MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

Joining me now is Congresswoman Linda Sanchez. She's a member of the House Judiciary Committee investigating the U.S. attorney firings.

Congresswoman, good to have you on tonight. Thanks so much for joining us.

REP. LINDA SANCHEZ, CALIFORNIA: Not at all. Thanks for having me.

SCHULTZ: Did you expect that these e-mails were going to surface and they would contain this kind of information?

SANCHEZ: Well, you know, when they dragged their feet for two and a half years in producing documents that we had subpoenaed and requested, you know, there had to have been a reason why they didn't want to turn that information over. And the reason they didn't is because it's very clearly damaging testimony that contradicts all of their statements that they had nothing to do with the firing of the U.S. attorneys until late in the process. The e-mails show very clearly that there was involvement very early on, and that most of the decision-making was driven by political consideration.

SCHULTZ: So the fact is, the way it's playing out, if we can view it this way, after Bush won re-election, there was basically an attack on the judiciary. And they were going to go after U.S. attorneys who were not prosecuting Democrats strong enough across the country. And there's also some comments within the White House-for instance, Harriet Miers says that she remembers that Karl Rove was so upset about one U.S. attorney in particular.

Do you feel that there were any laws broken here at this point? Could you point to anything that you really believe something-the laws were broken here?

SANCHEZ: Well, I think certainly that there was information contained in the e-mails which suggest that the U.S. attorneys were fired for improper reasons, and there may have been testimony in front of Congress that was false or misleading. So, obstruction of justice or possible perjury charges are still available.

There is a federal prosecutor right now who is investigating. We've turned all of those documents to her. She will be reviewing it to see if there are any criminal charges to be brought.

SCHULTZ: And there is some reaction from one of your colleagues on the

House Judiciary Committee. Congressman Lamar Smith has made this comment:

"Democrats need to stop wasting taxpayers' time and money on political investigations that are nothing more than the politics of personal destruction."

Can you respond to that?

SANCHEZ: Well, I find it quite amusing that they don't want investigations when it's their folks that are being under investigation for potential criminal activity, but yet, you know, when the shoe is on the other foot, they're alleging all kinds of things against Democrats. It's very clear to me they want this embarrassment behind them. They want to sweep it under the rug.

They don't want to deal with the fact that there's a very serious problem. And that is that the Department of Justice, which is supposed to dispense justice without fear of favoritism, was being used, strong-armed, by political operatives like Karl Rove to do potentially illegal things and corrupting our system of justice is a very, very critical and important thing we need to look at to make sure that it never happens again.

SCHULTZ: And finally, Congresswoman Sanchez, if you had to say something tonight to Attorney General Eric Holder about this, what would it be?

SANCHEZ: If I could just make a plea to the attorney general, it would be to not allow this to go uninvestigated, and to please make sure that the Department of Justice is never used for political-grubby political agendas like it was under the Bush administration.

SCHULTZ: So you want the DOJ-you want them to investigate this? You want them to get involved and go beyond the House investigation at this point?

SANCHEZ: Absolutely. And I want them to hold people accountable for their hidden, nasty, dirty little political agendas.

SCHULTZ: OK.

Congresswoman, I appreciate your time tonight. Thanks so much.

SANCHEZ: Thank you, Ed.

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