CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript: Interview with Congressman Jim Himes of Connecticut

Interview

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BERMAN: More breaking news tonight. The House Intelligence Committee is expected to vote tomorrow on whether to release the transcript of Trump adviser Roger Stone's committee interview that they did, whether to release it to the special counsel Robert Mueller. That's according to a House Intel Committee member.

"The Washington Post" reports Mueller asked the committee Friday for an official transcript of Stone's testimony. It's not clear what part of the testimony Mueller would be focusing on, but the "Washington Post" points out Mueller could use the threat of a false statement charge to get Stone's cooperation, maybe as he did with Michael Flynn and Michael Cohen.

There's no reporting Mueller might get what he wants. Two House Republicans on the intelligence committee tell CNN they would vote to release the transcript to Mueller if he has formally requested it. Joining me now is Congressman Jim Himes, Democrat of Connecticut, and

a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Now, Congressman, I know you feel you cannot officially confirm or deny whether the request has been made. CNN is reporting it. I will say that. But I would like to know from you is, if you were asked, would you have any reason to oppose releasing the official transcript to Robert Mueller?

[20:25:05] REP. JIM HIMES (D), CONNECTICUT: No, I don't think so, and, you know, as you probably know, John, the committee voted some weeks ago to release all of the transcripts to the public. That's under way as a process right now, scrubbing those transcripts for classified information.

So, one way or another, the transcript will become public at some point. But no, I don't imagine that if -- and again, I cannot confirm communications between the special counsel and the intelligence committee, but, no, were that request to be made, I would certainly be favorably inclined to approve it.

BERMAN: It's interesting, though, because back in September, there was a Democratic motion to release the transcripts to Robert Mueller and it was voted down by Republicans on the committee.

Doesn't seem like they're going to block it now, does it?

HIMES: Well, I don't know. I don't know. I guess you had that story from two members on the Republican side said they would support such a motion so if such a motion were made, presumably, it would pass.

But it is interesting, I mean, let's imagine that Mueller does get his hands on that transcript. I for one, again, I can't confirm the specifics of what's been requested, but I for one would put Roger Stone at the top of my list of people that I would be concerned had not been truthful with the committee when he testified to us. And obviously, you know, if that is true, as we saw in the Michael Cohen case just a couple weeks ago, lying to Congress is a big deal and Mueller was not shy about using that as leverage with Michael Cohen.

BERMAN: Now, I know you're not going to tell me what you don't believe he was not truthful or not truthful about with your committee, but in public, he has been asked repeatedly about what he knew of WikiLeaks -- the hacks and the hacked e-mails that WikiLeaks had, when they would release them. He has always denied knowledge beforehand of the release.

Do you have reason to doubt those public denials?

HIMES: Well, you know, as you point out, publicly, he said I -- you know, the fact that I said that John Podesta was about to get, I think the phrase was, some time in the barrel, right before WikiLeaks released John Podesta's e-mail, he has made publicly, and I'm not sure that he said anything to the committee that would be different from what he said publicly, that that was just a big coincidence, that he had no knowledge. I think that's too big of a coincidence, and you know, what we've

learned, of course, since Roger Stone said that is that whether it's Michael Cohen or Paul Manafort or you name any number of, you know, a half dozen officials, when it comes to these things, they lie about it. Even though it means that they risk or do go to prison.

BERMAN: And I do want to adhere, if that's what this is all about, it gets to the center of the whole Russia investigation. Did someone close to the president, Roger Stone advises the president on politics, did he have knowledge of e-mails hacked by the Russians and given to WikiLeaks? That's according to the indictments from Robert Mueller's team over the summer. Did Stone know about that?

Now, "The Washington Post" notes, this is interesting, that the Mueller team somehow got an unofficial transcript of the report, perhaps through director of national intelligence. So they know, they know what Roger Stone told you already. They've seen the notes already.

The reason to get the official transcript "The Post" says is because you need the official transcript for an indictment. Now, I don't know if that means Mueller is going to indict Roger Stone or not, but does this move tell you that perhaps he's getting closer to making the decision, the final part of his investigation, at least into Roger Stone?

HIMES: Well, you know, yes is the answer to that question. Obviously, if Roger Stone told the special counsel or told anybody in an official capacity a lie, that's a very big deal and a very big point of leverage that Mueller would now have on top of Roger Stone. Roger Stone is not a young man. He could probably contemplate like Paul Manafort spending a good chunk of the rest of his life in jail if Mueller decided to throw the book at him.

So, this is a big point of leverage. The reason this is important, John, you made this point, you know, we've seen all sorts of efforts on the part of Russians to reach out to the Trump campaign. We saw it with the Don Jr. meeting. We saw it with Michael Cohen and various -- we've seen the Trump people lie about it.

Roger Stone could be the guy who knew in advance what was going to happen because, again, he predicted bizarrely on time that WikiLeaks release of compromising e-mails on Hillary Clinton and if he knew about that in advance and didn't raise the alarm, you know, there is a very, very ugly fact for the Trump campaign.

BERMAN: He has denied it but then, again, Roger Stone has said a lot of things and denied a lot of things in the past. You just never know.

Congressman Jim Himes, thanks for being with us tonight. I really appreciate.

HIMES: Thank you, John.

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