MSNBC "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" - Transcript: "Boris Johnson to become UK next PM."
Interview
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O`DONNELL: "The New York Times" is reporting tonight that convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein who is now facing new sex trafficking charges in New York has had dozens of accounts at Deutsche Bank, which flagged suspicious transactions to the Treasury Department involving Jeffrey Epstein earlier this year. The Times reports, the bank decided to sever ties with Mr. Epstein late last year after the Miami Herald published an investigation into the government`s handling of the earlier sexual abuse allegations against him. But that process proved more complicated and time-consuming than executives had initially anticipated. As of late spring, there were still transactions taking place in some of Mr. Epstein`s Deutsche Bank accounts. Executives now believe that they have closed all of Mr. Epstein`s accounts. Joining us now is Freshman Democratic Congresswoman Katie Porter of California. She`s a member of the House Financial Services Committee. I know you have been questioning the administration about Deutsche Bank involving President Trump, what`s your reaction to this story tonight?
REP. KATIE PORTER (D-CA): Well, I think this is exactly on brand for Deutsche Bank and they seem to be the lender of last resort for unsavory characters. So if you`re a Russian oligarch, if you`re a pedophile, if you`re president Trump - I mean you give joy to make a call. And so this is very much what we`ve seen a pattern of over a series of years from Deutsche Bank, which is a failure to follow anti-money laundering laws.
O`DONNELL: Is this something that would provoke the committee the Financial Services Committee to drag in Deutsche Bank to say what are you doing with this so-called you know private banking service?
PORTER: Absolutely. This is something we should be asking about with Deutsche Bank. We`ve been trying, of course, to give information from them related to their banking of the President, which is going on for a very long a period. But I think this is another sign, in a pattern. I mean, I think this is the least surprising thing about this is that the financial institution banking Mr. Epstein was Deutsche Bank. If you had to ask me where does Epstein bank? I would have said probably Deutsche, because that seems to be who their clientele is these days. The fact that they didn`t - they took him on as a client, keep in mind, he was looking for a bank, because JP Morgan Chase wouldn`t do business with him--
O`DONNELL: Yes.
PORTER: --after his initial conviction. So the fact that Deutsche even took him on, I think, says something and they ignored this ongoing pattern of suspicious activity.
O`DONNELL: The positive element of this story about the bank is that, when you read the story it`s very clear, that this story is coming from people inside the bank who don`t like this aspect of their own bank`s business.
PORTER: No, I mean this is what happened. They - the banking compliance folks do their job. These are hardworking Americans who are carefully trained and they tried to raise these concerns. But what happened, the upper-crust people at Deutsche Bank decided that it was worth it to them to take on this business, to do business with any rich person, whether he was involved in lawful activity or really unlawful and immoral activity like Mr. Epstein. And so I think this should harden us that there are still hardworking people out there trying to follow the laws. But we should ask ourselves why are those people not running these institutions?
O`DONNELL: I want to go to the big business of the House tomorrow. You are not on the Intelligence Committee or the Judiciary Committee. If you were, what would you be asking Robert Mueller tomorrow?
PORTER: My first question would be, "Based on your investigation, can you exonerate the President of federal crimes, "Yes" or "No". And the answer, if you`ve read the report, has to be no. So this is the first rebuttal to what Mr. Trump has been - President Trump has been tweeting. Mr. Mueller cannot exonerate him. And then my second question would be, based on the evidence - is there substantial evidence that the President committed one or more acts of obstruction of justice? The answer to this has to be yes. It states that in the report. And then I think I would say, "How many acts of obstruction of justice did you find substantial evidence of - one, two - stop me when I get there". One, two, three, four, five, six - because there actually are up to 14 acts in which there`s evidence of obstruction of justice. There`s at least four acts in which he says that all of the elements of obstruction of justice are met.
O`DONNELL: When you did that - stop me when I get there on the number, the reason I chuckled, is because that is the Katie Porter hearing style. I have seen you do exactly the kind of thing with cabinet members, with banking executives and you have that is - just unlike anything, I`ve seen before in congressional hearings in the way you kind of make the outcome of these questions inevitable.
PORTER: Well, I mean I think this is the goal. The outcome of these hearings should be inevitable. It should inevitably be the truth for the American people. So there is a purpose to asking these questions. No matter what witness comes before me, I have the same goal. I want the truth for the American people. So I try to frame the question in a way that will get us to the truth. I don`t presume to know what that is, that`s why they`re posed as questions. But I really do have a goal and that goal is the truth and that should be the goal that, I hope, all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle bring to these hearings.
O`DONNELL: And I`ve learned, just listening to you here, because I`ve been kind of struggling with this concept of Mueller is not going to say anything that isn`t in his report. And the kind of questions I have are not answered in the report like, "Why didn`t you subpoena the President" and so forth. But the questions you just asked are all in the report. The answers all live within that report.
PORTER: And I think we need to start there. So we need to begin by helping the American people understand what are the basic conclusions of the report, which is that Director Mueller - Special Counsel Mueller - excuse me - cannot exonerate the President. That based on his investigation he cannot exonerate him. That there is substantial evidence of multiple counts of obstruction of justice and then I would ask him to name each of those four counts of obstruction of justice.
O`DONNELL: Now you are - came out in favor of impeachment after a careful deliberation about it. You`re in one of those districts where reportedly Nancy Pelosi worries about members like you who are representing previously Republican districts and that you might not be able to go as far on these issues as some other members. What is the experience, but it`s by my memory it`s over a month that you came out in favor of impeachment. What`s happened back in the district to you as a result of that?
PORTER: Well, people still talk to me about all of the issues they were talking to me about. I mean, I think, there`s two separate things here. One is did the special counsel conclude that the President broke the law. Yes, he did. He said there`s substantial evidence and that`s my job in the House of Representatives. If there`s substantial of a federal crime by our President, then we have a duty to begin an impeachment inquiry and to put that forward then to the Senate for trial. Separately from that, I don`t think anyone should be concerned that I`m not on my job with financial services. I have banks coming in tomorrow to talk about one of the largest bank mergers in recent history. I`m preparing for that hearing. So I still hear lots of people talking about prescription drugs. Where`s the effort to reduce the cost of prescription drugs? What`s going on with the deficit? What`s going on with the transportation? So I definitely can take on all of these issues at the same time.
O`DONNELL: Congresswoman Katie Porter, everyone --
PORTER: Thank you.
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