CBS "Face the Nation" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Jerry Nadler

Interview

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Good morning and welcome to FACE THE NATION. As Washington awaits Attorney General William Barr's release of a redacted version of the Mueller report expected by mid-April or sooner, we begin with House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler who joins us this morning from New York. Congressman, do you expect to receive the report this week and-- and what happens once you do?

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY NADLER (D-New York/@RepJerryNadler/Judiciary Committee Chairman): Well, I don't know when we're going to receive it. Attorney General Barr said by the middle of April it could be the end of this week or beginning of next week. But the important thing is not do we get it this week or next week. The important thing is what do we get. We are demanding and we have a right-- Congress has a right to the entire report with no redactions whatsoever so we can see what's there. We're already hearing leaks from the Mueller team that didn't leak at all for twenty-two months but now seem to be ve-- be very unhappy. We're hearing leaks that Barr misrepresented in his so-called summary letter, what's in the report that he sugarcoated it, that he made it look more favorable for the President than it was. We're hearing reports. NBC reported that some of the Mueller people were saying that it depicted the Russian campaign-- I'm sorry, the Trump campaign as having been thoroughly infiltrated by-- by-- by an intelligence operation of the Russian government. We don't know. We're entitled to see it because Congress represents the nation. And Congress has to take action on any of it. So we're entitled to see all of it. Now, some material has to be--

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, the attorney general said he will-- he will hand over almost four hundred pages, but redacts the classified information--

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY NADLER: Well, he has-- no, he has-- he has said he--

MARGARET BRENNAN: --and anything obtained through a grand jury.

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY NADLER: He has said he will redact four classifications of information.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY NADLER: Our position is that he should redact none of it. Congress, the Judiciary Committee, and every-- in every similar situation in the past, whether with Nixon or with Clinton or with many other situations, the Judiciary Committee has gotten all the information, all the underlying documents and evidence. And the Judiciary Committee has decided what of that cannot be released to the public.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you expect that you would have to go to a court to force the release of the grand jury information?

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY NADLER: Well, yes. We would have to go to--

MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay.

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY NADLER: --the court to get the release of the grand jury information but that has happened successfully in every previous situation. And it's not up to the attorney general to decide with respect to that or with respect to other material that he decides Congress can't see. It's not up to him. And, remember, he is a biased person. He is someone who is an agent of the administration, is an appointee, a political appointee of the President whose interests he may very well be protecting here. And he in-- interviewed--

MARGARET BRENNAN: So-- so do you actually then reject the entire summary? Do you believe there is possible criminal collusion?

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY NADLER: Well, the attorney general said there was no-- there was no obstruction of justice. He decided that. Mueller did not say that. And, by the way--

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right, and your character-- and you're dismissing what he has said.

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY NADLER: I dismiss what he said. He's a-- he's a biased defender of the administration and he's entitled to be a defender of the administration but he is not entitled to withhold the evidence from Congress. And, by the way, let me repeat one other thing. When you say there's no-- no when he says there's no collusion, there may very well not have been evidence beyond a reasonable doubt--

MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-Hm.

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY NADLER: --which is a very high judicial standard of criminal conspiracy with the Russians. But there was in plain sight open collusion with the Russians when the President's son and campaign manager and son-in-law go to a meeting with the Russians to receive, quote, "dirt on Hillary" as part of the Russian government's attempt to help the Trump campaign. And that was in the e-mail inviting them to the meeting.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY NADLER: They go to the meeting. They said--

MARGARET BRENNAN: But-- but that didn't--

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY NADLER: --they didn't want that information. That is collusion, whether it's criminal conspiracy is another question--

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY NADLER: But it's certainly--

MARGARET BRENNAN: And-- and it was that-- on that question--

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY NADLER: --the moral collusion--

MARGARET BRENNAN: --of criminality whether it could be prosecuted that the report was turned in. Those were the conclusions there made. I mean, it-- it sounds like when you are referencing what was the reporting from The New York Times and The Washington Post about some of Mueller's investigators feeling--

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY NADLER: Mm-Hm.

MARGARET BRENNAN: --that their-- their impressions and their conclusions were not accurately portrayed in the attorney general's summary. Are you going to call those investigators before the committee? Are you going to talk to any of them?

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY NADLER: After we read the information in the-- in the report, we'll make the decision as to whether that is necessary. After we read the deci-- the-- the information in the report, we'll probably want to call Mueller to discuss it. We'll-- we'll be having Barr in front of the committee before that, but certainly reading the-- the report and the underlying evidence will give us more information as to what questions we should ask Mueller or any of the other people who worked with him.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But is-- is the bottom line here is you acknowledge that what was put forward may not be indictable, but big picture you're saying there are things in this report that could be impeachable-- grounds for impeachment.

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY NADLER: Well, who knows? There could be grounds for impeachment. There could be grounds for other action. There could be things the American people ought to know. You know, you can commit shameful acts, you can commit complete betrayals of the public interest without committing impeachable acts. And if you did that, the public ought to know that, too.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So--

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY NADLER: And-- and the standard-- the standard here is not an impeachment. The standard is what was-- did-- the standard is we have to protect the public from presidential misconduct from anybody else's. And the public has to know about it. And we have to get all the evidence so we can subject to--

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY NADLER: --to protecting certain classified information-- a decision that the Judiciary Committee has always made in the past and can make now. The public ought to know all of it.

MARGARET BRENNAN: As you know, Republicans challenged some of these disclosures on-- on the legal basis but also point to some of the comments you've made in the past back during the impeachment proceedings for Bill Clinton when you said grand jury material represent statements which may or may not be true and it would be unfair to release.

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY NADLER: Yes, yes.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So it seems like your view has changed.

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY NADLER: My view has not changed at all.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Why?

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY NADLER: My view has not changed at all because they're comparing apples and oranges. In 1998, the Judiciary Committee was given all the information that we're seeking now. It was given all the information and all the underlying evidence. And the question was, "Should all that information be released to the public?" And I said then that no some of that grand jury information should not be released to the public. Now, we are advocating that all of that information should be given to the committee. We are not advocating that all the grand jury information should be go to the public.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And you believe that the committee would keep--

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY NADLER: In 1998, Ken Starr had given everything to the committee and had already had that-- the committee already had all that information, including the grand jury information and the debate was over whether it should be made public--

MARGARET BRENNAN: It was an independent counsel which was structured differently--

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY NADLER: That's irrelevant.

MARGARET BRENNAN: --since the special counsel reports to the Justice Department.

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY NADLER: That's irrelevant. That's irrelevant. That-- that's-- that's irrelevant.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But-- but do you-- are you arguing that the information if it's shared with the committee would not leak publicly? Can you guarantee that?

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY NADLER: Certainly. Some-- some of it would not leak publicly. Some of it would be decided-- some grand jury information would-- would-- you know, first of all, some grand jury information would, presumably, be decided must be released by court order to the public because the public interest would outweigh the privacy interests. That's happened in the past that might happen again in the future. But the deci-- again, the committee has a very good record of protecting information which it decides to protect.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Lastly--

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY NADLER: And that has been the case in the past.

MARGARET BRENNAN: --the-- the President's former Personal Attorney Michael Cohen has released a memo or his lawyers did saying that he has fourteen million files that have damaging information about the President. He is asking for help in getting his sentence reduced or at least delayed in some way. Do you want the information Michael Cohen has and will you offer him the help he is asking for?

REPRESENTATIVE JERRY NADLER: Certainly, we'd want the information that Michael Cohen or anybody else has that's relevant to the-- to this question. Whether we can give him that sort of help or not, I don't know.

MARGARET BRENNAN: All right. Congressman, thank you.

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