CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Himes

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

COOPER: Congressman Himes, this e-mail to Michael Cohen stating that he can "sleep well tonight" because he has "friends in high places", I wonder how you interpret that.

REP. JIM HIMES (D), CONNECTICUT: Well, it points to a topic that I don't -- I can't get into it with great specificity but which as the press has reported, was a subject of some of the conversation with Michael Cohen on he was before the Intelligence Committee. And there are real questions and these comes out of course from a lot of this public as well, there are real questions on the topic of pardon dangling.

And again, I can't be terribly specific about it but I think it is far from the end of that conversation. I think that when the intelligence committee transcripts are released, there will be some very uncomfortable days for a number of people and there will be questions to follow up on.

COOPER: So, again, as you said, you can't go into specifics, but you're saying based on what you've learned in the Committee's investigation, can you say if you have a clearer picture of what actually happened here in regards to a pardon?

HIMES: Well, you see a fairly clear picture emerging from what is public. The President tweets alone where he calls people who are cooperating rats and weak, and when he praised those not cooperating quite so much as strong. I mean, its language right out of the godfather. To answer your specific question, yes.

Now, remember, Michael Cohen is not somebody whose testimony you take at face value.

COOPER: Right.

HIMES: But if Michael Cohen were to produce e-mails, were he to produce written information that was corroborating it would cause you to think maybe there's something to what he's saying. And as I said before I think this is a story which has not been fully explained at all.

COOPER: And that is the difficulty. I mean, you know, Michael Cohen is a convicted liar. The President, you know, has certainly lied and stretched the truth and, you know, we all know his record on that. With so many people with, you know, difficulty telling the truth, is it even possible to figure out conclusively where the truth actually lies?

HIMES: Sure it is. And I would point to the -- to Michael Cohen showing up and handing over checks signed by the President backing up his statement that I was reimburse the by the president for paying hush money to Stormy Daniels. There is documentation and again I don't want to get into too much detail but he provided documentation to the Committee, these are people who communicate by e-mail and they communicate by text. Though the President does not, the President's people do.

And again, I think there is much more to the story that -- part of the reason of course we're being quiet about exactly what happened in the testimony of Michael Cohen is that his testimony and the information that he provided will probably cause us to call in some of those people. And we don't obviously want them to know exactly what Michael Cohen said prior to having the opportunity to speak to them.

COOPER: And when does a transcript of the testimony get released? I mean, is it when all said and done?

HIMES: Well, unlike some of the other stuff from the Russia investigation, there's no question of classified material being released here because Michael Cohen of course didn't have access to classified material. So that won't be an impediment the way it is with the other transcripts or some of other transcripts.

[20:40:00] Again, the one dynamic keeping these transcripts from being released right now is -- and you can draw the conclusion and infer what you will from this, we will almost certainly want to bring in additional witnesses as a result of the testimony that Michael Cohen gave in the two days before my committee, and we won't necessarily want those witnesses to know exactly what it was that Michael Cohen provided or said about them.

COOPER: And just lastly, I want to get your take on the other breaking story tonight, the former Acting Attorney General Whitaker would not deny the President called him to discuss the Cohen case as well as personnel decisions in the Southern District according to Congressman Nadler.

HIMES: Yes, that's correct. And I guess it surprises pretty much no one that Matthew Whitaker, when he was acting attorney general, that he was acting in defense of the President. This is of course what an awful lot of the President's people have done.

I think the President himself acknowledged that Whitaker's role was there and certainly Whitaker made statements earlier that prior to his becoming attorney general acting that would suggest that, so no surprise.

Now, the big question of course is, there's difference between people talking about stuff and things actually being done. So the question for us as the body of government charged with oversight is did the acting attorney general take any actions which would have compromised any of the investigations of Trump or the Trump administration or more broadly the Russia question.

COOPER: Congressman Himes, I appreciate it. Thank you.

HIMES: Thank you, Anderson.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source