[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 37 (Thursday, March 2, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1586-S1587]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           CALLING FOR AN INDEPENDENT, NONPARTISAN COMMISSION

  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I rise today to express my deep concern 
about this administration's ties to the country of Russia. We are just 
3 months into the 115th Congress, and I have come to the Senate floor 
multiple times to discuss inappropriate contact between Trump 
administration officials and the Russian Government. This is truly 
unprecedented.
  Our Constitution was set up to guarantee that our democracy would be 
free of influence from foreign powers. For months, U.S. intelligence 
agencies have said that Russia used covert cyber attacks, espionage, 
and propaganda to try to undermine our democracy. Reports show it, and 
the facts prove it. As I learned from my trip at the end of the year 
with Senator McCain and Senator Graham to the Baltics, Georgia, and 
Ukraine, this is not unique to our country and our elections and our 
democracy. This is something that has gone on for years--where Russia 
shut down the internet in the little country of Estonia simply because 
they had the audacity to move a bronze statue to a public square in 
Lithuania where they invited members of the Ukrainian Parliament who 
were in exile from Crimea in Kiev and invited them to Lithuania to 
celebrate their 25th anniversary of independence from Russia, and then 
they attempted to hack into the computers of the members of the 
Parliament in Lithuania.
  As Senator Marco Rubio noted, this is not just about one party or one 
candidate or even about one country; this is an assault on democracies 
across the world. Last month, we learned that the very day President 
Obama imposed sanctions on Russia, with unprecedented attacks on our 
democracy, General Flynn, a member of the Trump transition team, spoke 
to a senior Russian official regarding those sanctions. The National 
Security Adviser, the person charged with the most sensitive matters of 
U.S. national security, then misled the Vice President of the United 
States and then, in turn, the American people. He resigned, as did the 
former chairman of the Trump campaign; he resigned.
  Now we have learned that Attorney General Sessions met with the 
Russian Ambassador. Fine, Members meet with Ambassadors; we know that 
happens. But in fact, he met with the Russian Ambassador only 3 days 
after then-President Obama was at the G20 Summit. He was at the G20 
Summit, and he met with Vladimir Putin himself. He told him to stop the 
cyber attacks, but he also told him that America was not going to back 
down from the sanctions. In fact, President Obama told the whole world 
that day in a press conference that we were not going to roll over and 
back down on the sanctions imposed against Russia because of their 
illegal invasion of Ukraine.
  What happened 3 days later? Then-Senator Sessions, now our Attorney 
General, in fact, met with the Russian Ambassador.
  Senator Sessions was then asked about contacts with the Russians from 
Trump officials during his hearing. I was there. I serve on the 
Judiciary Committee. Senator Franken posed some of those questions, in 
addition to Senator Leahy, who has noted that, at best, the answer was 
misleading.
  That is why I feel so strongly that a press conference today is not 
enough and that Senator Sessions must come before the Judiciary 
Committee and answer under oath the questions that we now have.
  What are those questions?
  What was actually said at the meeting? Were sanctions discussed? 
Remember, 3 days--this meeting occurred 3 days after President Obama 
had said he would not roll back the sanctions. Were the sanctions 
discussed? Why did the Russian Ambassador, by the way, not meet with 
many other Members that day? We may not have a full accounting, but it 
appears that many of the Armed Services Committee members did not meet 
with the Russian Ambassador that day.
  No. 2, what were the discussions with the Trump administration, then-
campaign officials back in September, before that meeting occurred 
between Senator Sessions and the Russian Ambassador? What were the 
discussions leading into it? What were the discussions after the 
meeting? Those are things we truly need to know.
  For weeks, Senator Sessions could have corrected the record--for 
weeks, during the time in which this Russian issue and the contact with 
the Trump administration were discussed thoroughly. For weeks, I have 
been calling on Senator Sessions, now Attorney General Sessions, to 
recuse himself from any investigation into Russia.
