MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Adam Schiff

Interview

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MADDOW:  Congratulations, America, we finally got a committee, a whole committee. 
 
It`s not totally clear why it took this long but Republicans yesterday finally named the Republican members who will sit on the house intelligence committee this Congress.  They waited two weeks.  Over the course of that two weeks, all they did was swap out one dude and just leave in place everybody else they used to have on that committee so nobody quite knows why it took them this long, but regardless, here they are. 
 
And the important thing about those Republican members being named to the intelligence committee is that now that those Republicans are in place, now that the membership is known and intact, now that committee can finally start working under their new Democratic chairman, Congressman Adam Schiff. 
 
Now, Congressman Schiff has said the first act of business on this newly constituted committee will concern the transcripts of interviews from more than 50 witnesses who have testified behind closed doors in the committee`s Russia investigation.  Congressman Schiff says under his leadership, the first thing House Intel will do is get official copies of those transcripts into the hands of special counsel Robert Mueller and his prosecutors.  And Mueller, of course, has shown that he will bring charges for lying to congress.  Just ask Michael Cohen or Roger Stone. 
 
Joining us now is Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff. 
 
Mr. Chairman, thank you so much for making time for us tonight.  Really appreciate you being here. 
 
REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA), CHAIRMAN, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE:  Good to be with you. 
 
MADDOW:  So can you explain to us what is the importance of these transcripts, the transcripts from witness testimony that`s happened behind closed doors to your committee.  What`s the importance of those transcripts and their being conveyed to the special counsel now? 
 
SCHIFF:  Well, it`s important for a couple of reasons.  It`s important because if the special counsel wants to bring perjury charges, they need to have access to those transcripts.  They need to be able to compare the testimony with the facts they`re aware of, otherwise, they can`t use those transcripts in a court proceeding. 
 
It also may be important in terms of the report that Bob Mueller makes to the Congress or to the attorney general that he be able to use the facts that we`ve been able to uncover as part of his analysis and his report.  So, this is something we`ve been looking forward to do, that we wanted to do frankly long before now.  But now that we do have that final Republican member appointed, we can finally get underway. 
 
MADDOW:  Are you frustrated that it took this long and are you worried about the reasons there may have been this long delay in getting your Republican colleague seated? 
 
SCHIFF:  It does concern me because clearly they weren`t going to make changes to the committee.  They merely added a member where one of the termed out members was leaving the committee.  That doesn`t take weeks and weeks.  Even if it did, they had all that time to prepare for it. 
 
So, it looks like this was an effort to delay the investigation.  I think it`s a pretty pointless effort, but if it`s an indication of what`s to come, they intend to play an obstructionist role or continue the role they played for the last two years like acting as an extension of Giuliani`s defense team, that would be deeply regrettable.  We`ll go forward anyway.  But I`d much rather go forward in a bipartisan basis if they`re willing to work with us.
 
MADDOW:  On the issue of witness testimony, one of the things that is interesting here is that the Republican majority in the last Congress essentially declared the Russia investigation over.  They put out a report that could be I think briefly summarized as all caps "no collusion" and said it was done.  You and your Democratic colleagues at the time indicated you did not think that investigation was done.  And clearly, under your leadership, that investigation is going to be reconstituted in a significant way. 
 
But despite all of that, there are these 50 witnesses who have come before your committee.  As you say, there is this issue with the transcripts and conveying them to the special counsel. 
 
Can I ask if your committee has the ability to or has considered or has indeed made any criminal referrals to the Justice Department in reference to any witnesses who you do believe lied to you in their testimony? 
 
SCHIFF:  We have not made criminal referrals.  What we have wanted to do is really provide the evidence to the special counsel and let him make a judgment about who he thinks has violated the law, particularly as it pertains to false testimony before our committee.  I will tell you, though, in terms of that report that you mention that the Republicans put out about nine months ago, essentially was a report saying we believe every denial we heard in our committee. 
 
So we completely believe everything Michael Cohen had to say.  We completely believe everything Roger Stone had to say.  We don`t need to go any further. 
 
We don`t need to get documents.  We don`t need to get records.  We`re going to take everything we heard at face value. 
 
You can`t conduct a credible investigation that way.  We had wanted to look into, for example, the issue of the use of the NRA as a potential back channel, people like Maria Butina, but, you know, their view was there is nothing to see here.  Well, apparently there was something to see here.  This was a Russian asset working trying to infiltrate the NRA. 
 
So we are determined to get to the truth of this.  They were also great many witnesses, Rachel, who came in and simply said we`re not going to answer questions.  Steve Bannon refused to answer whole categories of questions.  Don Jr. refused to answer whole categories of questions, among others, and you can`t conduct an investigation if you let the witnesses pick and choose what they`re going to answer. 
 
MADDOW:  Congressman, CNN and ABC report tonight that on the Senate side, investigators have obtained -- and it`s sort of vague language and I don`t want to try to be any more specific than they`re saying in their reporting.  This is not MSNBC reporting and NBC hasn`t confirmed this.  But they`re saying that Senate investigators have obtained information about something you have asked about in the past concerning Donald Trump Jr.  In the lead up to the 2016 Trump Tower meeting during the campaign, he had made a couple of calls to blocked numbers. 
 
And you had suggested that was one of the things that was important for your committee to figure out, whether those blocked numbers might have indicated -- might have been an indication that Mr. Trump Jr. was actually calling his father, potentially talking to Donald Trump the candidate about that Trump Tower meeting with all those Russians. 
 
What do you make of this new reporting and what do you think about the importance of that incident now overall? 
 
SCHIFF:  Well, the problem is that we are not in a position to be able to confirm the reporting because the Republicans wouldn`t let us get the phone records.  It was such an obvious investigative step and is an obvious investigative step and one that we will take very early on now that we are under way.  That is find out who Don Jr. was talking to about that meeting at Trump Tower.  Those conversations could have taken place over the phone or they could have taken place by Don Jr. walking down the hall to talk to dad.
 
But it`s key to understanding the president`s involvement in all of this, and if we look at what we already know, we already know that the president and his son misled the country about meetings the campaign was having with Russians.  They denied they even took place. 
 
And then when they were confronted with meetings like the meeting in Trump Tower, they misled the country again about what took place in that meeting.  The president and his son, it is reported, helped fabricate together this false statement that the meeting was about adoptions, that it wasn`t about getting dirt on Hillary Clinton or an effort by the Russian government to help the Trump campaign when, in fact, that`s apparently what that meeting was supposed to be about. 
 
So we`re going to get to the bottom of this.  Why all the lies?  Why the cover-up?  What more was going on here? 
 
And I think a key part of that is to find out what the president`s role was in all of this. 
 
MADDOW:  Congressman Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee -- sir, I know that your life is about to get very, very busy.  Thanks for taking time to talk to us tonight. 
 
SCHIFF:  You bet.  Thank you. 

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