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Johnson: And you see what's happened to me. And I'm telling you they can paint the exact same picture with you, probably even better because you're a politician, exactly. They would love to roast a public official even more than me. Probably the only one they'd would like to roast more than me is a public official.

Swallow: Is a what?

Johnson: A public official.

Swallow: Right.

Swallow: All — that was all designed to get a lobby group hired to take care, try to take care of your deal. So when — when I look at my involvement — Jeremy, when I look at my involvement, I go, there's — I could even be paid for something like that. There's nothing wrong with that. As long as I'm not interfering with a government agency as a government official, there's nothing wrong with me being involved in it. ... There's nothing wrong with anything that I've done criminally. Now, politically, politically, I go, whoa.

Johnson: ... Richard [Rawle] is like, 'Look, do you remember when Obama was running, he was saying he was gonna, you know, clamp down on the abusive payday-lender practices.' I'm like actually I kind of do remember that. He says, 'Have you noticed nothing's happened?' He says, 'You know why? Because who's the guy he listens to more than anyone is Reid.' And so he says, 'We have a connection with Reid and Reid got in Obama's ear and got him to put that off for now and I —'

Swallow: They have to do it legally through lobbyists.

Johnson: I understand. I'm not saying —

Swallow: OK. I just want you to know —

Johnson: ... I'll — I'll have a charger for that other phone. I feel better about calling me on the one —

Swallow: I don't know (inaudible).

Johnson: Well, go to Wal-Mart and get a $20 phone. I researched everywhere. You can't trace these things because they're not in anyone's name.

Swallow: Well, if they — if the F — if the FBI thinks what it looks like on paper say, then they're going to come hot after me.

Johnson: Well, maybe that's — I think very well could be already. That's — I don't know. Part of me wants to meet with them just for that very fact is to find out what they do know, where they're at, what they're thinking. The truth is I don't — this is nothing I don't understand, too. If you got Reid involved, who gives a sh— about you. You're nothing. This is the number one senator in the whole friggin' United States.

Swallow: Is Reid the politician?

Johnson: It could be. That's what I'm saying. I don't know that it's you. They redacted all the emails. My attorney doesn't know. So —

Swallow: I'm — I'm not confident that it's not me they're looking for.

Johnson: I'm not confident it's not you either, but I'm just saying like think of it from a prosecutor's perspective.

Johnson: ... And I think in the grand scheme of things you're a little nugget or a little piece in the puzzle, but —

Swallow: I hope so. I hope so. I hope I'm not the big fish or anything.

Johnson: I — I — if I — if I felt like I — I could bury you easy because I could just team up with Scott [Leavitt] and say, 'Yeah, John got us into this' and everything else, piece of cake, I wouldn't be here.

Swallow: I know and it means the world to me. When this is done, who knows where I am.

Swallow: I don't even know what those guys have the power to do. Do they have the power to go to Richard and get his emails?

Johnson: No. Not without — well, you might tell Richard to delete sh— off — to be wary that there could be an investigation and if there's anything on his server that he doesn't want the government to have to —

Swallow: ... But, at the end of the day, I don't want to be a felon.

Johnson: You won't. You won't be a felon, no matter what. At the end of the day, John, I'll be on the stand testifying that you had plenty of opportunity to get money out of me for favors and you never tried once ever. Ever.

Johnson: I would find out for damn sure if you ever got paid from RMR. I think that's important to know, for me at least, because if I go in and say a bunch of stuff about RMR.

Swallow: Yeah.

Johnson: — and what that money was sent for, even though — even though I know damn well we never paid you anything to hook us up on this Reid deal, that's exactly the picture they'll be able to paint. They will be able to get an indictment, they will flash that out in the news, and it will be a nightmare. It doesn't matter if that's the truth or not.

Swallow: Well, then give me some kind of (inaudible).

Johnson: That's what I'm saying.

Swallow: Do you think they need you to do that?

Johnson: What?

Swallow: Do you think they need you —

Johnson: Yes.

Swallow: —to make that connection?

Source: Amanda Richards, Richards Certified Shorthand Reporting