MSNBC "All In with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Stephanie Murphy

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Florida Congresswoman Stephanie Murphy is a member of the Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack who just voted for the contempt referral and she joins me now. Congresswoman, maybe you can explain the scenario here of what happened when he came the first time, the decision to vote for contempt, and what the latest developments are now.

REP. STEPHANIE MURPHY (D-FL): Sure. Thanks so much for having me, Chris. The first time that Mr. Clark appeared before the committee, he basically didn`t answer any questions, continued to try to use the executive privilege to not answer any questions, and then he ended the meeting and left.

And what he has done is tried to tell us that now he`s ready to come before the committee again but he`s going to plead the fifth. To be clear, pleading the fifth means that you are trying to protect yourself against criminal charges. And so, what the committee did is that we proceeded with the efforts to hold him in contempt.

What I think that anybody who has been called before this committee and the American people should understand from both the Bannon contempt as well as initiating the Clark contempt proceedings is that we will allow no one to be above the law and no one to stall the investigations of this committee.

And so, that`s why we`re moving forward to pre-position. We will allow him an opportunity this weekend to appear before us again and if we -- let`s see what he does before our committee this weekend, whether he`s had a change of heart about whether or not he`s going to cooperate and do his patriotic duty.

HAYES: Yes. So, my understanding is the invocation last time was a little gauzy but he was trying to invoke some executive -- nebulous executive privilege claim. Betsy Woodruff Swan noting yesterday on this program that the problem there is that the claim hasn`t been made even by the former President who doesn`t even really have the right to make it, but at least in the case of Bannon he`s invoked it. He has not invoked it on Jeffrey Clark`s behalf.

And so -- is that right? I mean, he came in and tried to claim a privilege that the person who theoretically might have a shot at it doesn`t even invoke on his behalf.

MURPHY: The current president who has the right to invoke executive privilege has not chosen to do so. That is President Biden. That is the person within whom has the authority to invoke executive privilege. Not only did President Trump not say anything about Clark, but Clark`s superiors at the Department of Justice have appeared before our committee and have provided testimony.

It`s a real shame that somebody who has taken an oath of office when he went to work for the Department of Justice to uphold the constitution is behaving in the way that he is today.

HAYES: I should say that the committee`s report on Clark says -- the committee believes that Mr. Clark had conversations with others in the federal government including members of Congress regarding efforts to delegitimize, disrupt, or overturn the election results in the weeks leading up to the January 6.

You mentioned something which I saw before which is, I guess, I don`t know if you stated this or indicated through lawyers to your committee and his intent to invoke the Fifth Amendment which of course uh is a constitutional protection against self-incrimination. You don`t have to answer questions from say, a police officer on the stand, right? This is a sacrosanct American right.

What I hear from you is it`s your committee`s position that the Fifth Amendment doesn`t apply in this case because it`s not a criminal proceeding.

MURPHY: Well, let`s see what he actually does when he appears before our committee again. But you know, invoking the Fifth is a weighty, a very weighty action. It means that you have concerns that you might incriminate yourself in a criminal act. And in the event that -- you know, let`s see what he does. But we will continue to proceed in every way we can to get the information that we need.

And this Department of Justice has demonstrated that they believe in the rule of law and executing their duties as they should. If we have to move forward with criminal contempt and refer to the Department of Justice, I have full faith that they will do their job to the letter of the law.

HAYES: All right, Congresswoman Stephanie Murphy, thank you very much.

MURPHY: Thanks so much.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source