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Don Lemon Tonight

Trump Family Ties to be Investigated; House Intel Committee in Full Battle Mode; Interview with Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, (D-IL); House Intelligence Chair Announces Sweeping Investigation into Trump's Finances and Russia. Aired 11-12a ET

Aired February 06, 2019 - 23:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[23:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: This is CNN TONIGHT. I'm Don Lemon.

There are major developments tonight in the Russia investigation and we're digging deep this hour into all things Russia.

First up, Congressman Adam Schiff versus President Trump, the powerful Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee announcing a sweeping and expanded investigation not only of Russia's interference in the election and any contacts with the Trump campaign but also looking into the finances of President Trump, his family, his business and associates.

Schiff saying the American people have a right to know if their president is compromised.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF, (D) CALIFORNIA: That pertains to any credible allegations of leverage by the Russians or the Saudis or anyone else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: It looks like Schiff is prepared to cross what President Trump has said are red lines that he shouldn't be crossed -- that shouldn't be crossed, the president lashing out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He's just a political hack who's trying to build a name for himself. It's called presidential harassment and it's unfortunate. And it really does hurt our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: The intel committee also voting to send more than 50 transcripts from its Russia investigation interviews to special counsel Robert Mueller. That includes interviews with Donald Trump, Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and former top aides to President Trump.

Shimon Prokupecz is with much on all of this. Shimon, good evening to you. So, the House intel committee looking

into -- looking to investigate Russia beyond to do an investigation beyond Russia.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Yes.

LEMON: What are they going to be digging into?

PROKUPECZ: I think it's quite obvious that this is going to be all about money at this point. Adam Schiff there making it very clear that they're digging into a lot of the financial background of the president, Trump the organization, as well as his family and other associates.

They're trying to see, they say, if there was any kind of leverage that perhaps foreign companies may have had over the president or his family. They also going to look whether or not the president or people within the administration were making decisions, policy decisions off of the fact that maybe they were financially involved or had some business dealings with foreign countries.

So that's going to be a big thing. You know they were not allowed to do a lot of this back when they started this because the Republicans were in charge. And the committee wanted to subpoena a lot of information and they were stopped by Republicans. Now they're not going to be stop. They're in control. And it seems that Adam Schiff certainly is prepared for a long fight.

LEMON: OK, so then, given what you said and what they're doing, and I just want to read the tea leaves here, is this because they think there's not going to be a there-there when it comes to Russia, not a real smoking gun, so to speak?

PROKUPECZ: I mean, it could be. You know, they shouldn't really know what Mueller is doing and where he's going. But you know, like most of us, they could be reading tea leaves. And they could be seeing that maybe the big bombshell on the Russia investigation may not be coming like they expected.

A lot of the concern maybe that stuff may be in this report that may not come out. It is interesting though that they were talking about other countries that it wasn't just Russia and we've seen a lot of information come out that there was influence, that other countries were trying to get in and influence certainly the president leading into him taking over but also even now while he's in office. It shows you just how wide-ranging they want to go in this investigation.

[23:04:58] LEMON: What about, Shimon, the larger story of the SDNY investigation into Trump? Is that going to turn out to be the bigger story for this president?

PROKUPECZ: I think that is one of the things in talking to people that are close to the president, his legal team, they are very concerned about the Southern District of New York and where the investigation is going. When you think about it they now have at least two different

investigations surrounding the president, the inauguration and also the Trump Organization, and who knows where that could lead them. And certainly --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Why do they feel more vulnerable there? Then why they are more concerned?

PROKUPECZ: Well, the organization. Family, associates, that is why they feel more vulnerable that there could be aspects of that investigation that may not while directly affect the president because the president can't be indicted but it could be his family.

There could be some financial connections that could be vulnerable legally. Certainly, the digging into the inauguration and the breadth of that subpoena that the Southern District of New York issues was very striking.

And, you know, we don't know everything obviously. But it certainly something that has concerned the president and the people close to him. And it looks like they're digging in as well, right?

