Democrats want to ignore all of the real evidence of russian interference and hold this fake im because it happened impeachment because it happened under a different president s watch. This all happened under president obamas watch, isnt that correct . Mr. Lewandowski yes, sir. Mr. Chabot and it was the Obama Administration that failed to protect us from the russian interference and influence in our election, isnt that also true . Mr. Lewandowski yes. Mr. Chabot President Trump wasnt president. He wasnt the one that failed to protect the country. If anybody failed, it was the Obama Administration. Is that right . Mr. Lewandowski yes, it is. Mr. Chabot ive said it before and ill say it again. Were wasting valuable Committee Time engaging in this impeachment investigation. The fact of the matter is one thing this committee could be doing is to question Inspector General horowitz concerning the bias against the president at the origins of the Russian Investigation. We could be questioning horowitz about his recent report, how thenf. B. I. Director comey mishandled department memos. This committee has such a rich history, his jurisdiction over a whole lot of has jurisdiction over a whole lot of very significant things. Were spending our time on this fake impeachment, but we could be focused on something that really matters, like immigration , asylum. We have hundreds of thousands of people that have entered our southern border. Generally theyre brought up either individually or in groups, caravans, usually, oftentimes connected with cartels, cartels make a lot of money when they come up here. Theyre told the magic words. Come across the border, they say that theyre in fear and come right into our country and we put them on a bus or on a plane, theyre sent to communities all across the country. Thats something this committee should be working in a bipartisan manner to do something about. Opioids we had 70,000 americans that lost their lives to opioids last year. Thats something within the jurisdiction of this committee, yet we do virtually nothing about it in this committee. The balanced budget amendment. Its something ived in this congress. We have ive introduced in this congress. We do nothing in this committee about attempting to actually pass something that would make us balance the budget every year. Like all our states have to do. So finally, i just want to thank you, again, for appearing at todays hearing. Perhaps your testimony today will finally convince democrats that there are much more important things that this committee could be spending our time on. Rather than continuing to pursue this fake impeachment. A faux impeachment. Bottom line is, they dont have the votes in the house to move forward, for the house to vote for this committee to open up an impeachment inquiry. They dont have the votes. Some of the democrats want to vote for it, some of the democrats would vote against it. But they dont have the votes. So what they do is they spend valuable Committee Time that we could be spending on other important things, on this fake, faux 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. Mr. Raskin mr. Chairman, point of parliamentary inquiry. Mr. Nadler the gentleman will state his point of parliamentary inquiry. Mr. Raskin the witness is to answer a long line of questions from the gentleman from ohio about whether donald trump had colluded with the russians and about the orins of the Mueller Investigation and so on. But he never testified as to any of those things before special counsel mueller. Can he now continue to invoke this white house rationale that hes confined to the four corners of the Mueller Report, when hes gone way beyond it in his responses to the questioning from the gentleman from ohio . Mr. Nadler regardless of whether he went beyond the four corners of the Mueller Report in the answers that he gave to the last questioner, regardless of that, and im glad to hear he favors the patriots, even though thats not in the Mueller Report, but regardless of the long series of answers that he gave, irrelevant they were to the Mueller Report, the claim of privilege made by the witness is improper, for the reasons set forth in our letter today, to the white house, and to the witness counsel. That said, i will take the claim of privilege under advisement. Mr. Collins did you answer his parliamentary inquiry . You just skipped on to executive privilege here. At least angelina acknowledge that it was not a parliamentary inquiry. Acknowledge that it was not a parliamentary inquiry. Mr. Nadler the gentleman stated his parliamentary inquiry. Mr. Collins it was not. It was a statement. Mr. Nadler the gentleman from tennessee is recognized. Thank you, mr. Chair. Dave cowens its been made clear here youre not mr. Cohen its been made clear here youre not an employ of the white house. And you were a policeman at one time. So you know something about the law. And about following the law. Didnt you think it was a little strange that the president would sit down with you oneonone and ask you to do something that you knew was against the law . Did that strike you as strange . Mr. Lewandowski i disagree with the premise of your question. Mr. Cohen you werent a policeman . Mr. Lewandowski i didnt think the president asked me to do anything illegal. Mr. Cohen you dont think it would have been illegal to ask mr. Sessions to drop the investigation and just go on to future president s and omit everything with this president . Were going to start with the next one about colluding are russia . You didnt think that was illegal to obstruct justice . Mr. Lewandowski the president asked me nothing illegal. Mr. Cohen obviously youve never been a