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

Interview

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COOPER: So, despite all of that, a new investigation is now underway, one of at least three being conducted. The others are led by the Department of Justice inspector general and the U.S. attorney in Utah. While on Capitol Hill, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham announced today his Judiciary Committee will now back off, in his words, their own investigation to give the investigator appointed by Barr space to do his job.

Joining me now is Democratic Congressman Jim Himes, who serves on the House Intelligence Committee.

So, Congressman Himes, the president may not have explicitly told Barr to launch this investigation, he may have, we don't know. Is there any doubt that he did so implicitly with all his tweets and comments about it?

REP. JIM HIMES (D-CT): Of course not, right? I mean, this is the sort of ongoing theme of this administration. It's a little bit like "The Godfather". "The Godfather" doesn't need to explicitly ask for everything. But you know what? When you tweet something out a whole bunch of times and when you allude to something, eventually, your people, especially people like Attorney General Barr, who we know learned the lessons of Jeff Sessions, and therefore has dedicated himself to the service of Donald Trump, you know that he got the message.

[20:05:16] COOPER: So, the man tasked with overseeing this investigation, John Durham, he's the U.S. attorney of your state of Connecticut. Are you confident he'll conduct the investigation fairly and impartially?

HIMES: Well, I certainly hope so. I don't know a lot about the attorney -- the U.S. attorney. He has done this sort of investigation before.

And I don't worry at all, Anderson. You know, as a member of the intelligence committee, I've seen a lot of the typically secret documents that were the predicate for this investigation, a lot of the original affidavits, a lot of the original material that went into this. And though not a lawyer, you know, hey, it was really clear that the FBI, at a point and time, was worried that there might have been some Russian compromise of the Trump campaign. Not necessarily of Trump himself.

The other thing I would say, Anderson, this is really important. We are seeing a re-run of a movie that we have seen time and time again. Remember a year ago, it was a scandal that the Obama administration was doing too many unmaskings of classified information. Nothing there.

Ten Benghazi investigations, how many convictions, indictments? What results from 10 Benghazi investigations? Uranium One, a completely made-up scandal.

So, in fact, what's going to happen here is exactly what has happened by all -- with all of the other manufactured, politically driven scandals that the Republicans and the defenders of the president cook up, which is that a fair investigation will show that there is absolutely nothing there.

MADDOW: In terms of your committee, which now is investigating the attorneys for the president and his family, the Trump Organization for possible obstruction, that's obviously pretty extraordinary. What evidence do you have that's led you in this direction?

HIMES: Well, I guess the way I would answer that, Anderson, is that when you read the Mueller report, you realize that he looked hard at what was in his scope of investigation. That is to say, Russian contacts, that sort of thing. If you read the Mueller investigation, you also see that he did very little in terms of looking at other ways -- and remember, it is this that is at the core of what the intelligence committee must do, looking at other ways in which foreign powers, Russia in particular, might have compromised the president.

That takes us into the realm of possible real estate transactions that are out there, that look a little strange. That takes us into the realm of where was the Trump Organization getting their money? The president's son himself said that they were getting money from the Russians.

That's the kind of thing that my committee, as an intelligence committee, should and will look at.

O'DONNELL: All right. Congressman Himes, appreciate your time. Thank you very much.

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