LEMON: Yes.

PROKUPECZ: The Southern District of New York is not stopping. We recently reported that several people tied to the organization have been asked to come in and be interviewed. The Southern District of New York wants to interview them. So, there is really a lot going on there.

LEMON: And they can't shut that one down.

PROKUPECZ: Well that's the other thing. They can't shut that one down. The president really can't do what he has threatened or he has perhaps said he would do here with the Mueller team.

Southern District of New York, they can't shut it down. It is very independent. They're doing things I think that are surprising many people even at the Department of Justice.

LEMON: Yes. So, the House Intelligence Committee also voted to send transcripts from its Russia investigation to Robert Mueller. A lot of Trump associates testified that the committee should be -- that the committee -- would they be worried.

PROKUPECZ: Yes. So, a lot of people did, right? A lot of the key players that we've been hearing about key players in this investigation, you had Don Jr., Jared Kushner, Corey Lewandowski, Steve Bannon, and of course, Hope Hicks all testified.

And now these transcripts are going to the Department of Justice. It's not the question of whether or not these transcripts are going to be looked at by the Mueller team but it's going to go to the Department of Justice. And the point of that is, if Mueller does wind down and there are

inconsistencies or they do find that people, some of the people lied before the committee, the U.S. attorney's office, whether it's Washington or somewhere in the Department of Justice will be able to bring charges against those people.

But what's interesting is that the Roger Stone transcript, Mueller had requested for that transcript, right? He wanted it. They were ready kind at a point where they're about to bring charges. There's no indication here that any of these transcripts were requested by the Department of Justice or by the Mueller team.

LEMON: Shimon, thank you, sir.

PROKUPECZ: Yes.

LEMON: I want to bring in now a Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi. He is a member of the House Intelligence Committee. Good evening, Congressman.

REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI, (D) ILLINOIS: Hey, good evening, Don.

LEMON: So, the president called Chairman Adam Schiff a political hack and said that expanding the scope of the House investigation was -- this is a quote, "presidential harassment." It sounds like you're headed for a big battle with the president.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, first of all, thanks for having me on.

I was dismayed to hear the description of Chairman Schiff who is held in high regard by most colleagues in congress. I think that type of rhetoric is beneath the president.

Later on, in that same speech, he basically equated an investigation to war and made threats that if we continue with our constitutionally prescribed duty of oversight that he would not be cooperating with us in trying to deliver on the pocketbook priorities of the American people. I don't think anybody is cowed by those threats. And we're going to continue our oversight.

LEMON: You know, Congressman Schiff said that the committee will look into the president's family as well as his finances, his business or his businesses. Does your committee believe that the Russia investigation will soon be in the rearview mirror potentially finding no wrongdoing on the part of the president or no smoking gun at least?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: No, not necessarily. But what we do know based on statements by the Department of Justice and people like William Barr who is the president's nominee for attorney general is that once the Mueller investigation is completed, they may not turn over the report to the American people for their scrutiny.

And so, we have to do everything in our power to explore the various issues involved with the Russia affair and linkages with the Trump campaign organization and Donald Trump himself and his family. And then produce a report for the American people. In addition, there are certain lines of inquiry that the special counsel Mueller may not be pursuing such as money laundering and other issues and we continued to pursue those too.

LEMON: OK. Got you there. So, if nothing comes out of that, you intend to go back and do things on your own, correct?

[23:10:00] KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, we are currently investigating -- you can almost say in parallel --

LEMON: OK.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: -- and so we're not waiting for anyone else to do their thing.

LEMON: I get you. Then what's the top priority?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, there are a few priorities here. But number one, what did Russia do in 2016? How do we prevent them from doing it again in terms of interfering in our democracy? Two, whether there were any linkages or coordination between the Trump Organization and campaign and the Russians.

And then, three, you know, who is trying to compromise current members of the Trump Organization, Trump family or the president himself and how do we prevent that from happening? And whether anybody is trying to obstruct justice in our seeking answers to all these questions.

