President ial obstruction of justice and abuse of power. Before we begin, i would remind all Committee Members that we should refrain from making inappropriate personal references to protected parties, namely the president , Vice President , members of the senate and house. This includes accusations of dishonesty, criminality, treason or other unethical motives. The issues we are addressing today go to the very core of our constitutional democracy, they understandably bring out strong passion in us, as they do in the American People. I hope that what should be a spirited discussion of these issues today, we will stay focused on the issues and take care to prevent our comments from being directed personally at the president. I will now recognize myself for an Opening Statement. Todays hearing is entitled president ial obstruction of justice and abuse of power. This hearing is the first one form only designated under the Committee Procedures adopted last week in connection with their investigation to determine whether to recommend articles of impeachment with respect to president trump. We subpoenaed three witnesses to this hearing. Unfortunately, we learned last night that the white house is blocking the first two from even showing up and tightly limiting the third. The white house has no authority, legal or otherwise, to give these orders. We wanted these three individuals to testify before the committee and the American People because they are critical witnesses to the incidents of obstruction of justice laid out in the Mueller Report. In five of those episodes, evidence laid out established that all the elements of obstruction of justice were met. They, despite the roadblocks the white house has thrown up, we will focus on one of the most concerning of those episodes. It is the president ordering the attorney general, through mr. Lewandowski, to stop the special counsel investigation into the president and his campaign. Mr. Dearborn was enlisted as part of that, as well. Mr. Porter has other Critical Evidence regarding obstruction. As our hearing established, anyone else involved in these episodes of obstruction wouldve been charged with a crime. Anyone else. Let that sink in. The president knows this and the white house is intent on preventing the American People from hearing the details. So it is no surprise that the white house blocked two of our witnesses. Mr. Porter and mr. Dearborn from showing up at all today. The white house and the department of justice or advancing the same spurious legal doctrine they did when this committee called on the most important obstruction witness to testify, former white House Counsel don mcgahn. They claim porter and deerbourne are immune from testifying before congress. There is no such thing. The only court ever to consider this purported absolute immunity doctrine totally rejected it. That is why we have asked the court in the don mcgahn case to set it aside. What is more troubling, even if we apply dojs own madeup rules of absolute immunity, i question how mr. Dearborn fits under those rules. According to doj opinions, absolute immunity applies to, quote, the president s immediate advisors to serve as the president s alter ego. To extend this already dubious doctrine to someone like mr. Dearborn, far more removed from the president than mcgann, is a dangerous stretch. We should call this what it is. An absolute coverup by the white house. Mr. Lewandowski is here and has Vital Information about president ial obstruction of justice. The white house wants to limit our ability to hear it all. Mr. Lewandowski was called alone, oneonone, into the oval office on june 19, 2017, and again on july 19, 2017, and the president did something i find startling. He dictated the speech to mr. Lewandowski, not for mr. Lewandowski, but for then attorney general mister sessions. He told mr. Lewandowski to put the following words in the a. G. s mouth. Quote, i am going to meet with the special prosecutor to explain this is very unfair and let the special prosecutor move forward with investigating election meddling in future elections, so nothing can happen in future elections. The quote is from volume 2, page 91 of the Mueller Report. As the report found, limiting the investigation to future elections wouldve cut off any past conduct. It wouldve ended the investigation of the president s conduct. The evidence found by the special counsel met all the elements of obstruction of justice. Mr. Lewandowski was nervous about this demand from his former boss, as he should have been. It raised serious questions about criminal conduct. Forbidden from doing anything regarding the investigation, certainly not allowed to curtail it. So mr. Lewandowski tried to surreptitiously meet with the a. G. When that failed, he tried to pass the buck to mr. Dearborn. He gave mr. Dearborn the script dictated by the president , all while telling the president that he was following through on the president s orders. That is what we want to learn more about today. As we learned, witness testimony is critical to any investigation. The white house does not want us or the American People to hear this story in full. Like yesterday, the white house sent a letter claiming mr. Lewandowskis conversations with the president are protected by executive branch confidentiality interests. They say he may testify about president ial communications already disclosed in the report, but no more. They make that claim, despite the fact that mr. Lewandowski was at all times a private political operative, was not offering advice of any kind, the usual prerequisite for executive privilege, and was enlisted for apparent wrongdoing. No report has ever said the president is entitled to confidentiality under these circumstances. Indeed, the department of justice has said executive privilege should not be invoked to conceal evidence of wrongdoing on the part of executive officers. The white house is advancing a new and dangerous theory. The crony privilege. It makes absolute immunity look good by comparison. Where are the limits . This is a coverup, plain and simple. If it were to prevail, especially while the Judiciary Committee is considering articles of impeachment, it would upend the separation of powers envisioned by our founders. Todays coverup is part of a pattern of the white house blocking the congress. The president announced his desire to fight all of the subpoenas. The white house is obstruction of justice ranges to nearly every committee and every investigation of the administration, whether related to children in cages, security clearances, or their failure to defend the country from ongoing attacks by a foreign adversary. But mr. Lewandowski, you are here under subpoena, which means you are required to answer our questions, all of our questions, completely and truthfully. The investigation extends beyond the four