WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump's former campaign manager on Tuesday dodged House Democrats' questions about a key episode of potential obstruction of justice laid out in the special counsel's report, frustrating lawmakers during a Judiciary Committee hearing.
Corey Lewandowski, who worked for Trump for part of the 2016 campaign but never worked for him in the White House, said he was respecting the White House's wishes that he not answer questions about his conversations with the president.
"The White House has directed that I not disclose the substance of any discussion with the president or his advisers to protect executive branch confidentiality," he said. "I recognize this is not my privilege, but I am respecting the White House's decision."
But it was Lewandowski's attitude that most angered panel Democrats -- even prompting a threat of contempt from Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I.
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Democrats chided Lewandowski, accusing him of being disrespectful and of filibustering their hearing. "Mr. Lewandowski, you're like a fish being cleaned with a spoon; it's very hard to get an answer out of you," said Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga. Added Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas: "This is the House Judiciary Committee, not a house party."
"This is my time," said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., when Lewandowski talked over her. "You are a witness before the Judiciary Committee. Please act like it."
The hearing was the first under the committee's new rules as it weighs whether to draft articles of impeachment against Trump. House Democrats subpoenaed Lewandowski to testify about one episode of potential obstruction of justice described in former special counsel Robert Mueller's report into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
As Mueller recounts in his report, Trump met with Lewandowski in the Oval Office two days after he directed Donald McGahn, the White House counsel at the time, to fire the special counsel. This time, Trump criticized Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from overseeing the Russia investigation. Trump then dictated a message for Lewandowski to deliver to Sessions, according to the report.
The message said that Sessions should give a speech announcing that Trump had been treated unfairly and that the attorney general would limit the scope of the special counsel investigation, the report said.
Lewandowski never delivered the message, the report found -- instead passing it off to another Trump official.
On Tuesday, Lewandowski quickly dashed any hopes Democrats had that he would provide more information about the meeting. He set the tone in his opening statement, mocking Democrats and ridiculing what he called the "fake Russia collusion narrative."
"We as a nation would be better served if elected officials like you concentrated your efforts to combat the true crises facing our country as opposed to going down rabbit holes like this hearing," Lewandowski said. "If instead of focusing on petty and personal politics, the committee focused on solving the challenges of this generation, imagine how many people we could help."
He later added: "It is now clear the [Mueller] investigation was populated by many Trump haters who had their own agenda -- to try to take down a duly elected president of the United States," he said. "As for actual 'collusion,' or 'conspiracy,' there was none. What there has been however, is harassment of the president from the day he won the election."
Lewandowski extolled Trump for "receiv[ing] more votes than any candidate in the history of the Republican Party," and he praised the president for creating a "historical movement."
Lewandowski also took a swipe at Trump's 2016 rival, Hillary Clinton, and her handling of emails, and he criticized President Barack Obama's administration for its inability to stop Russian election interference.
"Donald Trump was a private citizen and had no more responsibility than I did to protect the 2016 election," he said. "That fell to the Obama-[Joe] Biden administration, and they failed. "
Trump, who was watching the hearing, hailed the performance.
"Such a beautiful Opening Statement by Corey Lewandowski! Thank you Corey!" he tweeted.
DISPUTES WITH DEMOCRATS
Lewandowski's appearance marks the first time House Democrats have had a key witness in the Mueller investigation testify in public. Democrats had argued that even if Lewandowski were combative, he could confirm exactly what he told Mueller's prosecutors -- information they believe undermines the president.
But even getting Lewandowski to confirm what he told Mueller proved tricky.
When Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., the committee's chairman, asked Lewandowski if it was correct -- as stated in the Mueller report -- that he had met alone with Trump in the Oval Office in the summer of 2017, Lewandowski balked.
"Could you repeat the exact language of the report, sir?" Lewandowski said. "Congressman, I would like you to refresh my memory of the report so I could read along," he added, noting that he had not gone to the hearing with a copy of the more than 400-page document.
Nadler had staff members give Lewandowski a printed copy of the report.
"Mr. Chairman, where on page 90 is it?" Lewandowski said.
"Do you not have an independent recollection?" Nadler asked.
Jackson Lee then asked Lewandowski about why Trump went to him and not to officials in the White House to try to get Sessions to limit the scope of the Mueller investigation. But Lewandowski once again wouldn't go there.
"I'm respecting the executive branch privilege of confidentiality," he said.
"You are obviously here to block any truth," Jackson Lee said. "He called you to do his dirty work for him."
At one point, Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., tried to get Lewandowski to read the section in the Mueller report about him. Lewandowski wouldn't do it, and he poked fun at the congressman's failed campaign for higher office, calling him "President Swalwell."
That's when Swalwell suggested that Lewandowski was too "ashamed" to read the report out loud.
"I'm not ashamed of anything in my life," Lewandowski shot back.
"Did you have a consciousness of guilt, and that's why you can't read them aloud?" Swalwell asked.
The back-and-forth prompted Nadler to jump in to accuse Lewandowski of obstructing the committee's work. Cicilline agreed, suggesting the panel should hold Lewandowski in contempt.
Nadler said he'd take the proposal under consideration and that the staff was considering the next steps.
When Lewandowski did answer questions, he suggested Trump did nothing wrong. He said he never delivered Trump's message to Sessions because he went on "vacation" and merely ran out of time -- not because he worried Trump's request was illegal.
"Didn't you think it was a little strange the president would sit down with you one-on-one and ask you to do something that you knew was against the law?" asked Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn. "Did that strike you as strange?"
Lewandowski disagreed: "I didn't think the president asked me to do anything illegal."
When Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., asked Lewandowski: "Are you the hit man, bag man, the lookout, or all of the above?" Lewandowski replied: "I think I'm the good-looking man, actually."
Lewandowski also scolded Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., for saying the tooth fairy was not real. "My children are watching, so thank you for that," Lewandowski said.
Republicans on the committee sympathized with Lewandowski.
"Why do Dems continue this charade?" Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., asked. Lewandowski replied: "I think they hate this president more than they love their country."
Republicans asserted that, while Lewandowski was running Trump's presidential campaign, officials in the Obama administration did not give the campaign a briefing about Russian attempts to interfere with the 2016 election.
Lewandowski said it was "unfathomable to me that they didn't contact a major political nominee for president of the United States and inform them of potential threats against election process in 2016."
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said the FBI was "trying to trap the president."
Tuesday's hearing -- titled "Presidential Obstruction of Justice and Abuse of Power" -- was also scheduled to include testimony from Rick Dearborn, a former Trump campaign adviser and ex-White House deputy chief of staff, and from Rob Porter, a former White House staff secretary.
But Trump has blocked their appearances, saying they are "absolutely immune from compelled congressional testimony with respect to matters related to their service as senior advisers to the President," according to a letter sent to Nadler on Monday by White House Counsel Pat Cipollone.
Nadler called the White House's efforts to restrict testimony "a shocking and dangerous assertion of executive privilege and absolute immunity."
Democrats say the White House's rationale isn't legally sound, and they are challenging the idea of "absolute immunity" in court.
Information for this article was contributed by Rachael Bade, Colby Itkowitz, John Wagner and Josh Dawsey of The Washington Post; by Maggie Haberman and Nicholas Fandos of The New York Times; and by Mary Clare Jalonick and Laurie Kellman of The Associated Press.
A Section on 09/18/2019