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

Interview

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O`DONNELL:  That is Chairman Jerry Nadler of the House Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over the impeachment process.
 
Joining us now is Senator Chris Coons, Democrat from Delaware and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.  Senator Coons, thank you very much for joining us on this special coverage Friday night.  I want to get your reaction to what you`ve seen today and what you`ve read in the attorney general`s letter about the Mueller report, which is really all we know about the Mueller report at this point.
 
SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE), SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE:  Thank you, Lawrence.  All of us are waiting with bated breath to hear exactly what Attorney General Bill Barr is going to convey to Congress of his summary of the Mueller report.
 
He commits in his letter to being as transparent as possible within the boundaries of policy and law.  And as some of your guests before have pointed out, there are legitimate reasons why the attorney general might decline to share either classified information or information that would interfere with ongoing investigations.
 
But other than that, everything should be shared with Congress and I`m going to be pressing for the attorney general to be as transparent as possible and to move as quickly as is reasonably possible because I think this isn`t the beginning of the end, this is just the end of the beginning.  There`s a lot of work for us to do now in Congress.  And there are ongoing investigations.
 
As you`ve pointed out earlier in this broadcast, the Southern District of New York, the state attorney general of New York, there are other matters still yet unresolved.  Roger Stone`s trial has not been completed.  And there are other investigations into the Trump Organization, Trump Foundation, Trump campaign.
 
But as for Robert Mueller`s investigation into collusion or the possibility of conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 election and obstruction, that`s reached a conclusion and all of us are now going to be waiting for the conclusion to be shared with Congress.
 
O`DONNELL:  You say you`re going to press the attorney general on making the report public.  You did that.  Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee did that in his confirmation hearing.  Let`s listen to what he said about it then.
 
COONS:  That`s right.
 
O`DONNELL:  We`re going to listen to what he said about it then.
 
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
 
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D), MINNESOTA:  Will you commit to make public all of the report`s conclusions, the Mueller report, even if some of the evidence supporting those conclusions can`t be made public?
 
WILLIAM BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL:  You know, that certainly is my goal and intent.  It`s hard for me to conceive of a conclusion that would, you know, run afoul of the Regs as currently written but that`s certainly my intent.
 
(END VIDEO CLIP)
 
O`DONNELL:  Senator Coons, a lot of observers were uncomfortable with the tentative nature of the attorney general nominee then`s answers about that.  But his letter today seems as though -- certainly what he`s saying in the letter is that his ambition on this is full disclosure and that the public interest is definitely something that he believes is absolutely already here in this case and should be honored.  That`s what he`s saying in writing anyway.
 
COONS:  That`s what he`s saying.  And Lawrence here`s an opportunity for Attorney General Barr to show himself to be an institutionalist, someone who cares more about the Department of Justice, its reputation, and the rule of law than he does about any partisan political advantage.  And I certainly hope that he will prove those of us on the Committee who are skeptical of those commitments wrong.
 
In my questioning of Bill Barr on his confirmation hearing, I reminded him that Elliott Richardson in a confirmation hearing before the same committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked very similar questions as he was, gave crisp, concise, clear, simple answers.  Didn`t hedge, didn`t talk about, well, in the best interest of and given the balancing, he simply said yes to a number of critical questions that Attorney General Barr found it much harder to be concise and clear about.
 
So my hope is that he will overcome that tendency and instead will demonstrate a commitment to full transparency.  One thing that was in the letter that I found encouraging, Lawrence, was a commitment on his part that he would continue consulting with Robert Mueller.
 
It is certainly the case if there`s any hint or suggestion on our part that the report that we get is overly redacted or is concealing some critical elements of Mueller`s work that I think we can count on Chairman Nadler and the House to promptly call for both Barr and Mueller to appear in front of the House Judiciary Committee.  I would hope that Chairman Graham would do the same in the Senate.
 
O`DONNELL:  Senator Coons, just on that point, I want to double underline that.  That passage that refers to the attorney general conferring with Rod Rosenstein and Robert Mueller on what to release in the report or what not to release in the report indicates that the report is a certain level of complexity.
 
Meaning the regulations simply require that you literally provide just a list.  You could just do it as a list, list of people we decided to indict, list of people we decided not to indict.  It really could just be as simple as that, a list, almost not even including sentences.
 
What the attorney general`s letter seems to suggest is that this is a report that is substantial enough, that is fulsome enough, that there could be decisions that have to be made about what parts of it to release and what parts of it not to release, and the fact that he`s saying that he wants to consult and making it public, that he wants to consult with Robert Mueller, that would strike me as one of the more encouraging notes people who want full disclosure are finding in that letter.
 
COONS:  I agree.  And there is a precedent for this, of course.  Leon Jaworski, the special prosecutor during Watergate, in the interests of public disclosure and transparency released the entire final report of the Watergate prosecution.  There was a previous appointment of a special counsel in the Waco case, former Senator Jack Danforth of Missouri who released a complete and fulsome report with very few redactions of his investigation into the issues around the Waco matter in Texas.
 
So I do think there is a precedent for the full release of a report of this kind with very minimal redactions or redactions in terms of what`s released to the public.  And it`s my real hope that that`s what`s going to happen here, that Attorney General Barr will recognize intense public interest, will recognize that President Trump himself has said that this report should be released.  And I think anyone who is thinking of defending the president should instead listen to the president`s own words and say that he believes he has nothing to hide, so let`s let this entire report come forward.
 
One thing we know for sure, Lawrence, is that people at the most senior levels circles around Donald Trump have already either pled guilty or been convicted.  So it`s Paul Manafort his campaign manager, Michael Cohen his personal attorney, Michael Flynn his first national security adviser, and a host of others have been indicted but those three have been found guilty of crimes.  And I think that suggests that there may well be more in this report than we know so far.
 
O`DONNELL:  Senator Chris Coons of the Senate Judiciary Committee, we can`t thank you enough for joining us on this very important Friday night.  Thank you very much, Senator.
 
COONS:  Thank you, Lawrence.  Good to be with you.

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