corners of the Mueller Report. We are looking at corruption and use of power more broadly, so we will inquire about other subjects as well. We will not be daunted by the coverup, the attempt to pursue accountability for any wrongdoing, because no one is above the law, not even the president of the United States. I now recognize the Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee, the gentleman from georgia, mr. Collins, for his Opening Statement. Thank you mister chairman and thank you for introducing this hearing, which is now, as you said, under the new rule. These here we go again. They are new because we like the packaging. Ive never seen a majority so amazed with packaging in all my life. You know why . Because they cant sell whats inside. They cant sell the product, so they keep packaging it differently. I agree with my chairman. We should call this what it is, another simple oversight hearing. I think it has become this, lets read the Mueller Report for audiobook. Thats where weve gone. We had mr. Mueller here. Had a long day of it. By all accounts it didnt go real well. For what you proclaimed over nine months and almost 2 years, that there are impeachable offenses, as the chairman said, clearly in the Mueller Report. But here is the problem. 17 of the members of the Judiciary Committee have said that they think the president ought to be impeached, so why are we still investigating it. 17, you get some more . The problem is, you dont have the votes. Even if you got it out of this committee, you dont have it on the floor. Thats the problem. So the thing we are going to do is drag this committee through oversight hearings, talking about things that have been talked about, and nausea them, ad nausea. We will talk about them, put filters up, say what it really is were really is not, while we try to imply that this president shouldnt be president. It is really interesting to me that we heard a moment ago that it was said these are made up rules at doj. Its interesting that now they are made up rules. They werent made up rules when the Obama Administration used them. Were they made up rules then . Just asking, for a friend. You know, this is amazing. As we come into this situation, the chairman also said while we are doing this and stopping committees from searching into products like the immigration issue and foreign influence, i just want to remind everyone here watching it everyone seeing the show today, and also to remind the majority, that they have complete jurisdiction over immigration. We have complete and total jurisdiction over immigration for the most part. If you want to fix the border, put a bill out. You dont want to do that. You like this. You like having the press here. You like having the cameras, because it makes it appear like somethings happened and it has not. But the real thing is coming out and the American People are starting to get it. If youre howling at the wind, you arent doing anything. You make them think you are, but youre not. So dont blame that you dont want to deal with it. I agree, we need to fix it. Bring me a bill, your bill, my bill, but dude something about it. The only thing we agreed upon was foreign influence from russia, but yet, where is the bill . Where is we dont do anything about it. We just like to talk about. Because we think it makes the president look bad thats the information weve been getting for two years. Weve had that issue before. Working with witnesses to get them to come in. I think he said he would come without a subpoena but we subpoenaed him anyway. Who cares which is the Judiciary Committee. This is the problem that we have. This committee doesnt want to interview don mcgann behind closed doors , they want to do it out front. They dont try to get information. Real oversight is getting information but we do not do that. I understand that its a tough making a promise and not keeping it. I understand. All of us can relate to a time we made a promise that we couldnt keep it. We will impeach a. We will investigator. For most of them it happened and 2016 because they couldnt believe that President Donald Trump won. And they still cant get over it today. We have a lot of public hearings , not investigating, not doing oversight. This is not fair but we like to issue subpoenas and we are setting a world record of that. 40 faster. We dont want any answers . Were not willing to engage in a dialogue. I believe that this is more than just wanted to get in there. Its not like mr. Lewandowski has been silent. Weve had access to all of his summaries. This is nothing new. But its new because its another time to rehash another story. This is when all the broadcast of folks bring out their new shows. This isnt a summer rerun season. I just want to show you one last thing before i turn it over and then will get the show going. The Judiciary Committee is the committee for a reason. We oversee the court system. And for anyone whos been here and appeared before a judge. A judge is a stickler for rules. And i want to point out something. Some will laugh and some award care. The subpoena for mr. Lewandowski said at 10 am this morning. This shows you how impulsive and poorly designed this is. The subpoena is not properly. We compel them to be heard at 10 am but todays hearing was at 1 pm. The witness was given a lack of appropriate notice. I can understand that it is Natural Resources get around. Transportation. But i dont understand how the judiciary gets this wrong. The chairman wants to hold people in contempt, try enforcing this in court. There is no clarification and when i was given a subpoena for my client what time do you appear in court . Whenever you feel like a. Unless the court or the officer giving the subpoena says differently. The chairman says well we could do this because weve wasted enough time on other things. We can issue of new subpoena. Theres probably a date in october that hasnt been filled up with this mess somewhere. So here we go. There is a so much that we could actually do together. But as long as we dont have time we will continue with rerun season. Popcorn still taste good. I dont know why we do this . Maybe its a deficiency of flashbulbs. I do not know. And we dislike the show. And the new rules are in effect. Know theyre not new, but we just want to look better. I have one more that will talk about later when we get to some other questions. Without a yobak. Thank you. Mr. Collins. I will introduce mr. Lewandowski hes a political commentator. He received a bachelors degree from the university of massachusetts and masters degree from american university. He also attended the naval war college. As i discussed in my Opening Statement i disagree with the white houses assertion of immunity. As for mr. Dearborn and mr. Porter. We are considering options to enforce the subpoenas. We welcome mr. Lewandowski and thank him for