Transcript - Interview: Bret Baier Interviews Devin Nunes on Fox' Special Report - February 2, 2018 | Factba.se

Bret Baier

00:00:00 - 00:00:10 (11 sec)

Let's get the inside story on the memo from the man in charge. Devin Nunes is the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee that released this document. Mr. Chairman -- thanks for joining us.

Devin Nunes

00:00:10 - 00:00:12 (2 sec)

Great to be with you -- Bret.

Bret Baier

00:00:12 - 00:00:17 (5 sec)

What do you think the biggest take away from this memo is in your eyes?

Devin Nunes

00:00:17 - 00:00:49 (33 sec)

Well, I'm sad that we had to get to this point. We should have never, never been here. It's unfortunate. I didn't want to have to do this. But the sad part is that I have an obligation to the American people when we see FISA abuse. So these are secret courts that exist to target foreigners for catching terrorists, for catching people who might be actors. And the American citizens that are represented before this court have to be protected. And the only place that can protect them is the U.S. Congress when abuses do occur. [Crosstalk]

Bret Baier

00:00:49 - 00:00:51 (2 sec)

Did you write the memo?

Devin Nunes

00:00:51 - 00:00:55 (4 sec)

So it's not a place we wanted to go. It's not a place we wanted to go but it's where we had to go.

Bret Baier

00:00:55 - 00:00:57 (2 sec)

Did you write it?

Devin Nunes

00:00:57 - 00:01:03 (6 sec)

Myself, Trey Gowdy, our two investigators and then obviously checked by the lawyers and the rest of our committee members.

Bret Baier

00:01:03 - 00:01:07 (4 sec)

Did you read the actual FISA applications?

Devin Nunes

00:01:07 - 00:01:36 (29 sec)

No, I didn't. And this has been one of these bogus news stories that have been put out. So the agreement we made with the Department of Justice was to create a reading room and allow one member and two investigators to go over and review the documents. I thought the best person on our committee will be the chairman of the Oversight Committee Trey Gowdy, who has a long career as a federal prosecutor, to go and do this. And then, over a series of meetings, would come back with their notes and brief the rest of the committee members.

Bret Baier

00:01:36 - 00:01:44 (8 sec)

Did you or anyone on your committee coordinate in any way with President Trump or the administration on the release of this memo? For the structure of the memo? [Crosstalk]

Devin Nunes

00:01:44 - 00:01:53 (9 sec)

No, in fact, we opened up this -- no. In fact we opened an investigation into the DOJ and FBI for FISA abuse and other matters last summer, in the summer of '17.

Bret Baier

00:01:53 - 00:01:56 (3 sec)

How about with President Trump's lawyers in any way?

Devin Nunes

00:01:56 - 00:01:57 (1 sec)

Bret Baier

00:01:57 - 00:02:13 (16 sec)

Outside conservative groups, just one today, put out an ad that's targeting Rod Rosenstein the deputy attorney general, saying that he needs to do his job or quit. And -- it seems like it was timed out. But did you work with any outside groups in the formulation of this memo?

Devin Nunes

00:02:13 - 00:02:34 (21 sec)

No, no, I didn't. In fact, I personally like Rod Rosenstein. But look the bottom line here is Mr. Rosenstein, Mr. Sessions -- Attorney General Sessions -- and Director Wray have work to do. And they can't start doing their work to root out the problems if you don't admit first that you have a problem. And they've been unwilling to do that. But I don't work with outside groups on this.

Bret Baier

00:02:34 - 00:02:50 (16 sec)

All right. The FBI, DOJ, other intel agencies -- all say there are material omissions in this memo. What did you leave out? Is there justification for the FBI behavior you detail in this memo that we have yet to learn?

Devin Nunes

00:02:50 - 00:03:19 (29 sec)

Yes. So we looked specifically at just FISA abuse. We wanted to keep sources and methods out. If you remember ten days ago we were accused of a lot of things, especially that we were going to disclose our nation's top secrets. I think everybody's learned that was a total fallacy that was put out by the left and the mainstream media. We didn't disclose any secrets. Part of that is we had to take all of this information and reduce it down into a summary with just the pertinent facts about the FISA abuse.

