Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski testifies

Asked by CNN’s Manu Raju if it would be OK if a Democratic president sought to limit an investigation into his or her campaign, Corey Lewandowski responded with a question.

As Lewandowski exited the House of Representatives’ office building this evening, an ABC photographer shooting his departure tripped badly and fell backward into a table. 

Lewandowski turned but did not stop and continued to exit the building. 

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler told CNN that today’s hearing adds more weight for impeachment. 

“Article 3 of Nixon’s impeachment was obstruction of Congress, refusing to obey defined congressional subpoenas, pleading imaginary privileges. And obviously that’s what the President has been doing,” the Democratic lawmaker said.

Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski just wrapped up his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee.

Moments before the hearing ended, Democrat counsel Barry Berke grilled Lewandowski about statements in his book, and asked him if he signed copies of the Mueller report recently.

When Berke’s time expired, Chairman Jerry Nadler refused to allow Republican Rep. Doug Collins, a ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, to ask questions, saying a staff member could ask questions.

Collins called it a “sham” and that the Republicans could not go along with it. He said they would not have a staff member ask questions.

Under intense questioning from attorney Barry Berke, Corey Lewandowski acknowledged “perhaps I was inaccurate that time,” after he was shown a video of a February 2019 interview in which he said he did not remember the President ever asking him to get involved with then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions or the Department of Justice.

The former Trump campaign manager said he is a “truth teller” whenever he stands before Congress or takes an oath.

Lewandowski’s statement to MSNBC is at odds with what he told special counsel Robert Mueller and acknowledged to the House Judiciary committee today about the message the President asked him to bring to Jeff Sessions.

What he said earlier today: Lewandowski confirmed that he wanted to convey Trump’s message to Sessions about blocking the investigation from examining the 2016 race, but he said a family vacation got in the way.

Barry Berke, an attorney for the Democrats, has begun his questioning session.

He was given 30 minutes to question Corey Lewandowski.

Earlier, Republicans sought to prevent Berke from questioning Lewandowski.

Chairman Jerry Nadler rebuked Corey Lewandowski, calling his behavior in the hearing “completely unacceptable” and “part of a pattern by a White House desperate for the American people not to hear the truth.” 

Nadler said holding Lewandowski in contempt was “certainly under consideration.”

He went on to say that a “far more troubling level of contempt” exhibited in today’s hearing is the President’s role in Lewandowski’s refusal to answer questions, saying it furthers the “pattern of obstruction” laid out in the Mueller report. Nadler said exposing misconduct by the President is the committee’s top priority.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Republican from Florida, interrupted to ask Nadler if he had this speech to Lewandowski prepared in advance. Nadler said he did not.

Rep. Jerry Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, pushed to allow Barry Berke, an attorney for the Democrats, to ask questions during today’s hearing.

Republican. Rep. Doug Collins pushed back, saying Berke is a consultant and that it is a normal oversight hearing. 

“We are not in an impeachment inquiry,” Collins told Nadler, “You can’t just make it up on the fly.”

Nadler responded to Collins, and said, “We are in an impeachment investigation.” says He went on to say it is not “relevant to this question.” 

Nadler said consultants have previously been retained and overruled Collins’ point of order.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat from California, used her questioning period to ask Corey Lewandowski about the Mueller report’s revelation that former Trump campaign chair, Paul Manafort, shared internal polling data with a Russian operative

Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager, agreed with Lofgren that “it’s a good general rule” that internal polling data is generally not shared broadly, but rather is used by campaigns to formulate strategy. Lewandowski said he didn’t know Manafort would share the information and he didn’t know whether the Russians had asked for it.

“We know where Mr. Manafort is,” Lewandowski said, referring to Manafort being sentenced to prison. He added that he thinks Manafort is “currently available for questioning.”

Lewandowski said Rick Gates, one of Manafort’s associates, would also be able to answer whether the Russians asked for Trump campaign internal polling data. 

Lewandowski also said he didn’t think Trump was advised of the “day to day minutiae” of his campaign while he was a candidate. He said the campaign didn’t do any internal polling for the first 15 months.

In another contentious moment during today’s hearing, Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal admonished Corey Lewandowski for his combative attitude as she pressed him on whether he ever lied to President Trump or the special counsel’s office. 

“Excuse me, Mr. Lewandowski this is my time. You are not yet in the Senate. You are a witness before the Judiciary committee, please act like it,” Jayapal said, subtly digging at Lewandowski’s intent to pursue a Senate run in New Hampshire. 

Jayapal had been asking Lewandowski about a tweet from the President April this year, where Trump claimed that statements made by witnesses in the Mueller report were “fabricated.” 

But Lewandowski pushed back, saying, “I won’t comment on private conversations, but I don’t appreciate the insinuation that I lied about anything. And I’ve answered it multiple times.”

