MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript: Boston Bombing Investigation

Interview

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MADDOW: Joining us now is Congressman Bill Keating of Massachusetts. He`s a member of the House Homeland Security Committee. Congressman Keating has been calling for FBI Director James Comey to release of information on the investigation and on law enforcement activity surrounding the Boston marathon case.

Congressman Keating, thanks very much for your time tonight.

REP. BILL KEATING (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Hi, Rachel.

MADDOW: So, you wrote this letter to the new FBI Director James Comey, asking for more information about the marathon bombing investigation. Why did you write that letter?

KEATING: I wrote the letter because it`s important, whether it`s Homeland Security or other congressional committees that we go forward. We`re not looking back at the past to assess blame or to look at playing politics at all.

We`re looking at that as information, facts that we can move forward so that we can make changes. There has to be changes in the information sharing. There have to be changes in the guidelines that are used and there has to be more transparency when that`s possible as well.

And I think that that`s important not just to see what happened in the Boston bombing. What`s important is to make sure we`re doing everything as a country to make us more secure going forward.

MADDOW: As a member of Congress, as somebody with the background that you have as a former prosecutor, being on the Homeland Security Committee, do you get access to more information from the FBI than we`re getting publicly about this? Are they doing closed door classified briefings with members of Congress to explain more than those of us in the public don`t have access to?

KEATING: Well, we`ve had three hearings wit homeland security committee. Two public hearings and one classified and each one of those we asked the FBI to come forward and testify. Even in the classified closed from the public hearing and they refused.

MADDOW: Wow. I know that you recently traveled to Russia and took meetings with the FSB among other Russian officials to talk about their side of this case and their side of this investigation. I teased you about it on this show because Steven Seagal was involved in setting that up. And I think anything having to do with Steven Seagal deserves teasing.

That said, I`m still interested in whether you learned anything on that trip that sheds light on this investigation.

KEATING: Well, I certainly learned a great deal. I learned that with the sharing of a March 4th, 2011 letter, that, indeed, there was very specific information given to the FBI and the CIA saying that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was going to go -- wanted to go back to Russia, that he wanted to join with insurgents there, which he did, that he interestingly enough with today`s "Wall Street Journal" story, detailed in that letter was the fact that he tried to join the insurgency in Palestine, tried to join the insurgency in Palestine but he couldn`t master the language.

So this might shed light on some of the other information that broke today yet I learned more traveling 5,000 miles than I learned going ten blocks from Pennsylvania Avenue from the FBI. I learned more from the Russians than I did from our own FBI.

MADDOW: Particularly because of stories like that and angles like that, obviously the main interest here is whether or not the FBI and the Justice Department more broadly were effectively doing their jobs.

I do think, though, that this dovetails into a larger question about whether or not there is accountability for law enforcement actions and I am mystified by the fact that there`s apparently no recourse whatsoever to have anybody look into this FBI shooting in Orlando or any other FBI shooting other than the FBI itself. I feel like it absolutely feeds the conspiratorial fears of people who worry that there`s no accountability in American law enforcement and that people can essentially disappear here if somebody wants them to.

KEATING: I wouldn`t say -- I wouldn`t say in law enforcement generally speaking, because I was a district attorney, as you know, in Massachusetts. And when there were shootings by law enforcement in other cities, if there was a shooting, for instance, in Boston, they would move that over to my office independently to investigate that. So I would say the norm, frankly, is to have another independent law enforcement agency investigate that.

MADDOW: Why isn`t that true in the FBI?

KEATING: I don`t know but I think that`s a good question.

MADDOW: Could Congress insist that that be changed?

KEATING: I think that Congress should be a player in this. There are reports out that there are some I.G. investigations into the Boston bombing and how that was handled. There was also reports out that the FBI had conducted their own internal investigation of the Boston bombing circumstances and what preceded.

And to my knowledge, and I had an official source tell me there was indeed no internal investigation by the FBI into the Boston bombing. Congress has a role here. It`s an independent branch of government. It`s not part of the administration. And Congress will be the body that moves forward changing the laws and evidently, there`s some laws that have been suggested to be changed, some guidelines that should be changed, while providing the resources. And it`s also the conduit to the public.

The last analysis law enforcement or no law enforcement, people that worked for the government are answerable to that government. And that means l enforcement as well. And in my experience, coming from a law enforcement family, being a district attorney myself, dealing with state police and local police, we shared that information.

And other than trying to do anything that would compromise an ongoing trial, and there`s so much information that we need right now that won`t compromise any trials, that information should be forthcoming and it should be forthcoming not only in terms of accountability. More importantly, it should be forthcoming because we don`t have lot of time to spend making changes and guidelines, making sure that the policies are right. Clearly even admittedly by the FBI there have been lapses.

Those things have to be corrected. And they`re saying, well, we made the corrections and not telling us what the lapses were in detail. And what corrections they`ve made.

That`s not just unfair to the people that lost their lives and the victims that lost their lives, the four individuals in the bombing, or the over 200 people that were injured, that`s not fair to all of us who are in jeopardy.

And we all know that the odds are very strong that there will be a repetition of this type of terrorist attack going forward. And these are lessons learned. And what happened in this instance was a March report that was read to me by the Russians saying that he was going to try to get back to Russia and nine months later he did. Saying he might want to meet with insurgents, he met with an insurgent that was there.

He came back and we still didn`t red flag this because of the procedure, because they had the initial information, had an interview and in June of that year, about three months later, they closed the case. And when that case was closed, they never went back to it. Not when he went there, not when he came back, not when he tried to get his citizenship.

There are loopholes in the system, lapses in the system that need to be corrected and in a good, healthy airing to the public that will do nothing but help our safety going forward.

MADDOW: Congressman Bill Keating, Democrat of Massachusetts, member of the House Homeland Security Committee, former prosecutor -- thank you for your time tonight, sir. We appreciate it.

KEATING: Thanks, Rachel.

MADDOW: We`ll be right back.

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