  There are clear Department of Justice guidelines about conflicts of 
interest, and, as I have said for weeks, when you read those rules, 
there is a clear conflict of interest. Today, Attorney General Sessions 
agreed to a partial recusal. He recused himself on the part of the 
investigation that relates to the Presidential campaign. Well, the 
American people deserve a full recusal.
  Think about it. The meeting between General Flynn and the Russian 
Ambassador took place after the campaign ended. The meeting that we 
just learned about today between the President's son-in-law and Russian 
officials happened after the campaign ended. We need a full recusal and 
an independent counsel to manage the investigation of contacts between 
the Russian Government, the Trump campaign, and the Trump 
administration.
  I believe, as I have noted earlier, that Attorney General Sessions 
must come before the Senate Judiciary Committee under oath and answer 
these questions:
  Were sanctions discussed? What were his discussions leading into that 
meeting with the Russian Ambassador? What were the discussions 
afterwards? And I am sure my other colleagues on the Judiciary 
Committee have many, many other questions.
  I know when I asked about Russia at Senator Sessions' nomination 
hearing, I asked him very specifically if he had any reason to doubt 
the evidence put forward by our 17 intelligence agencies that there 
had, in fact, been an attempt by a foreign government, the country of 
Russia, to influence our election. He said he had no reason to doubt 
those findings. He had no reason to doubt those findings, so he clearly 
understood when you read that report how important this is--the $200 
million spent in propaganda by Russian TV, as well as the hacking, as 
well as the attempts to influence the election.
  So we have these facts. We know that meeting took place just 3 days 
after the President, our then-President Obama, met with Vladimir Putin 
at the G20 Summit. We know that is a time when Putin was told by the 
President of the United States to stop undermining the U.S. election 
system with cyber attacks. This was back in September before the 
election even occurred. We saw Paul Manafort resign from the campaign 
over Russia. We saw General Flynn step down over his contacts with the 
Russian Ambassador, and then we have that meeting. To me this seems 
like a pattern, and I want to not only see the facts through the 
investigations that are ongoing but also hear from the Attorney General 
himself.

  That is why I am calling for the Department of Justice inspector 
general to investigate the actions of the Attorney General and whether 
the ongoing investigation into the Trump campaign and administration 
contacts with the Russian Government has been compromised in any way.
  We know that Russia attempted to interfere with our election. Russia 
tries to undermine our democracy. This is not fake news. This is as 
real as it gets.
  Aides and surrogates of this administration during the campaign and 
the transition were in contact with officials from a foreign government 
that was actively working to bring our democracy down. They were 
actively working to influence our elections. As Senator Rubio has 
noted, one time it is one candidate and one political party, and the 
next time it will be the other candidate and the other political party, 
unless we all come together in a bipartisan fashion to get to the 
bottom of the facts.
  So how do we do that beyond the recusal and the independent counsel 
and having Senator Sessions come back before the Judiciary Committee to 
thoroughly answer my questions and the questions of my colleagues? 
Well,

[[Page S1587]]

the other way we do it is by having an independent commission. That is 
why I introduced, along with Senators Cardin, Leahy, Feinstein, and 
Carper, the bill that was announced by Senator Cardin and me, with Adam 
Schiff and Elijah Cummings, that would create an independent, 
nonpartisan commission to uncover all the facts and make sure that 
future elections and political campaigns are safeguarded from foreign 
interference. Remember that this commission can go alongside the 
Intelligence Committee investigation--not to replace it but to be in 
addition to it--because this committee and experts appointed by this 
Congress from both sides of the aisle, just like the 9/11 Commission so 
successfully did, could actually not just uncover some facts that 
aren't known publicly, but, most importantly, they can make 
recommendations to make sure this doesn't happen again.
  By the way, there are upcoming elections in Germany and in France, 
and getting that information out there doesn't just help our democracy, 
it also helps democracies in other parts of the world. We also need--
and I touched on this earlier--an independent counsel, special 
prosecutor to look into all the contacts between the Trump 
administration and the campaign and have a full recusal.
