CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Russia Investigations

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BLITZER: All right, love to read them myself. I'm sure all of our viewers would like to do that as well. Thank you, Manu, very much.

Let's talk about all the breaking news with Senator Jeff Merkley. He's a Democrat. He's a member of the Foreign Relations Committee.

Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D), OREGON: You bet.

BLITZER: Let me get your quick reaction now to the breaking news. Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor, joining the president's legal team. What do you think?

MERKLEY: Well, I think he's being more hired more as a lobbyist and an ambassador in this role of going and trying to figure out what Mueller is doing and negotiate with Mueller than he is for his legal expertise.

BLITZER: Giuliani tells CNN he hopes they can comply with the Mueller investigation, the president's legal team. He's hoping they can reach the conclusion of an investigation within a few weeks. What do you make of that?

MERKLEY: Think of this as kind of plan C. Plan A was to figure out a way to get rid of the attorney general and replace him. Plan B was to fire Rosenstein, replace him.

But if those don't make sense -- and they don't make sense for a host of reasons, including pushback from here on the Hill -- then a third strategy is to get a high-profile negotiator to try to find a way to shut this thing down.

BLITZER: He says he does have, Giuliani, high regard, in his words for Bob Mueller and he says he should be -- Mueller should be allowed to do his job. He's entitled to do his job.

Is that encouraging to you?

MERKLEY: Well, certainly, that's the right philosophy.

And I think the president's making a move that's motivated by finding every possible way to understand what Mueller is doing and be able to limit the damage to the presidency.

BLITZER: CNN has learned, Senator, that the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, told the president he's not a target of the Michael Cohen investigation that's going on in New York by the Southern District of New York U.S. attorney there. Is that appropriate?

[18:10:08]

MERKLEY: Well, I -- not coming from a legal perspective, I don't know whether it's appropriate.

I will say it's probably not that comforting, because the fact that the referral may not have been made on the basis of information directly about Trump and may have been on basis of information about Michael Cohen, that doesn't mean that the information that comes up in that doesn't bear on the current investigation that Mueller is conducting or the investigation that New York is conducting.

So not being the initial target may not be something that allows the president to sleep well at night.

BLITZER: The Mueller team also arguing in court, in federal court today here in Washington that it's natural for them to investigate Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, as a possible back channel to Russia, when you look at all his pro-Russian connections, including a whole bunch of Ukrainians with pro-Russian connections.

What does that tell you?

MERKLEY: Well, we have long been hearing about the number of connections in Ukraine and in Russia.

And for Paul Manafort to therefore have been in the campaign, a person who would carry a discussion about Russia's activity during the campaign, makes -- is a reasonable thing to -- if you're looking for somebody who might have been the conduit of that dialogue, he's a logical person to look at.

And they've been examining him very closely. I think the president has been very concerned that Paul Manafort will become a cooperating witness, which, to this point, he hasn't. But that's something that I think continues to haunt President Trump.

BLITZER: What will you be looking for, Senator, in those Comey memos that are now being presented to Congress?

MERKLEY: Well, I am looking forward to reading those memos.

The fact that Comey, as a professional in the FBI, has proceeded to document each conversation as it happened is a pretty high-quality way of understanding what those discussions were. I understand that four of them are classified. I'm not sure how they are going to be handled.

They are really arriving tonight, and they're available to members of Congress. I will be reading them tomorrow morning. Of course, the classified ones, I won't be able to share with you.

But the fact that we know already that the discussions involved a loyalty oath, a request for loyalty, but what Comey said public, does that correspond to what he put in his memos? That's something that everyone will be looking at.

We also know that the conversation about going easy or abandoning the effort to prosecute Michael Flynn, was that documented in the same fashion that we have heard about before? So those are two of the important questions. But there -- with seven memos, there may be some other valuable information and some surprises.

BLITZER: Yes, we would love to read them as well.

Are you worried, Senator, these memos, though, could be politicized while the Mueller investigation is ongoing?

MERKLEY: I have been so concerned about this investigation being politicized.

It's just -- it's so important in our democratic republic that we get to the bottom of what happened. At moments, it takes on a soap opera sense. Like, what's the next chapter, the next piece of information?

And maybe we get a little too close to the trees. But when we step back and we see that forest, it's really about the rule of law and about grave concerns of interference in the foundation of our democracy, in our campaigns.

And certainly Russia, we have seen them around the world trying to disrupt that foundation, discredit that foundation. What we learn from this not only needs to be relevant to whether or not people get prosecuted for basically betraying the United States of America, but it also is relevant to how we go fiercely into the future to prevent this from happening again.

BLITZER: Senator Merkley, thanks so much for joining us.

MERKLEY: You're very welcome. Thank you.

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