participating. If he will rise i will is where un. Let the record show that the witness answered in the affirmative. Please know that your written statement will be entered into the record in its entirety. I asked that you summarize your testimony in five minutes. Mr. Lewandowski you may begin. Chairman nadler and Ranking Members good afternoon. I like to express my hope that todays hearing will be productive in revealing the truth to the committee and the American People. For the record i have already testified before congress on three separate occasions. I sat at length with the special Counsel Office. My answer given freely and without hesitation. In one form or another i have answered questions for well over 20 hours. Here i am before the house Judiciary Committee to answer the same questions again. Just last week this committee over the objection of the minority change the rules to make this an impeachment proceeding, which is very unfair. In the spirit of cooperation im prepared to move forward today. I have had the privilege of being part of the greatest Political Movement in this nations history. I present this to the American People. Growing up in a bluecollar singleparent family i learned the value of hard work and that help me put myself through college and graduate school. Becoming the certified peace officer in the state of new hampshire. The world of politics was always a passion. And trump hired me to explore a run for the presidency. The campaign started as a group of individuals helping President Donald Trump make a decision to write down the golden escalator and seek the presidency of the United States. Where i let alene a dedicated operation that succeeded in capturing the republican nomination. My job was simple. Provide President Donald Trump with my best advice, spend his money like it was my own. Give him the support he needed to win. Longterm objectives, i had the privilege of transforming the Trump Campaign from a Small Organization to a historical president ial juggernaut. And i am proud to say that President Donald Trump won 38 and received more votes than any candidate in the republican party. The store campaign help to President Donald Trump secure than the republican nomination and the presidency of the United States. Since election day, whether it was bad actors at the fbi or coming from the House Majority , there was evidence of collusion. The American People continue to be sold in false narrative undermining the legitimacy of the election results. Campaigns are not always the most efficient organizations. And just imagine what it is like to lead a National Campaign that spans all 50 states of the union. During my time as campaigning manager there was a sea of ideas. Somewhat laudable and sound, a few not so much. Many were dismissed, others were passed on to staffers to be handled. I received thousands of emails. Some days as many as 1000. Anon like Hillary Clinton i did not delete any of those. Many of them will were responded to with one word answers. Throughout it all into the best of my recollection i do not recall having any conversations with the foreign entities that were offering to manipulate the outcome of an election. As i said publicly many times. Anyone who attempted to illegally impact on election should spend their life in jail. Let me stress this fact. President donald trump held no elected position he was not a government official. The Intelligence Community had the responsibility to the American People to ensure the integrity of the 2016 election. I will leave it to this committee and American Public to decide how successful they were in doing their jobs . Regardless as a special counsel determined there was no conspiracy or collusion between the Trump Campaign in any foreign governments on my watcher after. Not surprising after the Mueller Report was made public. Interest in the fake russian collusion narrative has fallen apart. In collusion and its sad to say. This country has spent three years and 40 million on these investigations that were populated by trump haters who had their own agenda to take down a duly elected president United States. For actual collusion or conspiracy there was not. But there has been harassment of this president from the day he won this election. We as a nation would be better served if elected officials like yourself concentrated your effort to combat the crisis facing our country and soon going down rabbit holes instead of focusing on petty politics focusing on solving the challenges of this a generation. Imagine how many people we could help, or how many lives we could save . I voluntarily appeared in front of congress and have spoken to the special Counsel Office for hours. I will continue to be forthright and cooperative and sincere in my answers at the committee is in its questions. I will begin by recognizing myself for questioning for five minutes. Mr. Lewandowski we received a letter from the white house yesterday that they will not let you answer any questions beyond what you told special counsel that was publicly released. It is based on a bogus claim of executive privilege. Even though you did not work a single day for the administration, let alone an executive branch. I am troubled by the attempt to obstruct congresses investigation and prevent the American People from learning the truth about what he has done. In june in june 2017 you met alone in the oval office with the president . Volume 2 pager 90. Could you read the exact language of the report . But i dont think i need to do that and i have limited time. Did you meet alone with the president on that day. I would like you to refresh my memory by providing a copy of the report so that i can follow along. I do not have a copy of that report i request that the clock be stopped while this charade is sorted out. The clock should remain stopped. On page 90. Which paragraph . I do not have it in front of me. But i would like a reference to follow along on what you are asking. You dont have a recollection of whether or not you met with the president on that date. Im trying to find in the Mueller Report where it states that. Where on page 90 . You have to start the clock . This is an actual questioning. Mr. Chairman is it appropriate for a witness to refuse to answer a question and that demand that we reference and point to the Mueller Report. The clock can start now. Point of order. When will the clock start . Once the question is asked the clock should start. Spoke point of order. The witness has the question. A point of order overrides that mr. Chairman and you know that. Once a question has been asked and referenced, the clark clock should start. Cannot be held while you go over notes. The gentleman is correct the clock will start and the witness will answer the question without further delay yes i see that report. During that meeting did you tell the