In an interview with Hugh Hewitt on Friday, Bob Woodward
said that in his two years of investigating for his new book, 'Fear,' he
found no evidence of collusion or espionage between Trump and Russia. Woodward
said he looked for it "hard" and yet turned up nothing.
"So let’s set aside the Comey firing, which as a Constitutional law professor, no one will ever persuade me can be obstruction. And Rod Rosenstein has laid out reasons why even if those weren’t the president’s reasons. Set aside the Comey firing. Did you, Bob Woodward, hear anything in your research in your interviews that sounded like espionage or collusion?" Hugh Hewitt asked Woodward.
"I did not, and of course, I looked for it, looked for it hard," Woodward answered. "And so you know, there we are. We’re going to see what Mueller has, and Dowd may be right. He has something that Dowd and the president don’t know about, a secret witness or somebody who has changed their testimony. As you know, that often happens, and that can break open or turn a case."
"But you’ve seen no collusion?" Hewitt asked again to confirm.
"I have not," Woodward affirmed.
Hewitt would once again ask Woodward about collusion at the conclusion of the interview.
"Very last question, Bob Woodward, I just want to confirm, at the end of two years of writing this book, this intensive effort, you saw no effort, you, personally, had no evidence of collusion or espionage by the president presented to you?" Hewitt asked.
"That is correct," Woodward said.
The full exchange:
"So let’s set aside the Comey firing, which as a Constitutional law professor, no one will ever persuade me can be obstruction. And Rod Rosenstein has laid out reasons why even if those weren’t the president’s reasons. Set aside the Comey firing. Did you, Bob Woodward, hear anything in your research in your interviews that sounded like espionage or collusion?" Hugh Hewitt asked Woodward.
"I did not, and of course, I looked for it, looked for it hard," Woodward answered. "And so you know, there we are. We’re going to see what Mueller has, and Dowd may be right. He has something that Dowd and the president don’t know about, a secret witness or somebody who has changed their testimony. As you know, that often happens, and that can break open or turn a case."
"But you’ve seen no collusion?" Hewitt asked again to confirm.
"I have not," Woodward affirmed.
Hewitt would once again ask Woodward about collusion at the conclusion of the interview.
"Very last question, Bob Woodward, I just want to confirm, at the end of two years of writing this book, this intensive effort, you saw no effort, you, personally, had no evidence of collusion or espionage by the president presented to you?" Hewitt asked.
"That is correct," Woodward said.
The full exchange:
HUGH HEWITT, HOST: Yeah, but I just think people who have
been critical of you in the public, all they have to do is say hey, release my
tapes, Bob, and we’ll find out whether Gary Cohn said what he said, and John
Dowd said what he said, and Rob Porter said what they said. Now let’s get to
the substance. I believe that if the president had actually read this book, and
their team had read this book, they would not have attacked the book. They
would have spun it differently, because there’s a lot complimentary in this
book, the most important of which is John Dowd firmly believes, the president’s
former lawyer, that the special counsel, Bob Mueller, has nothing. There’s no
collusion, there’s nothing. It’s all a play to get an 18 USC 1001 perjury trap,
and that POTUS should never sit down. Is that a fair assessment of what John
Dowd believes?
BOB WOODWARD, 'FEAR' AUTHOR: Oh, well, yeah, until we end. And finally, it, the point where Dowd resigns because he is convinced the president should not testify, Dowd concludes that Mueller had played him for a sucker, got all of the cooperation of 37 witnesses, a million pages-plus of campaign documents, 20,000 pages of White House documents. So in the end, as he says to the president, he said you were right. We can’t trust Mueller.
HH: And I tell you, Bob Woodward, I read this book as a lawyer. I’m not a defense lawyer, although I was at Justice. Dowd got played badly. Do you agree?
BW: Well, but he is the one who decided on the strategy – total cooperation. We’re going to let you, we’re opening the door completely. And some of the most sensitive material was given to Mueller. He was delighted to have it. It is quite true that Dowd concluded from his own work, remember, he spent eight months on this intensely, time with Mueller, time with the White House people, time with Trump. And he didn’t see anything there until the end.
HH: So let’s set aside the Comey firing, which as a Constitutional law professor, no one will ever persuade me can be obstruction. And Rod Rosenstein has laid out reasons why even if those weren’t the president’s reasons. Set aside the Comey firing. Did you, Bob Woodward, hear anything in your research in your interviews that sounded like espionage or collusion?
BW: I did not, and of course, I looked for it, looked for it hard. And so you know, there we are. We’re going to see what Mueller has, and Dowd may be right. He has something that Dowd and the president don’t know about, a secret witness or somebody who has changed their testimony. As you know, that often happens, and that can break open or turn a case.
HH: But you’ve seen no collusion?