judge and wont be one. All these people asked you, they gave you dictation. He dictated you to a message to give sessions. You had ever been a secretary for the president before and taken dictation or shorthand . Mr. Lewandowski many times. Mr. Cohen we got your qualifications now. You were a secretary. He asked you, outside of white house channels, thats what mueller wrote, that this was outside of white house channels, could it have been he asked you to get the message to sessions because he thought you would do whatever he asked, even if it was illegal or immoral, just like your former boss who said you were an implementer . News reports called you the, quote, president s fornser. U. S. A. Today said your background is a trump guy and not so much as a strategist or Campaign Manager but as a righthand man, a body man and enforcer. Esquire went further and said the one time Campaign Manager for donald trump has the traits of an enforcer and the conflict esolution skills to match. You described yourself in your book, you said, we were fine with whatever role the president wanted us to play. In Donald Trumps army, there were only loyal soldiers. Your previous boss was convicted of corruption and lying to authorities. You were fired from americans for prosperity after being accused of voter fraud. Youre now involved in this. Either you were willing to break the law for politics and mr. Trump or youre some kind of a forrest gump relating to corruption. So maybe let me ask you this. Did the president pick you as enforcer, he thought he would play whatever role he wanted because it was illegal . Is that possibly why he chose you to take this message to sessions . Mr. Lewandowski that would be a question for the president. Mr. Cohen well, donald trump was right, though. First, the white House Counsel, don mcgahn, refused to fire the special counsel. Mr. Mcgahn showed principle and character and refused to do what he knew would be an illegal act. Then attorney general sessions, who had recused himself, was asked to unrecuse himself. But attorney general sessions also did the right thing and he said, im not going town recuse myself because vide a going to unrecuse myself, because id have a conflict. Then the white House Counsel advised the president , not even to contact sessions. But you would do it. You were different than sessions and mcgahn. Trump could depend on you. You did not ask any questions. You were a loyal soldier. You just wrote down message and agreed to deliver it. Thats what he thought. You took the dictation, you gave it to hope hicks, you asked her to type it up for you, and then asked somebody else to deliver the message to sessions, when you decided not to. Donald trump talked to you outside normal channels so there would be no record of anything that he asked you to do to obstruct justice. Nothing to do with that at all. The president knew what he was doing was wrong. Mr. Sessions knew what he was doing was wrong. Mr. Mcgahn knew what he was doing was wrong. You seem to be the only person who didnt think it was wrong. But mr. Trump was wrong. Because at the last minute you got cold feet. You chickened out. The president s trust was misplaced. You decided not to do you what told the president you were going to do and you handed it off to somebody else. Did you realize at some point that your former boss got involved in a criminal problems and went to prison and maybe you were going to be the next one . Next one . Ross did that cross your mind . Did you ever think about your boss situation going to prison . Mr. Lewandowski he went to jail many years after i left his employment. Im sure youre going to clarify that for the record. Mr. Cohen you were his employee and you had Great Respect for him, but you learned from. That im asking, did you learn from his experience and realized that what you were asked to do was illegal and you didnt want to follow the same trail as bob nay and end up in prince. Mr. Lewandowski i wasnt asked to do anything illegal. Mr. Cohen well, the public will determine that. This has been more obstruction of congress by this administration and you followed their instructions and youre doing just what they thought youd do. Youre a loyal soldier. Except you didnt follow trumps instructions, you chickened out at the last minute, you got cold feed feet. I yield back the balance of my time. Soldier except you didnt follow trumps instructions, you chickened out at the last min mr. Nadler the gentleman from ohio. Thank you. You ran President Trumps campaign, you were at the helm of the campaign when President Trump secured the republican nomination. At the helm of the campaign when President Trump secured the republican nomination . Yes. Pretty Good Campaign you ran. Thank you. You beat, what, 17, 18 different opponents, senators, governors, some good senators. Of course you had a pretty good candidate. The best. After you left the campaign i think you left in june of 2016, after you left the head of the campaign, were you still involved with the campaign throughout the rest of the election, all the way up through november 8, 2016. Yes. And that entire time, you were part of the Campaign Operation at some level or another, from january 2015 to november 8th, 2016. During that entire time, do you guys work with russia to impact the election . No. You know whats interesting, when james comey was asked that same question, he gave the same answer. When bob mueller was asked that same question, sitting at that same table, he gave the same answer. Falsely accused, the president is falsely accused of working with a foreign state to impact the election. James comey said after 10 months of investigation we didnt have