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Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) is Interviewed about Impeachment Inquiry; Mueller Notes Obtained by CNN; U.K. Intel Officials Disturbed by Request; Nationals go to the White House. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired November 04, 2019 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Forty-five. There's an NBC/"Wall Street Journal" poll, 49, yes, 46 oppose there. But it hasn't moved dramatically even as new evidence has been gathered here.

And you see in this "New York Times" poll, as we -- as we noted going in that two-thirds of the Trump voters who voted Democratic in 2018 are now saying they'll back President Trump in 2020. I wonder if that indicates to you that the Democratic -- Democrats have failed to deliver on their promises from the midterms and that the impeachment strategy is failing.

REP. ADRIANO ESPAILLAT (D-NY): Absolutely not. We have a whole -- large number of legislation that is sitting in Mitch McConnell's desk. We're talking about gun control. We're talking about prescription --

SCIUTTO: Yes, but it's not going anywhere.

ESPAILLAT: Well, it's not going anywhere because they're not acting on it. But we have fulfilled our duties.

SCIUTTO: The voters are going to -- but you guys came in saying you're going to shake things up, you're going to -- you're going to move on these things, drug prices, et cetera. It ain't happening.

ESPAILLAT: Well, we have moved on them. And we have passed over 20 pieces of critical legislation from the Dream Act to gun control to prescription drugs.

SCIUTTO: But you need the Senate.

ESPAILLAT: But we need the Senate. And the Senate is in the hands of the Republicans. And so that's where the problem is.

Now, the testimony so far has been given in a confined environment. The American people have not been privy to the entire testimony. There's evidence there that they have not heard. I think it will be compelling, I think it will cause a shift in the point of view when they finally hear it in open hearings.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: So now, because of the way the House voted on Thursday, there are rules around this impeachment inquiry and it's going to, we're hearing, move into a public phase pretty quickly, right, in the next few weeks.

ESPAILLAT: Few weeks, yes.

HARLOW: There is some concern among your Republican counterparts in Congress that Adam Schiff, chair of the House Intel Committee, who's leading all of this, could block some Republican subpoenas in all of this.

Listen to Republican Congressman Chris Stewart. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS WALLACE, FOX HOST: Do you think that Schiff will block GOP subpoenas?

REP. CHRIS STEWART (R-UT): Well, I'm certain he will. I know that there's some witnesses that we want to hear from that he certainly doesn't want to hear from.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Under any circumstance do you believe Chairman Schiff should block any Republican subpoenas in this inquiry? For example, if he subpoenaed Joe Biden?

ESPAILLAT: Chairman Schiff will not block anybody. We follow the rules. The rules prescribe a certain behavior. And it's majority. And we will take votes and determine whether or not someone should be subpoenaed.

HARLOW: Well, that is -- that is then. I mean those are the rules. You can vote and you're the majority and so you can effectively block them.

ESPAILLAT: By the way, these same rules have applied to previous impeachment proceedings.

HARLOW: :No, I'm not asking about the rules, I'm just saying, do you -- is it your opinion that any of -- that you would vote against any of these people being subpoenaed?

ESPAILLAT: Well, if I'm in the room, I will certainly take a look at each and every one of these potential witnesses and determine individually based on their merit whether or not they should be witnesses.

And I think that every member of the committees will probably approach it in that fashion. It is not Chairman Schiff. The is the entire committee and the rules that are set forward in this proceeding that I think we should all follow, both Republicans and Democrats.

SCIUTTO: Of course Republicans, a witness they want, and the president has been demanding his outing, or his or her outing, is the whistleblower. There are laws intended to protect the whistleblower's identity.

ESPAILLAT: That's correct.

SCIUTTO: By pressuring for the public identification of this whistleblower, in your view, is the president breaking the law?

ESPAILLAT: I think that whistleblower should be protected. I believe that his or her life could be in danger if he's exposed or she's exposed.

SCIUTTO: There have been death threats.

ESPAILLAT: Death threats. The environment is so toxic, primarily because of the rhetoric coming out of the White House, that the whistleblower could very well be if danger. We should first and foremost --

SCIUTTO: Does that break the law? Does that pressure from the president break the law?

ESPAILLAT: We will take a look at whether or not he's breaking the law, but it's certainly putting someone's life in danger. And I don't think that this process should put anybody's life in danger.

HARLOW: Congressman Espaillat, thank you for being here.

ESPAILLAT: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Always good to have you.

HARLOW: Always good to have you. We appreciate it every much.

SCIUTTO: Still to come this hour, conspiracy theories. Hillary Clinton's e-mails. New documents obtained by CNN from the Mueller investigation show just how big a role those issues played in the 2016 Trump campaign.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:38:57]

HARLOW: A newly released document giving new insight into the Mueller report and President Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

SCIUTTO: Yes, CNN obtained hundreds of pages, many of them highly redacted, from Robert Mueller's investigative notes. It is the first publicly released behind-the-scenes look at the investigation and it outlines the high-level pursuit within the Trump campaign to get dirt on Hillary Clinton and her missing e-mails, even, of course, things stolen by Russia.