special counsel that the president asked you to deliver a message to sessions the atty. Gen. Of the United States . On page 91 . Answer the questions her. Im looking for that reference on page 91. Do not have an independent recollection . Im trying to adhere to the white house request that i answer questions asked in the Mueller Report directly. Were you a white house employee at that time . Know. You did not hold any government position whatsoever . A correct. Sitting behind you is counsel for the white house . But that is my understanding. But you understand that those lawyers work for the president of the white house . I believe that is accurate. But the presence of lawyers have told you not to answer any question other than what has been disclosed in the special counsel report is that correct . I will have to read from the letter provided to the committee. Would you like me to do that . . I would like you to answer the question. Have you been directed . I have never spoken to any member of the white House Counsels office other than them saying hello 15 seconds ago. I was provided a letter that the committee was assigned. That as explained below that mr. Lewandowskis conversation with the president are protected by longstanding principles and as a result the white house is directing mr. Lewandowski to not provide information about such communication. I will take that as a yes. The basis further direction is the claim for executive privilege . I cannot read it again. You are not answering the question. You are never employed by the white house or executive branch. Ive never been employed by the executive branch. Did you ask that counsel to be here . But i have never spoken to anybody in the white House Counsel office. Was it your idea to not answer questions based on executive ratledge . I can reiterate that i have not had a conversation with white House Counsel office. Ive never had a conversation was it your idea to not answer these questions based on executive privilege. I can only go by the letter provided. Did you ever suggest that your communications were official white house communication . But the white house has a director that i not to disclose a the substance of any discussion of the president and his advisers to protect confidentiality. This is not my privilege but im respecting the white house decision. But let me ask you some questions about the president after he assumed office. Honey times to the present asked you to meet in the white house . How many times did you meet with the president alone in the white house in 2017. I dont know the answer to that. How many times did he ask you to direct a message to a member of his cabinet . What did he ever discuss any concerns that he had completed a criminal offense . May i make a point of order. He has exceeded the time and under the fiveminute role. I will enforce the timeless. I challenged the role of the chair the ruling of the chair is challenged all those in favor of overriding will say aye . Roll call. Will the ruling of the chair be overruled i vote no. Mr. Cohen votes no. Mr. Johnson of georgia votes no. Ms. Bass votes no. Mr. Richman, mr. Jeffries of votes are no. Mr. Collins votes aye. Mr. Shabbat boat slip aye mr. Radcliffe votes yes. As everyone voted that wishes to vote . Mdm. Clerk . The clerk will report. There are 13 ayes and a 19 at nose. Mr. Chairman. The gentleman is not recognized. The point of order is assisting. Im very troubled that the white House Counsel is preventing you from answering these basic questions. Mr. Chairman i have a motion. You will wait for your motion. Than point of order. Point of order has to be recognized. Not in the middle. Yes it does. If the chairman is not following house rules i motion to adjourn . Point of order. If the republicans are successful the motion to adjourn means that there would be no hearing and the American People would not hear from mr. Lewandowski about his efforts to obstruct justice. The motion is not debatable. I have a motion of parliamentary. Mr. Sizzling he gets recognized . In the opinion of the chair of the nose have a. Roll call is requested. The clerk will call the role. I i i like i there are 12 aye and 19 us. The motion to adjourn is not adopted. And i will finish what im saying. And very troubled that the white House Counsel is preventing you from answering these very basic questions to go to the heart of the conduct that we are investigating. These questions about the president s efforts to interfere with an investigation. And have nothing to do with official government business. This is part of the president s continued intent to cover up actions. He is obstructing our investigation by preventing you from telling the American People the truth. He will not succeed and we will not be deterred toward. Now recognized the gentleman from georgia for his questions. The past few minutes were avoidable and frustrating. In our raises the privileges of the rules of the house that will be a blatant running over of house rules. My concern is ethics of violations. This has to be run in a different way. At this point mr. Lewandowski you have testified before congress multiple times over the past couple of years is that correct . Correct me if im wrong you have testified twice before the house Intel Community . How long were the sessions . Seven hours and four hours. You also testified before the senate . How long is that . Eight hours. He also testified before the special Counsel Office . How may times . Two separate occasions. For about how long . 5016 hours. And those were voluntary . The correct. And you agree to come here voluntarily . But there was no need for a flawed subpoena to be issued . Correct. I want to know that our staff has read the full fbi summary. Everyone has the ability to review that for months. It goes to the point as to why he cant remember so many details about what is a written the Mueller Report. And that something needs to be made aware of. You given any guidelines about the topics or subjects of your questioning today . . Not to the best of my recollection. But that is a problem that we seem to have here. Its very overbroad subpoenas. We could talk about your favorite football team. The patriots. Youre pretty happy right now. The problem we have is we dont follow procedures because of the gets in the way of a good story we dont like it. Will do whatever we want and break house rules. Youve stated that you plan to answer as you possibly can. At a certain point in time you realize that testifying so many times that there are certain things that concern you. The you have to keep coming back and back without proffer references. Would that be a problem . I think my memory to them and said transpired was clear the first time i testified. It was 18 months or longer. If i could have a specific reference i would have that. So you just want to make