Devin Nunes

00:03:19 - 00:03:48 (29 sec)

The only area that I am familiar with that we left out would be the history of Carter Page. I explained why we left this out to the director of the FBI. The director of the FBI is well aware of my concerns about Mr. Page. And I don't believe that somebody like Mr. Page should be a target of the FBI especially using salacious information paid for by a political campaign like this dossier was about Mr.

Devin Nunes

00:03:48 - 00:04:01 (13 sec)

Page and then supplemented by a news story that was -- that was -- that was actually created by Christopher Steele himself, the author of the dossier. This is outrageous that this happened.

Bret Baier

00:04:01 - 00:04:04 (3 sec)

Will you vote to release the Democrats memo?

Devin Nunes

00:04:04 - 00:04:06 (1 sec)

Bret Baier

00:04:06 - 00:04:07 (1 sec)

When is that going to happen?

Devin Nunes

00:04:07 - 00:04:09 (2 sec)

But it has to go through -- it has to go through the same process.

Bret Baier

00:04:09 - 00:04:11 (2 sec)

When do you think it will be released?

Devin Nunes

00:04:11 - 00:04:39 (28 sec)

Hard to say. I don't know yet. We haven't even -- I have only read through it once. We're going to have to go through and scrub it again. And let's not forget. These are the same Democrats who never wanted to start an investigation. These are the same Democrats who blocked our subpoenas, or tried to block our subpoenas back in August. They tried to block our ability to go and get the records from Fusion GPS that led to a lot of discoveries in this investigation.

Devin Nunes

00:04:39 - 00:04:52 (13 sec)

So these are not honest actors. They know they are not being honest actors. And, you know, I get tired of playing whack a mole every day with the Democrats on this committee who never wanted to start this investigation in the first place.

Bret Baier

00:04:52 - 00:05:16 (24 sec)

Democrats are criticizing a lot as you can imagine. I'm sure you've heard. But they're jumping on one particular part of the memo in particular. The number 4 -- the memo states that then deputy director of the FBI Andrew McCabe quote, testified before the committee in December 2017 that no surveillance warrant would have been sought from the FISA court without the Steele dossier information. Democrats say he never said that. Did he?

Devin Nunes

00:05:16 - 00:05:36 (20 sec)

Yes, I mean this is -- it's a summation of a long interview. And that is definitely what he said. Not to mention we have other witnesses who said very similar things. So the fact of the matter is the main things that were used to go out and get this warrant was the dossier and the story that corroborated the dossier -- [Crosstalk]

Bret Baier

00:05:36 - 00:05:41 (6 sec)

So why not put McCabe's quote in there or release the transcript?

Devin Nunes

00:05:41 - 00:05:51 (10 sec)

Well, that would be a whole process that we'd have to go through. Actually the quotes, I think, are pretty damning themselves. So I would not mind doing that but we would have to go through a whole process to release transcripts.

Bret Baier

00:05:51 - 00:06:02 (10 sec)

So you were getting to the point about how much of the FISA applications relied on the Steele dossier. Was this characteristic? You said they were integral? Or it was integral?

Devin Nunes

00:06:02 - 00:06:30 (28 sec)

Yes. They wouldn't have received a warrant without the dossier. The dossier was presented to the court as if it was true. The court was not told that the Democrats actually paid for this. And just step back for a moment. This is not trying to go after some terrorist. This is about -- they opened, the FBI opened a counter- intelligence investigation into the Trump campaign in the summer of 2016. That's what happened.

Devin Nunes

00:06:30 - 00:06:43 (13 sec)

And then they got a warrant on someone in the Trump campaign using opposition research paid for by the Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign. That's what this is about. And it's wrong. And it should never be done.

Bret Baier

00:06:43 - 00:06:47 (4 sec)

Is it true that the FBI led the FISA application with the dossier?

Devin Nunes

00:06:47 - 00:06:57 (10 sec)

Yes, most of the -- the largest percentage of the entire application has to do with the dossier and then using the news story to corroborate the dossier.

