Fox News "The Ingraham Angle" - Transcript: Rep. Ron DeSantis on the fight to get info from the DOJ

Interview

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HEGSETH: Ed, thanks. A lot there. Let's bring in a member of the House Judiciary Committee, Ron Desantis, a Republican from Florida who joins us from Naples tonight who is also running for governor in the fine state of Florida. Representative, thanks for being here. We really appreciate it.

So, I know that your chairman, Goodlatte, is not satisfied with the speed or volume of what DOJ has produced. As a member of that committee tonight, where are we on their ability to produce documents that you need to see?

REP. RON DESANTIS, R-FLORIDA: Well, they are dragging their feet. They have been doing this for a long time. Not only with the Judiciary Committee, but as Ed mentioned with Devin Nunes on the intel Committee.

Here's the thing, Pete, if you were the subject of a Justice Department civil enforcement action and they were asked subpoenaing documents from you, you would not be able to get away with these excuses if you were a private business. You would have to produce the stuff.

So, it doesn't work that the government has a different set of rules. So, I think the question is, are we going to actually put the might of our institution behind these subpoenas and enforce them.

Because you remember, when the IRS was dragging its feet, I mean, we held Lois Learner contempt, didn't follow through with that. Guys like me tried to impeach the IRS commissioner for stonewalling on the targeting investigation, John Coskinin, it didn't get through Congress.

And so, we have certain tools at our disposal. We can use the power of the purse. We hold officials in contempt, and ultimately, if they're still incalcitrant, we can impeach these civil officers. We have to be willing to do that. Otherwise, I think they are just going to try to run out the clock on a lot of this stuff.

HEGSETH: So, you have civil officers, but Representative, you've also got, you know, representatives, political appointees in these departments appointed by President Trump. I actually had the opportunity about an hour ago to speak to a senior DOJ official involved in these matters.

And they point out a couple of things, they said this is the first week since they have doubled the amounts of agents. They are trying to put the pedal of meddle on producing documents. They also noted that another thousand pages will be delivered for your committee by Monday.

And that they just sent a letter to Devin Nunes saying that they are going to accommodate his request for other members outside the committee to review the FISA application. So, if more people can see those FISA applications and more documents are being produced, do you feel like you could get to a place where DOJ is acting in good faith? They're just haven't had the resources to do it?

DESANTIS: Here is why I'm skeptical of that, I hope that that's right, and I hope that we, the American people, get what they are entitled to. But remember what Nunes has been trying to get, he has been trying to get those initial documents about how this whole Russia co-collusion with Trump campaign narrative started from the FBI.

They won't give that to him. That's not a million documents. I mean, that's the something. There is probably one piece of paper that officially opened this investigation. He has been asking for months and they will not produce it.

So, I hope they are turning over a new leaf, but I just got to say, you know, the last six to eight months has been one of continually frustrating Congress' prerogative to get these answers to the American people.

HEGSETH: To that point, take us under the hood a little bit because it seems like we hear at the last minute from the DOJ, we are not going to meet the deadline, right, that day, that moment. Are you at least hearing, days, weeks before, hey, guys, this is not a deadline we are going to meet?

We are working as hard as we can. We want to produce these documents. Is that communication happening or is it truly mostly quiet and then you find out not going to happen yet, we need more time?

DESANTIS: I think it's mostly quiet. I mean, I think that there are instances where Nunes is engaged with Rosenstein or Wray or Goodlatte can do that. It's important to point out, I mean, you know, Sessions maybe wanting to do the right thing.

Some of these guys maybe, the people are actually on the ground there are part of the permanent bureaucracy. And they talked about that kind of cute exchange where they like, we are just going to redact this, almost joking about it. That type of attitude I think makes it very difficult to get this stuff done in a timely fashion.

HEGSETH: So, your concern is not the rank and file necessarily at the FBI or DOJ or maybe not, you know, the attorney general or Wray or others who may be. It's that middle layer that has the ability to slow walk it or throw a wrench in the gears and stop the process. Is this a deep state accusation or is this a bureaucrat -- or do you think there's something that really hide it?

DESANTIS: Well, I just think at the end of the day bureaucracies tend to protect themselves. That's just the instinct of it. You have a lot of people there who are dealing with this. They were not appointed by Donald Trump. I mean, they are kind of career folks.

So, I think that's the instincts to protect the agency, to withhold and not produce as much, and I'm not even saying it's hurting nefarious reason, but I think that's the instinct that we see time and time again.

And so, you know, we have uncovered so much already, with so many questions, and I just think this posture that they have taken doesn't suit the interest of the American people at all. We need a full accounting of how all of this stuff happened.

HEGSETH: Absolutely. Part of that full accounting is what the inspector general is doing at DOJ. Any updates yet on when we might get a report on Michael Horowitz, his investigation, which a lot of people think is going to expose a great deal of things behind the scenes.

DESANTIS: Well, he started in January of 2017. We thought by the end of the year, that didn't happen. Then we said February that didn't happen. Then we said March, no, now April. So, I don't know. I think we need to get it because here is what I think is important.

I think there will be some interesting, important stuff in there. But I think the fate of people like Peter Strzok, the notoriously anti-Trump agent that talked about preventing Donald Trump from being elected with an insurance policy, Lisa Page, his lover.

I think their fates are tied to that IG report and I don't think that the FBI or Justice is going to move to fire them until that report comes in because they want that to be the justification.

So, a lot of my constituents say why are these people still there? I would like to see them move out too, but I think once the report hits, I think that could probably be the factor that leads for them to be terminated.

HEGSETH: Very interesting moment indeed. Congressman Ron Desantis, thanks for your time this evening. We appreciate it.

DESANTIS: Thank you.

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