Schiff: We'll Sue Trump Administration If Mueller's Report Not Made Public.
WHITFIELD: Today, Democratic Congressman and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff threatened to sue the Trump administration and subpoena Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report and bring Mueller in to testify. Schiff says he'll do that if the special counsel's report on possible Russian involvement in the 2016 election is not made public after it goes to U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr.</s>REP. ADAM SCHIFF, (D) CHAIRMAN, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: We will obviously subpoena the report. We will bring Bob Mueller in to testify before Congress. We will take it to court if necessary. And in the end, I think the department understands they're going to have to make this public. I think Barr will ultimately understand that as well. Barr comes into this job with two strikes against him. He applied for the job by demonstrating a bias against the Mueller investigation. Indeed, that's part of the reason he was hired. He's also not been willing to commit to following the advice of ethics lawyers. Indeed, that was part of the reason he was hired. If he were to try to withhold, to try to bury any part of this report, that will be his legacy and it will be a tarnished legacy. So I think there'll be immense pressure not only on the department but on the attorney general to be forthcoming.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. With me now is Ross Garber, CNN legal analyst and an expert on Politico investigations and impeachment law. Good to see you Ross. So, is this --</s>ROSS GARBER, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Good to see you.</s>WHITFIELD: -- Schiff's idea of kind of strong-arming? You know, the attorney general ahead of time to say, you know, if you don't then we're only going to do this.</s>GARBER: I think his message is, you know, clearly conveyed and probably clearly received. That doesn't mean it's going to be effective though. There are lots of hurdles I think to Congress getting this report or the public getting the report.</s>WHITFIELD: So is there a legal recourse to do that, to sue if, you know, a delicate request is not honored, then to sue, and is the law behind Democrats who do that?</s>GARBER: Yes. So I mean, let's think about the impediments, the problems in the way. The first is that this report under Department of Justice regulations, this Mueller report is to be kept confidential. That's what the regulations say. It's a report from Mueller to the attorney general and it's to be kept confidential. The regulations say that it's up to the attorney general, at his discretion to decide what, if any, information is to be made public. So that's how the regulations are structured. Now, Congress certainly can issue a subpoena for testimony and for these materials. So Congress could issue a subpoena for this information. The problem is then the Department of Justice and the Special Counsel's Office could resist the subpoena and refuse to comply. And, you know, the House has difficulty enforcing its subpoenas.</s>WHITFIELD: So then will the House have to further justify why it's, you know, making the subpoena --</s>GARBER: Yes.</s>WHITFIELD: -- making its case to the Justice Department? And I imagine the case is going to be for the sake of transparency, especially heading into yet another presidential election.</s>GARBER: Yes. So the House's argument is easier, exactly right? Transparency, these are super important issues to know about, for the American people to know about. What the Department of Justice might say is, yes, there are those regulations, there are also privileges, the executive privilege and also grand jury secrecy that might come into play and so they'll oversee this. Congress, the House could issue a subpoena for the information and then it could go to court. That's normally what happens with these subpoenas. The House says, you know, it's been a long time since they've arrested somebody and thrown them in the House jail. That's not going to happen. They're not going to have the Department of Justice prosecute anybody. So they're going to have to go to court and these cases tend to take a very long time. You know, President Obama --</s>WHITFIELD: So that's not sounding like a long time, that's not sounding like a year, you know, before people go to the --</s>GARBER: Yes.</s>WHITFIELD: -- ballot and make their decision, you know --</s>GARBER: Right. Yes. That's going to be issue, Fred.</s>WHITFIELD: -- about whether Russia is influencing a candidate.</s>GARBER: Yes. And President Obama's attorney general, Eric Holder, resisted a subpoena --</s>WHITFIELD: Yes.</s>GARBER: -- from Congress for information. He was held in contempt of Congress, and that case went to court, and it's taken years and years. I think about six years, for that to wind its way through the system. So it's a long process.</s>WHITFIELD: OK. And still under the umbrella of the investigations, although it kind of, you know, went off into another tangent involving the Southern District of New York, we're talking about the former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen. Well, he's going to be on Capitol Hill this week, testifying before three different committees and Schiff believes that he has a lot to offer on the overall big picture. Take a listen to what Schiff had to say.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Michael Cohen is going to appear before your committee behind closed doors on Thursday. What do you hope to learn from him that you don't already now?</s>SCHIFF: Well, great deal starting with why the false statements before our committee when he first appeared. Did they go beyond what he told us about Moscow Trump Tower into other areas as well? Who would have been aware of the false testimony that he was giving? What other light can he shed now that he's cooperating on issues of obstruction of justice or collusion? What more can he tell us about the Trump Tower New York meeting or any other issues relevant to our investigation? We think he has a lot to offer.</s>WHITFIELD: So then, Ross, how does this, you know, advance a separate case as opposed to, you know, waiting to hear what the Southern District of New York has to say, waiting to hear what Mueller's report, you know, may shed light on as it pertains to Michael Cohen. How it-- you know, what's the avenue for this and why?</s>GARBER: Yes. So the first thing to keep in mind is one of these committees is going to have public testimony with Michael Cohen. That's a big deal. Most of what we've learned in all of these investigations has come through reporting, you know, reading it in newspapers or watching it on cable news or reading about it in indictments. This is really one of the first times we're actually going to get to see one of the players be questioned under oath about some key issues. Now, the public testimony is not going to include the Russia staff, but it is going to include issues of Trump's taxes, his business practices campaign finance issues, lots of stuff. And that's going to be very interesting. Now the closed door stuff will include Russia information and Michael Cohen, you know, that he was Trump's fixer, his lawyer, he was in a position to know a lot. The question is, does he know a lot and will he tell the truth?</s>WHITFIELD: Yes. All right, Ross Garber, good to see you. Thank you so much.</s>GARBER: Good to see you.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Still ahead, Pope Francis calls priests who abused children tools of Satan. But what is the Catholic Church going to do about all of it? We'll take -- we'll ask a former member of the Vatican Child Protection Commission, next.