CNN "Anderson Cooper 360" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Adam Schiff

Interview

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COOPER: The office of the Director of National Intelligence has until tomorrow to respond to a subpoena issued by the House Intelligence Committee. It's all shrouded in mystery. It's having to do with a whistleblower complaint that the House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff calls of "urgent concern." The committee plans to call the Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire for a hearing later this week. I spoke to the Congressman just before air time.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) COOPER: So in both letters that you sent to the DNI, you said that the whistleblower complaint involved a serious or flagrant problem, abuse, violation of law or executive order. Do you know what the alleged violation is?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): We have not been presented with a complaint, so we don't know precisely what it has to say. But we do know the inspector general did a preliminary investigation, found that those conditions were met, those are the conditions required by the statute that it be an urgent concern that it go to a flagrant or serious abuse. And the whistleblower -- the inspector general found that needs to be provided to Congress.

The process allows him to provide it first to the Director of National Intelligence and then the DNI has seven days to give it to us. There's no discretion. It says, they shall give it to us. They can add their comments to it. They can say, we didn't find it credible. We didn't find it urgent or whatever. But there's no discretion to withhold it. But we would later find out from the inspector general that they had never presented this to us.

COOPER: How long ago did this happen, do you know?

SCHIFF: I think three or four weeks ago the complaint was filed. The inspector general then had two weeks to do the investigation, which he did. He found it credible, probably because he was able to corroborate at least some portion of it. And then it was given to the DNI. And you know, we sat down and confronted over the phone the DNI on this and frankly, the conversation was not very encouraging.

[20:45:06] I asked the director, does this involve something that our committee is investigating? And initially, the answer was no. And then his legal counsel had to correct him and say, actually, we can't say that.

COOPER: So, do you know if it does involve something that your committee is investigating?

SCHIFF: Well, that was, I think, the strong implication of our conversation. It's also the case that the DNI acknowledged that this involves someone, apparently outside of the authority of the DNI, someone above the DNI. There aren't that many in that category.

And they also suggested that there may be privilege issues here, which means that it would have to involve communications of the President or people around him. So this is, I think, just another of a series of efforts to cover up misconduct, conceal it from the Congress, conceal it from the American people.

COOPER: But you don't -- just to be clear, you don't know who this alleged whistleblower is or what they are alleging?

SCHIFF: I don't know the identity of the whistleblower. And I don't have --

COOPER: And they haven't contacted you or their legal representation hasn't contacted you?

SCHIFF: I don't want to get into any particulars. I want to make sure that there's nothing that I do that jeopardizes the whistleblower in any way. But here's the other thing. The Director of National Intelligence is supposed to not only forward the complaint to us, they're supposed to instruct the whistleblower how they can communicate with Congress. They're unwilling to do that. They don't want the whistleblower talking to Congress. They don't want us to know the substance of this complaint.

COOPER: Right. And they've put out a statement, the office of DNI send a statement today saying, "We are currently reviewing the request and will respond appropriately. The Office of Director of National Intelligence and the Acting DNI Maguire are committed to fully complying with the law and upholding whistleblower protections and have done so here." You're saying that's really not accurate.

SCHIFF: They haven't done so here. If they had, if they'd follow the law, they would have provided the materials to our committee. They brought in outsiders to this process. Now, whether they were imposed on the DNI or the DNI sought a justification to withhold this from Congress, we don't know.

COOPER: I want to ask you about something your -- that Congressman Eric Swalwell, your colleague on the intelligence committee tweeted today responding to President's attack in the Mueller report. He wrote, "That's cute. You think we're done with the Mueller report, stay tuned." Is the intelligence committee not done with the Mueller report?

SCHIFF: We are still investigating some of the issues raised in the Mueller report. For example, in bringing Michael Cohen before our committee, he lied about the Moscow Trump Tower project that President Trump was pursuing, even as he was saying he had no business dealings with Russia. We're trying to determine were others involved in the creation of that lie.

COOPER: Just lastly, President Trump suggested today that instead of continuing to investigate him, the House Judiciary Committee should instead spend its time investigating -- looking into President Obama -- and the President tweeted, "I have a better idea -- I have a better idea. Look at the Obama book deal or the ridiculous Netflix deal." Do you have any idea what he's talking about?

SCHIFF: No, it's just gibberish. It's don't investigate me, there's no conflict of interest here, never mind that I'm enriching myself through my properties and, you know, that the military jets are going to airports that don't make any sense or staying at my resorts that don't make sense, look at Obama. I mean, this is just a variation, frankly --

COOPER: At a book deal and a Netflix deal -- I mean, it's not even something that happened during his presidency.

SCHIFF: Exactly, exactly. Yes. I'm surprised he didn't throw Hillary Clinton in there. That's a famous talking point for him. You should be investigating Hillary. Hillary is really the one who colluded. Obama colluded. Everybody colludes, except me. This is sort of fifth grade logic.

COOPER: Congressman Schiff, appreciate it. Thank you.

SCHIFF: Thank you.

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