MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Russian Investigation

Interview

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HAYES: With me now Democratic Representative Joaquin Castro of Texas, a  Member of the House Intelligence Committee which held the interview today  with Hope Hicks. Is Raj Shah being truthful when he says they`re  cooperating fully?

REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO (D-TX), HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: No, that`s not  the truth at all. In fact, Hope Hicks came to the Congress today to the  Intelligence Committee and really stonewalled, didn`t want to answer any  questions about her time in the White House. And that`s the period of time  where we have the most questions for her. It`s interesting because the  White House has allowed some of the witnesses who worked there to testify  almost freely and others they`ve kept them bottled up including Hope Hicks  and Steve Bannon. And they`re basically relying on this idea that the  Republican-led committee is not going to subpoena the other witnesses  besides Steve Bannon, not going to compel them or try to hold them in  contempt or otherwise get them to answer the questions that we`re asking.

HAYES: Was she in there with an attorney today?

CASTRO: Yes, she had a few attorneys with her.

HAYES: And so, what is it like when you ask a question that she deems or  her attorney deemed out of bounds? What happens?

CASTRO: The answers, you know, that they would take it under advisement or  they weren`t going to answer the question which I thought on some level was  also incredibly arrogant to say we`re just not going to answer. We asked  well, why won`t you answer? We`re not going to answer.

HAYES: Wait, again, I`m confused here. They`re -- look, it seems that her  conversations with the President in the White House are actually things  that plausibly you can make an executive privilege argument to cover.

CASTRO: Sure.

HAYES: But that just would come from the White House, right? The White  House would say we are invoking executive privilege formally. You can`t  ask her about these things. It was -- it was in the process of the  official duties. They haven`t done that?

CASTRO: No, that`s right. We believe that they`ve not formally said that  they`re invoking executive privilege. That`s one thing. There`s also a  debate over what`s covered within executive privilege. But the interesting  thing today is that she would not talk about anything having to do with her  time at the White House including any conversation with anyone even if they  weren`t associated with the White House which was an extraordinarily broad  interpretation of executive privilege. That basically covered a  conversation with anybody.

HAYES: So Bannon did something similar. He was on the phone back to the  White House. He came back again. There was an on the spot subpoena.  There`s a question what happens to him. Are your colleagues on the  Republican side, have they offered any interest in a subpoena or a contempt  citation here?

CASTRO: No, none at all. In fact, it`s my understanding from the majority  that they`re not going to compel her testimony as far as we can tell.  Steve Bannon is in a different case because he`s out of favor. He`s  basically a man with no country. And he`s riled up some of the Republicans  on this committee anyway. Breitbart is probably gone after some of them so they`re not happy with him for that.

HAYES: I`m sorry. I just find this whole thing bizarre. Like, the  witnesses has come in and operating this nebulous space, you ask questions,  some they want to answer, some they don`t. There`s no like -- it never  gets adjudicated in any way. It just seems it`s essentially a kind of  buffet. They choose what they want and what they don`t.

CASTRO: Well, that`s essentially what it`s become. They`re gaming the  system. They`re counting on this committee, this Republican-led committee  protecting them from having to answer these questions. And really, Chris,  they probably will. They probably won`t make these witnesses answer these  very important questions. So that is in a sense an obstruction of justice  on its own.

HAYES: Are you learning new things anymore?

CASTRO: Sure. The witnesses you know, as they testify for hours there are  new things and useful things that come out. But there are still more  witnesses that we need to talk to. There are witnesses that we have spoken  with that need to come in again and then equally as important, is that  there`s a lot of information we`ve gotten that we need to go verify and  track down other leads for. And that has not been done very much at all.

HAYES: All right, Representative Joaquin Castro, thanks for your time  tonight.

CASTRO: Thank you.

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