CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Steve Cohen

Interview

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BLITZER: Very interesting, indeed. All right, Evan, thank you very much, Evan Perez reporting.

Joining us now, Congressman Steve Cohen. He's a Democrat. He serves on the House Judiciary Committee.

Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.

And, as you know, your committee just released written answers from Annie Donaldson. She was the chief of staff to the former White House counsel Don McGahn. She was a really important witness in the Mueller report.

But White House lawyers blocked her from responding to more than 200 questions, citing executive branch confidentiality interests.

Is your committee going to fight to get more answers from her?

REP. STEVE COHEN (D-TN): We will certainly do that. And we will try to get the -- Mr. McGahn to testify before us too. And I think all those things are going to be coming as -- in the next week or so.

[18:10:03] Ms. Donaldson didn't answer over 200 questions. The White House does not want people to say what happened in the White House, because they know that they are in danger of letting the American people know that they obstructed justice.

And Mueller basically said he obstructed justice. He will be before us on the 17th. I imagine he will put some flesh on the bones. But that's a crime. And it's what caused Nixon to resign. And it's a cancer on this presidency.

BLITZER: Well, Annie Donaldson did confirm some key details from the Mueller report.

On what issues were her answers most valuable to you and your committee members?

COHEN: Well, I mean, she confirmed that there was concern about the Comey firing, and that came -- but we wanted her to answer questions that she responded to Mueller about, and they wouldn't let her.

So, they -- it's just a continuing blockade by the administration of responding to what went on. And when you have got a lot to hide, it should lead -- cause the American public to hit pause on what's going on in the White House.

BLITZER: And, as you know, Mueller is scheduled to testify before your committee, as well as separately before the House Intelligence Committee, later next week.

The attorney general, Bill Barr, is accusing your committee of trying to create what he calls a public spectacle with Mueller's testifying next week. Do Democrats have a strategy to keep this hearing on the rails and to get the most out of Mueller's testimony?

COHEN: We do.

We will be asking the questions that we can put -- let the public know what the Mueller report was about, about the issues of obstruction of justice and possibly some of the situation about Russia and some of the over -- I think it was over 100 and maybe -- I'm not sure how many more -- contacts that the Trump campaign had with Russians.

But we will go into those questions. We will stick to the issues. It's the Republicans that are supposedly going after Mueller and try to attack him under everything that's imaginable.

And Robert Mueller's still an American hero, and he will be after this hearing, and he will be because he is an American hero. He served us in Vietnam. He served at the FBI. He served at Justice and served as special counsel.

I wish he'd have come forth with more statements when Barr obviously tried to derail the direction or the overall emphasis in the report about there not being evidence that could exculpate the president from obstruction of justice. Instead, he claimed something else. Barr took time and tried to do everything he could to try to make the

Mueller report was something that it wasn't. But Robert Mueller didn't want to get into it because he's been in the government a long time and he's a gentleman.

BLITZER: Congressman Steve Cohen, thanks so much for joining us.

COHEN: Wolf, good to be back with you.

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