[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 81 (Wednesday, May 10, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2865-S2866]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Firing of James Comey
Mr. FRANKEN. Mr. President, I rise to address President Trump's
stunning dismissal of FBI Director Comey yesterday evening. We know the
Russians interfered in the 2016 election. We know the Russians did so
in order to undermine confidence in our democracy. We know the Russians
carried out this attack with the goal of benefiting the campaign of
Donald Trump, whom the Kremlin preferred to see win the election. These
facts have been confirmed by our intelligence agencies.
What we don't fully yet understand is all of the reasons why, all the
reasons why the Russians favored Donald Trump and whether associates of
the President or members of his campaign assisted in the Russian
operations to sway the election in his favor.
These questions are the subject of an ongoing counterintelligence
investigation, an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation and, until last night, an investigation led by James
Comey.
As former Director Comey recently testified to the House Intelligence
Committee, ``[T]he FBI, as part of [its] counterintelligence mission,
is investigating the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the
2016 presidential election--and that includes investigating the nature
of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and
the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between
the campaign and Russia.''
The timing of Director Comey's dismissal raises serious questions,
and President Trump's decision to abruptly fire the man leading an
investigation that could implicate the Trump administration should
shock the conscience of every American who believes that no man or
woman is above the law and who has faith in the fair and impartial
pursuit of justice.
The White House attempted to preemptively dispel any suspicion by
announcing that President Trump fired the Director ``based on the clear
recommendations'' of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney
General Rod Rosenstein. The White House released several documents to
back up that claim: a letter from President Trump to Director Comey,
firing him; a letter from Attorney General Sessions to President Trump,
recommending that Comey be fired; and a memo written by Deputy Attorney
General Rosenstein, which cited the Director's handling of the Hillary
Clinton email investigation as damaging the FBI's reputation and
credibility. These documents create more questions than they answer.
First, the letter from President Trump to Director Comey firing him.
President Trump, ever eager to put distance between the Russian inquiry
and himself, wrote: ``While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on
three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I
nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that
you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau.''
Again, we know the FBI is conducting a criminal investigation into
whether members of the Trump campaign coordinated with the Russians in
their efforts to influence the election. Director Comey confirmed that
before he was fired. Whether President Trump is personally under
investigation by the Bureau or whether investigators are merely
scrutinizing his advisers and associates, the President's clumsy
attempt at misdirection does little more than remind us of the many
unanswered questions about his and his people's connections to Russia.
Second, Attorney General Sessions' letter to President Trump. The
Attorney General writes that based on his review of Deputy Attorney
General Rosenstein's memo, which cites the Director's handling of the
Clinton email investigation, that Attorney General Sessions has
concluded that the FBI requires new leadership and a fresh start.
Attorney General Sessions recommended that Director Comey be fired.
Attorney General Sessions should not have had any involvement in this
decision at all. On March 2, the Attorney General called a press
conference to announce: ``I have now decided to recuse myself from any
existing or future investigations of any matter relating in any way to
the campaigns for president of the United States.''
The reason Attorney General Sessions made that announcement was
because news reports revealed he had provided misleading testimony in
response to a question that I asked during his confirmation hearing;
that Attorney General Sessions had falsely stated: ``I did not have
communications with the Russians.'' In fact, he did meet with the
Russian Ambassador during the campaign twice.
Having provided misleading testimony under oath about a matter that
could potentially be the subject of a criminal investigation by the
FBI, Attorney General Sessions was forced to recuse himself.
I find it deeply troubling that Attorney General Jeff Sessions--who
misled the Judiciary Committee about his own communications with the
Russian Ambassador and who pledged to recuse himself from this
investigation as a result--betrayed that pledge by involving
[[Page S2866]]
himself in the decision to fire the Director of the FBI, who was
leading the investigation into Russia's interference in our elections,
including whether members of President Trump's campaign were involved
in that interference. Attorney General Sessions was a member of that
campaign, and he misled the committee on whether he had met with the
Russians, and he did that under oath. That is why he recused himself,
and yet he inserted himself in this firing.
