You're reading: ABC TV’s ‘This Week’: Franken says ‘we don’t know what the Russians have on Donald Trump’

Editor’s Note: The following is a transcript of the Feb. 5 ABC TV’s ‘This Week’ news program.

Here’s a key segment of the interview by journalist Martha Raddatz with U.S. Sen. Al Franken (Democrat-Minnesota):

RADDATZ: I want to just very quickly here — James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence just said on Meet the Press there was not a wiretap of Trump Tower. And he would know that.

So, just your reaction to that and having the president tweet the way he did.

FRANKEN: My reaction to that is, of course there wasn’t. The president asserting like, if your first interview. He said this was a fact. And the — anyone who knows. I’m on the judiciary committee, we do look at this intelligence stuff. You have to get a FISA order in order to get something like that.

RADDATZ: And you would know?

FRANKEN: Would I know? Probably I wouldn’t know for sure whether they got a thing on a server, or applied for something on a server. But the president of the United States did not tap Donald Trump’s phone. I mean, that’s just ridiculous, and it’s a distraction.

And here’s what I want to get to. His own son, Donald Trump’s son, has said in 2008, that Russia did an inordinate amount of business with them. And we don’t know what they have over him. We don’t know what the Russians have on Donald Trump. And we need — and we need to see, if anything — we need to see his tax returns.

He said that he couldn’t release his tax returns because he was under audit. First of all, you can release tax returns if you’re under audit. But he won’t even release a letter from the IRS saying you’re under audit. That’s it’s easy to do.

RADDTAZ: And I think they’ve said those tax returns are not going to be forthcoming. We are going to have to leave it there. But I thank you very much for joining us, Senator Franken, this morning.

FRANKEN: Thank you.

The entire transcript can be read here.