MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript: Russian Investigation

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

MADDOW: Joining us now is Senator Richard Blumenthal, member of the Senate  Judiciary Committee who signed that letter calling for Justice Department  officials to commit publicly that they won`t interfere in the special  counsel`s investigation.

I should tell you, he also co-wrote an op-ed for "Slate" tonight, along  with historian Rick Perlstein called "How to Protect the Mueller  Investigation" which explicitly calls out those parallels to what happened  in October 1973, that does feel like quite a quite a curtain opener for  what we`re seeing right now.

Senator Blumenthal, thank you very much for being with us tonight.

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT), SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Thank you,  Rachel.

MADDOW: I am -- I`m not suspicious but I`m curious as to why now -- why  you and these other eight senators on the Judiciary Committee have sought  these assurances from the Justice Department tonight, particularly given  that we also saw this interesting statement tonight from Senator Coons and  Senator Tillis on a similar matter.

BLUMENTHAL: The reason I led this letter was my increasing alarm with that  swirling reports, unconfirmed and unspecific, but more and more concerning  that the president may attempt to fire Bob Mueller. He tried it last June  and he stopped only because his White House counsel threatened to resign.

Now, his legal team is disintegrating, including the possible departure of  that White House counsel. The departure already of one of his lawyers and  his tweets are increasingly erratic and extreme, but most fundamentally is  the fact that the investigation is coming closer and closer to Donald Trump  himself.

He may well be interviewed shortly. There are three guilty pleas of  witnesses potentially against him with very relevant and important  information that could incriminate him. There`s a credible case of  obstruction of justice right now against the president United States, and  that case becomes more and more compelling every day, in fact, the  president`s actions themselves are creating that case, unfolding in real  time right before us.

So, this letter with Congress now out of town and therefore unavailable to  take action is meant to send a warning, but also to elicit the commitment  of these five officials who were in line of succession to Rod Rosenstein  that they will not fire Bob Mueller or interfere in this investigation by  limiting staffing cutting resources, constraining in any way his ability to  follow the facts and the law.

MADDOW: I`m struck by the fact that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein  has given those sorts of public -- he has given that public assurance more  or less, he`s told Congress on several different occasions that he will  strictly follow the special counsel regulations, that he would not follow  in order to fire Bob Mueller if there weren`t good cause for that order to  have been issued.

Given the fact that he`s already made public assurances related to this  matter, has the Justice Department or any of the individual Justice  Department officials who you`ve now approached, have they given you any indication as to whether they would see it as appropriate or inappropriate, whether they plan to address your concerns through any public statements. They`ve given no indication whatsoever, which is also a reason for alarm because it is very uncomplicated. There`s nothing particularly elaborate or challenging about adhering to the rule of law.

And I`m alarmed as well by the Republican leadership blocking these bills.  There`s strong bipartisan support for the bills that I have introduced as  long as well as Senator Coons and Tillis. Democrats have supported it.  Senator Graham, Republican of South Carolina.

And so, I think that there ought to be a hearing, in fact there ought to be  votes in the Judiciary Committee that approve this legislation, bring it to  the floor, allow us to vote on it, and dispel a lot of the concern that  there may be that we will be too late and the president will have acted and  we will have this constitutional conflagration unnecessarily. But in the  meantime, the pledge from these five officials in line of succession to Rod  Rosenstein are very, very important and they`ve given no indication about  what they will do.

MADDOW: Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut -- from the Senate  Judiciary Committee spearheading this overture to the Justice Department  tonight -- thank you, sir, and thank you for helping us understand the way  you`re thinking ahead on this. Much appreciated.

BLUMENTHAL: Thank you.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source