LEMON: Today your committee, Congressman, did vote to send all the transcripts related to the Russia investigation --

(CROSSTALK)

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Yes, sir.

LEMON: -- to the special counsel. Tell me what you are hoping to accomplish by that?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: A couple things. One, we have to make sure that special counsel Mueller has access to all the information that's in our possession as he pursues his inquiries. And then, two, we know that already two witnesses, Mr. Stone and Mr. Cohen have lied to the House Intelligence Committee. And Mr. Mueller may be interested in knowing who else has potentially committed perjury as well. Certainly, we would want to know that too.

LEMON: OK. Michael Cohen, let's talk about him.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Yes, sir.

LEMON: His testimony to the committee is now delayed until the 28th. Congressman Schiff said that it what in the interest of the investigation. Do you have any clarity on that?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: I can't comment on specifics with regard to that particular issue except that Chairman Schiff has been pursuing this investigation and leading this investigation methodically. And with a great deal of integrity. And so, I think that delaying this particular deposition or this interview is keeping in line with those purposes. That being said, I'm almost 100 percent sure it's going to happen before Mr. Cohen reports to prison.

LEMON: Congressman Krishnamoorthi, thank you so much. I appreciate your time.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Thank you, sir.

LEMON: The investigations are piling up. But the real danger to this president may be from the Southern District of New York and not Robert Mueller. We're going to tell you why next.

[23:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: The House Intelligence Committee is dramatically expanding its scope of the investigation to include the president's finances and his family. It is the latest in a series of legal problems for team Trump and it comes days after new legal action by the Southern District of New York.

There are lots to discuss. Elie Honig is here, as well as Mr. John Dean.

Gentlemen, good evening. So, the investigations are piling up, Elie. Do you think that the SDNY investigations, do you think that it poses a more of a political peril from the beginning when the SDNY opened the investigation, people said this may pose more of a political peril than the Mueller investigation to Trump and his associates?

ELIE HONIG, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I do, Don.

LEMON: Legal peril.

HONIG: Yes. I think the southern district in a lot of ways poses an even more potent threat than Robert Mueller does. That's not common to Robert Mueller. Look, Robert Mueller is the top, top shelf of all prosecutors. I think every prosecutor would love to be half of what Robert Mueller is.

But the southern district has important procedural and substantive advantages. For example, you can't fire the southern district. You can't defund the southern district. That could happen to Mueller.

Mueller is constrained by his commission. He is ordered to investigate Russian interference in the election. The southern district could go anywhere whenever the evidence takes them, they can go. Mueller is under time pressure. We see it coming from Whitaker. We see it coming from the president.

The southern district can take whatever time it needs. And, look, I'm a little bit of a home (ph). I came out of the southern district. But the southern district is uniquely tenacious and we always shoot for the top. So, I do think the southern district poses a very serious threat. LEMON: Did you hear what Shimon just said? He said that --

HONIG: Yes.

LEMON: -- they're doing some things that are surprising the Justice Department. Did you hear that?

HONIG: Yes. The southern district has a history of independence. People joke they call us the sovereign district of New York because we -- the southern district has a history of doing things its own way.

Look, the southern district is part of the U.S. DOJ. We can't go renegade and do things on our own. But the southern district has never been afraid to push back on DOJ and to stand its ground and to take aggressive positions.

LEMON: So, the --

(CROSSTALK)

JOHN DEAN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: This is historic also. When I was White House counsel, Whitney North Seymour, who was the U.S. attorney in the southern district called me at the White House and said I'm having trouble with the Justice Department. I want the White House to understand we see things differently. This was a fight over Pentagon papers and how to deal with it in court. And that's been -- he said this is our tradition. We do our own thing up here.

LEMON: So then talk to me about this subpoena, John. Now for the -- by the southern district --

DEAN: Right.

LEMON: -- to the inaugural committee. Where could this lead to?