And in a bizarre earlier exchange, Lewandowski told the congresswoman he was unsure if he followed the President on Twitter, adding he “may be the only one who doesn’t.”

One thing to note: Lewandowski only follows 51 accounts, including Trump’s Twitter account, according to his Twitter page. 

Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin pressed Corey Lewandowski on his belief in executive privilege. Lewandowski avoided the questions, saying he didn’t believe it was his privilege to waive.

That’s when Raskin fired back that he didn’t believe it was anyone’s privilege to waive because he doesn’t think it exists — “like the tooth fairy.” Lewandowski took offense to this characterization because he said his children were watching the televised hearing.

Here’s how the exchange went down:

Raskin: Let me ask you a question, are you representing the White House has told you that they are invoking the executive privilege on your behalf today?

Lewandowski: I don’t believe it’s an executive privilege, sir. And again, I think we’ve submitted the letter for your clarification of what the White House has said.

Raskin: Well let me ask you…

Lewandowski: It’s not my privilege to waive.

Raskin: Well, I don’t think it’s anyone’s privilege to waive because I don’t think it exists, Mr. Lewandowski. I think the whole thing is imaginary. It’s like the tooth fairy. You didn’t work for the President…

Lewandowski: My children are watching. Thank you, congressman.

Raskin: I’m sorry?

Lewandowski: My children are watching, so thank you for that.

Raskin: Well, I hope the President’s not on then.

In a testy exchange with Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, Corey Lewandowski appeared to make a subtle dig at the congressman’s failed presidential campaign by calling him “President Swalwell.”

Swalwell dropped out of the 2020 race for president in July.

Here’s that exchange:

Swalwell: Mr. Lewandowski, I’m going to put a slide up and it’s the words President Trump dictated to you on July 19. Can you read what you wrote down?

Lewandowski: I’m happy to have you read it, congressman. 

Swalwell: Well why don’t you want to read it Mr. Lewandowski?

Lewandowski: I think you should afford me the same privilege you afforded director Mueller.

Swalwell: Would you like to read it?

Lewandowski: No, you’re welcome to read it.

Swalwell: Are you ashamed of the words that you wrote down?

Lewandowski: President Swalwell, I’m very happy of what I’ve written, but you’re welcome to read it if you’d like.

Swalwell: Are you ashamed to read it out loud? 

Lewandowski: I’m not ashamed of anything in my life, are you?

Lewandowski also countered a question from Swalwell about whether he routinely placed notes the President asked him to take down in a safe by saying, “It’s a big safe, congressman, there’s a lot of guns in there.” 

Swalwell largely based his campaign around addressing gun violence.

Swalwell: Have you ever put any words that the President asked you to write down before in a safe, or was this the first time you’d done that?

Lewandowski: I believe it’s my standard operating procedure when taking notes, Congressman.

Swalwell: So every note you take of the President you put in a safe?

Lewandowski: I don’t — It’s a big safe, congressman, there’s a lot of guns in there.

In response to a request for a parliamentary inquiry by Rep. Eric Swalwell after Corey Lewandowski refused to answer questions about his discussions with President Trump, chairman Jerry Nadler admonished Lewandowski for “aiding” Trump in obstruction of congressional oversight. 

Nadler invoked the Nixon impeachment, reminding Lewandowski that one of the articles of impeachment against former President Richard Nixon was based on obstruction of Congress.

Here’s what he said:

Former Vice President Joe Biden

Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Republican from Florida, took a jab at former Vice President Joe Biden, who is also a Democratic presidential candidate.

Gaetz was delivering remarks about the committee hearing when he mentioned Biden and his performance at last week’s Democratic debates.

“Last week it was the judiciary chairman Jerry Nadler who said, ‘what we’re doing is very clear. It’s been very clear. It continues to be very clear. The speaker has backed us at every point along the way,’” Gaetz said.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat from New York, critiqued Corey Lewandowski’s conduct during testimony, telling the former Trump campaign manager “you are not on the campaign trail yet.”

Lewandowski is considering a Senate run in his home state of New Hampshire.

Here’s what Jeffries said:

Rep. Karen Bass, a Democrat from California, asked Corey Lewandowski why he did not want to leave a “paper trail” of his visit with then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Lewandowski responded: “Well Jeff and I are friends socially and I wanted to have the opportunity to have a meal with Jeff and relay the conversation which the President asked me to ask Jeff to consider giving.”

Some context: Lewandowski was heavily referenced in Robert Mueller’s report on obstruction of justice.

In one instance, Mueller wrote that Trump’s former campaign manager was directed by the President to ask Sessions to limit the Mueller investigation and not to investigate the Trump campaign. Lewandowski tried to set up an in-person meeting with Sessions, but did not do so, according to the special counsel.

