Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D) Connecticut Is Interviewed About Mueller's Investigation; Source: Rosenstein Saying Longer at DOJ to Be "Heat Shield" or Absorb the Punches, If There's Fallout from Mueller Report.
COOPER: Breaking news tonight in the Russian investigation. A source familiar with the matter telling CNN the Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein intends to stay on until Robert Mueller makes his report. A source saying that Rosenstein sees him as the, quote, heat shield, unquote, someone who can take any hits that may be coming when the report comes out. News came at the end of a day that saw some relate in the Michael Cohen case, the release of documents relating to the search warrants for the raids that at the time the president obviously was very upset about. CNN's Shimon Prokupecz joins us now with the latest on both those stories. So, what are you learning about why Rosenstein is staying at the DOJ? What does it mean to be a heat shield exactly?</s>SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, certainly, he wanted to make sure the incoming deputy attorney general and that the now Attorney General Bill Barr kind of would have a clean slate, that is, they would come in, they wouldn't really have to deal with any of let's say the punches that are thrown at them because of the Mueller report or any political issues that are a result of it. Rod Rosenstein was there from the beginning. He really is the person that was responsible for appointing the special counsel, because you'll remember that Jeff Sessions recused himself and then Comey gets fired and then this whole thing ensues where they decided they need a special counsel to take over this investigation and it was ultimately Rod Rosenstein who made that decision. So, in order to sort of see this thing through, Rod Rosenstein for whatever reason is staying it's clear that things are perhaps not wrapping up as quickly as we all thought and that look, this could come at any day, but for now, Rod Rosenstein, which he always had intended, he always wanted to stay this see this through, he kept delaying his leaving the Department of Justice and now it just seems that that's continuing, we really don't know when the special counsel will finally deliver the report to the Department of Justice. Once that happens, we certainly expect for Rod Rosenstein to leave shortly thereafter.</s>COOPER: Just for clarification, the source, are they using the term heat shield of their own or is that a phrase that Rosenstein himself has used? Do we know?</s>PROKUPECZ: That was a phrase that was told to my colleague Pamela Brown in a source close to Rod Rosenstein who said that to her essentially saying that he, Rod Rosenstein, wants to take the punches, if there are any punches as a result of the report, it could be a while before the entire thing is made public. So who knows what will happen? But certainly I think everyone expects there to be some political fallout once this thing gets landed on the attorney general's desk.</s>COOPER: In terms of the release of the Michael Cohen raid documents today what's the headline from that? What did we learn from it?</s>PROKUPECZ: So, I think one of the things we really saw for the first time is the Mueller team started looking at Michael Cohen just months after Robert Mueller was appointed. About two months or so after that they started getting search warrants for his e-mails, other information, subpoenas that they were issuing to really get an understanding of what was going on with Michael Cohen, his business interests, whether or not he was making money off of foreign countries, whether or not he was doing any work for foreign countries and not reporting it. And that essentially is what started all of this. It is then all of that information and plus other information that the Mueller team and the FBI learned. That is after then is when they send everything to the Southern District of New York where obviously the campaign finance laws were investigated.</s>COOPER: And everything about the campaign finance violations, that was redacted?</s>PROKUPECZ: It was. And that's significant, Anderson, because what it tells us is that a lot of that is still under investigation. There's about 20 pages in the search warrant affidavits that are completely blacked out, where we can't even read anything on them, which indicates that there are still portions of that investigation that are ongoing and that we could see more people being charged in connection with the campaign finance laws. As you know, the president, Donald Trump, was implicated by Michael Cohen, by the Department of Justice in that crime. Michael Cohen has said that he was directed by Donald Trump to make those payments. There are other people in the Trump organization that perhaps are facing some scrutiny. So that tells us that that very much is still under investigation.</s>COOPER: All right. Shimon, appreciate it. Shimon Prokupecz. Joining me now is Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, member of the Judiciary Committee. So, if -- what do you -- if the idea of Rod Rosenstein staying is to be a, quote/unquote, heat shield as this source has said, who is he staying to be a heat shield for?