a thing. Bob mueller gets named special counsel, he wastes 30 million of taxpayer money, he sits at that table just a few weeks ago and gives the same darn answer. But these guys over here, they dont care. They dont care. They dont want to get to what mr. Chabot said. They just want to drag people in front of this committee and keep trying to find some way they can go after the president. Lets go back to the process that the Ranking Member raised. Did you testify in front of the Senate Intel Committee in 2017 . Yes. Did you testify in front of the House Intelligence Committee in 2017 . Yes. And you went before the special counsel and answered his questions in 2018, is that right . It is. And you did that all voluntarily . Yes. No subpoena . No, sir. Said im willing to comply. Yes. I think in your Opening Statement you said how many hours . More than 20. More than 20 hours. And for this committee, did you get a letter from this committee back in march asking you to comply with certain document requests that chairman nadler wanted to have . I believe so, yes. And you complied with that . Yes. And you got another letter asking you to do an interview, a transcribed interview in front of the committee. And your lawyer contacted chairman nadler and said, wed be happy to do that, is that right . Yes. Give us some dates, well come in. Thats right. What happened next . Next about five weeks ago, the committee issued a subpoena for my appearance. So youre willing to come voluntarily, just like you did for the others, bob mueller, special counsel, 20some hours, you complied with when they asked you for certain documents. And then when they want you to come in for an interview, and you said, youd do it, they hit you with a subpoena. Correct. Theyre the ones who started it, theyre the ones who slapped you with a subpoena when you were willing to come here voluntarily. I was. And then the question the demeanor you bring here today. First they change the rules last week in the middle of the congress, change the rules of the committee in the middle of the game and then today theyre not even going to follow the rules because the rules they changed last week talked about staff asking questions after members are done. Weve got this whole issue with consultants. This may be may be we would be better served if we did exactly what mr. Chabot said. Maybe we would be better served as the House Judiciary Committee if we actually focused on how this whole false accusation started in the first place. What do you think, mr. Lewandowski . I think it would be a great idea. Maybe the American People would be better served than spending more time investigating something thats had 32 months of investigation from both james comey and the fbi and bob mueller and the special counsel. You know a great place to start . A great place to start would be the Inspector Generals report that was issued just three weeks ago, the scathing report about jim comey. That would be a nice place to start. When i asked the chairman when we might have an opportunity to question mr. Horwitz, he said, i dont know, i havent thought about that. Of course you havent thought about that. Too busy trying to impeach the president. Too busy slapping subpoenas on Corey Lewandowski. I yield back. The gentleman from georgia. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Lewandowski, you are about like a fish being cleaned with a spoon. Its very hard to get an answer out of you. But let me ask you this, sir, based on the president s past statements, Everybody Knows that the president does not like for anybody to take notes when hes talking. In fact he asked lawyers not to take official notes, and youre aware of that, correct . Im aware of the public accounts, sir. All right. Fair enough. But when the president met with you in the oval office one on one on june 19th, 2017, to dictate a message to attorney general Jeff Sessions, he told you to, quote, write this down, isnt that correct . Thats accurate. And it was just you and the president in that meeting, correct . It was. And you knew that you needed to write down as fast as possible what the president was telling you so you could make sure to capture the content of what he was telling you correctly, correct . I dont know if speed of writing was a criteria, but i tried to capture it to the best of my ability. Thank you, sir. And he dictated exactly what he wanted you to put into the mouth of attorney general Jeff Sessions, correct . I believe he asked me to deliver a message for jeff to consider delivering himself. And it was a message that he intended for jeff, meaning Jeff Sessions, to deliver outloud and publicly. He wanted the public to know what he was saying but he wanted jeff to say it, correct . I believe the Mueller Report accurately depicts that. And mr. Lewandowski, weve projected on the screen the message that the president dictated to you that he wanted you to deliver to the attorney general. Its on the screen and id 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 no, no, no. Look on the 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. Thats what he told you to write down. And thats what you wrote down. And ill continue. He said he shouldnt have a special prosecutor because he hasnt done anything wrong. Now, thats what he wanted you to deliver to attorney general Jeff Sessions, correct . I believe thats 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 about delivering that message . No, sir. 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. And so you put the message in your safe in your home for safekeeping, correct . Before you went on vacation . I took my kids to the beach, that was more of a priority. And Pre