[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 84 (Tuesday, May 16, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2948-S2950]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Russia Investigation

  Mr. President, the White House and President Trump face yet another 
crisis--perhaps the biggest in his chaotic term so far. According to 
the Washington Post and other outlets, President Trump disclosed highly 
classified information to the Russian Foreign Minister and Russian 
Ambassador to the United States in the Oval Office last week. This is 
utterly stunning.
  Congress needs to find out exactly what happened, on a bipartisan 
basis, but we can tell already that President Trump's behavior in this 
incident is very dangerous. It is dangerous to our national security 
institutions, dangerous to the men and women overseas who are serving 
their country and risking their lives. Many other outlets have 
confirmed the Washington Post article, and they have cited several 
sources.
  Assuming it is true, the President has endangered our relationship 
with a partner who gave our security agencies this information. That 
has ripple effects that will risk similar relationships with other 
countries. It also could put our sources at risk.
  While his national security team denied the news reports this 
morning, the President was on Twitter contradicting them. He claims he 
has the right to tell the Russian Foreign Minister anything he wants. I 
can't think of any parallel in history for the President's dangerous 
lack of discretion or his dangerous misunderstanding of how to handle 
classified national security information.
  As the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator 
Corker put it this way: The White House is in a ``downward spiral,'' 
and he said it needs to get it ``under control.'' Senator Corker is a 
senior Republican. I know the Presiding Officer and I serve with him on 
the Foreign Relations Committee. He is a man I respect very much, and I 
hope the White House will listen to Chairman Corker.
  It is very strange that the President chose to meet with the Russian 
Ambassador at the center of the Trump campaign's contacts to Russia or 
to allow the Russian press with their electronic equipment into the 
meeting at the Oval Office, but let's put these strange and dangerous 
events in the context of the last several weeks and months.
  America's intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia interfered 
in the U.S. election and that they favored the Trump campaign. Now the 
President is hosting senior Russian officials in the Oval Office and 
disclosing highly classified information--information that

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puts future intelligence and maybe lives at risk.
  The day after he fired the FBI Director, President Trump admitted on 
camera to NBC News that he did so in part because he is frustrated at 
the FBI's investigation into Russian interference and potential Trump 
campaign contacts. Congress must get to the bottom of this. Republicans 
and Democrats must come together for real oversight. Based on what I 
see now, President Trump's actions call into question his fitness for 
office and further underscore the imperative for independent 
investigations.
  It is not an exaggeration to say our Nation faces a constitutional 
crisis. Our Constitution is based on rule of law. In the United States, 
no man or woman is above the law, not even the President of the United 
States. Our constitutional democracy is remarkable for many reasons. 
One is that Presidential action has threatened the fabric of our 
democracy only a few times in our history. President Nixon's Watergate 
scandal was one of them, and I believe we face another one today.
  President Trump's firing of the FBI Director in the middle of an 
investigation into the campaign that put him in office and the 
President's bizarre behavior since should concern all Americans 
regardless of party. The only rational explanation is that he has 
something to hide, that he wants to disrupt the investigation into 
Russia's interference in our election. What possible reason could the 
President have for wanting to hinder this investigation? It should be 
his highest priority to ensure it never happens again. Instead he calls 
it ``fake news.''

