication, it appears, with WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, when you consider those two facts and many others, it's clear that there was collusion and that the Russians were trying to help Donald Trump.

BLITZER: He denies that. You don't believe him?

CASTRO: Well, he's actually gone back and forth and said that he knew. And then he said he didn't know. And it looks as though the evidence suggests that he did know.

[18:25:02]

BLITZER: The person, the Republican who's been in charge of this Russian investigation, Mike Conaway, the congressman, he thinks that Democrats will still sign on to some of the Republican majority committee findings.

What do you think? Will you sign on?

CASTRO: Well, I don't want to shut the door 100 percent, because what we have looked at so far in our committee is their draft report.

And we just got it yesterday, so we haven't had a chance to pore through it 100 percent. But, right now, I have got to say that the chances for that look pretty slim.

BLITZER: Do you believe the special counsel, Robert Mueller, will eventually reveal information that contradicts the conclusions in the House Intelligence Committee's Republican report?

CASTRO: I think he already has by indicting the folks, the Russians who he's gone after and also the Americans who cooperated with them. That by itself speaks volumes.

BLITZER: Congressman Castro, thanks so much for joining us.

CASTRO: Thank you.

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