CNN: Trump Lawyers Anticipate Mueller Request For Trump Testimony And Want To Limit Its Scope
KEILAR: New in the Russia investigation, President Trump's lawyers expect a request from Special Counsel Robert Mueller to interview the president and they're trying to decide how to limit the scope of the questions. That is according to CNN sources. They say that no formal request has been made yet, but that the matter was raised in a previous meeting and the president's team wants to determine if he needs to testify under oath, whether he can provide written answers to questions from Mueller's team, and whether the testimony should be recorded. Democratic Congressman Jim Himes is joining me now, member of the House Intelligence Committee, one of four congressional committees that is investigating Russia's interference in the election. Sir, thank you for joining us this morning.</s>REPRESENTATIVE JIM HIMES (D), CONNECTICUT: Good morning, Brianna.</s>KEILAR: Do you expect that Robert Mueller is going to interview President Trump soon? What's your expectation with this?</s>HIMES: Well, I'll start by saying that there is not much communication as there should not be, between the FBI investigation and, of course, the congressional investigations, one of which I am a part of. That is a law enforcement, criminal investigation that can result in indictments and all that sort of thing that we've actually seen happen so far. Our investigations are different. There's not a lot of communication other than to deconflict, to make sure we don't step on each other. To answer your question, though, yes, I do anticipate that Robert Mueller will want to talk to the president. There are, obviously, questions about his role and his campaign's role in the attack by Russia and, of course, we understand, and I don't have any particular inside information on this, that Robert Mueller may be interested in questions of obstruction of justice. Remember that Bill Clinton, as president, sat and did a deposition with then Special Prosecutor Ken Starr. So, there is plenty of precedence for this. I imagine that we're going to see something along the lines what we saw when Bill Clinton had to do the same thing when he was president.</s>KEILAR: There have been other ones, George H.W. Bush, transcribed by a court reporter. There are different parameters for how this could go down and different precedence. CNN is reporting the president's lawyers are talking about what those parameters are going to be. Would you be satisfied with anything less than the president testifying under oath? That said, not necessarily a requirement of talking to the FBI, but it's something that president has, for instance, lambasted Hillary Clinton for not being under oath even though it is a crime to lie to the FBI whether you are, quote/unquote, "under oath or not."</s>HIMES: Yes. Well, that's exactly the point. This question comes up, under oath. Guess what, oath or no oath, if you lie to a criminal investigator or Congress, you're committing a felony. Whether it's under oath or not, you know, it doesn't really matter. What really matters is that the American people get to see candid answers to tough questions. One of the things --</s>KEILAR: What -- sorry, go on.</s>HIMES: I was going to say, one of the things that has been challenging in the congressional investigation is that some of these interviews have had happened or have happened behind closed doors. The question of under oath or not doesn't really matter. What really matters is that the president gives frank responses to whatever questions Mueller wants to ask and more importantly, I had to sort of chuckle as your White House guest earlier was saying how cooperative the White House has been with this investigation, boy, that's a different definition of cooperation than the one that I have. When you're out there threatening to fire your attorney general, calling the investigation a hoax, that is not the sign of cooperation. So most importantly, I hope that we quickly get to a point where the president, just as presidents in the past have done, sit down and answer some tough questions in a way the American people get to see the answers.</s>KEILAR: Would you be satisfied with the answers being written rather than in person?</s>HIMES: No. No. Again, think of Bill Clinton answering questions in person, other presidents answering questions in person. They did not have the opportunity to look at a written question and think through the answer, share it with attorneys so no. You know, any prosecutor will tell you that they like the opportunity to take the measure of the man or woman to ask question in certain orders. No. I think if we get total candor and do want as the White House says they will provide total cooperation the president should sit with the special counsel and answer his questions.</s>KEILAR: You have said that your committee has a lot of work left to do on their investigation. Republicans, obviously, don't feel that way. They want wrap this up. Do you think there are going to be two separate reports, one from Democrats and one from the Republicans coming from the House Intel Committee?</s>HIMES: I'm not sure I agree with your characterization. We continue to work -- the Republicans tend to be focused as the chairman of the committee, Chairman Nunez, is focused on questions of whether the DOJ and the FBI over relied on the Steele dossier. We're hearing lots of possible witnesses to discuss that issue. The Democrats tend to be a little bit more focused on what is clearly central to the investigation about whether there was any sort of participation on the part of the Trump campaign with the Russian efforts.