FULL GAGGLE: Josh Hawley Takes Questions About Trump Possibly Asking DOJ For $230 Million

Okay. Yes, sir. Yes. So, $230 million the President is asking the Justice Department to repay his legal bills. Are you comfortable with that request? Maybe the Justice Department ought to repay folks who they spied on illegally, including members of Congress. I was just talking about this. The Justice Department went after the cell phone records, tracked the cell phones of nine members of Congress, including me, without any criminal predicate. They went and got the cell phone records from the phone companies without any legal process, which is illegal because they don't belong to phone companies. They belong to Senate offices because this was Senate business on Senate devices. It is a blatant violation of the separation of powers, number one, of statutory law, number two, and I think there ought to be some repercussions for it. So listen, I think there ought to be a special prosecutor. And these cell phone companies who did this, they broke the law. So I think there ought to be some repercussions. But I'm asking about the President asking for taxpayer money to pay for his legal bills to the tune of $230 million. Well, I mean, maybe it ought to be some of these private companies like these cell phone companies who I think illegally and unconstitutionally worked with the Justice Department to violate the rights of U.S. senators and by extension, members of Congress. So you should be asking for private companies, not taxpayer money. Well, I'm talking about my case, but I'm just saying, Manu, there's enough grievance here to go around. Listen, at the end of the day, what happened in the last four years, I was just making this point in this hearing. What happened in the last four years with the wet position of the Justice Department has to not only end, but never, ever happen again. Never happen again. And for that, there needs to be accountability. But you're not responding about the Trumps ask. Well, this is the first I've heard of this, but listen, I would just say that I think what it sounds like to me, what motivates that is there needs to be real accountability. And I think there needs to be. But Senator, if I can ask on that point, I mean, let's, I'll grant your premise that there's no accountability. Let's say there's an argument to be made that the Justice Department deserves to provide him some sort of compensation for that. Shouldn't that process happen when he's a private citizen, not when he's president of the United States? Isn't that a conflict of interest? Well, I mean, there's a lot of forms of accountability. I mean, I'm, what I think ought to happen, frankly, is I think we need a special prosecutor to look into what happened in the last four years, to look into the tracking of the phones and tapping the phones of members of Congress, to look into the targeting of Catholics and pro-life Americans. And I think the kind of accountability that frankly would be maybe even more powerful than money would be people getting fired, would be people who broke the law getting prosecuted, phone companies who potentially broke the law getting fined. I mean, I think we want, what we need to do is we've got to turn the page on what's happened in the last four years. We don't want this to go on and become the norm. I mean, this is like the J. Edgar Hoover era on steroids. Do we want this to be the norm? No. We want to end this. We want this to have ended with the last presidency. That sounds like you wouldn't be comfortable. Does this payment end it in your mind? Would a $230 million payment end it? I don't know the answer to that. I mean, I don't know the answer to that. I think the kind of things I'm talking about would. I think when you, I mean, the most important thing, I think, frankly, is total transparency. You know, we already see efforts, for instance, on the tracking and tapping of senators' phones. They tried to hide that from us. I mean, we know about it, I think because of a whistleblower. Let's bring all of this into the public. Let's find out exactly what they did. Let's make all the grand jury records public. Let's make it all public. You all can report on it. We can all see it. Find out who authorized it. This is the kind of accountability I think that would be really powerful. As a client, as a member of the committee overseeing the Justice Department, do you want to get details about why Trump is asking for $230 million and the process for approving that? Well, I want details on what the Justice Department did, Mono. And I think we ought to, I just said just now in this hearing, I think we ought to have full oversight hearings, of which so far we've done none, on what happened in the last four years of the Justice Department. And, you know, we've had whistleblowers tell us about the targeting of 92 conservative groups. We've had whistleblowers tell us about the tracking of U.S. senators. But, you know, I mean, we know what happened with Trump. But let's find, let's have total transparency and do the hearings. So sure, we can do, we should do a bunch of oversight hearings on DOJ. I mean, just- Have you seen the construction going on? I'll let you have the last one. Have you seen the construction going on on the White House ballroom? Yeah, I was just there yesterday. I mean, I saw it from afar. I couldn't get close. What do you think about- It looked extensive. What do you think of the optics at the time of the shutdown? Oh, well, he's paying for it, Mono. I mean, it's the government's not paying for it. He's not paying for it. He said he is paying for it. Well, it's, I don't know who exactly, I mean, who's writing the checks, other than it's not the United States. Shouldn't we know that, though? Shouldn't we know that? Sure. But it's not the United States government. I mean, to your point. Right. But we're not just uprooting the, you know, this is an iconic building. Mono, I will just say this, I made this point yesterday, that I hear all of a sudden from my liberal friends that they're very concerned about our history. Really, these are the same people who tore down every statue they could get their hands on in the last four years. Christopher Columbus, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt. They didn't have any concern for history then. Now all of a sudden, the facade of the East Wing is iconic. Oh, give me a break. I mean, give me a break. If the president wants to improve, he wants to add a ballroom at his own expense, have at it. That's what I say. Maybe we all haven't been there. All right. See you guys. Appreciate it.