CNN "Anderson Cooper 360" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Ted Lieu

Interview

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COOPER: Congressman Lieu, first of all, Speaker Pelosi saying that Attorney General Barr lied to Congress and that's a crime. Do you agree with her?

REP. TED LIEU (D-CA): I do. I'm a former prosecutor, and it looks just like perjury. Basically, Barr was asked if Special Counsel Mueller's team had any concerns about his summary of the Mueller report, and he said no. And we know that that's a lie, because he got a letter from Bob Mueller saying essentially that he mischaracterized the Mueller report.

COOPER: Yes. So to the Justice Department's argument about why Barr wouldn't show up today, why couldn't judiciary committee members who are attorneys like yourself question Barr today instead of insisting on staff attorneys? What is the rationale for what because that is the thing that he used as a reason not to come?

LIEU: I think if we didn't have that reason, he would have picked another reason not to come. He actually didn't tell the Judiciary Committee until after his Senate hearing yesterday, which tells me that he realized it did not go well.

And certainly, we could have just members ask questions or we could ask staff counsel, but it's up to Congress to decide how we run our hearing, and this is nothing unusual. Last term I was in numerous judicial committee meetings where staff counsel questioned members of the Trump administration.

COOPER: What do you think of the likelihood of getting Barr to actually come in front of the committee is at this point?

LIEU: So Congress has the power to issue subpoenas. And if he is simply not going to show up in the Judiciary Committee, we will at some point issue a subpoena, and then we can enforce it.

He has right now violated a current subpoena for the unredacted Mueller report. That we're going to enforce next week with a contempt proceeding if he does not provide the full Mueller report in the next couple days.

COOPER: And a contempt proceeding, so if he is held in contempt of Congress, what -- does that really result in anything?

LIEU: Yes, it does. So here's the process. The House Judiciary Committee will vote in a contempt proceeding. If we hold him in contempt, it goes to the House floor. If the House floor votes in contempt, then it triggers two things.

First, it allows our House counsel to litigate in courts to try to enforce it. Second, the courts have already upheld Congress' inherent power to start taking actions against that individual without the courts. So we have procedures where we could in fact start levying fines on that person. In the past, they've even had a House jail. I don't think we're going go there, but at least we do have that power and the courts have upheld it.

COOPER: You've called the attorney general now one of the most dangerous men in Washington, which is -- I mean, is an extraordinary statement about any federal official, let alone the chief law enforcement officer in this country.

[20:35:06] LIEU: Two reasons I said that. One is not only did he mislead the American people, he was then given a letter from Robert Mueller saying he misled the American people, and he doubles down and lies to Congress and the American people after that. And second, right now he is suing to eliminate preexisting conditions to health care coverage for millions of Americans. He is a dangerous man.

COOPER: It does seem hard to believe when the attorney general yesterday, you know, said that the note was a little snippy and that it was probably just written by a staff member, the idea -- I mean, it's an extraordinary step for Mueller to have written this letter and sent it to Barr, and now it's public. The idea that he would have pawned that off on a staff member and not even looked at it or agreed with everything that's in it seems ludicrous on its face.

LIEU: Absolutely. It was definitely a snitty thing for Bill Barr to say and there's no way that a staff member wrote that. That was an extraordinary act. I'm sure Robert Mueller wrote that letter, and we hope Robert Mueller is going to come and we expect him to come later this month to testify before the House Judiciary Committee.

COOPER: Congressman Ted Lieu, I appreciate your time. Thank you.

LIEU: Thank you, Anderson.

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