Lewandowski says Mueller report was ‘very clear’ in proving ‘there was no obstruction,’ despite having ‘never’ read it

Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski clashed with CNN’s Alisyn Camerota on Wednesday after he said that former special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report proved President Trump did not obstruct justice, despite Mueller making no determination on the issue and Lewandowski admitting he “never” read the document.

Appearing the day after testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, Lewandowski, who is edging toward a New Hampshire Senate bid, told Camerota at one point that the 448-page report “was very clear. There was no collusion. There was no obstruction.”

Corey Lewandowski: The Mueller report was very clear. There was no collusion. There was no obstruction.

Alisyn Camerota: That’s not what the Mueller report said, Corey.

Corey: It absolutely says that…

Alisyn: … Did you read the Mueller report?

Corey: No, I never did pic.twitter.com/kBrM9F9Mx9

— New Day (@NewDay) September 18, 2019

“That’s not what the Mueller report said, Corey,” Camerota responded, laughing.{mosads}

“It absolutely says that. And you should read page — you should read the page that that states that,” Lewandowski responded. “And Bob Mueller had the opportunity to —”

“Wait a second, Corey. Hold on a second. Hold on a second. Time out. Time out,” Camerota said. “Did you read the Mueller report?” 

“No, I never did,” he responded. 

“Then how do you know what it says?” she asked.

“Because the members of Congress were very clear about what was in that report yesterday and so I’m reiterating what they stated,” Lewandowski said, referring to his tumultuous testimony before the Judiciary panel.

On Tuesday, Lewandowski admitted to having not read the report and insisted on the panel providing him a copy of the document so that he could read along with Democrats as they referenced certain passages from the report during the hearing.

During the segment on CNN, Lewandowski tried to flip Camerota’s question back onto her, asking, “Did you read the report?”

“Corey, of course I had to read the report,” Camerota responded, as Lewandowski fired back, “You read the entire report?”

“Corey, of course I had to read the entire report. And let me tell you what it said. There were 10 different examples of obstruction of justice in there,” she responded.

“That’s not what it said. It did not say there were 10 examples of obstruction. Alisyn, you’re being disingenuous,” Lewandowski says. 

Camerota then pulled up the 10 examples she referenced after telling the president’s former campaign manager, “Let me pull them up on the screen for you since you didn’t read the Mueller report so how would you know.”

The examples, which CNN labelled “possible obstruction attempts,” included bullet items from the report such as: “Asking Comey to let Flynn investigation go” and “Trying to stop Sessions’ recusal.” 

Camerota went on to tell Lewandowski that the latter item was “the one you were involved in.”

“You may want to read that part,” she said, adding: “Those are just some of the examples that scores of legal experts say are obstruction of justice.”

“How can legal experts make a determination when they’re unfamiliar with facts of the case?” Lewandowski then asked. “That is so disingenuous, to go and make a predetermination as a ‘legal expert’ without having the opportunity to hear both sides of the case.” 

“What I do know is that Attorney General [William] Barr, the deputy attorney general of the United States [Rod Rosenstein], decided that there was no obstruction, and I believe in Attorney General Barr unless you’re saying that Attorney General Barr is not a qualified competent individual, that he and the deputy attorney general, that Bob Mueller present their case to, made the determination — are you calling into question their credentials?” he asked her.

“What I’m saying is that 1,000 former federal prosecutors, Democrats and Republicans in a bipartisan group, signed a letter saying there was evidence of obstruction of justice and any regular citizen would have been charged and convicted,” Camerota responded.