</s>SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTAHAL (D-CT), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Well, Robert Mueller is a prosecutor with vast experience in very heated prosecutions. And so he's pretty combat tested. The idea that he needs a buffer or a heat shield is somewhat surprising. But the fact is politically, he needs some backup. And I will tell you, members of Congress will have his back, if the president goes after him, as is likely to happen. We've seen what the president did when the offices of his lawyer Michael Cohen were raided. We've seen some of his remarks about resisting the prosecution. There is a credible case of obstruction of justice right now, a powerfully credible case against Donald Trump. And he is clearly feeling the heat himself.</s>COOPER: And in terms of the Michael Cohen court documents, the idea that special counsel Mueller zeroed in on Michael Cohen and started investigating Michael Cohen much earlier than anyone realized is interesting.</s>BLUMENTHAL: Not only interesting but profoundly significant. That document, more than 800 pages long, contains a wealth of detail, factual precision, that was collected by this prosecutor in just two months and is only part of what he knows at that point, which is almost two years ago. So, think of how much he knows now. I've said all along we know only a fraction of what Robert Mueller knows.</s>COOPER: If there's 800 pages of documents from two years ago and Mueller does actually write out a report, there's no -- I mean, it will be interesting to see if we can learn how long that report actually is.</s>BLUMENTHAL: The report hopefully will be long enough to contain the incriminating information that he has gathered about Donald Trump. Not accidentally, Donald Trump was named in fact as an unindicted co- conspirator in the prosecution of Cohen. And the reasons for his becoming individual number one, he's not named by actual name but by clear reference as individual number one.</s>COOPER: But if he's not going to be prosecutor for a crime, isn't it entirely possible that Robert Mueller would not go into detail? I mean, if the person is not actually being charged with a crime as one of the criticisms of Comey's press conference about Hillary Clinton.</s>BLUMENTHAL: That's the reason for transparency. If he's not named as a crime, the facts and evidence have to be presented. That's the reason that I've authored a bill with Senator Grassley, its bipartisan now joined by another Republican, another Democrat that would require a report with those factual findings and evidence that includes all of the facts that implicate Donald Trump. The public has a right to know. And if he's not going to be indicted because the Justice Department policies, they're not rules, they're not regulations prevented and if Mueller is not going to present into a court the facts that he knows that are relevant to the potential criminal charges, there is a right on the public to know and I think that Robert Mueller has that obligation and the attorney general has the obligation to make it public.</s>COOPER: If -- and obviously if that doesn't happen, you would want to see -- we also now have, you know, reporting that the White House wants to review those documents before their -- and whatever he's handed over to Congress to, you know, look for executive privilege, you are fully prepared, I mean the Democrats are fully prepared to challenge each case?</s>BLUMENTHAL: We will challenge it. I think that document will be suspended. There is no legitimate claim to executive privilege here. There's nothing --</s>COOPER: None?</s>BLUMENTHAL: There is nothing in a regulations that justifies the President of the United States concealing criminality in the name of candid discussions with his advisers on policy. We're talking here about an effort to hide criminality, obstruct justice in the name of executive privilege. And the purpose of executive privilege is to enable candid discussion about policy among his advisers. So I see nothing in those regulations that would justify a broad claim of it.</s>COOPER: But if it's not found to be obstruction of justice by Mueller, then you can't really make an obstruction of justice argument to stop executive privilege from being claimed, no?</s>BLUMENTHAL: I think that the claim of the White House to review this report should not be upheld. The Department of Justice has a claim to review the report, the White House does not. And the Department of Justice should not cut out to the White House. And after all, the President has his lawyers, not even his White House counsel, potentially reviewing it, to protect him, not to enable the public to know.</s>COOPER: Right. And it's not the job of his lawyers to declare privilege, it's the White House.</s>BLUMENTHAL: Exactly.</s>COOPER: Yes. Senator Blumenthal, thank you.</s>BLUMENTHAL: Thank you.</s>COOPER: Appreciate it. The President as you know has gone after Democrats claiming they're anti-Semitic. He's not commented on the racially charged remarks Republican Congressman Steve King has said, of course. The Iowa Republicans now caught up in a new controversy and the reporter caught up with him to get some answers, that ahead.