CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Jamie Raskin
Interview
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[09:30:00] REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): Look, we are trying to vindicate the central role of Congress in dealing with the executive branch, which is to conduct oversight into what's happening. The Oversight Committee has a whistleblower who came to us, Tricia Newbold, who tells us that 25 people whose applications for high security clearance was rejected got security clearance because of the political intervention of the White House. And now the White House and the executive branch are refusing to turn over any documents about any of these cases and they're refusing to produce any witnesses to us.
You know, we want to have Don McGahn come and testify in the Judiciary Committee about the fact that President Trump told him to go and fire the special counsel, which is a cardinal act of obstruction of justice, and yet the White House is now pulling the plug on that, attempting to interfere. They're going to court to try to stop Deutsche Bank from producing documents that have been requested by the Intelligence Committee and they're trying to stop the House Ways and Means Committee from getting the president's tax returns, which we are legally entitled to.
So what's happening here is that the obstructionism that we've read about in the Mueller report, within the Department of Justice by the president, is now coming galloping off the pages and it is confronting Congress at every turn, the Ways and Means Committee, the Finance Committee, the Judiciary Committee, the Oversight Committee. The president is simply refusing to participate and to do his lawful duty. And we are going to follow this until we are able to do our jobs.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Galloping obstruction of justice, I'm going to let you trademark that, congressman. That's --
RASKIN: All right.
SCIUTTO: You can -- we'll stick with that.
RASKIN: You can spread it out there.
SCIUTTO: All right.
RASKIN: This is our reality.
SCIUTTO: Thank you for your time, as always.
RASKIN: Thank you for having me.
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