DEAN: It could lead to a lot of trouble. If there is -- first of all, any foreign contributions that's probably the greatest threat because we know there are foreign contributions.

But just the fact that they collected $107 million, that's a lot of money to spend on an inauguration that didn't have that many events, didn't have that big a crowd. That money was never well accounted for. So who knows?

LEMON: Yes.

DEAN: And it could be in somebody's pocket.

HONIG: A couple things jump out to me about the subpoena. First of all, the number of crimes they list, right? I've written countless subpoenas like you usually write one time. Here they listed every crime one can think of.

Also that subpoena came out of the southern district's public corruption unit. There is a separate unit for financial crimes which you may think at first blush. But it came out of corruption which suggest to me they're looking at public officials, they're looking at bribery, they're looking at election related offenses.

[23:19:58] The other thing I keep in mind is they have Rick Gates. Rick Gates is a cooperator. Mueller and Mueller would certainly freely share Rick Gates' information with the southern district. They've rolled over his sentencing several times because they're still using him. He was the deputy chair of the inauguration. He should be able to walk them right through who did what, what money was for what.

LEMON: We got -- where CNN sources tell CNN back in December that this investigation into the inauguration was in the early stages. Where do you think it is now?

DEAN: The southern district is going to follow it wherever it goes. It's hard to know exactly what, where they are, what status when things get before a grand jury, it gets tight as a drum and everything has become secret under the rules of procedure. So, we don't want to be speculating. But I think they'll see it through its ends and if there's a crime, they'll find it.

LEMON: Where do you think?

HONIG: I think it's the third inning. At the point you would serve a subpoena like this, you're early. You're still gathering information. But you don't just serve a subpoena blindly. You know something. You have some general sense of where you're going and what you're looking for.

But Mr. Dean is absolutely right. The southern district you can bet on it is going to take this all the way to the end.

LEMON: It's interesting as we have been watching all of these investigations rollout and people are saying well, you know, who knows? Maybe nothing is going to come out of Mueller.

And you think about all the people who have been indicted, all of the people who have been arrested, and all the people who lied. And they're -- and then from the other side saying well which is nothing. Nothing happened. A whole lot has come out of Mueller --

DEAN: Yes, it had.

LEMON: -- already. Right?

HONIG: And, to date Trump has been fighting a one front battle.

LEMON: Right.

HONIG: It's been Mueller. Now we got a three-front war. It's Mueller, the southern district and Congress.

LEMON: Watch this because this is him talking about being investigated last night, legal trouble at the State of the Union.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: An economic miracle is taking place in the United States. And the only thing that can stop it are foolish wars, politics, or ridiculous partisan investigations.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation. It just doesn't work that way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So, people are comparing that to what Nixon said in the final State of the Union. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD NIXON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I believe the time has come to bring that investigation and the other investigations of this matter to an end. One year of Watergate is enough.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: John Dean is, you were -- you said the words before he said it. Echoes?

DEAN: Similar. And Nixon actually understood what was going on. Trump is just learning what's going on. He's probably the least knowledgeable president about the processes in Washington we've ever had, Don. So, it's kind of a confuse sentence, this whole thing with peace and war and legislation and investigation. Almost over- illiterated (ph) speech all the way through, I must say Warren Harding style.

LEMON: Yes. You were saying it was outrageous as the sound bite was playing. Is he suggesting that either the investigation ends -- and if they don't, then the economy is going to tank?

HONIG: Exactly. He's setting up this false dichotomy where on the one hand, you have peace and legislation of good government. And on the other hand, you have war. OK, that should be on the bad side.

An investigation? Investigation is aligned with war against peace? I mean, investigation is what this country is all about. It's about the search for truth. It's about accountability. It's about our criminal justice system and our justice system are built on. And so, to equate that with war and the enemy of peace is outrageous.

DEAN: And it's the responsibility of the Congress.

LEMON: Yes.

DEAN: Exactly.