  Now, here is what we know. Early in the new administration, the White 
House Chief of Staff asked the FBI to publicly disavow reports that the 
FBI was investigating Trump campaign ties to Russia. This attempted 
political interference was wrong.
  The White House next set its sight on House Intelligence Committee 
chair Devin Nunes, who was investigating Russian interference in the 
election. Representative Nunes made midnight runs to the White House to 
view documents that he said validated the President's claims that he 
was wiretapped.
  While the information did not ultimately prove that, Representative 
Nunes still chose to go public with classified information before 
discussing it with his committee. This was circus-like behavior, which 
ultimately forced Representative Nunes to recuse himself from the 
committee's investigation. But it was also serious. It showed that the 
White House was willing to go to great lengths to interfere with the 
House investigation into the President.
  Next, the President fired Acting Attorney General Sally Yates. At the 
time, he claimed it was for refusing to defend his Executive order 
barring Muslims from the country. In the end, her analysis was correct. 
The Federal courts found the order to be unconstitutional. We now know 
that Ms. Yates was fired just days after notifying the White House that 
then-National Security Advisor Flynn had lied about his conversations 
with the Russian Ambassador.
  She had told the White House that Flynn's own conduct ``in and of 
itself was concerning.'' She warned that the President's chief advisor 
on matters of national security was susceptible to blackmail by Russia. 
It still took the President 18 days to fire Flynn. As Ms. Yates put it, 
``to state the obvious, you don't want your national security advisor 
compromised with the Russians.''
  Now, the President has fired FBI Director James Comey. It defies 
reason to believe that President Trump fired Mr. Comey because he was 
too hard on Secretary Clinton. We give the FBI Director a 10-year term 
so that he or she can do the job free from political interference and 
follow any investigation wherever it may lead, even into the Oval 
Office. A deluge of evidence has pointed to the conclusion that the 
President fired Director Comey for similar reasons as Sally Yates--
because he was unhappy with the FBI probe of Russian election 
interference and possible ties to the Trump campaign.
  It has been reported that Director Comey had sought additional 
resources for the investigation and was receiving daily briefings on 
the investigation days before he was fired. The U.S. attorney's office 
in Virginia had also issued grand jury subpoenas to persons with 
knowledge of Flynn's ties with Russia and Turkey. Well-sourced media 
reports say the President had become increasingly angry with Director 
Comey's public statements about the FBI's investigation of him and 
because Mr. Comey would not confirm the President's baseless claims 
that the President Obama administration wiretapped Trump Tower.
  The President understood that Director Comey would not do his bidding 
and so he fired him. Still, the White House has flatly lied about the 
circumstances of Mr. Comey's dismissal. Numerous White House officials, 
including the Vice President himself, said the decision was at the 
recommendation of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. They have 
said this publicly on the record and on camera.
  But President Trump himself contradicted them. He said again on 
camera that he had already decided to fire Director Comey before 
receiving the Deputy Attorney General's recommendation. He made clear 
that he was frustrated with the continuing counterintelligence probe 
into Russia's election influence. He was upset with Mr. Comey's 
testimony before Congress.
  The White House also claimed that Director Comey had lost confidence 
at the FBI. But in a public hearing last week, my colleague and Senator 
from New Mexico, Mr. Heinrich, asked the FBI's Acting Director if that 
was true, and the Acting Director strongly denied it. It has been well 
reported that the Deputy Attorney General threatened to resign based on 
the White House claims that Mr. Rosenstein advocated for firing 
Director Comey.
  It seems clear that he was told to draft the cover story for the real 
reason. His memo was short and is dated the same day as the firing.
  Now, on what may be the worst development so far, the President of 
the United States is threatening on Twitter to release ``tapes'' of Mr. 
Comey. He is implying, not confirming, that he has tapes of their 
conversations and that he will release them if Mr. Comey talks to the 
press and the public.
  Mr. Comey knows he is well within his rights to speak publicly as 
long as he does not reveal classified information. The President's 
comment is another example of interference. A sitting President is 
seeking to pressure a fired FBI Director against speaking out publicly, 
a man who is likely to be a witness before Congress.
  Mr. Comey reportedly would like to testify in an open hearing. 
Apparently, he doesn't have anything to hide. We need to hear his 
testimony as soon as possible. Let's find out if President Trump 
demanded the FBI Director's loyalty. If the President does have tapes 
of their conversations, he should release them, or we need to subpoena 
them. But let's get to the bottom of this.
  At this point, there is more than probable cause to believe that the 
President is attempting to obstruct the FBI and congressional 
investigations. President Trump seems to put himself above the law. 
Firing the FBI Director and the Acting Attorney General and interfering 
with a congressional investigation are actions of an autocrat. As a 
former assistant U.S. attorney and attorney general for New Mexico, I 
have some experience with investigations. When someone interferes with 
ongoing investigations, it seems clear that they have something to 
hide. That is not the behavior of an innocent person.

  Make no mistake, Russia's interference in our democratic process is 
an attack upon our Nation. If the President or his associates colluded 
in any way with Russia in this attack, it would represent the most 
serious betrayal of our Nation by a President. While there are rarely 
exact parallels in history, the parallel between Nixon's Saturday Night 
Massacre and President Trump's Tuesday Night Massacre is hard to 
ignore.
  Nixon's firing of the man heading the investigation into his actions 
led to his impeachment and resignation. Recall that the first article 
of impeachment was obstruction of justice. At that point in our 
history, both Congress and the Supreme Court stood resolute that the 
President was not above the law. Congress must again stand resolute 
that the President is not above the

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law. It is well past time for Congress to appoint an independent 
commission like the 9/11 commission.
  It must investigate every aspect of Russia's interference with our 
election and recommend steps to ensure it never happens again. It must 
investigate whether Candidate Trump or his associates colluded with 
Russia to interfere with our Presidential election. Congress must do so 
swiftly and must give the commission sufficient resources to do the 
job.
  The Attorney General is compromised. He has recused himself from any 
investigation into the Trump campaign. But I believe he violated the 
terms of his recusal when he weighed in on Director Comey's 
termination. Several of us will be sending a letter this week to the 
Justice Department inspector general asking him to investigate this 
specific issue.
  Now the President is about to nominate a new FBI Director, presumably 
one he believes will be less independent than Director Comey, one who 
will not pursue the Russia investigation if it points to his campaign.
  Given these circumstances, Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein must 
appoint a special counsel to conduct a counterintelligence 
investigation into Russia's role in our election and, if necessary, a 
criminal investigation into the conduct of the Trump campaign and the 
administration. A special counsel must be appointed before we consider 
a new nominee for FBI Director.
  That nominee needs to be closely scrutinized by the Senate. We need a 
Director who is nonpartisan and has a law enforcement background. This 
person will be responsible for restoring Americans' confidence in the 
FBI and ensuring that he or she does not pledge loyalty to the 
President but pledges loyalty to the Constitution.
  The majority in Congress must listen to the American public, must 
follow the lessons of history, and must protect the rule of law and our 
Constitution.
  In the United States, no person is above the law, not even--and 
especially--the President of the United States. In my career in 
Congress, I have always believed you put the country first. Party comes 
last. In their hearts, I know my Republican friends and colleagues feel 
the same. Congress and the Senate need to fulfill the roles the 
Founding Fathers envisioned: When the executive branch is moving 
outside the bounds of the rule of law, we must rein it in.
  It is well past time for action.

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