Him through this committee for eight months. So i think following proceed sure is something that you have to look at because your idea is not really point of order. The time has expired. If he wishes. He doesnt wish. Good morning, mr mr. Lewandowski. Im questioning you right now. Thank you. The president asked you who had no role at all in the white house to deliver that message to Attorney General sessions. The president could have just picked up the phone himself at any time and called the Attorney General. The president also had a full staff of executive employees right down the hall. So this made me wonder. The president thought what he was doing was legal, why didnt he just pick up the phone and
call Attorney General sessions, or why not ask any member of his staff who worked right down the hall to deliver a message . It is clear to me that the reason he went to you, mr. Lewandowski, is because everyone said no. So i want to ask you about that. Two days before meeting you, the pre
office? i suppose i could have, but i chose i wanted to have a discussion with jeff, as we have had so many occasions before that. exactly. never inside the department of justice. not only did sessions know it was wrong and sessions cancelled his meeting with you, if you were good friends, why would he have bothered to cancel it? did he call you to reschedule it? that would be a question for jeff sessions. after you testified, and you testified earlier after the inauguration, you didn t communicate with the attorney general often. you re a good friend and you have dinner. when you had a message to deliver, isn t it fair sessions knew you were calling on behalf of the president and that message was for him? i have no idea what was in jeff sessions mind. to be clear, the attorney general knew it was a message from the president and he still refused to meet with you. mr. lewandowski, it s clear to me that sessions knew what we all know sitting here today. that what you
essentially? i mean, it was a very important message you were delivering from the president. it was a message that could certainly be viewed as completely inappropriate, considering that you were not even an employee of the white house. you re a private citizen, you re delivering a citizen to the attorney general to limit the investigation. so if you didn t think you were doing anything wrong, then why would it matter that there was a public log? i wanted to have the opportunity to speak with jeff in a more relaxed atmosphere and have a meal with him to have the conversation. well, you said another reason for not meeting at the doj was because you, quote, did not want sessions to have an advantage over you by meeting on sessions turf, is that right? that s right. i wanted to have a private conversation in a more relaxed atmosphere. so, again, if this was an appropriate message to deliver and it was just about that, why would it matter whose turf it was on? why couldn t you go t
wrong. that s what he wanted you to deliver to attorney general jeff sessions, correct? i believe that s an accurate representation. and he wanted you to deliver it to jeff so that jeff could say it to the people, right? i believe so. and you felt kind of squeamish, like that fish that you re trying to be right now, being scaled. you felt squeamish about delivering that message, correct? no, sir. well, why didn t 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, in your home, for safe keeping. correct, before you went on vacation. i took my kids to the beach. that was more a priority. president trump was hounding you about when are you gonna deliver that message, correct? completely inaccurate,
wanted jeff to say it, correct? i believe the mueller report accurately depicts that. and mr. lewandowski, we ve projected on the screen the message that the president dictated to you that he wanted you to deliver to the attorney general. it s on the screen. i d like for you to read the first two sentences, if you would entertain that. as director mueller stated when asked to read from the report, and i quote, i would be happy to have you read it, congressman. would you prefer for me to read it instead of you? please. it says, i know that i recused myself from certain things having to do with specific areas, but our potus is being treated very unfairly. that s what he told you to write down and that s what you wrote down. i ll continue. he said, he shouldn t have a special prosecutor counsel because he hasn t done anything