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Quigley on MSNBC: There’s public record of obstruction and collusion

March 31, 2019
In the News

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HUNT: Alright, for more on all of this, I want to turn to a member of the House Intelligence Committee, Democratic Congressman Mike Quigley of Illinois. Sir, it's great to have you back on the program.

QUIGLEY: Thank you. Glad to be here.

HUNT: I want to ask you about the chairman of your committee Adam Schiff who seemed to get visibly emotional at a hearing this week after Republicans kind of all swept up against him and started to argue that he should resign as chairman of the Intelligence Committee. What's your response to those Republicans?

QUIGLEY: First of all, I've served in Congress ten years now. Almost exactly. And I'm not saying this because of what happened this week. I think he has this reputation. Adam Schiff is one of the smartest, hardest working, dedicated Congressmen that I've ever met. The fact that Chairman Nunes led this show the other day is extraordinarily sad because Chairman Nunes with his infamous trip to the White House at midnight…Chairman Nunes with his memo that was called reckless and dangerous by the Intel Community and the Justice Department. The best way to describe his actions were to tank the investigation and to shut it down prematurely. And when the Russians attacked our democratic process, Chairman Nunes sprung into action and attacked the Intelligence Community and the Justice Department. I think there will be a lasting impact of the work he did. So, to question Adam Schiff was extraordinary.

HUNT: Sir, do you agree with Adam Schiff that—do you feel as though you have seen evidence of President Trump or the Trump campaign colluding with Russians?

QUIGLEY: Let's just look at the public record. Let's look at what's in the court filings that Mr. Mueller gave to the American public. Right? Mr. Manafort meeting with Kilimnik giving him Trump polling data. The fact that Stone knew that Mr. Podesta was next in the barrel. The fact that president's son met with the Russians and asked for dirt on Hillary Clinton. And the fact the president knew this. Steve Bannon saying the question of whether his father knew about this. There's absolutely no question that his father would've known before and after this took place.

HUNT: Have you seen evidence that he did?

QUIGLEY: That he did what?

HUNT: That the president was aware of that—of that meeting?

QUIGLEY: I think it defies anybody's imagination that the president wasn't aware of what his son was doing and what happened afterwards.

HUNT: I understand that. I'm not asking about your imagination. You're a member of the House Intel Committee. Do you guys have evidence?

QUIGLEY: Look, I'm just going to leave it with what I can say in the public record. The fact is there's a public record of obstruction, and there's a public record of collusion. The fact that Mr. Mueller could not exonerate the president on obstruction leaves Mr. Barr to do exactly what he was hired to do. Shut the investigation down and makes sure that no one sees the light of day of the Mueller report and the underlying information. If he's exonerated, let's just show us.

HUNT: Do you think there's any world in which the Intelligence Committee would get a copy of the unredacted report and the underlying information if it's not released to the public? Nancy Pelosi has said that a classified briefing of any kind is not going to suffice. They want everything to be public. Would you be willing to accept receiving that information in a classified way?

QUIGLEY: Look, we should get the memo in its entirety, whether it's classified or not. We get extraordinarily sensitive classified information all the time in the Intelligence Community. That's our job. But this is far too important. For Mr. Barr to unilaterally take away the two years of work that the special counsel did and use the theory he had already put together in applying for the job, saying that the theory was wrong that Mr. Mueller was working on. That makes it all the more essential that the American public get all of this information. There's precedent for doing it. Clearly, they had no qualms about releasing information about third parties, for example, when it involved Hillary Clinton.

HUNT: Congressman Mike Quigley of Illinois. Thank you very much, sir, for coming on the program. Always great to have you.

QUIGLEY: You too. Thank you.

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