MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Trump Finance Investigations

Interview

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HAYES: Congressman Eric Swalwell is a Democratic Member of the House Intelligence Committee. Let`s talk about this first. There`s -- there are calls between Don Junior and Emin Agalarov. There`s a call in between. Was the Committee able to determine anything about that call or whether Don Junior talked to his father?

REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D), CALIFORNIA, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Good evening, Chris. No, the Republicans who held the subpoena power were completely unwilling to subpoena Donald Trump Jr.`s phone provider, who would have been able to tell us who that blocked number belonged to. We have a lot of circumstantial evidence that suggests that we would want to know whether or not Candidate Trump knew about the meeting. He was in the building.

He was just one floor above where the meeting took place. He was very close with the Agalarov family, who asked to set up the meeting. So the fact that he wouldn`t have been a part of it or had any idea, it just does not make much sense. He was exchanging gifts at the time with the Agalarov family, who were sending him a birthday painting just a couple of days after. And then, of course, there`s the timing of what he was telling the world would be coming and then, of course, just a couple days later after the meeting, Julian Assange tells the world that there`s hacked materials that will soon be released. We could have found out this information. I don`t think the Republicans wanted to know the answer.

HAYES: I just want to make sure I`m tracking this because it seems important and it seems important in sort of fairness to the President here, to make sure we know what`s going on. Don Junior talks to Emin Agalarov, he makes -- there`s a call with a blocked number and then he talks to Emin Agalarov again. What you`re telling me is that the committee had the power to subpoena the phone records to just figure out what that phone call was, and to show that it wasn`t to say his father, if it was to his father, and they refused to do that?

SWALWELL: They absolutely refused to do that. And we asked Donald Trump Jr. to provide those records to us or to ask himself who the blocked number was. He refused to provide that as well. So there are a number of ways that we could have done that. And also, just remember that in the e-mail thread on June 6th, Donald Trump Jr. is talking to Rob Goldstone, who says, let me connect you in a few minutes, 20 minutes, with Emin. And so the timing matches up and Donald Trump Junior told us in our interview that meeting that he believed the call was to Emin. So it`s a mystery as to who was called in between but it would make a lot of sense if it was Donald Trump Sr., considering everything else that was going on.

HAYES: I mean, am I crazy to think that if it wasn`t Donald Trump Sr., they would have been eager to provide that information to you?

SWALWELL: You would seem -- it would seem that they would be very, very eager to rule Donald Trump Sr. out, but again, in every time we got close, and there were so many other circumstances like this, the Republicans were unwilling to take that next step, where we could use our Committee`s subpoena power, to get bank records, phone records, travel logs, the same thing with Michael Cohen. Now, remember, he adamantly denied that he was in Prague, and all we asked was us, just give us one record to show that you were somewhere else when you were over in Italy or over in London, which we know you were in those places in the summer and Fall of 2016, and the Republicans refused to subpoena that and he refused to turn over any records.

HAYES: Wait, I want to be clear about this again. This big question was, Michael Cohen in Prague. You said, hey, just show us some stuff so that we could rule it out and asked the Republicans to say, hey, let`s subpoena some records so we could rule it out, so we could just match your alibi, and they declined to do both.

SWALWELL: That`s absolutely right.

HAYES: All right. Let`s -- there`s a new piece of information in this report as far as I can tell about the NRA. And I haven`t known what to make of this story. It`s a really interesting one. It`s skirted around the edges of this story about whether, essentially, someone connected the Kremlin, a man by the name of Alexander Torshin was sort of using the NRA as a back channel. I`m going to read a portion from the report and ask for you to explain it. The e-mail, there`s a reference to an e-mail that`s recently uncovered. It goes on to say that Russia plan to use the NRA`s annual convention to make first contact with the Trump Campaign and that Putin is deadly serious about building a good relationship with Mr. Trump. We know that Don Junior did, in fact, meet a Russian politician at the convention. What should we make of this?

SWALWELL: Well, the subject line of that e-mail which was not in the report was Kremlin back channel and we saw that type of subject line or approach --

HAYES: Wait, what was -- what was the subject line?

SWALWELL: Kremlin back channel. So we saw that so many times through other witnesses who were also approached. And so you had different people making approaches to Trump Campaign members or family members, where that subject line or the essence of that message was being conveyed.

HAYES: Sorry, I just want to make sure. Who received the e-mail line with the subject line, Kremlin back channel and who did it come from?

SWALWELL: So, Erick Erickson -- I`m sorry Rick Dearborn was -- who received the e-mail and it came from Paul Erickson.

HAYES: Paul Erickson who was connected to the NRA. Rick Dearborn got it. And was Jeff Sessions, did he get a wind of this e-mail?

SWALWELL: So Rick Dearborn had been the Chief of Staff to Jeff Sessions. And so, of course, Rick Dearborn was questioned. And Chris, now, I`m limited in what I can talk about as far as witness testimony because the transcripts were not released. I have to stick within the parameters of what`s in the report. But, you know, Donald Trump Jr. and Donald Trump, his father, did go to the NRA convention where Alexander Torshin and Maria Butina, two Russians, also attended in Kentucky in May of 2016.

HAYES: All right, Congressman Eric Swalwell, thanks for laying that out for us.

SWALWELL: My pleasure.

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