[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.