CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript: Interview With Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut

Interview

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COOPER: Well, on the other side of the ledger he also said he won't be bullied by the president but he neither pledged to necessarily recuse himself if advised to by Department of Justice ethics professionals nor did he commit to making any upcoming Mueller report public only to provide, and I'm quoting now, as much transparency as I can consistent with the law.

So, obviously, supporters and skeptics alike have plenty to choose from in that one.

A senator on the skeptical side of the room is Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal. Here's what he told CNN's Manu Raju during a break in the proceedings.

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SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: What I'm seeing is the possibility that he could invoke unknown rules and regulations that would permit him to say no to a subpoena, no to an indictment, no to resources, no to an additional area of investigation that is directly related to Russian interference in our elections or obstruction and conspiracy.

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COOPER: Well, Senator Blumenthal sits on the Judiciary Committee and tonight, he's sitting next to me.

Senator, thanks very much for being with us.

I want to get to what we heard today from Barr, but just about Shimon Prokupecz was reporting about what we learned today about Manafort and this guy Kilimnik. How serious do you think that is?

BLUMENTHAL: It is very serious because it relates to a key figure in Vladimir Putin's orbit and a potential Russian agent. But equally significant is the clear sign that this investigation is far from done.

COOPER: Right. If they need 60 more days just for Rick Gates, there's no telling what the timeline is.

BLUMENTHAL: Exactly. And I've been saying for some time that Robert Mueller has miles to go in this investigation. Anybody watching it, seeing all the leads that are uncovered, the additional witnesses that he is using and he's using Rick Gates because obviously the agreement with Manafort fell apart for his cooperation. But 60 days is in my view just the beginning of the amount of time that's necessary.

And the reason why it's so important is it goes back directly to the lack of a specific commitment, ironclad and strong commitment that he would protect against any attempt to restrict subpoenas or witnesses, scope of the investigation, resources. These questions are all very relevant.

COOPER: You heard too many -- in your opinion, there were too many kind of loopholes Barr gave himself in his testimony today.

BLUMENTHAL: Too many loopholes and lawyerly gaps. For example, on the recusal issue. He's written a memo that basically would put the president above the law against any obstruction charges. And he refused to say that he would recuse himself if ethics officials and experts of the Department of Justice advised him to do so.

And most important, here's the key gap in his testimony. We will never see the Mueller report. Neither Congress nor the public will ever see the special counsel report if William Barr is confirmed and he carries out the scope and approach that he took today.

COOPER: He essentially said he wants to be as transparent as possible under the law.

BLUMENTHAL: As transparent as possible under the rules and regulations. And clearly now in my view, Congress needs to mandate more transparency for this report, because what he intends to do is to take the Mueller report and then issue the Barr report. And he refused in response to my questions to commit that he would tell us even what he is deleting or editing out of that report.

COOPER: You also asked him if a sitting president could be indicted. I want to play just a short clip of his response.

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COOPER: That is, I mean, the widely accepted policy. I think Mueller seems to be working under that guideline as well. But that concerned you?

BLUMENTHAL: I'm concerned because my own view is that a president can be indicted. There's nothing in the Constitution to prevent it, and it may be necessary to prevent the statute of limitations from running on a very serious charge like obstruction of justice.

COOPER: You say it's not in the Constitution. But if there's precedent and this is kind of widely accepted precedent, isn't that important?

BLUMENTHAL: There is no precedent. There is an Office of Legal Counsel opinion. There may be two of them.

They are as Mr. Barr said today quite old.

[20:10:02] They have never been litigated. And in my view, the better view of the law is the president can be indicted.

COOPER: I'm curious -- I mean, President Trump has made very clear his opinion on Jeff Sessions, even though Jeff Sessions was a guy who was executing his policy on judges very effectively. For obvious reasons, the president's very upset with him.

Why do you think the president has gone for William Barr? Because a lot of the commentary today was, well, if the president thought Barr is a patsy here, that he's just going to go along, that's not the impression you that a lot of observers got. Why do you think the president picked Barr?

BLUMENTHAL: Well, I think one view is that he gave a signal in that memo that he wrote that the president cannot be charged or perhaps even accountable for crimes like obstruction of justice because of the view that the president has control over the entire executive branch. It's this unitary view of the executive branch that in fact would put the president above the law. And he has a great deal of credibility by virtue of his experience and his expertise that would enable him to take that very constrained and constricted view of the law and yet make it saleable and credible.

COOPER: Senator Blumenthal, I appreciate your time. It's been a long day. I appreciate it. Thank you very much.

BLUMENTHAL: Thank you.

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