MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript: Russian Investigations

Interview

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MADDOW: Still absorbing this breaking news tonight from "The New York Times," which has just published 49 questions that have reportedly been posed from the special counsel`s office to the legal team for President Trump. This is being described as the list of things that the Mueller investigators want to ask President Trump.

Let me -- in terms of the context here, we just spoke with Michael Schmidt, who`s the reporter who broke this story tonight.

In Schmidt`s story tonight, he does give you a little back story in terms of where this comes from, which may give us some hint as to the exact -- I mean, he`s not going to talk to us about his sources, but it may give us some hint as to where this came from.

From the story tonight, Mr. Mueller has sought for months to question the president. His lawyers have been negotiating terms of an interview out of concern that their client could provide false statements or easily become distracted. Four people have pled guilty already to lying to investigators in the Russia inquiry. But this list of questions grew out of those negotiations.

Here`s the timeline: In January, so January 2018, Trump`s lawyers gave Mr. Mueller several pages of written explanations about the president`s role in the matters the special counsel is investigating. Concerned about putting the president in legal jeopardy, his lead lawyer John Dowd was trying to convince Mr. Mueller he didn`t need to interview Mr. Trump.

So, here, we`ll just write up how innocent he is. You`re good with that, right?

Quote: Mr. Mueller was apparently unsatisfied. He told Mr. Dowd in early March that he needed to question the president directly to determine whether the president had criminal intent when he fired the FBI Director James Comey. But Mr. Dowd held firm. And then investigators for Mueller agreed days later to share during a meeting with Mr. Dowd the questions they wanted to ask Mr. Trump.

So, Dowd is like you don`t need to interview him. Mueller`s like yes, we do. They`re negotiating back and forth and finally at a meeting with Dowd and Trump`s -- and Mueller`s investigators, all right, here`s the questions we`re going to want to ask. When Mr. Mueller`s team relayed the questions, their tone and detailed nature cemented John Dowd`s view that the president should not sit for an interview.

We don`t know if this is John Dowd`s notes on what the president is reportedly going to be asked by Mr. Mueller. But that origin story in "The times" story, it does give us some sense of where this -- of where this might have come from. And you also have to think, you know, well, why does somebody want this to be made public? You don`t usually make your questions public in advance of a big important interview. That said, when it`s a president these negotiations can go on for a long time and they can be very hard-nosed negotiations and when your lead lawyer quits in the middle of those negotiations, who knows what ends up in "The New York Times" later on?

Joining us now is Congressman Adam Schiff. He is the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee in the House.

Congressman Schiff, I`m very happy to have you with us tonight. Thank you very much for being here.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA), RANKING MEMBER, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Good to be with you.

MADDOW: I don`t know if you`ve had a chance yet to look at "The Times`" story and these questions that they`ve reported.

SCHIFF: Yes. I sure have.

MADDOW: What strikes you?

SCHIFF: Well, a couple things.

One, something your guests have already analyzed, and that is just how many of these questions go to the issue of obstruction of justice. But also these are really, as Chuck was saying earlier, these are less questions, they`re more topics. You can imagine, for example, on any single one of them, a question about what did you discuss with the Russians in the oval office, for example, I think that was one of the questions.

That would just be the beginning. How did that meeting come about? Who brought up the issue of James Comey? If you brought it up, why did you bring it up?

What was the Russians` reaction? What was your reaction to what the Russians said? Who else was in the room? What decisions did you make or instruct staff about whether the contents of that meeting would be kept confidential?

Each of those is going to lead to any number -- a series of questions. I think these are topic and subtopic areas. But one of the things that leapt out at me was what was not included within the list. I want this special counsel to be looking at the issue of money laundering.

And I don`t recall seeing questions there about did you obtain financing for your projects from Russia? What were your relations if any with Russian sources of financing? What do you know about where money went through Trump properties, through Deutsch Bank? Were there any Russian guarantees of your loans?

Those questions are not included. Does that mean that the special counsel is observing the red line the president has tried to draw? In my view, the president is not permitted to draw a red line and anything that might be compromising of our national security is something that needs to be investigated if they`re credible allegations. So what was not on the list to me was also striking.

MADDOW: On Friday, you and your fellow Democrats on the Intelligence Committee released a 90-something-page report that was essentially a response to the majority, the Republicans on the intelligence committee releasing what they say is their final report on the Russia investigation. I understand that your report is not final, that you may yet release further information as you come to additional conclusions and turn up new stuff.

But you mention there financing. One of the things that really struck me as new in the information that you and your fellow Democrats released on Friday was an e-mail from Felix Sater, I believe, who was a Trump organization associate for some time that was about the financing for Trump Tower Moscow, which is being pursued by the campaign. The financing being arranged, being in process with VTB bank, second largest bank in Russia, obviously a sanctioned bank that U.S. persons and businesses shouldn`t be legally able to do business with.

When I read that in your report that came out Friday night, that struck me as new and potentially important. Has that been previously reported or are you releasing that information for the first time?

SCHIFF: I don`t think the specifics have been previously reported. And yes, here`s an effort with Felix Sater to obtaining financing for this long, elusive project, the project that Trump is dreaming about for sometime, the Trump Tower in Moscow, and they`re going to get the financing from a bank that`s under sanctions. And in that same e-mail where they talk about getting financing from this bank, they also Felix Sater says, we`ll be working on the letter of intent which comes the following month.

So, other parts of what he is relating in that e-mail are proven out within the next month. So, it seems very credible that this is what`s going on. It`s also part of the questions I know that were on that list of the special counsel.

And there are other questions, too, that we reveal additional facts about in terms of what went into the Trump Tower meeting. Information that we know about Veselnitskaya, about phone calls going back and forth between Don Junior and Emin Agalarov and this blocked call that we would like to know whether it was from or to the president and in this case, was an incoming call. Was this information or a green light the president was giving to the meeting? And Mueller has obviously included on his list, what did you know about the Trump Tower meeting? What was your role in crafting that false statement?

So, we do include some new information. But you`re absolutely right, Rachel. We`re not done. We`re going to continue investigating. Our investigation thus far is in midstream, not the least bit complete and we`re going to be reporting additional information to the public.

MADDOW: Congressman Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, thank you very much for joining us tonight, sir.

SCHIFF: Thanks, Rachel.

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