MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Adam Schiff

Interview

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HAYES: And joining me now Representative Adam Schiff, Democrat of  California. The man will very likely lead the House Intelligence Committee  in the next Congress. And Congressman, you`re going to get a gavel in  January. It`s a few months until then, what`s on the agenda?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), CALIFORNIA: Well, I think at the top of the agenda is  protecting the Mueller investigation and we certainly got to see why that`s  so important within 24 hours of the election when the president fired his  Attorney General and replaced him with someone whom shows every sign of  being the President`s Roy Cohn, of doing the President`s bidding and of  course that`s a great concern to Americans who want to see Bob Mueller be  allowed to finish his work and follow the evidence wherever it leads.  Indeed I think a large part of why Americans voted to provide a check on  this President by flipping the House was to make sure that we could protect  the rule of law.

HAYES: You refer to him as his Roy Cohn which is -- which is a reference  to a quote of the President`s right? They needed his own Roy Cohn at the  Department of Justice. But I`m reminded of Devin Nunez and how he worked  as the chair of your committee to essentially run interference in the White  House to possibly give them inside information. Are you concerned that Mr.  Whitaker may be doing that from his perch as Acting Attorney General?

SCHIFF: Absolutely. I mean, there are a number of concerns with Mr.  Whitaker stemming from so many of his comments that were hostile and  prejudicial to the Mueller investigation, his opining on whether there was  evidence of conspiracy, his opining on whether Mueller scope should include  whether there were financial connections between the President and the  Russians is close relationship to one of the witnesses.
All of that is a basis for him to recuse but it`s also raises the specter  that he might seek to curtail the Mueller investigation privately, that he  might bury a report that comes out of the Mueller investigation or as you  suggest that he might take information that he`s briefed on because he will  now be briefed on the intimate facts of that investigation and provide that  to the President. And Congress certainly needs to get answers. Did he  make commitments to the president about recusal? Is he pledged to keep  confidential information that he learns. We need to get the answers those  questions.

HAYES: Do you envision that that will be one of the first orders of  business of a Democratic Congress in the New Year? Well, you know, I don`t  know that we can wait until the New Year. I think we have to press the  answer -- for answers to some of those questions right now and we ought to  resume our efforts to pass bipartisan legislation either as a standalone  bill or in the government funding measure. That would protect Bob Mueller.  But certainly, we want to send the message right now that this new Acting  Attorney General and any actions that are taken at the top by him or others  will be scrutinized.

People have to expect that we are going to make sure that the ethical  standards of the department are adhered to and there`s no interference in  this investigation that indeed no one including the President is above the  law.

HAYES: What leverage do you have at this moment? I mean, there`s this  bizarre gap, right? There`s two months, a month and a half until you take  the gavel, until you take actual real vested power. But a lot can happen  in the next six weeks. So what leverage do you have? What can you do?

SCHIFF: Well, you know the first thing we can do and indeed did do within  the last 24 hours is issue preservation orders to all the relevant agencies  that they have to preserve the evidence. But probably the most powerful  thing we can do right now is make it abundantly clear that we are going to  demand answers when we do possess those gavels. So if there is any effort  to obstruct or subvert justice here, we will find out about it and people  will be held to account. So that ought to be made crystal clear from this  point.
But I would also urge my Republican colleagues to do something they have  thus far shown an unwillingness to do, and that is to stand up to this  President and defend the rule of law. They know as well as we do that this  new appointee is not qualified for this position. He`s only qualified by  virtue of some very political and partisan comments he`s made which have  endeared him to the President and we ought to act now legislatively to  protect Bob Mueller and more broadly to protect the rule of law.

HAYES: You just mentioned your Republican colleagues, their failure to  stand up to the President. Devin Nunez will now be the ranking member on  that committee come January. Have you spoken to him since election night?

SCHIFF: We haven`t spoken since election night but I think certainly the  Republicans on the committee understand that we`re not going to run the  committee the way they did and they should be grateful for that. We`re not  going to be seeking --

HAYES: Why not? Why not?

SCHIFF: Well, because they ran it in the most unethical of ways. They ran  it in a way that jeopardized the relationship between the committee and the  intelligence community by publishing classified information and doing so in  the most fraudulent and misleading way. We are not going to resort to  behaving in the unethical way they do. We are going to be tenacious though  in the pursuit of truth and I think they understand that. We certainly  were when they were running the shop, we will continue to be, but we will  invite them to work with us. I hope that they will choose to do so but  make it abundantly clear we`re going to do our job.
The days in which the Congress of the United States was either at best a  rubber stamp for the President or worse was complicit in his attacks on the  rule of law are over.

HAYES: There are several people that have appeared before your committee  at invitation and given testimony when the Republicans have been a majority  control who appear to have possibly told untruthful statements to you. Don  Jr. is one of them, there`s been speculation on that, Roger Stone is  another. Would you like to -- will you call back witnesses who`ve come  before the committee for further follow-up?

SCHIFF: If certainly, I think very possible we`ll be bringing back  witnesses that refuse to answer relevant questions and you know people that  made you know, completely erroneous claims of privilege where there was no  privilege to apply, or others that simply said I don`t want to answer that  question when the Republicans interjected you`re here voluntarily, you  don`t have to answer anything you don`t want. That`s no way of course to  run an investigation. But we`re also going to seek to look at the  unexplored avenues of Investigation, things that could threaten the  national security of the United States, issues like money-laundering, if  the Russians were laundering money through the Trump Organization and  there`s some serious allegations along these lines.

That would be a powerful point of leverage of a foreign adversary over the  president of United States. That would be something that could warp our  foreign policy and jeopardize our national security. We may at the time we  take the gavel have the benefit of a report by Bob Mueller but we may not.  At the end of the day we need to continue to do what we pledged from the  outside -- the outset and that is follow the facts wherever they lead.

HAYES: Final question because you just mentioned it, do you have any  interaction, communication with the Special Counsel`s office? Do you have  any new way of knowing when and if a report would be coming?

SCHIFF: I don`t expect to get the advance notice of when report is coming  but along the lines of what you`ve been asking, I will seek at the earliest  instance to be able to provide to the Special Counsel`s office if they`re  not public already, transcripts of witness interviews so that the Special  Counsel can have the benefit of that evidence, but also so the Special  Counsel can determine whether people knowingly willingly committed perjury  before our committee.

We have sought to do that already but the Republicans for whatever reason  have decided they will protect witnesses even that they may believe have  committed or may have committed perjury before our committee. That`s  obviously going to change as well.

HAYES: All right, Representative Adam Schiff, the incoming Committee Chair  of the House Intelligence Committee. Thanks for making time sometime  tonight.

SCHIFF: Thank you.

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