CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview with Congressman Ted Lieu

Interview

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BLITZER: Yes, I suspect he will. All right, Jeff, thank you, Jeff Zeleny down in Florida.

Joining us now, Congressman Ted Lieu. He's a Democrat who serves on both the Judiciary and Foreign Affairs Committees.

Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.

And I quickly want to get your reaction. The government now has to hand over documents from that raid on Michael Cohen's apartment, his home, his hotel room, safe deposit box. The president's lawyers are warning against what they call a special master, because they don't think that will adequately protect the privilege of the president. That's the president's lawyer making that statement. You're a lawyer. What do you make of these late-breaking

developments?

REP. TED LIEU (D), CALIFORNIA: I believe today is a good day for the vindication of the rule of law.

Donald Trump and his attorney Michael Cohen wanted to keep the prosecution from reviewing these documents. The judge rejected that. What she did instead is said she might appoint a special master to assist the prosecution and defense.

But make no mistake. The prosecutor is now going to be able to look at all these documents that they seized. And today shows that no one is above the law, not the president and not the president's attorney.

BLITZER: Yes, the president's attorney, Joanna Hendon, said, "We don't think a special master will adequately protect the privilege of the president."

On another sensitive issue, what's your reaction to the news that the FOX News host Sean Hannity, of course a staunch defender of President Trump, has now been named by Michael Cohen's attorneys as one of his clients?

LIEU: Well, look, Wolf, unlike you, Sean Hannity is not a serious journalist. And he's said that. He said he's not a journalist. He is a talk show host.

But even still, Sean Hannity should have disclosed the special relationship he had with Michael Cohen if he's going to run a whole bunch of stories about the raid on Michael Cohen's office and say how that was so bad. And I think Sean Hannity misled his audience and he should apologize to his viewers.

BLITZER: And what do you think FOX News, if anything, should do?

LIEU: I think they should also apologize to their audience, because you had a massive conflict of interest that was not disclosed to the people watching that show.

BLITZER: Do you believe this Cohen investigation in New York City, the Southern District of New York, the U.S. attorney there investigating, poses more of an immediate threat to President Trump than the Robert Mueller investigation that's going on here in Washington?

LIEU: It could.

Last month, Kathleen Rice and I -- we're both former prosecutors -- and as members of Congress, we wrote a letter to the FBI asking them to investigate Michael Cohen and "The National Enquirer," because both of those made payments, large payments, to two women to silence them who had negative information about affairs about Donald Trump during a presidential election.

[18:15:16] And it was clear these payments were campaign finance law violations. So, in the search of these documents, if prosecutors come across other information that relates to other crimes, they could also prosecute those crimes as well. It's called the plain view doctrine.

So I could see the president being very nervous if they see other things in the past that may have happened.

BLITZER: One of the key witnesses in this Robert Mueller Russia probe, this investigation, we're talking about James Comey, the fired FBI director.

He says his conversations with President Trump are possibly evidence of obstruction of justice. Do you agree?

LIEU: I do.

Donald Trump fired James Comey. And under our obstruction of justice statute, it's very broad. You don't actually have to obstruct justice. You just have to endeavor to influence an investigation. And then the president went on national TV a couple of days later and said the one thing his attorneys would have told him never to say, was that he basically fired James Comey because of the Russia investigation.

That's textbook obstruction of justice. It's not surprising to me that James Comey also believes that that's possibly obstruction of justice as well.

BLITZER: Could Comey's new book which is just out create problems for this ongoing Mueller investigation?

LIEU: It could, but I'm not going to do what the Republican National Committee chairwoman did and talk about a book that I have not read.

So I will wait to read it and then happy to talk about it.

BLITZER: Do you buy James Comey's explanation for his handling of the Clinton e-mail investigation, announcing he was reopening that investigation only 10 or 11 days before the presidential election?

LIEU: In 2016, I was on the House Oversight Committee, and James Comey came to our committee and testified with a question -- with the opportunity to question him.

And I disagreed with his policy judgment, but I could also tell from that questioning that he had integrity. I trust him. And while I disagree with him, I do trust the things that he says and does, whether or not I would have done the same thing.

BLITZER: Comey also says President Trump shouldn't be impeached because, in his words, it would let the American people off the hook. He wants an election in order to get rid of Donald Trump. What do you make of that?

LIEU: I think that would depend on what the special counsel finds. The special counsel is going to release a number of reports on

obstruction of justice and other issues related to Donald Trump. I think the American people should see what's in those reports and then we collectively as a nation can make a judgment.

BLITZER: Congressman Ted Lieu of California, thanks for joining us.

LIEU: Thank you, Wolf.

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