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Interview

Joining us now is New York Democratic Congressman Daniel Goldman. He's a former federal prosecutor, he served as Democratic counsel to the House Intelligence Committee during the former President's first impeachment proceedings.

You've called on Congressman Stefanik to cooperate with any current or future investigations. I mean have you heard anything about an Ethics Committee investigation or what is the status of that?

REP. DANIEL GOLDMAN (R-NY): Well, Congressman Ritchie Torres and I filed a complaint with the House Ethics Committee a couple of weeks ago. But the Ethics Committee has not yet been constituted itself. So, we expect that will be one of the first things that they dig into once they are constituted.

COOPER: And who decides? I mean does the committee get to decide? Is that something McCarthy has say over whether the House Ethics Committee actually chooses to take this up?

GOLDMAN: The Ethics Committee is split evenly between Democrats and Republicans with a nonpartisan staff. As the majority leader, as the speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy would have significant sway. That's where some of these issues related to his own knowledge of George Santos' lies come in. He has a conflict of interest. If in fact, as has been reported, he knew about some of Santos's lies, still sponsored a fundraiser with him, still concealed those lies from the voters in order to win that seat in the win at any cost view that he has.

COOPER: So, what does that mean? I mean if powerful Republicans knew there were lies, knew that. You know, the veracity of things he had said didn't play out? Was it they just wanted the seat? I mean, they just wanted the flip and they needed as many seats as they could get?

GOLDMAN: Well, these are good questions that Elise Stefanik should be asked. It's one thing for a fabulous like George Santos to lie and cheat his way into a congressional seat, but it's altogether something else when he's doing it in complicity, so to speak, with Elise Stefanik, Kevin McCarthy in leadership. And this, you know, Elise Stefanik is using political double speak that people just are sick of, to say that there's no staff member of mine who worked on Santos' campaign is too cute by half. There as a now politician, I know there's a difference between staff and consultants and advisors who are not technically on staff but are very involved, especially in campaigns.

So, that specific use of the word staff jumped out to me as very misleading because what we do know now from both Pamela and from the New York Times is that a top political aide to Stefanik not only helped Santos hire staff members and advisers, but helped him do so after a bunch of people resigned because of his lies. That's how we know that Stefanik was aware of his lies.

COOPER: What makes it all the more kind of egregious about the lack of action in Congress so far by Republicans is that local Republicans, not Elise Stefanik, but local Republicans on Long Island have been calling for Santos to step down.

GOLDMAN: Look, if the Republican Party wants to embrace George Santos as one of their own, good on them, but that, as a Democrat, would not be someone I would want to have as part of my party, someone who has defrauded his voters in order to get a seat in Congress. And by not acting, especially if they had knowledge and tried to conceal it, they're embracing George Santos and they're potentially complicit in his fraud on his seat.

COOPER: Do you think the -- if he resigned the Ethics Committee investigation, if there is one, that would go away, right?

GOLDMAN: Probably. But the federal criminal investigation would not go away.

COOPER: Because I mean but an ethics investigation can cost a member of Congress millions of dollars to defend themselves. Charlie Rangel famously, you know, I was talking to another congressman who said he thought he -- Rangel had spent a lot of money defending himself when he was brought up in ethics. I mean it can cost a politician a lot if they have to defend themselves.

GOLDMAN: Yes. Look, there are ways that politicians can raise money to defend themselves, but the sirens are blaring with George Santos' finances. Where did this guy get this financial windfall? And the bigger issue that I'm trying to draw attention to is it doesn't seem like it was just George Santos. It seems like that this was a scheme that others were in on. And that's why we need to have transparency and accountability from Elise Stefanik. Those are two words that she uses all the time. Let's see it from her.

COOPER: Congressman Goldman, I appreciate your time.

GOLDMAN: Thank you.

COOPER: Thank you so much, Dan Goldman.

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