CNN "Anderson Cooper 360" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Richard Blumenthal

Interview

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COOPER: Laura Jarrett, Appreciate it. Thank you.

All the breaking news tonight means that tomorrow's scheduled testimony by the attorney general before the Senate Judiciary Committee will have at the very least some extra residents.

Joining us now is Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, member of the Judiciary Committee, and back with us, is also CNN Chief Legal Analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, who I know also has some questions for the senator.

Senator Blumenthal, what is your reaction to this new reporting about the letter from Mueller to Barr and the phone call from Mueller to Barr?

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D), CONNECTICUT: This letter is unquestionably and unprecedented stunning rebuke of the attorney general of the United States, very severely undermining, in fact devastating his credibility now in the Department of Justice, and likely tomorrow in our hearing. There is going to be some tough questioning of him tomorrow about not only his four-page summary, which then Mueller said in effect mischaracterized his report, but then why he doubled down three weeks later in a press conference and in effect lied again to the American people. I realize that characterization sounds harsh. We said it at the time.

Now, we have Bob Mueller himself saying in effect that William Barr's characterization was deceptive and misleading, in effect a lie to the American people. And that's going to be reframing and adding a new dimension entirely to the questioning tomorrow.

COOPER: It certainly only raises the interest, I'm sure, by Democrats at the very least to hear directly from Robert Mueller in hearings and also I assume as part of that to get hold of this letter that he wrote.

BLUMENTHAL: No question that we need to hear from Bob Mueller who, as you know, is the penultimate in discretion. He conducted this investigation without any public disclosure and now really strikingly puts in the file, writes to the attorney general, memorializes his objections and rebuke to his superior.

I can think of no prior instance of this kind of very severe rebuke to the attorney general of the United States from a career prosecutor with this kind of respect within the Department of Justice.

COOPER: It's one thing for him to put out the summary and then to have Mueller respond with the criticism that he does and then to choose not to put out the summaries that the -- the explanations that Mueller and his team have already sent, which according to Mueller don't need to be redacted and are free from that pressure.

For him to then go on television again the day the report is released and to shade the truth even more seems even now particularly more egregious.

BLUMENTHAL: Shading the truth is a very, very kind and charitable way to put it. He in effect lied to the American people saying that Bob Mueller concluded there was insufficient evidence of obstruction. The fact of the matter is that Bob Mueller said nothing of the kind. In effect he said that this report is an indictment in all but name.

If Donald Trump were any other official, if there were no office of legal counsel memorandum saying a sitting president cannot be indicted, he would be under indictment right now. And, in fact, he is an unindicted co-conspirator in the Southern District of New York prosecution.

You're absolutely right, Anderson, that three weeks after this rebuke from Bob Mueller, William Barr went again before the American people and distorted, deceived, misled them.

TOOBIN: Senator, Julian Castro, who's one of the Democrats running for president said in light of this, Barr should resign or be impeached. Do you agree?

BLUMENTHAL: I voted against William Barr.

[20:25:00] I said then he was unfit to be attorney general. I believe he is unfit even more so today. There's more evidence of it. And what the remedy should be, I'm going to be talking to my colleagues tomorrow about his explanation or attempted explanation of this kind of misconduct. In effect, he harbored obstruction of justice and he is continuing to do so.

He is also belittling and demeaning the real threat from the Russians. He is downplaying the kind of continuing attack that we're seeing from the Russians, playing into the hands of Donald Trump and Jared Kushner, who have adopted a similar tactic.

TOOBIN: But what accountability is there? What you're seeing from the White House is they're not producing documents in response to the House. They're not producing witnesses. They're trying -- they're suing to stop a bank, their bank, from turning over documents.

What can you do about that? Nothing -- I mean, is there anything that you can do?

BLUMENTHAL: There are legal remedies. Enforcement of those subpoenas, the lawful subpoenas. The ones that have been issued and the ones that will be issued. The one for his tax returns, for other information that have been issued by the oversight committees in the House.

And we should have in the Senate, Robert Mueller and others testify here. I might just add in terms of accountability, the court ruled literally this afternoon in the emoluments lawsuit that I brought with Jerry Nadler as a co-plaintiff, that we were right on the law. The president can be held accountable for his acceptance of payments and benefits from a foreign government and we're going to be pursuing discovery as the next step, disclosure of all of the information relevant to this financial influence.

And there are ongoing investigations, as you well know, 14 of them that may also expose the president to legal accountability, including one in New York where he was as an unindicted co-conspirator.

COOPER: Can the White House try to claim executive privilege to stop Robert Mueller from testifying? I mean, he was working for the Department of Justice in his capacity as special counsel?

BLUMENTHAL: Absolutely not, because the executive privilege applies to, in effect, White House employees whom the president may consult for advice or counsel. And Bob Mueller is as far from that status as he could possibly. There is no executive privilege as to Robert Mueller, or for that matter, William Barr.

TOOBIN: But these legal remedies you talk about, subpoenas, trying to enforce subpoenas, I mean, isn't it a guarantee that even if you win, it will be months and months from now?

BLUMENTHAL: The timing is going to depend on the courts. Remember, you well know, the Watergate issue came to the Supreme Court on a very fast track. If the courts decide they want to hold the president accountable, if they really believe the president is not above the law, they can fast track these subpoenas as well. You're absolutely right that courts determine their own timing. But I

think a court ought to be absolutely outraged by this defiance of constitutional rules and norms that have prevailed for centuries, and that also demean the importance and status of the other branch of government. The president, in fact, is saying that he has ultimate power.

COOPER: Senator Richard Blumenthal, appreciate it. Jeff Toobin as well, thanks so much.

Up next, we're going to get reaction to all this from two key figures from the Watergate era, pretty much more this one as well, journalist Carl Bernstein and White House counsel John Dean.

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