MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Trump Campaign

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

HAYES: Yes, I want to say that there are a bunch of details in the report about what was actually in that suspicious (INAUDIBLE) report which are fascinating and raise lots more questions. Harry Litman, thank you. And everyone stay tuned because Ronan Farrow who`s on the hottest reporting streak in recent journalistic memory, honestly, and authored that report, yet another scoop will be joining Rachel Maddow coming up. You want to stick around for that. With me now, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Democrat of California also crucially Ranking Member of the Financial Services Committee, the committee that has oversight statutory authority over the financial system that is very intimately familiar with the ways in which the financial system is compelled to report things suspiciously. And I want to get first your reaction to this news that the -- a whistleblower leaked a suspicious activity report about Michael Cohen.

REP. MAXINE WATERS (D-CA), RANKING MEMBER, HOUSE FINANCIAL SERVICE COMMITTEE: Well, allow me to add something else that`s breaking news and that is the fact that I sent a letter to the Treasury Secretary Mnuchin in January. And this is what I asked. Have you ever directed or has any other Trump administration official, Trump campaign official, or Trump family member called on you to direct U.S. Treasury officials or staff members to obscure, destroy, or withhold information implicating the President, Trump campaign officials, Trump family members or his associates. We asked for this information. We never got a response from the Treasury Secretary and now we`re finding out that it had been scrubbed. The whistleblower who went to look for the information discovered that it was not there. Where did it go? It did not move by itself. Someone removed this information and the Treasury Secretary is going to have to answer for this.

HAYES: Let me shake sure I understood. That letter you wrote back in January to the Treasury Secretary to say look, Mr. Secretary, I would like confirmation in writing that you have never been asked to destroy or obscure any records having to do with the President or his associates and what was his response?

WATERS: None. No response. He did not answer us at all.

HAYES: And no explanation? They just didn`t respond?

WATERS: No explanation no, response, no nothing. And we was asking because we thought there may be suspicious activity. And if there was suspicious activity, we would know where it might come from but we also
know that it would be sent to FinCEN and it would be deposited there and he would know, should know or could go to it and find it and respond to us and he didn`t. The question is, why did he ignore us?

HAYES: Did you -- did you come into any specific information to make its way to your office that would prompt you to have a concern that the Treasury Department might be doing something to obstruct, destroy, or
obscure records.

WATERS: Well, specifically, that`s what out letter ask of him. Did they know about it --

HAYES: But I mean, I`m saying -- I guess, I`m asking, is there something specific that prompted it or it was just a concern you had generally because the President`s finances might end up being investigated?

WATERS: Yes, don`t forget, we were also taking a look at the relationship to Deutsche Bank at the time.

HAYES: Right.

WATERS: And so because my staff has been so involved in taking a look at the movement of money and some of the allegations of money laundering, et cetera, we`re just looking. And so we thought we`d better ask whether or not there was any suspicious activity that had been forwarded to FinCEN. And so it was not specific, it was general.

HAYES: Are your suspicions heightened based on the news that just broke about a whistleblower fearing that something was scrubbed.

WATERS: Absolutely, absolutely. And I think the Treasury Secretary is going to having to answer to this question. And I want you to know that I think that the ethics officer that directed it to Mueller and said to him, this may be relevant to your investigation is absolutely correct and he did a good thing.

HAYES: You`re saying the Office of Government Ethics that referred the President`s payment. I have another question about that disclosure form the President signed today which disclosed a year late that payment. It also says I think the trump hotels has brought in about $40 million in the past year. Is it problematic to you that the President and the Republican Party use and promote this hotel, the President is so clearly benefiting from?

WATERS: Well, absolutely. And you know, questions have been raised about that. And I think one organization that looks into this kind of thing have you know, asked for investigations into whether or not there`s a violation of the Constitution or whether or not laws have been broken because obviously, it appears that the President is you know, helping to direct business and he`s making money on it. And that there are those who are coming from foreign countries who are glad to comply with this request to stay at the hotel because they think they`re going to create some favor with him. And so it`s all very criminal looking and it doesn`t look good for the President of the United States to be involved in business while he is the president of the United States making money off of a government location. That location belongs to the government. He`s only leasing that location. And I think the constitution says that no one should be able to you know, have a lease or have business that they have incurred because of their relationship to government.

HAYES: I guess the final question is, do you think you`ll get an answer from Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to your January letter given the news that just broke?

WATERS: No, I don`t expect an answer from him. But now that it has been leaked and now that the ethics officer have sent it to Mueller, I think now that it will be investigated. It could be investigated. And more can be found out about how that information got out of that database. Who took it out? Why did they take it out? And so I hope that the investigation will be able to answer those questions.

HAYES: All right, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, thank you so much for being with me.

WATERS: You`re welcome. Thank you.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source