HARLOW: Our Jessica Schneider is all over it.

So, Jes, let's begin here. The e-mails are referenced several times throughout the documents. What does this tell us?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and, Poppy and Jim, this was a consistent topic of conversation we're learning within the Trump campaign in 2016 leading up to the election. The president and other top campaign officials repeatedly discussing how they could get that access to the stolen Democratic e-mails that WikiLeaks had.

Now, that's all according to the interview notes from Rick Gate, who was the deputy campaign chairman. And Gates was cooperating with Mueller's team and told them then then candidate Trump said, quote, get the e-mails.

[09:40:01]

That was on board his campaign plane. And Gates also said that Michael Flynn, who, of course, later became the short-lived national security adviser, also said, well, he could use his intelligence sources to help get those e-mails.

Now, Gates talked about how Michael Flynn had the most Russian contacts and also about how Trump's advisers and family members, as well as candidate Trump himself, really pushed that effort to get those stolen e-mails from WikiLeaks.

So, guys, we saw in the Mueller report how the Trump campaign was, in fact, interested in this, but this really takes it to a whole new level of showing how much of an in-depth effort the campaign was pushing here.

SCIUTTO: I mean, looking to work with Russia to get e-mails stole by Russia to interfere in the U.S. election, is remarkable and the depth of the effort.

One name that also comes up in these documents, of course, the former campaign chairman, now in jail, Paul Manafort. What was his role?

SCHNEIDER: Yes. So they really detail how Paul Manafort, then the campaign chairman, pushed that conspiracy theory all the way back in 2016, that it was, in fact, the Ukrainians who hacked the DNC computers during the camping rather, of course, than the conclusion from U.S. intelligence agencies that it was actually the Russians. So the interview notes released this weekend put it this way, saying, Gates recalled Manafort saying the hack was likely carried out by the Ukrainians, not the Russians.

And, of course, this is a conspiracy theory that the president has pushed publicly while in office and was a big part of that July 25th phone call with the Ukrainian president, now, of course, at the heart of the impeachment inquiry.

And the documents we saw this weekend also unveiled just how involved Paul Manafort was in the campaign, even beyond when he left it, in August 2016. This is Steve Bannon warning to avoid Manafort's influence in the e-mail to Jared Kushner saying, we need to avoid this guy like the plague. They're going to try and say the Russians worked with WikiLeaks to give this victory to us. Paul is a nice guy but can't get the word get out that he's advising us.

So, guys, a lot more revealed in these interviews, in these e-mails that we've now seen as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request to get these e-mails from Manafort's -- I'm sorry, Robert Mueller's investigation that spanned over about two years.

Guys.

HARLOW: They're -- I mean, it's good just for the public to have transparency and that these have been released, but there are a lot of redactions in them.

SCHNEIDER: Yes.

HARLOW: And I know there are requests, Freedom of Information Act requests, for more. Is it likely we'll see more documents from this in the future?

SCHNEIDER: It is. So we know that a judge's order has said that just about every month we're going to be getting more releases. So we'll get glimpses of this but likely a lot of this will remain redacted while we're getting more and more of these pages of documents. So we'll get more insight, but still a lot hidden as well.

Guys.

HARLOW: OK.

SCIUTTO: And you do see a lot of insight there and it's a conspiracy theory. I mean all the evidence points to Russia. It's remarkable the effort by the president and it's still a conspiracy theory pursued by this president as it was involved in the Ukraine call and the effort to withhold aid.

We're going to stay on top of the story. Jessica Schneider, thanks very much.

Meanwhile, one of America's closest allies raising concerns about requests coming from the Trump administration.

HARLOW: British intelligence officials say they're shocked that the White House has asked them to help investigate the U.S. intelligence committee and the origins of the Russia probe. This is after Attorney General Bill Barr opened that criminal probe into the matter.

SCIUTTO: CNN's Nic Robertson, he is live in London.

Nic, you've been speaking to British intelligence officials. They're feeling this pressure. And you say they think it's damaging to the relationship?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: There's a concern that they are being drawn, groups in the U.K., but, you know, are being drawn into territory that they're not comfortable being drawn into and that this sort of got a step up, really a couple of days after Prime Minister Boris Johnson became prime minister, receiving a call from President Trump and then a few days later with the attorney general arriving here in the U.K..

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's only my opinion.

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: No, I'm looking -- I'm looking -- I'm not (INAUDIBLE) --

ROBERTSON (voice over): Behind the smiles, there's tension in the special relationship. President Trump wants Boris Johnson to investigate his political opponents, figure out if Mueller and others tried to smear him. A day after his controversial call with the Ukrainian president in July, and just two days after Johnson became prime minister, Trump called him. Now parliament wants details.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did the prime minister, as today's "Times" reports, receive a request from President Trump for help in trying to discredit the Mueller report?

DOMINIC RAAB, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: The prime minister's not going to comment on the discussions with President Trump that are held in private. But I can -- I can give him the assurance that, of course, neither the prime minister or as then was the foreign secretary, nor any member of this government would collude in the way that he's described.

