MSNBC "Hardball" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Jackie Speier
Interview
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KORNACKI: Welcome back to HARDBALL.
Michael Cohen alleged today that President Trump knew in advance of the WikiLeaks dump of hacked DNC e-mails and he said that the president`s son, Donald Trump Jr., likely told his father about that infamous Trump Tower meeting with the Russians in June of 2016.
Joining me now is Democratic Congresswoman Jackie Speier, a member of the Oversight Committee, where those hearings were today, and the Intelligence Committee, that is where Cohen will appear in a closed, not public hearing tomorrow.
Congresswoman, thank you for joining us.
Well, first you had a crack at him today. That whole world got to watch it. You asked some interesting questions. You get another one behind closed doors today. Anything you learned today that`s going to shape what you talk with him tomorrow?
REP. JACKIE SPEIER (D-CA), OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: What we learned today was that there was a relationship between Roger Stone and the president that continued all through the campaign. That there were conversations that took place all the time, that Michael Cohen`s testimony before the Intelligence Committee was reviewed and edited by the attorneys for Donald Trump in the White House and was restricted.
So, all that is suggesting that there is a grand conspiracy here. We need to follow up with many of these leads. But I think we`re getting closer and closer to being able to put all the puzzle pieces together and have a pretty profound picture to show with the American people.
KORNACKI: You`re saying a grand conspiracy is where you think this is leading. Is that something realistically that you and Congress and these committees are going to put together? Or is this something he`s already been through, Cohen talking with Mueller with that team? He`s already going through the Southern District of New York, have they already figured out whatever there is to figure out here?
SPEIER: Well, certainly, the Mueller report is going to be a very important component. There are a number of people who testified in the Trump orbit who have to be called back because their testimony appears not to be accurate anymore, just like Michael Cohen`s testimony turned out not to be accurate and he`s going to jail because of the now.
And I think that you will see more and more people that are in the Trump orbit that end up willing to lie for the president and then they`re the ones that pay the price. And that`s precisely what Michael Cohen said today.
KORNACKI: What do you make of that, that argument he`s making. He`s saying, look, when he lied to Congress about Trump Tower, about those discussions about the Trump Tower Moscow, he`s saying when he lie -- Trump didn`t tell him to lie but he inferred Trump wanted him to lie. Trump basically communicates in a code, he believes he understands the code. He says he doesn`t -- he didn`t actually witness what was said but he believes he saw Donald Trump Jr. come into Trump`s office, walk around the desk, whisper to him something about the June 2016 meeting.
There`s a lot of sort of aspersions being cast there, but do you need more than that, than him saying, I think I understood it this way, I thought I heard that?
SPEIER: So, the fact that the Trump Tower Moscow Project went on all through 2016, he said he had no dealings with Russia, and yet he had a letter of intent that had been signed in the fall of 2015, and was still in effect in 2016 and his testimony before the House Intelligence Committee was reviewed by White House counsel and edited to reflect that there wasn`t any business going on in 2016 in a conspiracy to defraud.
And I think that`s going to become crystal clear as we go forward.
KORNACKI: Who do you want? Who do you want to hear from in testimony that you haven`t yet heard from?
SPEIER: Well, I want to hear from Jay Sekulow, Abbe Lowell. I want to hear from Donald Trump Jr. again, from Ivanka Trump, Steve Bannon should come back. Roger Stone should probably come back.
All of the very intense inner circle of Donald Trump needs to come before the House Intelligence Committee. This was a very small universe of people that were involved in this campaign. And when Michael Cohen said today that Trump saw this as a big, fat infomercial that was going to help him with his business in the future, I think that was very enlightening.
KORNACKI: All right. Congresswoman Jackie Speier from California, thank you for joining us.
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