MSNBC "Hardball" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Joaquin Castro

Interview

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MATTHEWS:  It wasn`t a short period of time.  It was the entire time he was running the campaign.
 
Anyway, Trump was more direct about a pardon late last year, telling "The New York Post": "I wouldn`t take it off the table.  Why would I take it off the table?" 
 
Anyway, Congressman Joaquin Castro, Democrat from Texas, joins us right now on the phone.  He`s on the House Intelligence Committee.
 
Congressman, you`re part of this whole effort to try to get to the justice here.  How did today help or hurt the cause of justice and truth? 
 
REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO (D), TEXAS:  Oh, well, I mean, I think it makes clear that the president has been surrounding himself, and at the highest levels of his organization and his campaign, with people who have lied, people that have associated with Russian agents, folks that have engaged in witness tampering. 
 
And I think this continues to be the tip of the iceberg.  Even -- I know that Mike was just on.  And he talked about the interview that we had with Michael Cohen this week.  And from what I heard, I believe that there will still be more indictments to come. 
 
I think that the information I heard leads me to believe that the president
* members of the president`s family could be in legal jeopardy.  So, I think that there`s still a good bit of investigation to do. 
 
And I also think that we will probably see more prosecutions. 
 
MATTHEWS:  What do you think`s coming before we get a full report from Robert Mueller?
 
I mean, the defendant has had a good day today and in a Virginia court, four years, instead of 18 or so, one in five years.  But what do you make of the fact we have been reading a lot about this, about Ivanka could be -- Ivanka could be in trouble, Jared more so, perhaps?
 
Are they facing prosecution? 
 
CASTRO:  I think so.
 
I think that there are folks that could be -- could be prosecuted for lying to Congress.  There`s certainly testimony that I have heard now that contradicts what was told to us by Donald Trump Jr., for example. 
 
So, yes, I do think that there is -- there is a legal jeopardy for some members of President Trump`s family.
 
MATTHEWS:  Is anything leaking out of the special counsel`s operation that gives you more confidence that something like that is coming imminently, prosecution of other individuals, including those in the president`s family?
 
CASTRO:  That`s hard to say, Chris, because they have run a pretty tight ship over there.  And they have run an independent investigation, even from the congressional investigations. 
 
But, based on what I have heard, I think that -- and I`m sure that the special counsel knows everything that Congress knows at this point.  I think it would be hard for them, as prosecutors, to ignore what seems like compelling evidence that some folks knew more than they admitted to when they testified before Congress.
 
I was saying months ago that I thought eventually Roger Stone would be indicted.  And, I mean, that doesn`t seem like too big a surprise, but, for a long time, it didn`t happen.  And then, finally, it did happen. 
 
And I think the same could be true about some members that are -- that are closer to President Trump. 
 
MATTHEWS:  Well, I think Roger Stone`s probably in the business of judge- shopping right now, because, when you get deals like this today, you may look for one of those for yourself. 
 
He, by the way, is his old business partner of Manafort. 
 
Congressman, thank you so much, Joaquin Castro of Texas, for coming on tonight. 
 
CASTRO:  Thank you.

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