sure you give an accurate testimony. So its taken a shot at your testimony here . It is. But we worked on the Trump Campaign. I wanted to be stated again. Weve had these hearings that didnt seem to take. Did you engage in collusion with the russians . Never. We look at what is going on here today. I think the concern that we have is that you been asked to do something youve done many times over. If youre following the premise then they are finding a reason to impeach the president. They have found 17. Which they cant get any more on board to do this. Its a dragon is that. I encourage you to answer the questions mr. Lewandowski. Even though weve thrown a flawed subpoena at you and as we go forward we will see how this moves forward. This is concerning and i will take this for the moment. Its okay to be frustrated, but its not okay to overrun house rules. Its not debatable. You may not have got your last question, but you have a lot more discussion , theres plenty of time to get that last question that you didnt get asked somebody else. Is it worth breaking the rules . I know some of you dont care . But youre accusing the president of high issues that we need to look at. Dragon and through this committee for 18 months. Following procedures is something you have to look at. Point of order. Your time has expired. Good morning mr. Lewandowski the president asked you who had no role in the white house to deliver a message to atty. Gen. Sessions. The president couldve picked up the phone at any time and call the atty. Gen. President couldve picked up the phone at any time and call the atty. Gen. He also had a full staff of executive employees right down the hall. This made me wonder . What was the president doing . If it was a legal why didnt he pick up the phone and call the atty. Gen. Our ask a member of his staff to deliver a message . It is clear to me that the reason he went to you mr. Lewandowski was because everyone said no. I want to ask you about that . Two days before meeting you the president called white House Counsel at home on saturday to fire special counsel. You can see on the screen that mueller has to go, call me back when you do it. Plain and simple. Mcgann refuse , with the present ask you to deliver that message, two days before that meeting white House Counsel refused to fire special counsel. When the president asked you. And you repeat the question . But when the present ask you to deliver that message did he tell you that two days before the meeting that white House Counsel had refused to fire special counsel. The white house has directed me to not disclose any conversations with the president. You are not allowed to answer what the president told you . That he called the counsel at home to remove special counsel . The president had personally called the sessions at home and asked him to unrecuse himself and oversee the special counsel investigation and session said no. When the president asked you to deliver his message to sessions , did the president tell you that sessions had already said no . Again i recognize that the privilege is not mine but ive been asked by the white house. Im happy to answer your question or you can have a conversation by yourself. If youre wanting to answer question. The dont ask me question if you want to hear my answer. This is a house judiciary not a house party. If you ask a question giving opportunity answer that question. I would like my time restored from his interruption. He was a witness to the special counsel investigation. And for that reason he said the federal law prohibit tatian is about. You can read that on the screen. Yes or no . Did the president tell you that the atty. Gen. Was legally not allowed to take part in the special counsel investigation when he asked you to deliver a note about that very investigation . To the president tell you that . What you read was not on the screen. You need to look at the screen. There does. Yes or no read the screen. Youre welcome to read a congresswoman. You are welcome to stall and im not going to stop. You either answer the question yes or no. I will take the same privilege. No one at the white house was supposed to contact the atty. Gen. About the investigation . You can answer that yes or no i will not disclose any conversation ive had with the president. You are here to block any reasonable inquiry into the truth or not of this administration. Shortly after he announced his reach cues, directed that he should not be contacted about the investigation in fact the white House Counsels internal notes state that no contact with the sessions and no communications can you read that . I just said that. Can you hear me . Is their question . Did the president tell u. S. White House Counsel told him that no contact with session because of serious concerns of obstruction when he asked you to deliver a message . I respect the executive branch privilege of confidentiality. Let me just say that you knew that the president was putting you at risk when he asked you to deliver a message to the atty. Gen. The president knew what he was doing was wrong. Because everyone had already said no. He called white House Counsel to fire special counsel and he said no. He called the atty. Gen. To ask him to unrecuse himself and he said no. His white House Counsel said there should be no contact with sessions because of his recusal. What does the president do . He calls you and to do what everyone else would not do. He calls you to do his dirty work in secret because he knew it was wrong. We will expose the truth. The president cannot hide behind you any longer. Time. The witness may answer the question . . I do believe there was a question. Yes there was. But could you repeat that the question . I be happy to repeat the question. Was just around. The gentle ladies time has expired. The gentleman from ohio is recognize. Thank you. For appearing to testify before this committee. I understand that you have spent many hours testifying voluntarily before congress over the last few years. Is that correct . Have you had to hire and retain counsel to represent you for all of the investigations of that youve had to endure, simply because you served as the president s Campaign Manager . Yes or no . Yes. You didnt solicit or receive assistance from the russians did you . . No. . Are you an agent working on behalf of the russian government . No. Is a close friend and advisor of the president you dont believe that the president is working on behalf of of the russians do you . Absolutely not. To your knowledge there is no effort on the part of the president to intentionally obstruct justice . No. Thank you. And yet again coming here to tell this committee what we, special counsel, and the American Public already knows that President Donald Trump did not collude with the russians or obstruct justice. That doesnt mean that the russians