Lawrence O’Donnell reveals why Bill Barr and Mike Pompeo are hiring ‘criminal defense’ lawyers

Two cabinet officials are so deep in President Donald Trump's abuse of office scandals that they are being forced to hire criminal defense attorneys, MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell explained on Monday.

The host noted that, "The Wall Street Journal broke the news today that Mike Pompeo is now a direct witness to the most important evidence in the impeachment investigation. He listened in on the phone call with [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky, a senior State Department official said Monday. NBC News also confirmed Mike Pompeo was listening to that phone call, according to a senior State Department official."

"So, whistles are being blown everywhere now," he noted.

"Mike Pompeo was part of what Nancy Pelosi has called the coverup about that phone call. Mike Pompeo didn’t blow the whistle on that phone call after listening to it, but today a senior State Department official blew the whistle on Mike Pompeo," O'Donnell explained. "The whistles are not going to stop in the Trump Administration."

"Every Trump enabler should fear the sound of the next whistle. When President Nixon was forced to resign, when a Democratic Congress was still investigating his criminality, president Nixon wasn’t the only one destroyed by that impeachment investigation. President Nixon’s attorney general went to prison. President Nixon’s White House chief of staff went to prison -- 48 officials were found guilty of crimes," he reminded.

"Tonight, Mike Pompeo needs a criminal defense lawyer. The Secretary of State needs his own privately paid for criminal defense attorney to advise him on how to handle his response to the impeachment investigation," the host noted.

"The same goes for Attorney General William Barr," he noted. "Like Richard Nixon’s attorney general, William Barr needs to hire his own personal privately paid for criminal defense lawyer because William Barr does not have attorney/client privilege with anyone in the Trump Administration," he noted. "And now William Barr could be as deeply implicated in what Nancy Pelosi called the Trump coverup as Nixon’s attorney general was in the Nixon coverup."

"The whistleblowers are everywhere now," O'Donnell added.