Finally, there is Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein's memo, which
asserts that Director Comey's handling of the Clinton email
investigation caused the public to lose confidence in the Bureau.
Director Comey spoke publicly about the Clinton email investigation
twice, in July and October of last year.
Setting aside whether Director Comey's decision to discuss the
investigation was unorthodox or broke with Justice Department and FBI
protocols, his actions were well known to both President Trump and
Attorney General Sessions, and both of them celebrated his actions at
the time. After Director Comey wrote to Congress on October 28,
informing us that the FBI had discovered additional emails and would
therefore reopen its investigation into Secretary Clinton, then-
Candidate Trump praised his decision. He said: ``What [Comey] did was
the right thing,'' and ``It took guts for Director Comey to make the
move that he made in light of the kind of opposition he had.''
Appearing on FOX Business Network, then-Senator Sessions said that
Director Comey ``had an absolute duty, in my opinion, 11 days [before
an election] or not, to come forward with the new information that he
has and let the American people know that, too.''
If President Trump or Attorney General Sessions truly objected to the
way that Director Comey conducted the investigation into Secretary
Clinton's emails, I suspect they would have said so at the time rather
than heap praise upon him. But their previous statements lauding
Director Comey's handling of the Clinton email probe cast suspicion on
the extent to which they relied on the Deputy Attorney General's
purported rationale.
Further, and this is important, if Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein
were truly concerned that Director Comey's handling of the Clinton
email investigation had damaged the reputation of the Bureau, then why
not wait for the conclusion of an investigation by the very respected
DOJ inspector general into Comey's decision during the election--his
decisions--an investigation that had been underway since January?
The shifting positions of President Trump and Attorney General
Sessions lead me to believe something else is going on here, that this
is not about Hillary Clinton's emails but about turning the page on
Russia. In fact, last night, a White House spokesman said so. Appearing
on FOX News, White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders
was asked how Director Comey's firing would affect the Russia
investigation. She replied:
When are they going to let that go? It's been going on for
nearly a year. Frankly, it's getting kind of absurd. There's
nothing there. It's time to move on. Frankly, it's time to
focus on the things the American people care about.
The American people care about whether a hostile foreign government
influenced our election. They care about whether advisers and
associates of the President helped that foreign government do that.
The events that have occurred over the past 24 hours are deeply,
deeply unsettling. As my Republican colleague Senator Flake said last
night:
I've spent the last several hours trying to find an
acceptable rationale for the timing of Comey's firing. I just
can't do it.
And I can't either. In my view, the timing and the circumstances
surrounding Director Comey's dismissal are very suspicious. For
example, just this morning, it was reported that Director Comey
recently asked the Justice Department to provide additional resources
for the Russian investigation--a request that purportedly he made
personally to Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein. This raises grave
concerns about the Trump Justice Department's ability to conduct a
full, fair, and impartial investigation. In order to address these
concerns, Attorney General Sessions and Deputy Attorney General
Rosenstein should come to the Senate and explain their involvement to
all of the Senators in this body.
In the wake of what I believe was a politically motivated decision to
remove Director Comey, I no longer have confidence that the Department
of Justice can fulfill its obligation to resolve this matter
impartially. The situation now calls very clearly for the appointment
of a special prosecutor to oversee the investigation into whether
associates of the Trump organization or former members of the Trump
campaign had knowledge of or participated in the Russian attack on our
democracy.
I join my colleagues' calls for an independent inquiry so the
American people can have confidence that the individuals who conduct
this investigation will follow the facts no matter where they lead.
Thank you, Mr. President.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Colorado.
Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, I am here today to speak on a different
topic, but before the Senator from Minnesota leaves, I want to thank
him for his statement and for his observations, which are dead-on about
the need now more than ever to have an independent special counsel take
a look at what has happened here. I am very grateful for that, and I
believe that is the conclusion others in this Chamber, Republicans and
Democrats working together, will reach as well, as they let sink in
what has actually transpired over the last 24 hours.