werent trying to enter fear and influence. It was clear that they were by sending fake texts, fake rallies, fake facebook posts. To influence the outcome they want to ignore the real interaction that happened during obamas watch and it was there administration that failed to protect us from russian interference and influence isnt that also true. Yes. President donald trump was not present and he did not fail to protect the country. If anyone failed it was the Obama Administration. Is that correct. But ill said again. We are wasting valuable time engaging in this impeachment investigation. One thing this committee could be doing is to question the Inspector General at the origins. We could be questioning horwitz about his report about how he mishandled memos. It has a rich history and an jurisdiction over very significant things. And we are spending our time on fake impeachment but we can focus on something that really matters like immigration. We have hundreds of thousands of people who have entered the border. Brought up individually or in caravans. At times connected with cartels you make a lot of money. There told the magic words. Come across the border. They say that they are in fear and they come right into our country, and we put them on a bus or plane in there sent to communities all across the country. That is something that this committee should be working in a bipartisan manner to do something about. Opioids. We have 70,000 americans who lost their lives to opioids last year. That something in the jurisdiction of this committee. But yet we do virtually nothing about it. Balanced budget amendment. We have a 22 trillion debt but yet we do nothing that attempts to do something that would make a balance the budgets. So i want to thank you again mr. Lewandowski for appearing at todays hearing. Perhaps your testimony will convince democrats that there are much more important things at this committee could be spending our time on , rather than continuing to pursue this is fake impeachment. The bottom line , they do not have the votes in the house to move forward. To vote for this committee to open up and impeachment inquiry. Some of the democrats would vote against it but they dont have the votes so they spend valuable time that we could spend on other important things on this fake impeachment and its a shame. Because this committee could be doing so much more on behalf of the American People. With that i yield back my time. Point of Parliament Inquiry but the witness just answered a long line of questions from the gentleman of ohio whether or not trump colluded with the russians but he never testified to any of those things before special counsel mueller. And he continue to invoke the white house rationale that he is confined to the Mueller Report when hes gone behind it in his responses to the questioning from the gentleman from ohio regardless of whether he went beyond the four corners of the report in the answers he gave, im glad to hear that he favors the patriots. Regardless of the long answers in relevance to the Mueller Report. The claim of privilege is improper with the reasons a set forward in the letter today. Mapping sayed did you actually answer it on a parliamentary inquiry . I answered the inquiry. The gentleman from tennessee is recognize. Its been made clear that you are not an employee. You had no w2, you are not an employee you were a placement at what time. So you know something about the law and following the law. Dont you think its strange that the president would sit down and ask you to do something that you knew was against the law. Did that strike you as a strange were you a policeman . I think the president asked me to do anything illegal you dont think its illegal to ask mr. Sessions to drop the investigation and start with the next one about colluding with russia you didnt think that was illegal to obstruct justice . Youve honestly never been a judge and you will not be one. All these people asked you. He dictated a message to give to sessions. You ever been a secretary and taken dictation many times. He asked you outside of white house channels. This was outside of white house channels. He thought you would do whatever he asked even if it was illegal or immoral who said that you are an implementer. News reporters called to the president s enforcer. Saying that mr. Lewandowskis background and is not a Campaign Manager. But as an enforcer. Esq. Went further and said that the Campaign Manager has the traits of an enforcer and the conflict resolution to match. Youve described yourself and your book lead trumpet be trim. We were fine with whatever role he wanted us to play. There were only a loyal soldiers. Your previous boss was convicted of corruption and lying to authorities. You are fired after being accused of of voter fraud. And now youre involved in this. Either you are willing to break the law or your of forrest gump relating to corruption. Let me ask you this . Did the president pick you as an enforcer because he thought you would play whatever role, did he choose you to take this message to sessions. That would be a question for the president. President donald trump wasnt right. First the white House Counsel refused to fire special counsel. You showed principal and character and refuse to do what he knew was illegal. And then atty. Gen. Sessions who recused himself was asked to unrecuse himself. But he also did the right thing, and that i will not unrecuse myself because i would have a conflict because i was involved in the campaign and i cannot do it. And then he advise the president to not contact sessions. You his loyal soldier would do it. Trump could depend on you. You didnt ask any questions , you are a loyal soldier. You just wrote down the message and agreed to deliver. You took the dictation and you asked someone to type it up for you. And then you had somebody deliver the message when you decided not to. President donald trump talk to you outside of normal channel so there would be no record of anything that asked you to do to obstruct justice. The president knew what he was doing was wrong, mr. Sessions knew what he was doing was wrong. Youre the only person who didnt think it was wrong. But President Donald Trump was wrong. Because at the last minute you got cold feet and you chickened out. The presence of trust was misplaced. You decided not to do what you told him you do when youre handed off to somebody else but did you realize that your former boss got involved in the criminal problem to prison and you would be the next one . Did that cross your mind . Did you ever think about his situation going to prison . Just to be clear he went to jail many years after leaving employment. You learned from that. Im asking if you learn from his experience and realized what you are asked to do was illegal and you do not want to follow the same trail and end