Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski is testifying about the report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller before the House Judiciary Committee at the hearing on Tuesday. The White House directed former officials Rob Porter and Rick Dearborn to defy subpoenas from the committee to appear at the committee’s first formal hearing on impeachment proceedings against the president.
In his opening statement, Lewandowski noted that he has “already testified before Congress on three separate occasions” and called the committee’s impeachment inquiry “unfair.”
“To the best of my recollection, I don’t recall ever having any conversations with foreign entities — let alone any who were offering help to manipulate the outcome of the election. As I have said publicly many times, anyone who attempted to illegally impact the outcome of the election should spend the rest of their life in jail,” Lewandowski said of his time as President Trump’s campaign manager.
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In a tweet, Mr. Trump praised Lewandowski’s opening statement.
“Such a beautiful Opening Statement by Corey Lewandowski! Thank you Corey!” Mr. Trump wrote.
The hearing commenced in fits and starts, with Democrats accusing Lewandowski and Republicans seeking to filibuster any answers. Nadler began his questioning by citing an incident in the Mueller report. Lewandowski asked for a copy of the report itself to refresh his memory. Every time Lewandowski was asked about an episode in the report, he stalled by looking for it in the report. Lewandowski also refused to read passages from the Mueller report on the screens in front of him. He later told Congressman Eric Swalwell that he wanted the same “privilege” afforded to Mueller, since the special counsel had declined to read directly from the report when he testified.
Republicans also moved to adjourn the hearing, and called for a roll call vote when Nadler tried to dispense of the motion with a voice vote. The motion to adjourn failed.
Throughout his testimony, Lewandowski maintained that Mr. Trump had never made any improper requests. Democrats focused their questioning on an incident detailed in the Mueller report on June 19, 2017, when Mr. Trump asked Lewandowski to direct then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to limit the scope of the Mueller probe.
When asked by Congressman Steve Cohen about the incident, Lewandowski said: “The president never asked me to do anything illegal.” However, he did confirm to Democratic Congressman Hank Johnson that those conversations with Mr. Trump about delivering a message to Sessions did occur.
Lewandowski did not refer the request to Sessions, but instead relayed it to Dearborn. When asked by multiple Democrats why he did not relay the message to Sessions, Lewandowski insisted that it was because he was on vacation. He later said that he wanted to give Sessions the message in a “relaxed” setting, but that it slipped his mind.
“I wanted to get an opportunity to speak with Jeff in a more relaxed atmosphere,” Lewandowski claimed.
When asked by Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz why he believed Democrats were pursuing the impeachment inquiry, Lewandowski pulled no punches.
“I think they hate this president more than they love this country,” Lewandowski said, to visible surprise from the Democratic members of the panel.
In another barbed interaction with a Democratic member of the committee, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries asked if Lewandowski was “a hit man, the bag man, the lookout or all of the above.”
“I think I’m a good-looking man,” Lewandowski responded.
Lewandowski, who is considering running for Senate in New Hampshire, introduced and promoted a website supporting a potential campaign on Twitter during the hearing.
The White House counsel wrote in a letter that Lewandowski’s “conversations with the President and with senior advisers to the President are protected from disclosure by long-settled principles protecting Executive Branch confidentiality interest,” even though Lewandowski never worked for the administration.
“Mr. Lewandowski will testify before Congress regarding matters already made public in the Mueller report. Any information about his communications with the President or with senior advisers to the President not already disclosed in the Mueller report, however, remains confidential,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Steven Groves said in a statement.
The Justice Department also wrote in two letters to White House Counsel Pat Cipollone that Porter and Dearborn were “absolutely immune from compelled congressional testimony” because of their status as former top advisers to the president.
Meanwhile, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler said that blocking Porter and Dearborn’s testimony, and limiting Lewandowski’s, was a “shocking and dangerous assertion of executive privilege and absolute immunity.”
“The President would have us believe that he can willfully engage in criminal activity and prevent witnesses from testifying before Congress — even if they did not actually work for him or his administration,” Nadler said in a statement. “If he were to prevail in this cover-up while the Judiciary Committee is considering whether to recommend articles of impeachment, he would upend the separation of powers as envisioned by our founders.”
It’s unlikely that the committee will glean any new information from Lewandowski’s testimony. Mueller testified about his report before the committee in July, and declined to offer further information about his investigation, or say definitively that Mr. Trump obstructed justice by attempting to block the special counsel probe.
Lewandowski, a staunch supporter of the president who is mulling a run for the Senate, said in a tweet Tuesday morning that he was “excited” to talk about the report.
“Excited about the opportunity to remind the American people today there was no collusion no obstruction. There were lots of angry Democrats who tried to take down a duly elected President,” Lewandowski wrote.
The Judiciary Committee voted Thursday in favor of a new resolution formalizing the impeachment inquiry and further intensifying its investigation into Mr. Trump.
While mostly technical, the committee’s vote also moved to install new procedures for its inquiry, allowing committee chairman Jerry Nadler to designate which committee and subcommittee hearings are related to the probe, give the committee counsel extra time to question witnesses and receive evidence in closed executive session.
Rebecca Kaplan and Emily Tillett contributed to this report
