CNN "Erin Burnett Out Front" - Transcript: "Interview with Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi"
Interview
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BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Pamela, with a lot of new information there. So out front now, a member of the House Intelligence Committee who was inside that briefing from the Inspector General today, Democratic Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi. And Congressman, I appreciate your time. Good to have you back on the show.
REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI (D-IL): Thank you. Thank you, Erin.
BURNETT: You're inside the room with the Inspector General who was prevented from sharing details of the report with you, but was supposed to talk about it in the process. So what can you tell us about what happened?
KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, first of all, he came in of his own volition. It was voluntary, which I think was the proper thing to do, although it obviously is something that he is not compelled to do. And because of the way he carried himself and his demeanor, he was very credible.
[19:04:52]
Just for your viewers' insight, basically, this is unprecedented where an inspector general of the Intelligence Community receives a whistleblower complaint, finds it to be credible and urgent and then turns it over to the Director of National Intelligence. And that person doesn't turn it over to the House Intelligence and Senate Intelligence Committees. That's unprecedented and that's very disturbing.
BURNETT: But you found his demeanor to be, you said, very credible, thoughtful.
KRISHNAMOORTHI: Yes.
BURNETT: The real deal. OK.
KRISHNAMOORTHI: Absolutely.
BURNETT: So we understand, Congressman, that the Intelligence Inspector General today suggested that the whistleblower had concerns about multiple actions. Didn't say specifically whether all of them involved the President or some of them or what.
Did you get a sense of what multiple means? How much of this was about Trump? Were you able to get any sense of that from him today?
KRISHNAMOORTHI: No, he wasn't willing to answer any questions with regards to the substance of the complaint and right now we're kind of wondering why this complaint is not being turned over to us. Mr. Maguire has said a couple of things that are concerning. One,
that the person --
BURNETT: He, of course, is the Acting Chief of the DNI.
KRISHNAMOORTHI: Yes, Mr. Maguire, the Chief of the DNI has said that the individual about whom the complainant made the complaint is outside the intelligence community and that person somehow is invoking some kind of privilege. There's no privilege that shields any wrongdoing.
And then secondly, this is something where it doesn't matter if it's someone outside the intelligence community as long as it relates to the intelligence activity of the Director of National Intelligence, that is the subject matter that we should be aware of.
BURNETT: And obviously to be clear, the President, could technically be outside the Intelligence Community, but obviously with his oversight of it, his ability to know any classified information he wants is clearly is central to it. OK.
KRISHNAMOORTHI: Sure.
BURNETT: So, I understand the IG said he didn't give you more because he wasn't authorized, right? He wasn't authorized to give you the details of the substance of the complaint ...
KRISHNAMOORTHI: Correct.
BURNETT: ... even though he deemed it urgent and credible, right? This is the person who saw it and said this is a problem.
KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, what's problematic about that is he's basically not being authorized by the very people about whom the complaint might be lodged.
BURNETT: Right.
KRISHNAMOORTHI: So that's the problem that we have here, it hurts our ...
BURNETT: Do you fault him for not going further, for not saying, "OK, so what? But I feel this is so important. I'm going to go around it or not?"
KRISHNAMOORTHI: I don't fault him at this point, because I think that he was trying to do everything he could to get us some type of idea about his concerns and why we needed to act properly. What's really concerning is that A; our National Security might be compromised right now and we wouldn't know it because we don't know the substance of the complaint. And then B; the Trump administration claims that the whistleblower statute in question doesn't apply to this claim.
So what they're saying is that the whistleblower may not be even protected by the protections set forth in that statute.
BURNETT: Right.
KRISHNAMOORTHI: And that's also concerning because other whistleblowers who might want to come forward may not be willing to do so.
BURNETT: Right. Well, that's a fair point.
KRISHNAMOORTHI: Yes.
BURNETT: So I don't know if you just heard but Pam was just talking about an administration official saying, "All right -" and this seems like this is their spin to try to explain it whatever it might end up being. They say, well, there's been times where a foreign leader talks to Trump and makes an outlandish request, like stop a DOJ indictment of a state-owned enterprise from that person's country.
And the official says, "Trump often just says, 'Sure, I'll have my people look into it." And he says it just to make them go away, doesn't actually do it. It sounds like they're trying to make it sound like this is what we're talking about. Could that really be what this is all about urgent and credible?
KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, I think that your question answers itself. The Inspector General would not say that type of thing would likely rise to be an urgent concern, because within the urgent concerns statute, I don't want to get into all the details. But it has to be a flagrant or serious violation of the law or an executive order. It has to be something that is materially going to impair our National Security.
BURNETT: And I think it's important you make that point so people understand, right, that to try to minimize it and make it sound small would go against exactly what it is that we seemed to be talking about here.
KRISHNAMOORTHI: Right. Right.
BURNETT: So what do you do next, Congressman? What's your next move to get to this complaint since the DOJ and the White House clearly are moving to prevent you from seeing it?
KRISHNAMOORTHI: Sure. Well, next week the Acting DNI Chief Mr. Maguire is coming before us. This is going to be an open hearing and we're going to be asking him some very tough questions about why is he not turning over this whistleblower complaint.
And if he decides not to turn it over even after that hearing or before that hearing, we may need to seek expedited relief in court.
[19:10:03]
Or, we may also bring this into the appropriations process and the other ways that we have to conduct oversight of the Intelligence Community. This is that serious, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Well, thank you very much, Congressman. I appreciate your time tonight.
KRISHNAMOORTHI: Thank you. Thank you so much.
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