MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Pete Aguilar

Interview

Joining us now is California Democratic Congressman Pete Aguilar. He`s a member of the select committee investigating the events of the January 6th attack.

Congressman, always good to see you. Thank you for joining us this evening.

I think I`ve tried to set up where we are right now. I think what our viewers want to know is where do we go next? You`ve got a vote that is scheduled for Tuesday night to determine how to respond to the fact that Steve Bannon has said, no, you`re not getting documents, you`re not getting testimony, you`re not getting anything.

REP. PETE AGUILAR (D-CA): Yes, so that`s exactly where we`re at. We have a business committee of the select committee. It will be public, and we will address that issue, and we will likely advance a criminal referral to the House floor. From there, the house floor will act and we`re work on timing with the rules committee, but we do want to get it on the House floor soon.

[21:10:04]

And once it passes off of the House floor, and I`m confident that it will, then that starts the next series of motions and so the speaker will then certify that, and then it will be transferred to the United States attorney for the District of Columbia, where the federal law says the district, the U.S. attorney has a duty to put this in front of a grand jury at the federal level, and so that`s exactly the state of play.

Our goal here is to hold this individual accountable. We want to get to the truth. We want to understand the facts of what went into the planning and everything behind January 6th. And so, our goal is to be punitive. Our goal is to get testimony, but if someone isn`t going to give testimony, we`re going to use every tool available.

VELSHI: So for a lot of people who watched what happened on January 6th, including people like yourself who were in it, but for the rest of us who were watching it, there`s some feeling that this is obvious. We need to get to the bottom of it. We need to find out who`s behind it, and we need to move fast. The wheels of justice move slowly, when this gets handed over to the justice department, it moves slowly. A lot of our legal experts have said you don`t want to rush this, this is really, really important.

But the Trump administration and the Trump circle was known for trying to run out the clock. How do you deal with that? That seems to be what this tactic is. I think they know ultimately they`ll lose their attempts, but they`re trying to delay.

AGUILAR: Yeah, clearly, and this is a group that doesn`t respect the rule of law. They taught us that for many years, and they continue to exemplify that, so what we`re going to do, we`re going to be thoughtful. We`re going to be methodical, we`re going to have a plan, and so this is the next step in that investigative plan.

And like I said, the goal is to get testimony, the goal is to have a series of investigative discussions and there are a number of witnesses who are having conversations with us now voluntarily. We don`t use a subpoena lightly but we need to be able to use it in order to get to the facts.

We`re very aware of the tactics they could use, though, and we want to be thoughtful in how we proceed, and we have an investigative plan that will help do that.

VELSHI: Most people know those four names of the people you have so far subpoenaed for information and testimony. Jeffrey Clark was a name that was not known to most of us all those months ago. You have now issued a subpoena to him. He`s a former Department of Justice official who I think we can describe as sort of the mastermind behind a plot to try and overturn the election.

What do you expect to happen there with that subpoena? I`m not going to go as far as to ask you what you hope to hear from him. That again will play out however it does.

AGUILAR: Well, and the president -- President Biden, and the department of justice has waived the privilege and the discussion for those department of justice fishes and officials and so we have heard from other officials and the Senate put out a report discussing those conversations and it was a very good report, and we`re going to use that and build off of it. What we hope to get is the full picture of the pressure campaign that the former president utilized on his own Department of Justice and how they in turn then used it on other states.

And we think that it`s very clear that that`s exactly what happened, and that they tried to thwart democracy, they tried to foment lies and foment the big lie around the country in order to delay or stop the certification of the election, and we know how close we came to their efforts.

VELSHI: And we also know how hard many of the Capitol police officers worked and you encounter them every day. So I want your reaction to the news that a Capitol police officer has been arrested and charged with helping one of the rioters sort of counseling him to delete incriminating posts on social media?

AGUILAR: Well, we`re going to have to let the court system, you know, play out, but what I will say overwhelmingly, the Capitol Police officers that protected us that day and continue to protect us each and every day did a heroic effort. They were the last line of defense of democracy. And to those Capitol Police officers and those D.C. Metro Police officers who protected us, we continue to be thankful.

There may be circumstances like this one where there were individuals who were not behaving appropriately after the fact. And in fact, maybe aiding some of these insurrectionists, and so we`re going to let that court process play out. I support the chief`s decision to put this individual on administrative leave while they gather more evidence and details. But overwhelmingly, the Capitol police officers did an incredible job protecting us that day.

VELSHI: Congressman, good to see you as always. Thank you for joining us this evening.

California Congressman Pete Aguilar is a member of the House Select Committee on the January 6th attack.

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