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

Interview

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COOPER: The Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee says he wants to hear from Attorney General William Barr in the near future. Democrat Jerry Nadler says the testimony will be in light of the quote "very concerning discrepancies and final decision-making in the Justice Department."

Joining me now, another Democratic member of that Committee, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal. Thanks so much for being with us. Do accept Mueller's finding that the President did not collude with Russia as the President's been saying for the last two years?

REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D), WASHINGTON: Well, we just have to see the full report. I mean, obviously if that is the finding and it is backed up by lots of evidence, then we're going to accept it.

But we haven't seen anything. Basically a three-page letter so far and I think it's deeply concerning that you know, that we don't have the full report. I think the obstruction of justice charge is an extremely serious one and Mueller as you've been reporting did not exonerate the President. After 22 months, he did not exonerate the President.

[21:45:06]

JAYAPAL: And then we have the sitting Attorney General who already made his views clear last year, has somehow decided that what he's seen is enough to not prosecute and he's put that out before Congress has even seen the report. So I have to say, Anderson that were very, very troubled by all of that.

COOPER: Is seeing the report enough for you or are you also saying as many Democrats are that they want to see all the underlying documents because --

JAYAPAL: Of course.

COOPER: The thing that confuses me about that is that for years, many Democrats have been saying how much they had faith in Mueller, it does seem like if you want to see all the underlying documents, it shows a lack of faith in Mueller and his team.

JAYAPAL: No, not at all. I don't think that's true at all. I think the reason we want to see the underlying documents is because there are so many pieces that we are investigating. As you know, there have been 81 requests for information from Judiciary Chairman Nadler, so that we on the Judiciary Committee can investigate a whole series of things much broader than what Robert Mueller was given the charge for. I mean, we have jurisdiction over and responsibility for obstruction

of justice of course, but also abuse of power and public corruption. Those are the investigations we were prevented from having at all for the last two years under Republican control and now that we have the gavel, we are finally beginning those investigations.

The information that Mueller has collected is going to be key to those investigations. They're going to provide real information, but in addition, we have to look at how these conclusions were you, know -- how did he get to these conclusions? I think it's important for us not to just accept, you know, without really understanding ourselves and being able to say to the American people that we represent that we have looked at all the information. We understand how he got to these conclusions or not.

Remember, a big piece of this report does not exonerate the President, a sitting President on an extremely serious charge of obstruction of justice, so yes, we've got to make that determination for ourselves.

COOPER: Although, if there had been enough evidence for a criminal charge, isn't that something that Mueller would have weighed in on?

JAYAPAL: Well that's what's so confusing to me. I mean that's why I want to see the report because he was actually asked to do this because of conflict of interest. That's why there was a Special Counsel to start with, so that presumably meant that he was going to give us his determination as a prosecutor.

And instead, what he did is came back and said, "I'm laying out ..." according to this letter, both sides of why this could be an obstruction of justice charge, I'm assuming or why it may not be and that to me is very concerning because then we don't have his opinion on it. It goes to the Attorney General who has seized the moment with less than 48 hours after a 22-month investigation and said, "Oh, we don't think this rises to that level."

I say that's just not sufficient. We have got to look at it as Congress and you've got to look at the June 2018 memo that Barr wrote, unsolicited to the Trump administration where he claimed sweeping executive powers for the President.

In fact in that memo, as you know, Anderson he said that he didn't even think that Mueller should be able to demand answers from the President and in fact, Mueller did not interview the President. He only got written answers to a set of questions, so he still has not talked to the President and I think that means that if the ball is back and it should be back in our court in Congress and in the Judiciary Committee to actually look at all of this information and make our own determinations on this piece, but also continue our investigations on the other pieces.

COOPER: All right, Congresswoman Jayapal, I really appreciate it. Thank you very much.

JAYAPAL: Thank you, Anderson.

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