Fox News "The Story" - Interview with Rep. Jim Jordans

Interview

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MACCALLUM: Trace, thank you. Joining me now, Congressman Jim Jordan. He is one of the lawmakers responsible for questioning James Comey. And will do so next week. Again, as a member of the House Oversight Committee, Congressman, good to have you here tonight.

REP. JIM JORDAN, R-OHIO, HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: Good to be with you.

MACCALLUM: It's interesting to look at all the things that James Comey did not know.

JORDAN: Yes.

MACCALLUM: Or apparently didn't care to -- think care to know. He did not know basically that Christopher Steele had ever worked in conjunction with Fusion GPS. He didn't know that they were hired by (INAUDIBLE). That was any connection to the DNC. And he seemed to suggest that he thinks that even asking that was just completely irrelevant.

JORDAN: Yes. And he -- and he didn't know that Bruce Ohr, a top-ranking Justice Department official was meeting with Christopher Steele. And then, Bruce Ohr was passing that information on to the FBI.

I mean, didn't know that the key guy, Christopher Steele, whose work product was used to go get the warrant, didn't know a darn thing about the guy. So, that I found hard to believe. But again, remember, 245 times, he said, "I don't know, I don't recall, or I can't remember," what -- to our questions in the interview on Friday.

So, it's good that he's coming back. I got a few more things I want to ask him, specifically about the Comey memos. And we'll have him back on Monday.

MACCALLUM: Yes. I mean, it is interesting that he almost seems to think that it's silly. I mean, he basically said as much. He said it's silly or ridiculous or absurd. I think, "absurd" was the word.

JORDAN: Yes.

MACCALLUM: To question how the FISA warrant was established. That then, obviously he sees a very deep need for it. So, it doesn't seem to care how or why it came about.

JORDAN: Martha, here is what's scary. Here is what's absurd. Congressman Ratcliffe, asking, "Should exculpatory information be given to the FISA Court?" And his response was, "We have no legal duty to do that."

Stop and think about that a second. You don't have a duty to give all the information to the FISA judge when you're going to go get a warrant to go spy on a fellow American citizen? That was his response, and he's the top guy at the FBI. That was scary when we saw that. I thought it was a great question that John asked, and that was his first response. "I don't think there's a legal duty."

He said, "Certainly, we should do it. We should give the information." But the fact that he doesn't believe there is a legal duty to present all evidence to the FISA Court. So, he didn't really think there was a legal duty to tell the court who paid for the document? He didn't think there was a legal duty to tell the court that the guy who wrote the darn thing had been terminated because he was out leaking information to the press.

I mean, that was a scary thing that we did learn from our conversation with Mr. Comey on Friday. And again, I look forward to the next one, next Monday.

MACCALLUM: Yes. I mean, when you have the highest imaginable level investigation into the leading -- into the nominee for the presidency of the United States, you would think that there would have been a little bit more inquisitiveness and curiosity about the underlying elements of it by the director of the FBI.

But he seems to suggest this was all way below him, and not something he would get involved in.

JORDAN: Especially, Martha, remember that you would think that would be the case, especially in light of the fact that the same people who just cleared the other nominee from the other party, who just ran the Clinton investigation, those same people moved over and launched the Trump-Russia investigation.

So you would think in that context, he would -- he would be telling the court all the information.

MACCALLUM: Absolutely. You know, and he's also 100 percent positive that there's no political motive in any -- in any of this, and it's an insult to ask, apparently.

JORDAN: Yes.

MACCALLUM: All right. This is Adam Schiff, talking about what he thinks will happen next for the president based on the memos that were released on Friday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF, D-CALIF., HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: My takeaway is there's a very real prospect to that on the day Donald Trump leaves office, the Justice Department may indict him. That he may be the first president in quite some time to face the real prospect of jail time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: Based on the campaign finance violations suggestion, your thoughts.

JORDAN: Yes, I mean, look, Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler already got the president in prison. I mean, this is ridiculous. So, well, I thought our job was to get to the truth. And that's what I've been focused on. That's what Matt Gaetz, Mark Meadows, our whole team has been focused on.

Let's get to the truth of what the FBI did when they took Christopher Steele's work, paid for by the Clinton campaign to a secret court to get a warrant to go spy on the Trump campaign. Let's find out all the answers to important questions.

Let's get the truth for the American people. But here we have the guys who are going to be running the committees in the next Congress already got the president tried and convicted, and going to prison. That is ridiculous. That is unfortunate.

Our focus as members of a separate legal branch of government should be simply on one thing. Getting the truth, getting answers for the American people. And it's unfortunate that Mr. Schiff and Mr. Nadler, I think said the things that they did over the weekend.

MACCALLUM: I want to ask you about Maria Butina who has reached a deal to cooperate with the federal government. She was here -- you know, doing work sensibly for the NRA, she is from Russia. If there's another American individual who is involved in all of this, what do you make of that? And how interested are you in what was going on there?

JORDAN: Yes. You know, it's not an area I've looked into. We'll wait and see what comes out. We wait and see. I'm waiting for Mr. Mueller's report. I mean, how long has it been now? 18 months, 19 months since he was -- he was -- he was first named special counsel. I'm waiting for that report. Let's get that done.

One thing we know though, Martha, all this time there is yet one bit, not one bit of evidence to show any type of coordination or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia to impact the election.

But we do know all these things about how the FISA process was abused. We do know all these things about Christopher Steele. We do know all the bias that Peter Strzok and Lisa Page had, all the -- we do know this too, the top five people at the FBI. James Comey fired. Andy McCabe, deputy director fired. Jim Baker demoted then, left. Lisa Page demoted then, left. And deputy director of the counterintelligence, Peter Strzok was demoted then, fired.

Those were the key people. We do know all that. So, let's get the Mueller report out there as quick as we can. Let's get answers for the American people.

MACCALLUM: Yes. That's what the Wall Street Journal wrote about today, as well. Saying enough -- you know, everybody deserves to see what is in all of this. There's also calls to release all of the transcripts from the Michael Cohen discussions to just get a really full picture about what exactly he said. Which I think would be fascinating to see all of that. So we hope that will happen as well.

Congressman Jordan, thank you. Always good to have you here.

JORDAN: You bet, thank you. You bet.

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