  What else can Congress do besides the independent commission? We have 
to make sure that the Intelligence Committee proceeds with its 
investigation. I am pleased that Senator Burr and Senator Warner have 
come together and announced that they are going to do a full and 
thorough investigation. They will also be looking into the contacts 
with the campaign--incredibly important.
  Now we have the issue of the sanctions. As I mentioned, the day that 
the Obama administration was imposing additional sanctions on Russia--
and the Trump campaign, through General Flynn, was actually meeting 
during this transition day with the Russian Ambassador to perhaps 
undermine those sanctions--I was with Senators McCain and Graham in 
Eastern Europe. As I noted, when we were in the Baltics, we heard and 
met with leaders--Prime Ministers and Presidents of these countries in 
Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia, who have seen this movie before. We 
went to Ukraine. We went to Georgia. We heard from Ukraine--6,500 
attempts to hack into their country's computer system alone, shutting 
down access in Estonia. Trolls, in a building in Moscow--nearly 1,000 
people--who are now working and have been working to undermine 
democracies all around the world.
  So this isn't just about defending our own democracy; it is about 
defending the world's democracies. It is about saying to a country that 
thinks they can just get us to roll over and say: Hey, you can 
influence our election. No, that is not right. That is why we worked 
for expanded sanctions; that is why we introduced on a bipartisan basis 
with Senator McCain and Senator Graham--and I was one of the original 
sponsors with Senator Cardin and others--the Countering Russian 
Hostilities Act that would impose more sanctions on Russia. It would 
address cyber attacks, human rights violations, and its illegal 
annexation of land in Ukraine and Georgia.
  Just this weekend, on Sunday afternoon, I met with my Ukrainian 
community. Hundreds of people showed up on a Sunday afternoon in 
Minnesota because they are so concerned about their friends and 
relatives and they so believe in our democracy. Right down the road 
from the Ukrainian Center, where we held our meeting and where I 
listened and answered questions from my constituents, is a deli called 
Kramarczuk's. It is owned by a Ukrainian immigrant family whose parents 
came over to our country having fled oppression, and they came over to 
our country and bought this deli. They put this beautiful mural across 
an entire wall, and it is a beautiful photo of our Statue of Liberty, 
that beacon of democracy. Because of the Kramarczuks--they believe in 
our country. They believe in America. They believe in a country that is 
going to stand up for freedom of the press, that is going to stand up 
for freedom of religion, and that is going to stand up for them and 
their rights as immigrants to be citizens in this country. They believe 
in it because they have seen the worst of it. They have seen 
dictatorships, they have seen oppression, and they came to our country. 
They expect our country, as they serve their Ukrainian food to the 
people all over Minnesota in front of the big mural of the Statue of 
Liberty--they believe that our country is going to stand up for 
democracy.
  That was the message that Senator McCain, Senator Graham, and I 
brought to the people of Ukraine. We not only, of course, met with the 
President and their official leaders, but we also went right to the 
frontline. On New Year's Eve, we were in Eastern Ukraine on the sea--
cold, snow coming down--with hundreds and hundreds of Ukrainian troops, 
hearing the stories of a mother who was so young, who had just lost her 
son a week before to a Russian separatist sniper. We heard the stories 
of the 10,000 people killed just as this conflict began, standing up 
for democracy, just as we have stood up for our democracy.
  So when all of these discussions go on about recusals and about who 
should resign and what should happen, let's remember what this is all 
about. This is about saving our democracy and making our democracy 
strong so we can continue to be the beacon that those Ukrainians put on 
their wall in their deli because they believe in this country so much. 
This isn't about partisan divides. This is simply about being a 
democracy and getting to the bottom of it. When something goes on and a 
foreign country is trying to influence things, you have to put your 
party aside. You have to say: You know what, I want to know what 
happened here. If I am a Democrat or Republican, I want to know what 
happened so it doesn't happen again. I want to be able to protect our 
citizens and our election system and our democracy. That is what this 
is about.
  Thank you, Mr. President.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________