LEMON: Thank you, John. Thank you, Elie. I appreciate your time.

DEAN: Thanks, Don.

LEMON: With Democrats in power in the House, these investigations are the new reality for President Trump, but is he prepared for all this?

[23:25:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: President lashing out today at the sweeping House intel investigation, an investigation that goes beyond Russia and into his finances. He's claiming it's what he called presidential harassment.

Let's discuss now. Susan Glasser, Scott Jennings, and Max Booth, the author of "The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right." You have to give it to him, presidential harassment, that's a pretty good little catchy phrase there.

Susan, hello, everyone. Susan, Chairman Adam Schiff made the House intel committee's investigation into President Trump official today. Do you think the president is prepared for this?

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, you know, he should be. This was inevitable the moment that Democrats won the House in November. And in fact, Congressman Schiff has made it very clear what his agenda is and how he proposed to begin or to restart, I should say, the House investigation of this.

For example, the vote to send the transcripts of the interviews to special counsel Mueller's office to look for possible perjury. That's something that Schiff said in interviews with me and other journalists going back to a couple months ago when it became clear that he would get the chairmanship.

So, if Donald Trump is surprise now, I don't know why. I think clearly the White House has been scrambling, did not have a fully staffed counsel's office and, of course, they have a very difficult client in the form of President Trump who as we know often thinks he knows better than the experts when it comes to how to handle these things.

So, perhaps they're scrambling but they shouldn't be surprised.

LEMON: Yes. Max Boot, you know, Trump called Schiff a hack today, said that he was only doing it to build a name for himself. He can insult Schiff all he wants. But that's -- I mean, that's not going to make the investigation go away.

MAX BOOT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: No, it's not. I mean, it's pretty amusing how long his call for bipartisan unity actually lasted fewer than 24 hours because of course, right after giving the State of the Union he's back to insulting the Democrats.

[23:30:00] But I think Adam Schiff has shown over the last few years that he is tough and smart and he will not be intimidated. And this is something I don't think that Donald Trump is prepared for.

Because remember, he ran a very small family-owned company. It was not publicly traded.

He was not used to public scrutiny. Over the last two years, he essentially avoided scrutiny from Congress because he had a hammer hold on the Republican caucus because he enjoys the support of 80 percent of Republicans, and so there are almost no Republicans who are willing to challenge him.

But now Democrats in control of the House, they're very cognizant of the fact that Donald Trump's overall popularity rating is under 40 percent, so they don't feel that they're risking anything by challenging Donald Trump. In fact, they feel imperative to stand up to him and to investigate all these things that have gone uninvestigated for two years.

And so, you know, I think President Trump is going to be in for a world of pain. I don't think he's really prepared for what he's about to experience.

LEMON: It's interesting, Scott. You have been on this program with me for a couple years now. We talked about elections have consequences, remember, when the president was elected. Congress is a co-equal branch of government. The oversight of the president is one of the most important things they do. And it is what voters wanted when they sent the Democrats to Washington in the majority. Do you think the president understands that?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think he understands what's about to happen. I don't think he's ever going to like it. I don't think he's ever going to accept it. He's going to always make the case that the Democrats are overreaching on him, which is getting in the way of making progress on issues that matter to every day Americans. That's going to be one of the core themes of his campaign.

But you're exactly right. Elections do have consequences. The danger, I think, the political danger for Democrats is falling into the president's trap. If they spend all their time on this and he's able to paint them as obstructionists on other issues that, you know, matter to folks that have to do with economic matters or other things, then that's going to be something he can run with as he runs against whoever the nominee is in 2020.

So Democrats, I think, have to be a little careful not to overreach and be painted as people who are so obsessed with Trump that they forgot about the priorities of the American people.

LEMON: Susan, you know, the president also called Schiff's investigation 'presidential harassment' as I said at the top. Is there a risk of Democrats as Scott said overplaying their hands, overplaying this, especially if the special counsel, Mueller, finds no significant -- he's found a lot now, but no significant wrongdoing as it relates to the president on the president's part?