</s>KEILAR: Do you think there will be two reports?</s>HIMES: Well, I certainly hope not. Again, we have not been -- I guess characterized by huge bipartisanship but that needs to change between now and when the report is issued. I've said this before, I'll say it again, the Russian attack on our election system on the very core of our democracy, you know, is up there with Pearl Harbor in terms of its seriousness as a challenge to this country. I understand and we've all seen it politics and partisanship gets involved, but the seriousness of that attack really makes it incumbent on Congress to figure out a way to speak with one voice about what really happened. Though the trend is not good, my hope sure is that we can issue one report.</s>KEILAR: And finally before I let you go, Oprah, lots of speculation, some of it fueled by those close to her she could run in 2020. Would you welcome that?</s>HIMES: It had to come up, didn't it?</s>KEILAR: Of course. You know it did.</s>HIMES: Well, I'll tell you what, like an awful lot of Americans I just thought what an incredible articulation of this country's values she gave at the Golden Globes. I thought it was amazing. I thought it was in stark contrast to the hatred, the divisiveness and the anger that we see coming out of the White House. Whether that then translates into a White House run is a very big leap to take, but like so many people I was so touched by the depth of her feeling and reminder of the people that we are as Americans.</s>KEILAR: And we appreciate your insight on that. Not answering the question, but we will try again later, Congressman Jim Himes, thank you so much.</s>HIMES: I know you will.</s>KEILAR: I want to bring in CNN national security commentator, Mike Rogers, a former Republican congressman, the chairman of the House -- was chairman of the House Intel Committee and also a former member of President Trump's transition team. So, Congressman Himes would not answer the question about whether there would be one or two reports, but there really could be. I mean, it's almost as if you're seeing two different investigations from Democrats and Republicans on House Intel. What would the impact of two different reports be?</s>MIKE ROGERS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY COMMENTATOR: I think whatever happens now in these -- in most of these legislative committee investigations, is you're going to have half of America is going to hate it and the other half is not going to like it. So, you're going to have this really mixed bag because both folks are going to have comments at the back, there's always this dissenting comments and reviews in the back of these reports. It sure looks like that's the path they're going. The only hope here now it looks like the Senate Intel Committee is a little closer aligned in their investigation. So, you can hope at least one of these committees can come out with a report that is fair and balanced as much as it can possibly be.</s>KEILAR: On the --</s>ROGERS: Which is difficult on something like this. It's so politically charged. Things are really difficult.</s>KEILAR: Do you have hope that the Senate can get to the finish line and still be unified between Democrats and Republicans?</s>ROGERS: They've handled it the best so far, the most professional way to handle it. It looks like the Senate committee has done that, but getting across the finish line even from where they are is still a big leap.</s>KEILAR: It's the hardest part, perhaps. I want to talk about the reporting we have that the attorneys of the president are now looking toward an interview by Robert Mueller, the special counsel, and President Trump and they're thinking about what are the parameters we want to put on this. A question about, you know, is it under oath like -- I heard you -- I saw you nodding when I was talking about to the congressman about that. That doesn't matter so much. But whether you would have written responses to questions, that is a key thing. Is it going to be recorded? If so, transcribed by a court reporter? Is getting to be audio? Is it going to be video? What do you think?</s>ROGERS: And by the way, this is really interesting to me because it says they're anticipating a request from the special counsel and all of this information is coming from the White House. So as an old FBI agent, I look the at this and say they are prepping the battlefield for the legal case that's coming. So, they're trying to establish early what their parameters were, even though the special prosecutor hasn't got than far. Why that's important normally in an investigation like this, if you look at the Hillary Clinton investigation, even criminal investigations, the so- called subject of your investigation is normally 95 percent the last person you talk to and so they're --</s>KEILAR: Wrap it up.</s>ROGERS: I'm getting ready for the interview, wrap it up. This is really interesting.</s>KEILAR: That is interesting. Will it be recorded do you think?</s>ROGERS: They will have to have some way to record it. A normal interview would be the FBI agent taking hand notes, that is the most basic way to do these interviews, all the way up to some recording. I think the prosecutor will push for some recording because they want to make sure there's consistency of what comes out of that interview.</s>KEILAR: Cover themselves. All right. Mike Rogers, thank you so much. Always a pleasure to have you on. Progress on the Korean Peninsula, North and South Korea holding their most significant military talks in years. Could this be a breakthrough? That's next.