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

Interview

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HAYES: Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff is the Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee. You`re -- you have worked as a federal prosecutor. You`ve worked in courts. Your response to the President`s personal attorney filing a motion to sort of upends standard operating procedure from the Department of Justice?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA), RANKING MEMBER, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: What I find refreshing about this, Chris, is the fact that the rule of law won the day here. The President`s lawyer wasn`t treated differently than any other lawyer. The same procedures that would be used in any courtroom in the country to decide what is attorney-client privilege and what is not were applied by this judge, which will probably mean the judge earns the condemnation of the President. But I think it is very encouraging for country to see that no one is above the law, including the President`s lawyer or the President himself. The Justice Department was going to dot every I and cross every T before they ever sought any warrant on an attorney, let alone the President`s attorney. So you have to think they put a lot of thought, did a lot of scrutiny of this before they went forward. The fact that he has been under investigation apparently for months means this is very serious business, and they wouldn`t go to this step lightly, so you know, the right ruling by the judge here. Frankly, Chris, the deal that you were marveling at that the Trump and Cohen lawyers wanted where they got to decide what they turn over to the prosecutors is basically the deal they got from our majority in our committee. We wanted to subpoena Michael Cohen`s travel records. We wanted to get his credit card records. We wanted to determine did he go to Prague or did he go to somewhere else that he had this meeting? And interestingly, Chris, the allegations in the Steele documents about Michael Cohen are that he was the fixer, brought in to fix the Manafort problems, the information was coming out about Carter Page. He was the fixer brought in. So that is certainly consistent with the kind of work he was doing for the President. But we were never able to pursue it. Basically, Cohen was able to decide, I`ll let you know what I feel like turning over to you.

HAYES: Since you brought up Prague, I want to ask you about this McClatchy reporting that broke Friday. We covered on this show that sources -- Mueller has evidence -- I want to be careful here -- has evidence Cohen was in Prague in 2016 confirming part of the dossier. Did that come as news to you? Is that credible to you?

SCHIFF: Well, you know, it came as news to me what the special counsel has. As I was mentioning, we were never really allowed to pursue this. And it was you know, part of a trend with our committee. The only subpoenas, the majority was really interested in pursuing were subpoenas against our own government, not against witnesses who were trying to be recalcitrant or stonewall us. And so they subpoenaed the Justice Department, they subpoenaed the FBI. They threatened to impeach the FBI Director. But can we get a subpoena for Michael Cohen`s travel records? No. Can we get a subpoena to get Steve Bannon to answer questions or Hope Hicks or the President`s son? No. So we were not able to get the answers we needed which is why there`s so much work left undone. Why we can`t figure out whether Roger Stone was being truthful or whether Erik Prince was being truthful. That work is still going to have to be done, if not by us, then by the Special Counsel.

HAYES: There`s a school of thought I hear coming from Republicans, allies of the President that there`s something illegitimate, if it ends up being the case that the investigation into Russia and the possibility of collusion and Russian interference leads investigators towards other evidence of wrongdoing or crimes committed by people in the President`s circle or by the President himself. That stuff somehow doesn`t count. It`s in some other category. The only thing that matters is this sort of narrow question of did the President collude. What is your response to it?

SCHIFF: Well, first of all, the scope of the investigation, the charter that Bob Mueller has been given is to do a Russia investigation, the relationship between Russia and the Trump campaign, but also to investigate anything that arises from that. Now, I don`t know that you can say that the Stormy Daniels stuff -- and I`d have to look back at the origin of it, that seems to arise independently and it may be part of the reason why that was referred to the Southern District of New York and not pursued by Bob Mueller. Now it may very well be that when they go through these documents that they do find evidence that`s very pertinent to the Mueller investigation, which case it would be provided to Bob Mueller. But just because there is a Russia investigation doesn`t mean the President or his lawyer or anybody else gets a get out of jail free card if it comes to the attention of law enforcement that they have violated the law. So I think the Justice Department, I think Bob Mueller are doing exactly what they should. I think the judge today did exactly what the judge should. And this is evidence of the system working. But of course, that system is at risk every time the President threatens to fire people at justice or the special counsel because he doesn`t like the way the system works.

HAYES: Finally, Congressman, do you have an opinion on Sean Hannity and the President sharing a lawyer apparently?

SCHIFF: Well, you know, it is interesting, of course, why this particular lawyer who doesn`t have an expertise in real estate, why would Sean Hannity of all people seek out legal advice from Michael Cohen? And if -- you know, the insinuation of Sean Hannity is I paid him ten bucks because I wanted to make sure that that conversation couldn`t be disclosed unless it was some kind of a shady real estate deal, that really doesn`t make sense either. If you`re just asking about flipping houses or where good investments or you know, how do I get the deed for something. That`s not the kind of thing you worry about needing to protect from attorney-client privilege.

HAYES: All right, Congressman Adam Schiff, thanks for your time tonight.

SCHIFF: Thank you.

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