CNN "Anderson Cooper 360" - Transcript: Interview with Jamie Raskin

Interview

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COOPER: Kaitlan Collins, appreciate it. Joining us right now is Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin, a member of the House Select Committee, investigating the January 6 attack. He also served as lead manager in the second impeachment trial of the former President.

Congressman Raskin, I appreciate you being with us. Well, I'm wondering, first of all, your reaction to President Biden weighing in on this, obviously, the Justice Department is saying that it is going to, quote "make its own independent decisions," as they certainly should on any prosecutions?

REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): Well, the first thing he said was that the Committee should aggressively enforce our right to get people's testimony and to get the documents we've subpoenaed, and there is no problem with that.

I also don't have a problem with him as a citizen like me, saying he hopes the Department of Justice will aggressively enforce the law, so people don't get away with committing crimes like this.

Obviously, four years of Donald Trump has made everybody a little bit rusty in terms of executive branch relationships with the President and law enforcement in the Department of Justice, and I don't think he was telling the Department of Justice what to do, but they will make their own decision and we have confidence that the Attorney General will do the right thing and D.O.J. will make the right decision.

COOPER: Has the White House been in contact with your committee? And has the White House Counsel been involved in the engagement with former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows or other administration officials to determine to what degree they can testify without violating any kind of executive privilege?

RASKIN: Well, let's see. I'm not quite sure I got your whole question there.

COOPER: Has the White House been in contact with your committee and been involved with the discussions with Mark Meadows or others?

RASKIN: No, I'm not aware of that. Look, what we're doing -- our committee is charged with assembling a complete and comprehensive documentary record that explains what happened to us on January 6th. Who were the criminal elements that attacked the U.S. Congress who tried to overthrow the election? What were the motivations behind it? How did they work? Who paid for it? And so on.

So, we're in the process of collecting all that information. Most people have been very cooperative, people are coming forward, even some people who would prefer not to cooperate, have engaged with the committee, and then we've got those like Steve Bannon who are taking their lead from Donald Trump and think that they're just above the law, and they are the only citizens of the United States who don't have to respond to a subpoena from a court or from the U.S. Congress.

And so that's why we're going to be meeting on Tuesday evening, and there will be, I predict a criminal referral. We're going to try to charge these people with criminal contempt. That's a crime when Steve Bannon did not show up, when he was told to show up with documents and to testify before the U.S. Congress.

COOPER: There are a lot of people who have weighed in saying that they think, you know, this could -- you know, Bannon can -- it can go on in the courts, it can drag on for years longer than this Committee will be in session. Do you agree with that? Or do you believe that this will -- it could move fast?

RASKIN: No, if the Department of Justice acts like a real Department of Justice, and I think they will, as you know, they just reminded the President that they're going to make their own decisions based on the facts and the law. I think they're serious about their job.

I think if they do their job, and I have confidence that Attorney General Garland will do his job, they will move for criminal prosecution of people who are openly flouting in order for the U.S. Congress to come and testify on an issue that maybe the most important question of an attack on the U.S. government since the Civil War or the War of 1812.

And when you see that footage, you understand what is at stake. There was an attempt to mobilize violence against the Congress, to attack Members of Congress, to attack the Vice President of the United States all in order to overthrow a presidential election result.

That was the first time, Anderson, in U.S. history when the counting of Electoral College votes was delayed by four or five hours because of this coordinated assault, both an inside assault against the Vice President, and then this massive violent mob attack.

[20:10:26]

COOPER: Just finally, I'm wondering what you make of this Capitol Police officer now indicted on obstruction of justice charges for being in contact with a rioter and advising him to delete evidence and allegedly, according to authorities, himself deleting also evidence.

RASKIN: I mean, I don't know anything about the underlying facts. It's an eye popping story of course. As the Chair of the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Subcommittee of the Oversight Committee, we've been having hearings for two years about the rise of violent white supremacy and domestic extremism and terrorism in America, and we have found many cases of white supremacist and extremist infiltration of police departments.

And so if this turns out to be true, the allegations are quite shocking that you would have a Capitol officer trying to coordinate with the insurrectionists who attacked the Capitol, to suppress evidence, to destroy evidence in order to, you know, to throw off the police who might be on their trail. I mean, that's an outrageous thing.

And again, I have no idea whether these allegations are true, but there is the suggestion that this officer confessed his political support for the insurrectionists.

COOPER: Congressman Raskin, I appreciate your time. Thank you.

RASKIN: Thanks for having me, Anderson.

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