Bret Baier

00:06:57 - 00:07:08 (11 sec)

There are Democrats on your committee talking on another channel today who insisted that the FISA court was told of the political nature of this information. Take a listen. [Begin Video Clip]

Jake Tapper

00:07:08 - 00:07:27 (18 sec)

Is there anything inappropriate, do you think, about a partisan political document -- the Steele dossier -- being used in an application to surveil an associate of a presidential candidate, in this case Carter Page? Especially if that tack is not disclosed in the application -- is that inherently wrong do you think?

Eric Swalwell

00:07:27 - 00:07:40 (13 sec)

Jake that fact was disclosed. It was disclosed to the FISA court that part of the evidence was from a politically motivated source. [End Video Clip]

Bret Baier

00:07:40 - 00:07:40 (0 sec)

Devin Nunes

00:07:40 - 00:07:45 (6 sec)

No. I mean these are things I said earlier. I mean these guys tell so many lies, you can't keep track of them.

Bret Baier

00:07:45 - 00:07:47 (2 sec)

That's not true?

Devin Nunes

00:07:47 - 00:08:14 (27 sec)

No. The court was not made aware. And I would think that a judge -- if the judge knew that hey, we're opening an -- we have an investigation of the Trump campaign. We're going after this Trump campaign adviser and, oh by the way, Hillary Clinton's campaign paid for all this information. If that did happen, which it didn't, but if that court did know that, the judge would have to be I think considered very suspect. But I don't believe that that happened at all.

Bret Baier

00:08:14 - 00:08:27 (14 sec)

The former FBI director James Comey, I know you heard in John's piece, tweeted out that's it -- and went on to criticize this entire operation. Your thoughts on that tweet and Comey's reaction?

Devin Nunes

00:08:27 - 00:08:57 (30 sec)

Well, Mr. Comey had a chance in January, February, March, April - - I believe all the way until June to come clean on who paid for the dossier. He was asked about it in January. And he said very clearly that he knew that Republicans had started the dossier, which was a lie. And then when asked and probed further, well who finished the dossier? He didn't know. Now, maybe he was lying, maybe he didn't know -- but both seem to be a problem.

Devin Nunes

00:08:57 - 00:09:22 (25 sec)

So Mr. Comey is welcome to come back, tell us when exactly he learned the Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign paid for the dossier. He's welcome to come back and share that information. But, I think the American people understand that the FBI should not go to secret courts using information that was paid for by the Democrats to open up investigations to get warrants on people of the other political party.

Devin Nunes

00:09:22 - 00:09:24 (2 sec)

That's the type of stuff that happens in banana republics.

Bret Baier

00:09:24 - 00:09:32 (7 sec)

Comey said in testimony that some of the dossier's unverified and salacious. Are there parts of the dossier that are true?

Devin Nunes

00:09:32 - 00:09:36 (5 sec)

What -- that Russia is a country and Carter Page is a person? I mean other than that, I don't know anything.

Bret Baier

00:09:36 - 00:09:43 (7 sec)

You don't know anything that's been corroborated by intel as a part of that dossier?

Devin Nunes

00:09:43 - 00:10:09 (26 sec)

No, very little. And I think if you actually look at that dossier from the beginning I don't know what FBI agent -- what they were smoking that would think that Carter Page who's somebody who hasn't had a job for many years, who is obviously a Russian sympathizer, but that somehow the Russians who actually said he was an idiot in court testimony, this was presented before the court; so Russian agents said that Carter Page was an idiot.

Devin Nunes

00:10:09 - 00:10:30 (21 sec)

And do you think that the Russian were going to offer him like a 19 percent share of the major oil company in Russia? I mean this is crazy. And so when somebody first reads that dossier, I would think you would come away from that and think, ok, this is really pretty -- this is wild stuff. In fact, there was probably -- there's a good chance, let's not forget where the dossier came from -- it came from Russians.

Devin Nunes

00:10:30 - 00:10:43 (13 sec)

So there is clear evidence of collusion with the Russians, it just happens to be with Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee that the news media fails to talk about or fails to even investigate.