[09:45:07]

ROBERTSON (on camera): Both the White House and Downing Street published brief notes on that conversation. Neither made any mention of the investigation that Trump is demanding.

ROBERTSON (voice over): Days after the Trump/Johnson call, Attorney General William Barr was in London for a meeting on intelligence cooperation and moving Trump's investigation forward. Veteran U.K. diplomatic journalist Kim Sengupta says his British sources were shocked at the requests coming from Washington.

KIM SENGUPTA, BRITISH JOURNALIST, "THE INDEPENDENT": The way that it began to emerge in their eyes was that this was the U.S. government asking for information, not about the Russians, not about the Chinese, not even about the French. You know, it's about their own intelligence services.

ROBERTSON: Barr has also been to Australia and Italy, in what is now a criminal investigation into the origins of the Trump/Russia investigation, and intelligence it used from overseas. The Italians had nothing to offer Barr.

On his agenda, the role of this Maltese academic, Joseph Mifsud, who vanished two years ago. Mifsud told acquaintances that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton. One of those acquaintances, George Papadopoulos, relayed Mifsud's claim to an Australian diplomat, Alexander Downer, in London.

And then there's the dossier written by a former U.K. intelligence officer, Christopher Steele.

ROBERTSON (on camera): Steele worked at this London address. He compiled a dossier during the 2016 election suggesting Trump was vulnerable to Kremlin blackmail. It was his dossier that helped initiate the Mueller inquiry.

ROBERTSON (voice over): Sengupta's sources understand the London focus, but worry about the implications.

SENGUPTA: The apprehension, the impression I got, was apprehension is that they may get drawn into all -- they are getting drawn into internal American politics.

ROBERTSON: President Trump's obsession with discrediting Mueller could cost America the trust of its allies.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON: And you have to go back really to the 1940s to try to find a case where the British intelligence services would have been working inside, side by side, with U.S. intelligence services but providing information about that service and at that time that was all about catching a Russian mole. This is something, of course, entirely different.

HARLOW: Nic, important reporting. Thank you.

Before you go, I mean, obviously, you've got the U.K. elections coming up. How does Barr's investigation and the president play into that?

ROBERTSON: You know, anything that attaches Prime Minister Boris Johnson to President Trump is going to be used by the opposition. We've seen them doing that already. President Trump phoned one of the -- one of the sort of leading parties, the Brexit party, the leader of that party, and suggested that he got into political coalition with Boris Johnson. Johnson has decided not to do that.

But President Trump's name, this investigation, it all puts the prime minister in a tougher position and, frankly, in these elections President Trump becomes a really divisive figure that, you know, the prime minister has to be careful about his level of association.

HARLOW: Fair point.

Nic, thank you very much for the reporting. We appreciate it.

All right, so the World Series champions, Washington Nationals, are going to visit the White House today. One player will not be there. We'll explain ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:53:28]

SCIUTTO: The Washington Nationals, they won the World Series, they had their parade this weekend. I was there. It was fun to go to. Now it's time for the traditional trip to the White House.

HARLOW: You always knew they were going to win, right? Never doubted.

SCIUTTO: I definitely did not. HARLOW: Never.

SCIUTTO: I'll take credit.

HARLOW: One member of the team is not going to be there.

Andy Scholes has more in this morning's "Bleacher Report."

And, Andy, this is for really serious reasons.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Poppy. Good morning, Jim.

Yes, pitcher Sean Doolittle, he's an outspoken supporter of immigrants and the LGBTQ community and he says he just can't bring himself to go to the White House this afternoon. And Doolittle told "The Washington Post" it is because of President Donald Trump.

Now, he referenced some of the president's policies. Doolittle also has a brother-in-law with autism and says he remains offended by President Trump's mocking of a disabled reporter during the 2016 campaign.

Doolittle told "The Post," quote, as much as I wanted to be there with my teammates and share that experience with my teammates, I can't do it. I just can't do it.

Now the relief pitcher also told the paper that he didn't want to be a distraction for his teammates who want the experience of meeting the president.

Now, in the meantime, the celebration tour for the Nationals continuing last night at the Capitals game. As you can see, some of them deciding to go shirtless while they brought the World Series trophy out on the ice on a Zamboni. They then took a combo team pic with the Capitals, who also won a championship two years ago. That's a pretty cool pic for a D.C. sports fan, Jim. One you'd want to print out, hang somewhere in an office somewhere.

SCIUTTO: And don't forget the Washington Mystics, right? So you've got the Major League Baseball --

SCHOLES: City of champions right now.

SCIUTTO: You've got the NHL. You've got the WMBA. Three champions in one town.

[09:55:05]

Andy Scholes, thanks very much.

HARLOW: The gloating continues.

OK.

SCIUTTO: Still to come, new developments in the impeachment inquiry this morning as the list of White House officials set to testify today goes from four to zero. Much more on this.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:00:06]

SCIUTTO: A very good Monday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto.

HARLOW: And I'm Poppy Harlow in New York.