up in prison . This is been more obstruction of congress and you followed that and are doing exactly what you thought they would do. You are a loyal soldier but you do not follow trumps instructions. You chickened out and got cold feet. The gentleman yields back. Mr. Lewandowski you ran the campaign from 2015 to 2016 . You are at the helm of the campaign when President Donald Trump secured the nomination that was a pretty Good Campaign that you ran. You beat 18 opponents . Senators and governors . You had a pretty good candidate. The best. I think hes done a great job after you left the campaign i think you left in june we still involved in the campaign through the rest of the investigation . And that entire time you are part of the Campaign Operation at some level or another . To november 2016. During that entire time did you ever work with russia to impact the election when james comey was asked that same question he gave the same answer. When mueller was asked that same question he gave the same answer. Falsely accused of colluding with a foreign state. When we interviewed james call me he said we didnt have a thing. Mueller gets named special counsel. He sat at the table a few weeks ago and gave us the same answer. These guys dont care they dont want to get to where the false accusations happened they just want to drag people in front of this committee and find some way to go after the president was go back to the process of the Ranking Member. Did you testify in 2017 . Did you testify in front of the house in 2017 . Yes and uab for special counsel and answered in 2018 . So you answered all the questions you got. In your Opening Statement you said that you spend more than 20 hours. Did you get a letter asking him to comply with certain document requests . I believe so and you complied with that . Yes. And then you got another letter on june 24 . Ask you to do an interview. And your lawyer contacted malvern said that youd be happy to do that. What happened next . Then the committee issued a subpoena. So just like you did for moeller and the special counsel, you complied. Youre hit with a subpoena. Correct. And they start calling you names its kind of interesting, they started and slapped it with a subpoena when youre willing to come here voluntarily. I was. And then they questioned the demeanor that you bring here today. First they change the rules in the middle of the congress they change the rules in the middle of the game and then now that i can follow the rules because the rules are changed talk about staff asking questions. We have this whole issue with consultants. Maybe we would be better served if we did exactly what mr. Chabot said. If we would focus on false accusations. What you think mr. Lewandowski. I think that would be a great idea . But maybe the American People would be better served investigating something that had 32 months of investigation from moeller. A great place to start mr. Chairman would be asking about this one week ago today. It would be the Inspector Generals report that was issued three weeks ago. The scathing report about james comey. When i asked the chairman he said i dont know i havent thought about that. Of course, youre too busy trying to impeach the president. Slapping subpoenas on mr. Lewandowski. Course you havent thought about that. Thats what the committee should be focused on. We yield to the gentleman from georgia. Thank you mr. Chairman. Mr. Lewandowski you are like a fish being cleaned with a spoon. Its very hard to get an answer out of you. Let me ask you this. Based on the president s of past statements. Everybody knows that the president doesnt want anyone to take notes when he is talking. In fact he asks lawyers to not take official notes. Are you aware of that . Im aware of that public account. Fair enough. When the president met with you in the oval office on june 19 , 2017 two tate a message to atty. Gen. Jeff sessions, he told you to write this down. Is that correct . But that is accurate and it was just you and the president in that meeting . It was. And you knew that you needed to write down as fast as possible what the president was telling you so that you could capture the content of what he was telling you correctly . I dont know the speed of writing was required. But i captured it to the best of my ability. He dictated exactly what he wanted you to put into the mouth of atty. Gen. Jeff sessions , is that correct . I believe he asked me to deliver a message it was a message that he intended for Jeff Sessions to deliver out loud. He wanted the public to know what he was saying but he wanted Jeff Sessions to say it . But i believe the Mueller Report accurately depicts that. We have projected on the screen the message that the president dictated to you that he wanted you to deliver to the atty. Gen. . Its on the screen and i would like you to read the first two sentences if you would entertain that. Would you prefer for me to read it instead of you . It says i know that i recuse myself from certain things having to do with specific areas. Potus is being treated very unfairly. Thats what he told you to write down i will continue. He said he shouldnt have a special prosecutor counsel because you havent done anything wrong. That is what he wanted you to deliver to atty. Gen. Jeff sessions is that correct . That is a accurate representation. He wanted it delivered so that the Jeff Sessions could say to the people but i believe so. You felt squeamish like the fish that youre trying to be right now. You felt a little squeamish about delivering that message . No sir. Then why didnt you, why did it take you so long and you never even delivered it . Correct i never delivered the message. You chickened out. I went on vacation. You went on vacation. So you put the message in the safe, in your safe and your home for safekeeping. Correct . Before you went on vacation . I took my kids to the beach gehsmann that was more of a priority. Pres. Trump was hounding you about when are you going to deliver that message, correct . Completely inaccurate congressman. He asked you about it a few times didnt he . He did not. He never asked whether or not you had delivered that message . Not on multiple occasions no. He did mention it on one occasion to you . I dont know if thats in the report sir or not. And you said i will get around to delivering it, correct . I would have to see the reference to the Mueller Report. Is in the report. Can you direct me to page . I dont need to waste time on that but let me tell you something, the next three sentences after that first to would you read that please . You are welcome to congressman. He said he shouldnt have a special prosecutor or council because he hasnt done anything wrong, i was on the campaign with him for nine months and there were no russians involved with him. I know for a fact because i was there. Now the