GLASSER: Absolutely. I think from the beginning, Democrats have been conscious of this risk factor. In an investigation like this, you have to have the appearance of process, process fairness, if you will, to convince people in both parties that there is something deliberative going on here, that there is real accountability being searched for.

And no matter if you even have an end point in mind, even if you believe already that there is sufficient evidence of impeachable offenses, you can't talk about that on day one. To that spin, there is sort of gotcha trap we've been living in for the last year. You know, the Democrats, should they talk about I-word or not? Well, the answer is of course not, because there is no passable way even if it appears once the evidence is produced that that's where they should go.

Nobody wants to be judged before the evidence has been put in. So Democrats have to go out of their way not only to create a fair process, but to do whatever they can to bring Republicans into the process. And there is not been enough talk about that. What is the Republican strategy? Is there any meaningful and possible way for Republicans to work in a bipartisan fashion, to produce something that resembles justice, accountability?

Our system doesn't give us any other way to judge the president and the evidence that this special counsel is amassing that potentially implicates the president directly. Our system requires Democrats and Republicans to work together in something that is fair and transparent. I'm afraid that's not going to happen. But unfortunately, that's the system that we have.

LEMON: We'll talk more, including the Democrats are going with president's red lines. They're going into his finances and all of that. Also, the Trump Organization now under scrutiny in an investigation that the president cannot shut down. We'll talk about that when we come back.

[23:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: President facing investigations at every corner of his public life. Back now with Susan Glasser, Scott Jennings, and Max Boot.

Max, let's put this up on the screen. Right now, the Trump Organization -- the organization, the transition, the inauguration and administration are all under some form of investigation. His charity, the Trump Foundation agreed to dissolve after investigation by the New York attorney general's office. Is there even anything else that could be investigated at this point?

BOOT: Well, it's hard to imagine what it is because pretty much every organization that Donald Trump is associated with, Don, is now under criminal investigation as you showed on the screen there. I mean, this is pretty extraordinary. I mean, there are more investigations of this president than his organizations than any other occupant of the Oval Office in history. You have to ask, why is that?

Now, if you listen to President Trump, it's because there is some kind of nefarious deep state conspiracy against him, but that's ridiculous. The reason is actually pretty simple, which is that Donald Trump is deeply unethical. He has been cutting corners his whole life. He has operated every organization in a sleazy and underhanded fashion.

[23:39:58] You see it in just the little things like the fact that at the Trump Organization, he consistently stiffed his vendors. He didn't pay them, the contractors, what they were owed. He has employed undocumented immigrants as they've now admitted at various Trump properties, up to and including the way that he has conducted the presidency with an average of 11 lies a day. He is somebody who for whom ethics simply does not compute and it's finally starting to catch up with him. There is no accountability for him in private life. But now there is going to be accountability because he put himself in the most powerful position in the world, and he has a lot of prosecutors drawing a beat on him, I think, for very good reason.

LEMON: Max, do you disagree with that? I saw your reaction. Do you want to weigh in? Scott, excuse me. Scott.

JENNINGS: Well, look, I think some of these investigations may pan out and some of them may not. I think one of the things that at least a lot of Republicans I know are worried about is that a lot of these investigations are extraordinarily personal in nature and confined to just we want to get Trump and maybe not as focused on a larger question which where we all started.

Did Russia meddle in the election? How did they do it? What was the extent of it? Who is involved? And most importantly, how do we stop them in the future? So, I think there are only two buckets of stuff here. There is Trump stuff, and I get it. Everybody wants to get Trump.

But then there is the forward looking, how do we keep Russia from interfering in our democracy? I believe they did try to interfere. I want to know -- and this is where I trust Mueller really more than anyone else in this whole thing -- I want to know what the depth of it was and most importantly how to stop it from happening again.

So, I think we have to keep that in mind even as all the folks that don't like the president want to continue to find new ways to go after him.