A month after making the request to Lewandowski about Sessions, the President followed up with Lewandowski and told him that if Sessions did not meet with him, he would be fired. Lewandowski did not deliver the intended message to Sessions. Instead, he asked former White House aide Rick Dearborn to speak to Sessions.

Asked by Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz about why the Judiciary committee is pursuing their investigation, Corey Lewandowski answered by questioning their patriotism. 

Here’s what he said:

Gaetz: “So Mr. Lewandowski, do you have a thought why we continue to engage in a charade that is overwhelmingly opposed by the American people and fundamentally misunderstood by my Democrat colleagues?”

Lewandowski: “You know, congressman, I think they hate this president more than they love their country. 

In an exchange with Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA), Corey Lewandowski denied feeling “squeamish” about delivering President Trump’s message to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He said he instead took his children to the beach around the time he was being asked to deliver it.

Lewandowski also denied Johnson’s assertion Trump “hounded” him about getting the message to Sessions, but he seemed to slip up when he said Trump hadn’t asked him about it on “multiple occasions.” When Johnson inquired if Trump had asked him on “one occasion,” Lewandowski referred him back to the Mueller report.

Some background: Lewandowski was heavily referenced in former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, which described how Trump tried to stop the investigation into his campaign and re-focus the probe on preventing future meddling. The report says Trump repeatedly directed Lewandowski in 2017 to deliver this message to Sessions, but Lewandowski ignored Trump and didn’t follow through.

Here’s a portion of today’s exchange:

Johnson: President Trump was hounding you about when are you going to deliver that message, correct?

Lewandowski: Completely inaccurate, congressman.

Johnson: Well, he asked you about it a few times, didn’t he?

Lewandowski: No, he did not.

Johnson: He never asked you whether or not you had delivered that message?

Lewandowski: Not on multiple occasions, no.

Johnson: One occasion…okay…he did mention it on one occasion to you?

Lewandowski: I don’t know if that’s in the report, sir, or not.

Johnson: And you told him that, yeah I’m going to get around to it, I’m gonna deliver it, correct?

Lewandowski: I’d have to see the reference to the Mueller report where that is, sir.

Johnson: It’s in the report…

Lewandowski: Can you direct me to the book and page so I can review that?

Johnson: I don’t need to waste any time with that….

Rep. John Ratcliffe, a Republican from Texas, sarcastically asked Corey Lewandowski if he had any information that would support the impeachment of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh after he refused to answer questions about White House conversations.

Ratcliffe called the Democrats the “party of impeachment,” and alluded to some Democrats’ calls to impeach Kavanaugh after a new book provided unreported details of an incident of alleged sexual misconduct while he was a student at Yale.

Lewandowski responded: “He’s a good man.”

Watch here:

Republican Rep. Jim Jordan attacked chairman Jerry Nadler during today’s hearing, demanding that the committee hold hearings on the Justice Department’s inspector general report on former FBI director James Comey’s handling of his memos rather than questioning Lewandowski. 

About the report: The inspector general said in a report that Comey violated agency policies when he retained and leaked a set of memos he took documenting meetings with President Trump early in 2017.

Comey set a “dangerous example” for FBI employees in an attempt to “achieve a personally desired outcome,” the report states.

Watch here:

In a tense exchange with Corey Lewandowski, Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen accused the former campaign manager of being “some kind of a Forrest Gump” when it comes to corruption.

Special counsel Robert Mueller wrote in his report that Lewandowski was directed by President Trump to ask then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to limit the Mueller investigation and not to investigate the Trump campaign.

Lewandowski responded: “That would be a question for the President.”

Here’s more of Cohen’s exchange with Lewandowski:

Cohen: Mr. Lewandowski, it’s clear here you were not an employee, you admitted, of the White House. You had no W2, you had no card, you had nothing. You were not an employee. And you were a policeman at one time — so you know something about the law and about following the law. Didn’t you think is 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? Did that strike you as strange? 

Lewandowski: I disagree with the premise of your question, congressman. 

Cohen: You weren’t a policeman? 

Lewandowski: I didn’t think the President asked me to do anything illegal.

Cohen: You didn’t think it’s illegal for you to ask Mr. Sessions to drop the investigation and to just go on to future presidents and omit everything with this President and go “Ollie Ollie In Free” and start the next one colluding with Russia? You didn’t that was illegal, to obstruct justice?

Lewandowski: Congressman, the President didn’t ask me anything illegal.

Cohen: Obviously, you’ve never been a judge, and won’t be one. All these people asked you, did he give you dictation? He dictated to you a message to give Sessions. Had you ever been a secretary for the President before and taken dictation or shorthand? 

Lewandowski: Many times. 

Cohen: Oh, then we got your qualifications now. You were a secretary.

Watch here: