Rep. Khanna: Unredacted Mueller report would help Congress further investigate FBI testimonies

Interview

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MACCALLUM: Congressman Ro Khanna of California joins me now. He sits on the House Oversight Committee. Sir, very good to see you tonight. Thank you for being here. Is it fair to for him to say that there has been no real investigation when we spent an enormous amount of money in two years and the efforts of 19 lawyers and Robert Mueller?

REP. RO KHANNA, D-CALIF.: Well, Bob Mueller obviously did a very thorough investigation. He concluded that there was sweeping and systematic Russian interference in our election. I think what Carl Bernstein is talking about though is the investigation by Congress. And Congress just got the report. Congress should have the right to hear from people like Mueller and the American people should have that right.

MACCALLUM: You know, I mean, you say they just got the report and it is as you say a very thorough report. They want -- you all want to see it without redactions. Have you -- have you made an effort to go see the unredacted version or the almost completely unredacted version.

KHANNA: That was only available to some of the committee chairs. And the reason they didn't go see that as they wanted it to be for all of Congress. And this could be very simple. I mean, the Attorney General could cooperate with Congress and request the court to allow us to see that.

Here's why it matters. So we can ask questions to Don McGahn and others based on their earlier testimony to the FBI.

MACCALLUM: All right, let's take a look at -- this is from Adam Schiff on Sunday about the possibility of finding individuals from the White House who've been subpoenaed who are pushing back on that. Watch this.

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REP. ADAM SCHIFF, D-CALIF.: I think if you find someone $25,000 a day to their person until they comply it gets their attention.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you can collect.

SCHIFF: Well, if you can collect but it affects you know, whether they're going to be facing ultimately hundreds of thousands of dollars of damages. I don't know how many are going to want to take that risk for Donald Trump.

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MACCALLUM: What do you think about that, sir?

KHANNA: Well, Congress has the inherent power to levy fines if there is blatant disregard for a constitutional oversight. Now, I really hope it doesn't come to that. I hope the courts resolve this issue. The courts can resolve this issue. I hope Justice Roberts who clerked for Judge Friendly and cares about the credibility of the courts will resolve the impasse and tell the courts to be expeditious.

MACCALLUM: Well, you know, just looking back at you know, former oversight committees, I think of Eric Holder and the fact that he was also subpoenaed, denied that subpoena to appear in the Fast and Furious, denied documents to the Oversight Committee, and they felt very strongly at the time as you do that was their constitutional responsibility to have oversight and yet they were rebuffed and got nowhere.

Same thing with the IRS who was you know a lot -- invading the privacy of innocent Americans who because of their political beliefs, and they also refused to turn over those documents. Why was there not the outcry on both sides of the aisle when that was happening?

KHANNA: Martha, I agree with you that every executive branch has this conflict with Congress, President Bush, to President Obama, President Clinton. The difference is usually there's some accommodation. You get some witnesses, you get some documents, you come to some agreement. Here, the president has really snubbed Congress and isn't giving any documents. I don't think it's in his own interest --

MACCALLUM: He turned over an enormous amount of documents and they didn't -- they didn't exert executive privilege over anything.

KHANNA: Well, they have not to Congress. I mean, they did to Mueller and that's exactly the point. I mean, if Don McGahn could testify to Mueller and they waved executive privilege for the Mueller Report, why not allow him to testify before Congress, why not allow the American people to hear everything and then make a judgment.

The Speaker has been very clear. We're not going to do anything without public sentiment on our side. We want to have the facts out there and let the American people decide.

MACCALLUM: All right, we're going to have some of those questions to the White House right now. Thank you very much, Representative Ro Khanna. Good to see you tonight.

KHANNA: Thank you, Martha.

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