[Sciutto:] This morning, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is defending his actions and firing back at his critics over his handling of the Mueller investigation.
[Rod Rosenstein, Deputy Attorney General:] I did pledge to do it right and to take it to the appropriate conclusion. It's not our job to render conclusive factual findings. We just decide whether it's appropriate to file criminal charges.
[Sciutto:] Joining me now to discuss, Susan Hennessey, former NSA attorney and CNN national security and legal analyst. So, a lot to unpack from Rod Rosenstein there because he made a lot of defenses took a couple shots as well. First on his answer there that it's not his job, meaning the Justice Department's job, to render conclusive factual findings. We just decide whether it's appropriate to file criminal charges. That is true, but we also know, do we not, that Robert Mueller's decision not to indict the president on obstruction of justice was because of a policy not to indict the president based on what he cited in that report, do we not?
[Susan Hennessey, Cnn National Security And Legal Analyst:] That's certainly true that that was Robert Mueller's motivation. The other thing that's a little at tension with Rosenstein's comments was of course his decision to join Bill Barr in that original summary letter and not just letting the Mueller report speak for itself on obstruction of justice. Laying out the facts but declining to render a traditional prosecutorial judgment. But actually taking that additional step of saying we don't believe that this is obstruction of justice. I think anyone who has actually read the report now understands that decision and the decision to sort of insert themselves into that process was ultimately a politically and public relations motivated one. It's also hard to square that with sort of Rosenstein's account of how he viewed his role.
[Sciutto:] On his criticism of the Obama administration for not being more public about Russian interference in the election as it was happening, and it's my own reporting, I have spoken to folks who who were in the administration who said there was a debate inside about how public to go. Is Rosenstein's criticism there fair?
[Hennessey:] Certainly, there is fair criticism to be leveled against the Obama administration's handling of sort of the Russia situation in real time. That said, there's a single person who is responsible for the failure to warn the American people, it wasn't President Obama or anyone in his administration. It was Mitch McConnell. There has been lots of credible reporting that the Obama administration went to McConnell, laid out the evidence, and said we want to present this to the American people. Mitch McConnell in response made clear that if they did that, he would frame it as a partisan issue. And that ultimately was the reason why the Obama administration felt they couldn't move forward.
[Sciutto:] Final question. The president's threatening now to declassify the FISA warrants that led to the investigation. This is the special court that determines the ability to surveil U.S. citizens. He's done this before. Declassified documents that he found politically advantageous, but there are risks here. What would the risks be?
[Hennessey:] Over the long term, the risk is not just anything that might be revealed by this particular declassification, but over the long term, the government is actually going to erode the government's argument in needing to preserve these documents. All the time the government has to go to court to fight FOIA requests, requests by defendants to make these documents public. And what they say is if we were to disclose them, it would be harmful to the national security of the United States. If what we see is the president selectively declassifying information when it's politically advantageous or helped fuel a particular conspiracy theory, that's going to undercut the message of the Department of Justice. And courts might be less likely to defer to them in the future.
[Sciutto:] Susan Hennessey, always good to talk to you. Right now, federal judge is deciding the fate of the Russian agent Maria Butina. Today's sentencing comes after she pleaded guilty in December to one count of conspiracy. CNN reporter Kara Scannell is live outside the courthouse this morning. What can we expect there and what do we learn from her about Russian efforts to interfere in the political process here?
[Kara Scannell, Cnn Reporter:] Yes. The sentencing hearing began just about 20 minutes ago. And the judge here will decide just how much time Maria Butina serves in prison. Now, prosecutors are saying that she was part of this conspiracy, this campaign to infiltrate conservative political circles while working with a Russian government official and then acting as a backchannel to get that information to the Kremlin. Now, prosecutors initially came out with a lot of salacious details saying that she once offered sex to have access to a special interest group. And they have walked to that back now. They have said that she actually was not using her graduate school study as a cover. She was a genuine college student, but and they've also said that she was not actually a trained intelligence officer and was not a spy in the traditional sense of seeking classified information that she would then peddle back to the Kremlin. But they're sticking very strongly with this notion that she's a national security risk working as what they called an access agent to spot and identify individuals who could be vulnerable for Russian interference and that information would still get back to the Kremlin as part of their overall effort to influence the U.S. political system. Now Butina's lawyer and prosecutors are saying they want her to get 18 months in prison. Butina's lawyers are saying that she should serve no more than the time she's already been incarcerated, which is just over nine months. We do expect to hear from Butina. She's expected to address the judge and make her best case. Now, her lawyer is saying that she was an idealized college student who just wanted and had a genuine interest in improving U.S. government relations. They're asking that she just be sent back home to Russia. Jim?
[Sciutto:] Well that's how Russian intelligence work. You have the company folks who work full time and you got the freelancers, part of the system. Kara Scannell thanks very much. Two U.S. universities are right now under quarantine because of a measles outbreak. We're going to have an update on this, just coming up.