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

Interview

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Joining us now, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, California

Congressman Adam Schiff.

Congressman Schiff, thank you for joining us this evening.

I want to just start off with some reporting from "The New York Times" that

federal prosecutors are weighing whether to criminally charge John Bolton

with disclosing classified information in his upcoming White House memoir.

The internal discussions about whether to charge Bolton are occurring at

the highest levels of the Justice Department and involve Attorney General

William Barr.

I know you`re no fan of John Bolton`s. I know you believe that if John

Bolton had testified, there may have been a different outcome to the Senate

impeachment trial.

But what do you make of this reporting that Bill Barr, who we know very

effectively carries Donald Trump`s water, is looking at whether or not to

charge John Bolton?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE CHAIR: Well, the reporting

doesn`t surprise me. But it`s enormously distressing that Bill Barr would

once again at Trump`s insistence contemplate using the Justice Department

as a political tool to punish the president`s enemies.

I have no doubt that Bolton, much as I have a low regard for him and what

he did, sought to get clearance from the review process, and that review

process was politicized. The president insisting that he was not going to

allow anything to be included in this book.

That`s not how that process is supposed to work. It`s supposed to be

apolitical, based on just what`s classified or not classified.

So I think this investigation is, you know, likely to be completely bogus.

But it`s a way of trying to chill people from speaking out about what

they`ve seen. And it`s a way for Bill Barr to do more dirty work for the

president by threatening to prosecute the president`s political enemies.

VELSHI: So John Bolton implies in the book that there is something that he

wants to write about or wanted to write about regarding the conversation

between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in which he implies that he asked Xi

Jinping for assistance in buying agricultural stuff from America, to help

him in the election.

Classified means classified. It means there`s a danger to people having

that information. Not unseemly or not something that the White House wants

to be put out there. But it does seem that once again the White House might

be confusing those two issues.

SCHIFF: Without a doubt. And we`ve seen this before. I think the White

House views the classification process as a means of censoring information

that is not classified, but would be highly embarrassing to the president.

And the president`s own words, what he told Xi in terms of trying to

solicit foreign intervention to help his reelection campaign, it`s such a

profound similarity to his attempt to get Ukraine to help, his plea to

Russia to hack Hillary`s emails, that I`m sure he doesn`t want his own

words used not because there`s any classification risk, we already know the

fact of what he communicated, but rather to avoid the embarrassment and the

further incriminating nature of his specific comments.

VELSHI: Whether or not one likes John Bolton, he spent a lot of years

dealing with American policy and foreign policy. And he told Martha Raddatz

of ABC that when you`re dealing with somebody like Putin who has made his

life understanding Russia`s strategic position in the world against Donald

Trump who doesn`t enjoy reading about these issues or learning about them,

it`s a very difficult position for America to be in.

John Bolton suggesting that President Trump`s ignorance is a security

danger to America.

SCHIFF: There`s no question that that`s true. His ignorance -- but also

just the self-serving quality of this president.

Really I think the harshest indictment that I`ve seen reported about

Bolton`s book, and it was very consistent with what we presented during the

impeachment trial, is that the president consistently puts his own personal

interests, his political interests, above that of the interests of the

nation.

We said he would do it again. Clearly, he did do it again repeatedly, as

part of a pattern. And that`s the most serious indictment, and that`s what

really jeopardizes our country, when you have a president who has so little

regard for the best interests of the country, and who constantly puts

himself first.

VELSHI: Congressman, good to see you again. Thank you for joining me.

Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff, thanks for your

time tonight, sir.

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