Bret Baier

00:10:43 - 00:11:03 (20 sec)

Mr. Chairman -- you know FISA is controversial to begin with. It was challenged for reauthorization, section 702 recently. Members often look for reasons to vote against FISA. Some of them civil liberties concerns. Wasn't the cart before the horse here? Was the memo withheld until FISA section 702 was voted on by Congress?

Devin Nunes

00:11:03 - 00:11:07 (4 sec)

No, so remember, 702 is different. We're operating differently - -

Bret Baier

00:11:07 - 00:11:10 (3 sec)

Understood, it's different but it's still -- [Crosstalk]

Devin Nunes

00:11:10 - 00:11:40 (30 sec)

But we found no abuses within 702. I made that clear to my colleagues. Don't forget the FBI and DOJ stonewalled us. We had to subpoena documents in August. We had several meetings all through the fall trying to get documents. Remember in -- at the beginning of January, people tend to forget this, when the FBI director and then Mr. Rosenstein tried to do an end run around our committee and attempted to go to the Speaker so that we would not hold them in contempt? That was not until -- that was not until just a few weeks ago.

Bret Baier

00:11:40 - 00:11:41 (1 sec)

Devin Nunes

00:11:41 - 00:11:42 (1 sec)

So it's -- [Crosstalk]

Bret Baier

00:11:42 - 00:11:53 (11 sec)

Let me ask about that. January 10 -- there was supposedly a meeting where Rosenstein comes up to you about document production and it got fairly heated. Is that accurate?

Devin Nunes

00:11:53 - 00:12:05 (12 sec)

Look, I mean I've had several meetings with Mr. Rosenstein. And I like him personally. And I think that he can fix the problems over at DOJ. And we are willing to work with him.

Bret Baier

00:12:05 - 00:12:08 (3 sec)

You don't think he should be fired from his job?

Devin Nunes

00:12:08 - 00:12:17 (9 sec)

Well, look, that's not my decision. All I can say is that Mr. Rosenstein has a long career. But look, he's never really been in Washington, D.C. [Crosstalk]

Bret Baier

00:12:17 - 00:12:24 (7 sec)

But you know there are some members who are using this to question the Mueller investigation. Are you separating the two?

Devin Nunes

00:12:24 - 00:12:46 (22 sec)

Well, I think what happened is, I think the mainstream media and the Democrats are tying this to the Mueller investigation because they are trying to perpetuate this nonsense of obstruction of justice because they've left the Russia collusion issue. They know there was no collusion. And you know, I have been saying this for a year now that there was no evidence of collusion.

Bret Baier

00:12:46 - 00:12:46 (0 sec)

Are there other memos --

Devin Nunes

00:12:46 - 00:12:48 (2 sec)

And so now you fast forward - -

Bret Baier

00:12:48 - 00:12:53 (5 sec)

Are there other memos that are going to come out? Are there other memos -- you said this was phase one?

Devin Nunes

00:12:53 - 00:13:23 (30 sec)

Yes, so this completes just the FISA abuse portion of our investigation. We are in the middle of what I call phase 2 of our investigation which involves other departments specifically the State Department and some of the involvement that they had in this. That investigation is ongoing. And we continue to work towards finding answers and asking the right questions to try to get to the bottom of what exactly the State Department was up to in terms of this Russia investigation.

Bret Baier

00:13:23 - 00:13:38 (14 sec)

Quickly, Mr. Chairman -- some people have called you a Russian agent. Others have said you should be fired. The barbs today on cable TV were pretty amazing. Your thoughts in dealing with all of this in the job that you have.

Devin Nunes

00:13:38 - 00:13:50 (13 sec)

Yes, it's actually quite enjoyable because, we have the underlying facts. We have been investigating this for a really long time. So you know that you are over the target when you are being attacked from all sides.

Bret Baier

00:13:50 - 00:13:55 (4 sec)

Mr. Chairman we have to leave it. Computer's going to cut us off. We appreciate the time -- sir.

Devin Nunes

00:13:55 - 00:13:55 (0 sec)

Bret Baier

00:13:55 - 00:13:57 (2 sec)

And we will follow it up.

Devin Nunes

00:13:57 - 00:13:58 (2 sec)

Thank you -- Bret.