CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Ted Lieu

Interview

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BERMAN: Let's talk now with Democratic Congressman Ted Lieu about this. He joins us from Capitol Hill.

Congressman, I know you are a lawyer, you have a long legal history. I also don't expect you're much of a Fox News viewer. Yet I've seen you commenting quite actively about Sean Hannity here. Do you have legal questions for Sean Hannity about what was revealed yesterday?

REP. TED LIEU (D-CA), FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: Thank you, John, for your question. Let me first say congratulations on completing the Boston marathon and raising money for the boys and girls club. You looked great.

In terms of Sean Hannity, what struck me was that he failed to disclose that he had a special relationship with Michael Cohen, he always says friend. He got free legal advice from Michael Cohen and viewers have a right to know was Sean Hannity upset at these raids of Michael Cohen's office because he thought there was some legal issue or was he upset because Michael Cohen was his friend. And when Sean Hannity hides that fact from his viewers and doesn't let Fox News know about it, then that's a breach of journalistic ethics no matter how you call it.

BERMAN: OK, that's a journalistic issue. And I appreciate you being a fan of your journalism there, but there isn't anything legal there, correct?

LIEU: That is correct. The reason that I'm interested in Michael Cohen issue, last month, Congresswoman Kathleen Rice and I, both former prosecutors, we wrote a letter to the FBI asking them to investigate Michael Cohen as well as the National Enquirer because both of them made large monetary payments to silence two women who had negative stories about affairs about Donald Trump during a presidential campaign. That was a violation of campaign finance laws and I think that's one of the things that the FBI is looking at right now.

BERMAN: It seems as if maybe your letters were after the fact. It does seem as if the FBI and this other district may have been investigating Michael Cohen for at least other issues long before that.

Just final, one more final question on Michael Cohen, what do you make of Judge Kimba Wood's decision to slow things down a little bit and create this review process for the evidence that was seized? Would you like to see it be reviewed by investigators right away or are you OK with the more careful approach?

LIEU: I support Judge Wood's decision. And ultimately what she did yesterday, she upheld the rule of law. She rejected Donald Trump's and his attorneys' requests to have these documents not reviewed by the prosecution, the judge rejected that. What she did say is she might appoint a special master to assist both the prosecution and the defense, but make no mistake, the prosecution is going to review all the documents and it shows again that no one is above the law, not the President, and not his attorney.

BERMAN: The defense will get to see them, though. And I imagine that is actually something they were keenly interested (ph) as well, just to get a sense of exactly what the FBI has here. Because I'm not sure that they were able to really fully ascertain what evidence was seized.

But to shift here is to James Comey, Frank Rooney, a friend of mine and columnist for The New York Times, he assesses the James Comey situation as such. He goes, "With the way that Comey has written his book, which charts every last tremor of his conscience and the staging of his appearance and promotion of it, he has embedded his own transformation from a crucial witness to a character in a serial drama of nonstop spectacle of Trump's life." That drama only serves Trump. The question is, you know, and I'm sure you would be critical of Comey and also supportive of Comey over time as well, do you think that the way that James Comey has written his book and gone about these interviews has helped or hurt his overall argument about the President's fitness?

LIEU: That's a great question. Comey is a complicated figure. And while I disagree with his policy judgments regarding Hillary Clinton's e-mails and disclosing that investigation to the American public, I was able to interview him as part of the House Oversight Committee in 2016 when he came to Capitol Hill. I believe that he is a man of integrity. Well I don't agree with what he has chosen to do, I don't have anything to doubt what he is saying about the President. And I believe his recollections are true and I think that ultimately he's helpful to the American people.

[10:15:02] BERMAN: He is in recollection about the hand size and the hair color and maybe some of the salacious details, that too, that included?

LIEU: I would not have written a book that way, but I'm talking more about his recollections and conversations about Michael Flynn, and obstruction of justice. I have no reason to doubt that that is not true.

BERMAN: Paul Ryan -- Congressman Ted Lieu, thank you so much for being with us and thank you for your comments about the Boston marathon. You said I looked great. That is, in fact, not true. Fact check false, but thank you nonetheless. I do appreciate it.

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