Fox News "The Story" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Doug Collins

Interview

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REP. DOUG COLLINS, R-GA: Hey, Harris. How are you?

FAULKNER: Fantastic. It is a busy Friday night. You received the letter. What is next course of action?

COLLINS: Well, I think this follows what we've been talking about. And you and I have talked about this a lot in the last few weeks. This follows the course of action that has laid out by the regulation at justice. And that's exactly what Bill Barr is doing.

He is doing exactly what we knew he would do. And that is follow regulations to a t. He delivered the letter today, he has now said that the investigation is over and that Mueller has turned over his report for him for his assessment and going to through it to make his explanation.

It is important to note here several things that are out there. And I will just report what we know. And that is from the letter and then where we go next. The letter clearly states that there was no interference by attorney general or acting attorneys general in any request by Mr. Mueller for his investigation.

That's a big topic because the Democrats have been talking all along to make sure that nobody interfered. Well, no one interfered. He had plenty of time to do everything. He has now completed it.

What will happen now as said in the letter that he will, Barr -- Mr. Barr will actually, the attorney general will then prepare his report and then he will send that to us as early as this weekend.

And at that point in time, we will have the process of what Mueller found. And it will be coming out to the public as we go forth in the way that Bill Barr is set out in the regulation.

So, I want everybody to understand exactly what happens next. The report will come out, it is up to Bill Barr on how that comes out. But he does have to give it to us as he did today. And so far, he has done everything by the book. That is a good thing.

FAULKNER: All right. So, we know from what it says in that letter you received that he may be in a position to advise of the special counsel's position -- or principal conclusions by this weekend. Are there members who are ready to accept this information and get to work on it immediately what is happening on the Hill tonight?

COLLINS: Yes. We are prepared. Our office is of course prepared. And I'm sure that the chairman's office and also Chairman Graham and the Ranking Member Feinstein's committee are as well and we'll be prepared to get that out.

I think, well, let's go back and remember. When Attorney General Barr was going through the confirmation and when the conversation that we have had, he wants to release as much as legally possible.

And I think there'd been a lot of conversation tonight and including my Democratic friends who seem to be going a little bit concerning now about the fact that this doesn't seem to be leading where they always thought it was going to be leading.

But at this point in time, what we are seeing is him putting that together. There's classified information in there possibly. There are 60 which is a grand jury investigation now which will not will be released, and then, Harris, on his own investigation.

So, he will release I believe and he has said this publicly all that he can legally put forward. And I think that is where we will see this from. And Democrats are just going to have to understand that, that they have looked everything on a report that may come back and say exactly what we have been saying for two years, and the president has been saying that the collusion was not there. So, but, that is still to come. But they are, I think they are panicking right now.

FAULKNER: OK. Real quickly. The Southern District of New York cases that were put forth. I mean, we've seen them go far and wide with this. What happens next for the president with regard to any of that?

COLLINS: This would, every indication we got this, this would not affect those cases. Those cases will continue on I do believe, has been talked about before that those are, you know, proceeding on and are getting further down the line.

Remember also, that Mr. Horowitz who is the inspector general at the Department of Justice also is still investigating the FISA abuses. This is something that we need to go back to is reminding people what really did happen. If the report comes back as we think it will and there is no collusion. And hopefully that's what it's going to say when we see that and we think it will.

But we can go back and actually show where there were issues at the Department of Justice and the other things that precipitated this Russia investigation, namely, Strozk, Page, and McCabe and others who circumvented the procedures circumvented things that led us to the position to where we're now.

So, I think a lot of investigations are going on but this is a big conclusion to a Russia investigation that we're looking forward to finishing up and moving forward with the work of the people that want us to do.

FAULKNER: Representative Collins, thank you very much. You were one of the four to receive that letter today from the attorney general. And I appreciate you coming on tonight to talk about what happens next.

COLLINS: No problem. We look forward to keeping everybody in touch. And I would encourage everybody if they want to actually read the letter that I received today they can go to our Twitter account and they can actually read the letter for themselves.

FAULKNER: All right. Thank you, sir.

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