president wanted the atty. Gen. To say that but you didnt deliver the message and you knew that atty. Gen. Sessions had recused himself at that time. And since he had recused himself you knew that it would have been against the law for him to comment in any way on that investigation. Isnt that right . I did not know that. You did not no that . Correct. The time gentleman has expired. Thank you for putting up with the harassment you are putting up with right now. According to the alliance for securing democracy russia interfered in the elections of belarus, bulgaria, canada, the czech republic, denmark, estonia, france, germany, lithuania, montenegro, norway, poland, portugal, spain, united kingdom, ukraine in the United States. They specifically targeted the Scottish Independence vote, the brexit vote, and. Angela merkel. In spite of the threats, the Obama Administration stood idly by. Instead of warning the Trump Campaign, they used secret surveillance to spy on members of the trunk campaign all while using, allowing russian interference to occur. Why are we not holding the fbi accountable for such terrible malfeasance and lack of judgment . Says it is to attack and undermine democracy. He said the goal is to leave voters feeling as if quote either the institutions are corrupt or you cant trust the vote. End of quote. This is the kind of classic Disinformation Campaign that the kgb runs and as we all know, p and was a former leader of the kgb. In 2016 his goal could have been very simple. Divide the american electorate, so see the distrust and make it impossible for whoever one to govern. With america weekend at home we would be weakened on the international stage. Vladimir putin wins with a weakened america regardless of who won the election. This is the kind of approach that has been used by the communists in russia for nearly a century after overthrowing nicholas the second and 1917, Vladimir Lenin and the communists utilized western journalists as propaganda tools to defend communism. New york times journalist john reed for example defended the bolsheviks advocating against american intervention. Lenin even used the term useful idiots to describe how leftist leaning communist sympathizing americans could be easily tricked and used to help the russians. For the past three years democrats have focused on undermining americas president instead of working with pres. Trump and republicans in congress to harden our election defenses. I think there would be broad bipartisan support that we need to prevent future election meddling. The Mueller Report makes clear that pres. Trump wanted to focus on protecting our democracy from future attacks. So i have one question 28, it is clear that, mr. Lewandowski , that todays hearing is being held for the sake of attacking the american president which will weaken our country on the national stage. Do you believe that Vladimir Putin is sitting in his office now in the kremlin laughing at what those on the other side of the aisle are doing and believing that those on the other side of the aisle are useful idiots helping objection. I have a point of order. Pointing to the rules and the rules of this committee and the house rules. We cannot attribute derogatory names to our colleagues or motives to our colleagues and i believe the gentleman said those on the other side of the aisle are idiots. This is a very sacred and somber responsibility, ive taken an oath of office, just like you did. Im concerned about the constitution just as you are and i would not engage in any behavior that could be described as idiots. Never in my life or my colleagues, have we ever discussed behaving like idiots. Mr. Chairman that is an inappropriate terminology and description of the members of this house or republicans or democrats no matter what i will overrule the point of order, the rules of the quorum for two motive, calling someone an idiot is not flattering but it does not go to motive. And i believe we should have the most robust debate, i believe we should respect each other but i dont think that goes to motive and accordingly im going to overrule the point of order. Please proceed. Thank you mr. Chairman actually i did not call anyone an idiot, i said useful idiot and secondly i asked the witness whether he believed that as part of vladimir prudent strategy, Vladimir Putin was being aided by useful idiots in america. Your answer sir. Congressman i cant be sure to the motives of Vladimir Putin nor the russians who want to interfere with our election process in 2016 but i can be certain of one thing. Donald trump was a private citizen at the time and had no more responsibility or authority to secure the integrity of the 2016 election cycle than i did. That responsibility fell to the Intelligence Committee and the Obama Biden Administration and they clearly failed. Never did they inform anyone of the campaign at the time of any potential hacking which may have been transpiring, never did they contact us to alert us of any potential security violations as it related to the election. So i think mr. Comay and mr. Brennan and mr. Clapper ultimately own responsibility ahead of the Intelligence Committee to understand why they did not do a better job of protecting the american electorate in 2016 to ensure we didnt have foreign interference. And mr. Lewandowski had they contacted you what would have been your response in terms of notifying others on the election in terms of their dealing with russians . We would have worked with them, i would have recommended working with counsel to notify them of any potential contact which i dont ever recall having but if we would have had any we would have made sure we notified the appropriate authorities immediately. Thank you. Cspans washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up wednesday morning, we will talk about the security of the Global Oil Supply with brian shy of snp global path. Also California Democratic congressman mike constant will join us to discuss gun violence prevention. And then Michelle Malkin talks about her new book open border inc. , who is funding americas destruction. Be sure to watch cspans washington journal live at 7 am wednesday morning, join the discussion. Pres. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will host a second state dinner of his administration as he welcomes australian Prime MinisterScott Morrison and his wife jenny morrison. Watch guest arrivals and dinner toasts, our live coverage begins friday at 6 30 pm eastern. On cspan online at c spanstore. Org or listen on the free cspan radio app. The house will be in order. For 40 years cspan has been providing america unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the Supreme Court and Public Policy events from washington dc and around the country. So you can make up your own mind. Created by cable in 1979, cspan is brought to yy