MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Richard Blumenthal

Interview

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VELSHI: All right, for more reaction to the Trump teams shifting stories  I`m joined by Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Member  of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator, good to see you. You like  Rudy Giuliani were a prosecutor?

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D), CONNECTICUT: I was a Federal Prosecutor for  four and a half years, a U.S. Attorney in Connecticut and then I was the  Attorney General of the State of Connecticut for 20 years.

VELSHI: So you to evaluate were Giuliani statement that he was often told  to give the guy a break and it would be people the friends and family of  whoever it was he was -- he was prosecuting, it`s a little bit different  with the Present the United States especially as it relates to something  that the President may or may not have been involved in.

BLUMENTHAL: Totally different because the President of the United States  is Jim Comey`s boss and it`s also totally different because of the  circumstances which is a private setting without lawyers there, without any  witnesses and obviously it`s part of a pattern of seeking to in effect  squelch or stop the investigation the involving the possibility of  colluding between the Trump campaign and the Russians and also obstruction  of justice both under investigation by Jim Comey.

VELSHI: So if Giuliani we`re trying to make a point to George  Stephanopoulos, the argument would have been I`ve been told a lot of times  by my boss to give someone a break, right? That`s what the analogy is not  that it`s somebody`s friends or family saying, hey could you go easy on my  brother or my friend. This is a story of somebody in a -- in a position of  authority asking a prosecutor to give somebody break and someone who might  have been implicated in the story themselves. That`s key to this.

BLUMENTHAL: There really is no analogy here. This is such breaking of  norms and potentially breaking of laws that it`s the reason for these  shifting stories, changing claims. They can`t get their stories straight  because the consciousness of guilt is there. I think there is mounting  evidence of obstruction of justice here and it`s not only that conversation  with Comey, not only Comey`s firing but also what Donald Trump said to the  Russian Foreign Minister right after he fired Comey he was so relieved  because the Russian investigation was over.

VELSHI: Right. Now to this statement that Donald Trump gave to the  Washington Post about the "to the best of his knowledge nothing happened  after that meeting," as Phil Rucker said that`s not language we`re  typically used to hearing from the President of the United States. He  doesn`t hedge anything.

BLUMENTHAL: He never hedges and what`s different about this statement is  it is, in fact, a statement, not a tweet coming from I presume the  President`s lawyers not really himself. And it shows very dramatically  that the President is worried about his son. I sat through the session  with Donald Trump Jr. when he came before the Judiciary Committee where I  sit and he is in deep legal trouble for what he said then, his denial of  certain knowledge about the Russians coming to him and offering dirt and  his saying I love it and also what he told the President and when he told  the President. And I think that Donald Trump Senior is very conscious of  not only the legal quicksand for his son but also for himself.

VELSHI: Well how do you see this unfolding then because the bottom line is  the President was fairly quick after the knowledge of that meeting became  public to go out there and draft a statement which is now under scrutiny as  well for saying nothing happened, it was about adoptions. We now know it  is trickled out but we now know that it was somebody working for the  Russian government who was trying to overturn the Magnitsky Act and wanted  this campaign support in doing so.

BLUMENTHAL: Natalia Veselnitskaya who came to that Trump Tower meeting on  June 9th, 2016 was an emissary, in fact, an agent of the Russian  government. Donald Trump Jr. was told that he would be meeting with a  referent emissary or agent. So the idea that this was just the normal  opposition research --

VELSHI: Right.

BLUMENTHAL: -- is totally untrue. Also, that statement that the President  wrote for his son is not only under scrutiny, it is under serious  challenge. It is completely false, and more evidence of his own  consciousness of guilt. But the point here is that we Juliana is trying to  set a deadline. He says September 1. Good prosecutors never set deadlines  for an investigation. Rudy Giuliani knows it as well as anyone. And I  think where it all goes is unfolding additional indictments whether it`s  before the midterm elections or afterward.

VELSHI: Well, according to Donald Trump in a tweet today about Peter  Strzok who has been fired from the FBI, he -- the President tweets, "Agent  Peter Strzok was just fired from the FBI. Finally, the list of bad players  in the FBI and DOJ gets longer and longer. Based on the fact that Strzok  was in charge of the witch-hunt, will it be dropped? It is a total hoax.  No collusion, no obstruction. I just fight back." There`s a lot in there  but the President has started saying, well, even if there -- even if there  was something that went on, even if there was collusion, collusion is not a  crime but this effort to undermine the investigation seems to be coming --  be becoming more desperate for the President.

BLUMENTHAL: It`s not only more desperate but more incredible. I think the  more the American public sees of these shifting stories and changing  claims, the more they see of Rudy Giuliani he trying to offend it I think  the less credible it will be. And on Peter Strzok, remember, the I.G.  Inspector General of the Department of Justice found conclusively there was  no impact on the Special Counsel`s investigation from anything that Peter  Strzok believed, anything he did that was improper. He recommended a  suspension for 60 days and a demotion. The Department of Justice today  went way further, but the most important point here is no effect on the  investigation to anything he may have done improperly.

VELSHI: Senator, always good to see you. Thank you for joining us  tonight, Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. 

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