BW: I have not.
BOB WOODWARD, 'FEAR' AUTHOR: Oh, well, yeah, until we end. And finally, it, the point where Dowd resigns because he is convinced the president should not testify, Dowd concludes that Mueller had played him for a sucker, got all of the cooperation of 37 witnesses, a million pages-plus of campaign documents, 20,000 pages of White House documents. So in the end, as he says to the president, he said you were right. We can’t trust Mueller.
HH: And I tell you, Bob Woodward, I read this book as a lawyer. I’m not a defense lawyer, although I was at Justice. Dowd got played badly. Do you agree?
BW: Well, but he is the one who decided on the strategy – total cooperation. We’re going to let you, we’re opening the door completely. And some of the most sensitive material was given to Mueller. He was delighted to have it. It is quite true that Dowd concluded from his own work, remember, he spent eight months on this intensely, time with Mueller, time with the White House people, time with Trump. And he didn’t see anything there until the end.
HH: So let’s set aside the Comey firing, which as a Constitutional law professor, no one will ever persuade me can be obstruction. And Rod Rosenstein has laid out reasons why even if those weren’t the president’s reasons. Set aside the Comey firing. Did you, Bob Woodward, hear anything in your research in your interviews that sounded like espionage or collusion?
BW: I did not, and of course, I looked for it, looked for it hard. And so you know, there we are. We’re going to see what Mueller has, and Dowd may be right. He has something that Dowd and the president don’t know about, a secret witness or somebody who has changed their testimony. As you know, that often happens, and that can break open or turn a case.
HH: But you’ve seen no collusion?
BW: I have not.
_________________
IN
OTHER NEWS
Paul Manafort pleads guilty, agrees to
cooperate in deal with Mueller team
By Alex Pappas, Jake
Gibson | Fox News
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort
pleaded guilty in federal court Friday as part of a plea agreement that
involves cooperation with Special Counsel Robert Mueller and allows him to
avoid a second trial.
“I plead guilty," Manafort, 69, told
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman in Washington.
Prosecutor Andrew Weissmann told the
judge that Manafort's deal includes a cooperation agreement with prosecutors,
who are investigating whether any Trump associates played a role in Russia's
meddling in the 2016 election. That could include interviews with
prosecutors and testifying in court.
A defense attorney for Manafort told Fox News
the deal includes "full cooperation."
But the president's team downplayed the
significance of Manafort's plea.
“Once again an investigation has concluded
with a plea having nothing to do with President Trump or the Trump
campaign," Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said in a statement to Fox News.
"The reason: the president did nothing wrong."
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders
said Friday that Manafort's decision is "totally unrelated" to the
president.
Manafort, in a trial set to begin Sept. 24,
had been facing seven counts of foreign lobbying violations and witness
tampering in federal court in Washington.
In August, in a separate trial in Virginia, a
federal jury found Manafort guilty on eight counts of federal tax and banking
crimes.
Manafort faces up to 10 years on these
charges in Washington. He still faces sentencing for his guilty verdict in
Virginia.
As part of this agreement, Manafort has
forfeited multiple bank accounts and several properties in New York. However,
he will keep his properties in Florida and Virginia, where his family live.
Manafort attorney Kevin Downing told
reporters after the court hearing it was a “tough day” for his client, “who has
accepted responsibility.” He said Manafort “wanted to make sure that his family
was able to remain safe and live a good life.”
The case was brought by Mueller's team, which
is probing potential crimes related to the 2016 election. But Manafort has not
been charged with anything related to the campaign.
In August, Manafort’s bank and tax fraud
conviction made him the first campaign associate of Trump found guilty by a
jury as part of Mueller’s probe.
“I feel very badly for Paul Manafort,” Trump
told reporters after the August verdict, adding that it had "nothing to do
with Russian collusion." The president has called Mueller's probe a
"witch hunt."
Trump also said he had “such respect” for
Manafort and called him a “brave man.” In comments interpreted to mean he was
open to pardoning Manafort, Trump commended Manafort, saying he “refused to
break” and “make up stories in order to get a deal.”
In the Virginia trial, prosecutors said
Manafort hid income earned from political work overseas from the IRS while
fraudulently obtaining millions in bank loans. Manafort had pleaded not guilty
to all counts.
The prosecution’s star witness, Rick Gates –
Manafort’s former business partner who struck a plea deal to cooperate with the
government -- testified during the trial that he and Manafort committed bank
and tax fraud together.
Downing, Manafort's attorney, suggested after
the guilty verdict in August that Manafort was open to striking a deal before
the second trial.
“He is evaluating all of his options at this
point,” Downing said of Manafort.
Fox News' Catherine Herridge, John Roberts
and NuNu Japaridze contributed to this report.
