MSNBC "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Mazie Hirono

Interview

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O`DONNELL:  Two weeks before William Barr answered those questions in the House and the Senate, he received a letter from Robert Mueller.  "The Washington Post" read that letter today and broke the news about it tonight this way. 
 
Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III wrote a letter in late March, complaining to Attorney General William P. Barr that a four-page memo to Congress describing the principal conclusions of the investigation into President Trump, quote, did not fully capture the context, nature and substance of Mueller`s work, according to a copy of the letter reviewed Tuesday by "The Washington Post".
 
The timing of the leaking of this letter on the eve of the attorney general`s testimony tomorrow to the Senate Judiciary Committee will surely change the dynamic of what was already expected to be a highly confrontational hearing that will include three Democratic candidates for president in the committee`s questioning of the attorney general, Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker and Kamala Harris. 
 
"The Washington Post" quotes Robert Mueller`s letter of complaint to the attorney general saying: The summary letter the department sent to Congress and released to the public late in the afternoon of March 24th did not fully capture the context, nature and substance of this office`s work and conclusions, Mueller wrote.  There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation.  This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the department appointed the special counsel to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations.
 
Robert Mueller`s letter made a key request, that Barr release the 444-page report`s introductions and executive summaries and made some initial suggested redactions for doing so, according to Justice Department officials. 
 
"The Washington Post" reports that Justice Department officials were, quote, taken aback by the tone of Mueller`s letter.
 
The very next day, William Barr wrote another letter to Congress, this time saying that his earlier letter was not intended to be a summary of the Mueller report.  Chairman Jerry Nadler of the House Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Department of Justice, and the impeachment process, issued a statement today saying that he shares the concerns expressed by Robert Mueller in his letter to the attorney general. 
 
Chairman Nadler says: The special counsel`s concerns reflect our own.  The attorney general should not have taken it upon himself to describe the special counsel`s findings in a light more favorable to the president.  It was only a matter of time before the facts caught up to him. 
 
Attorney General Barr also should not have withheld this letter from Congress for as long as he has.  I have demanded a copy from the Department of Justice.  I have asked that it be delivered no later than 10:00 tomorrow morning. 
 
The attorney general has expressed some reluctance to appear before the House Judiciary Committee this Thursday.  These reports make it that much more important for him to appear and answer our questions.  The Department of Justice has also been reluctant to confirm a date for special counsel Robert Mueller to testify, given this evening`s reports, I will press the department to schedule that hearing without delay.
 
And joining us now by phone is Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii.  She`s a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and will be questioning Attorney General William Barr tomorrow. 
 
Senator Hirono, thank you very much for joining us tonight. 
 
SEN. MAZIE HIRONO (D-HI) (via telephone):  Good evening, Lawrence. 
 
O`DONNELL:  Part of our reporting should include that you have now tonight sent a letter along with some of your colleagues, about 11 fellow senators have signed it, to the Justice Department inspector general, asking that the inspector general of the Justice Department on the basis of what you`ve learned tonight and other issues investigate William Barr`s handling of the Mueller report. 
 
What are you hoping to hear from the inspector general about that? 
 
HIRONO:  Well, let me clarify that I sent the letter before this bombshell was dropped tonight about the letter that Mueller sent to Barr about his concerns about -- of what Barr said in his four-page letter.  So, it just lends even more concerns to the request that we sent to the I.G.  So, what I hope to get is for the I.G. to take on the investigation and to tell us one way or the other whether or not this attorney general is acting impartially as the people`s attorney general and not the president`s. 
 
So, all of the indications are that Barr is acting as the lawyer for the president. 
 
O`DONNELL:  What do you want to ask the attorney general about in tomorrow`s hearing? 
 
HIRONO:  I have serious concerns already whether I was going to get any kind of unvarnished truth from Barr.  This is before this letter -- the information regarding this letter came forward. 
 
Clearly, Barr has lied to both the house and the Senate committees because he was asked, knowing full well that Mueller did not agree with how Barr characterized his report in the four-page Barr letter, knowing that he still testified before both the House and the Senate to indicate that he really didn`t know how, you know, Barr felt about the four-pager. 
 
So that`s a lie.  It`s a lie.  Let`s call it what it is.  So I don`t know -
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O`DONNELL:  And --
 
HIRONO:  --whether it`s going to be -- whether I`m going to get anything that is not more spin from this person.  I fully intend to use my seven minutes to make my concerns known, however. 
 
O`DONNELL:  And do you expect any Republicans tomorrow to be troubled by what they`ve learned now tonight about Robert Mueller`s objections to the way William Barr characterize the Mueller report? 
 
HIRONO:  I would be very surprised if any of them step forward with raising any concerns because they have not expressed concerns up to now, knowing full well that Barr auditioned for this job and all of his subsequent actions have indicated that he is not impartial, and, therefore, he should not be attorney general, as far as I`m concerned.  If he wants to be the president`s lawyer, he should have taken the job, when it was offered to him. 
 
O`DONNELL:  Will you be focusing your questions tomorrow on the disagreements with Robert Mueller? 
 
HIRONO:  As I said, whatever questions I will ask him, I have no idea whether I`m going to get a straightforward answer. 
 
I`m not particularly interested in giving Barr more minutes to spin.  He is not forthcoming.  He wasn`t forthcoming during his hearing, and that`s one of the major reasons that I did not support him for attorney general`s position. 
 
And, you know, you look at this previous tenure as attorney general and you noted that he was called the cover-up general.  He had recommended pardons for people who were involved in Iran-Contra, so his past record as attorney general was already concerning, but his recent actions only lent further to my concerns that this is not a guy who is going to be impartial.  Quite to the contrary. 
 
O`DONNELL:  Senator Mazie Hirono, thank you very much for joining us by phone tonight. 
 
HIRONO:  Thank you. 

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