LEMON: Susan, in Congress, it's not just the House Intel Committee that is investigating Trump and his administration. The House Judiciary Committee will be grilling Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker this Friday, by the way. When we saw Whitaker at his press conference last week, he was sweating profusely while claiming the Mueller investigation is close to wrapping up. Will Whitaker be questioned about those comments on Friday?

GLASSER: I have no doubt about it. You know, I ran into a former very senior official who -- of the Justice Department who, you know, reaffirmed to me the other day just how extraordinary and unusual it was of the acting attorney general to comment on an ongoing investigation in that manner. That is just something that is simply not done.

And for it to involve the president of the United States after he has fired the attorney general because of his stated -- publicly stated dissatisfaction with the attorney general's decision to recuse himself from the investigation is really extraordinary in and of itself.

I think we've really become inured to just how alarming the facts are already that are public, never mind what will or won't come out of the remaining Mueller investigation. Let's take a breath here and remember that Whitaker is right now the acting attorney general because the president of the United States fired the attorney general largely because of a disagreement stemming from the attorney general's allowing this investigation of Trump to go forward. That is so serious. And I think we tend to lose sight of that, number one.

Number two, I just want to respond quickly to this idea that these other investigations of Trump and his finances and his business are somehow not worthy of our attention because they don't go to the central questions of Russian involvement related. I couldn't disagree more with that actually. You know, the president of the United States has done something that no other leader of the United States has done which is refuse to obey ethics rules and to recuse himself from his businesses which are a big fat walking conflict of interest.

No one else would get away with this in public life. The fact that we have an independent-minded prosecutors, attorney generals, state officials as well as federal officials who are willing to look into ongoing allegations of malfeasance at these businesses that the president has refused to distance himself from, I mean, how can you not care about that as someone who has been in public life?

I mean, the idea that this is something that we could just accept because it doesn't go to the issue of Russia meddling, again, this is one of the most extraordinary things about Trump as president, that he's brought his business and all those conflicts of interest into the White House. That is something that no other leader would do and for good reason.

LEMON: Scott, I think you want to respond to that?

JENNINGS: Yeah. Look, I didn't say I didn't care about it, I do care about it. What I care about most is where we started. What did the Russians try to do to interfere with American democracy? And I understand all this other stuff that's very, very specific to Trump is going on. I'm not even saying it shouldn't be looked at.

But the core question, where we started, had to do with Russia messing around in our elections, and as someone who cares very much about, you know, hostile foreign powers not influencing the outcome of our elections. That is the outcome I am looking for the most. That's why I trust Mueller more than some of the partisan actors in Congress who are also involved in this.

LEMON: I have to go. I'm sorry. Next time, we'll get everybody in.

[23:45:00] Thank you all. I appreciate it. With all the investigations swirling around the president, is his legal team prepared? We're going to talk about that. What they should be worried about the most. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: House Democrats now with the power to launch investigations creating new headaches for President Trump. I want to bring in now Harry Litman and Juliette Kayyem.

Good evening to both of you.

Harry, I'm going to start with you because the House Intel Committee chairman announced a sweeping investigation into the president's finances and Russia. How should the president's legal team be -- what they should be doing now to prepare for this?

HARRY LITMAN, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: Yeah, and sweeping is right, really covers everything we've heard about chronologically, geographically.

[23:49:58] They don't have that many weapons. The one weapon they do have is to assert executive privilege and force a battle over subpoenas which typically and historically take a long time, sometimes so long that the Congress itself is over and the case goes away. We're going to learn a lot on Friday.

Whitaker says they'll show up. I bet he will. But on the first sensitive question that they're going to ask him about, how did you get the job, will he assert executive privilege, if that happens, you will know it's probably going to be a general strategy.

LEMON: You're shaking your head, I see Juliette. I'm just wondering how --

LITMAN: Which way was she shaking?

LEMON: Up and down, like in agreement.

