CNN "The Lead with Jake Tapper" Transcript: Interview With New York Congressman Lee Zeldin

Interview

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TAPPER: All right, Jeff Zeleny for us, thank you so much.

I want to bring in Congressman Lee Zeldin, Republican from New York, a supporter of President Trump.

Your reaction, sir, to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York raiding the offices of the President's Attorney Michael Cohen?

REP. LEE ZELDIN (R), NEW YORK: Well there's so much information that we just don't have yet. I've been sitting here listening over the course of the show and following some of the news here coming in on Twitter and what not while listening to your coverage. So there is a lot of unanswered questions. And I will say, taking off my Congress hat and putting on my attorney hat for a second, it's really hard to go after an attorney when you have a lot of attorney-client privilege, not just related to obviously Mr. Cohen's highest-profile client, but really all of his clients. So there is a lot to learn that I don't have the answered to but it is -- it is a little concerning though to be hearing news of going after the attorney and acquiring raiding so much of the attorney-client privilege.

TAPPER: Well, and that's what's so stunning about it. If it were a

business partner of President Trump, it would be -- it would be shocking and it would be a big news story, but the idea that there would be a sign of one presumed for a special case like this from the Justice Department for the raid of the offices of the President's attorney, either this an egregious violation of attorney-client privilege and civil rights, or there is a mountain of evidence suggesting that the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office have to do this right now.

ZELDIN: Right. And that's a big question that I don't have the answer to, either. And I'm sure we'll learn more without too much delay. But you know, there's been a debate in this country with regards to the scope of Director Mueller's probe and some of the reporting that's coming out here is that Bob Mueller is choosing to make a referral to the southern district. We're starting to see -- and I was -- at the beginning of the process, when Director Mueller was first appointed as the special counsel, there was a very narrow focus related to the2016 election and collusion, the Russian and cybersecurity with the hacks of the DNC and DCCC, John Podesta, looking at election day itself and what kind of cyber efforts were done by the Russians to try to test systems around election day, so that was a -- that was -- that was a different type of an investigation than what we're seeing with the indictments that have been coming out. And then you know, today's raid, a lot of this stuff is way beyond the mandate of why the special counsel is created in the first place.

So I think that while we are awaiting to learn additional information about what happened today, this is only going to fuel more energy to that debate of exactly what is Director Mueller's endgame here? What exactly is the limit to the scope of what he's doing? What's the chain of command and where are we going because I don't want a President -- when you get elected to face this, with a political opposition or just -- the way the system is set up that they operate their entire presidency under a cloud where anyone connected to the President for the term of this presidency -- and anyone is going -- anyone and everyone faces the possibility of an investigation or indictment for anything going back no matter how far in the past as well. So you know, I think that's the next level of this conversation, way beyond just guest getting to the bottom of what happened today.

TAPPER: All right, Congressman Lee Zeldin, Republican of New York, thank you so much for your time, sir. I appreciate it. Let's go back to CNN's Gloria Borger who has more news. Gloria, what are you learning?

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