(LAUGHTER)

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Always in agreement.

LEMON: I'm just wondering does the president's team, any president, how would a team react to this kind of political landscape where there will be investigations coming from Congress as well as Justice Department?

KAYYEM: So, how his legal team deals with it as he has a variety of different legal teams. Is there's going to be just the legal answers, right? There's going to be the discovery, have to answer the questions. That's sort of (INAUDIBLE) stuff.

Then you've got the political communication side, seemingly still led by Giuliani, but not that clear. But then those seem to me to be irrelevant to the third person, which is, of course, Donald Trump himself. Anything that those two parties are doing, it's irrelevant if Donald Trump is hurting himself on Twitter, disclosing things, saying the wrong things.

I thought it was interesting. Today, he did not actually come out fighting on Twitter like you might expect. I don't know what that means. But I also think one other aspect of this is just fascinating from the perspective of someone who studies government and oversight of national security.

Adam Schiff made it clear that members of Congress would also be investigated about their attempts to help or undermine the investigation that Congress had been doing. That seems like a bulls eye on Devin Nunes, who clearly will need to get lawyers as well, given what we kind of know to be the case, that Devin Nunes was playing fast and funky to assist the Trump White House in the previous Congress's investigations.

LEMON: I wonder, how will a change at the top of the Justice Department, Harry, how will that impact the president, because he went from Sessions to Whitaker and then possibly to Barr?

LITMAN: I think it's largely going to shut down -- as Juliette says, you've had the whole Giuliani kind of circus and the PR front. Now it's time for some real lawyering. And the White House counsel has brought on some pretty serious troops, Pat Philbin and the like. But in general, with Barr at the helm, it's going to be a lot harder to try to demonize the Justice Department, to have kind of crazy statements and really shake the trees.

I think they're going to have to leave the Justice Department alone basically and now focus on, as you saw Trump doing tonight, on the new antagonists in Congress like Schiff, who he called a political hack. He won't be able to do that with Barr.

LEMON: Let's talk about these transcripts, Juliette, that we've been discussing here, the House Intel Committee sending over 50-plus transcripts from its Russia investigation over to Robert Mueller, interviews that include Don Jr., Jared Kushner, Steve Bannon, Corey Lewandowski, Hope Hicks. The president's attorneys, they have access to those?

KAYYEM: Yeah, they will. And also, just importantly in this regard is -- just given the action today, in some ways, some of this would have been material, would have been already available to the Department of Justice. What I found so amazing about the sort of passing on of this information was the number of people it included.

These are names we haven't heard of from a while, Hope Hicks and others, showing that, you know, if you get in trouble in the Trump world, it's hard for you to get out. And I think -- I don't -- I don't want to put too big a moment on this, but today was the day when it became clear, for me, as well as the Trump White House, what it meant for the Democrats to win in November.

Today just seemed different, that they maybe let him have the State of the Union and then they -- and then they just, you know, they gave him 12 hours and then they came out fighting.

LEMON: Interesting. The White House counsel under President Obama, Bob Bauer, says this. He says, "Because Trump is not just any criminal defendant, the performance of his lawyers in this episode will not be judged solely by whether his lawyers can claim to have won or lost. The case, and so necessarily the representation itself, is laden with lasting consequences for the public interest."

What do you think about that statement?

LITMAN: Yeah, I buy it, like I buy most things that Bob Bauer says. From the start, we've had this mixture of public and private worries.

[23:55:00] We have the arch private worry that, say, Trump is making money and -- off his presidency. But we've had the bigger public worry of the real assault on the rule of law and just the value of truth coming out of the president's office.

When all is said and done, and one day after the national nightmare is over, people will want to see how the -- how the White House acquitted itself if at all of these broader institutional charges.

LEMON: Yeah. Harry, Juliette, thank you both. I appreciate it. Have a good night.

KAYYEM: Thank you.

LITMAN: Thanks.

LEMON: Thanks for watching. Our coverage continues.

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