[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 89 (Tuesday, May 23, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3076-S3077]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Russia Investigation

  Mr. President, now, on another matter completely, last night, it was 
reported in the Washington Post that President Trump attempted to 
enlist the Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, and the 
Director of the National Security Agency, Admiral Rogers, in helping 
the administration push back against reports in the press about an 
investigation into the President's campaign and its potential ties to 
Russia.
  According to the same reporting, White House staff may also have 
``sounded out top intelligence officials about the possibility of 
intervening directly'' with the FBI and Mr. Comey to get them to drop 
the investigation into General Flynn.
  If these reports are accurate, it is another piece of now-mounting 
evidence that this White House has no interest--no interest--in 
allowing the Russia investigation to proceed without partisan 
interference, and the White House seems to have little respect for the 
principles of the rule of law. We have not quite seen anything like it 
in a very long time.
  Such allegations only reinforce the correctness of the decision to 
appoint Special Counsel Mueller to oversee the investigation and should 
strengthen our resolve to ensure that he is insulated from interference 
from this White House. Such allegations also strengthen, again, the 
need for an independent, nonpartisan FBI Director.
  With all these reports of attempts to interfere with the 
investigation, we cannot have an FBI Director who has a political 
background, who doesn't seem right down the middle, who doesn't

[[Page S3077]]

seem to be a Director's Director, a prosecutor's prosecutor, an 
investigator's investigator. No politician or candidate with 
insufficient impartiality should be selected by the President or 
confirmed by the Senate. We Democrats will stand very strongly for 
that.
  Given the almost daily reports about potential meddling and 
misconduct by this administration, Congress must exercise its oversight 
authority in order to keep this administration in check. Both the 
executive branch and the congressional investigations must proceed. 
This is not about politics or political advantage. When a foreign 
power, particularly an enemy of our country like Putin and Russia, 
tries to interfere in your elections--and will probably do it again in 
the future--we have to know everything that happened, who participated, 
and make sure it doesn't happen again.
  If people who participated in it--if there are such people--get away 
with it this time, many more will do it next time. So this is an issue 
of national interest, national security, and even the future of our 
democracy. I remind colleagues that in our Constitution, the Founding 
Fathers worried about foreign interference in our government. When I 
read that in high school and again in college, I said: Well, that 
doesn't seem real. It is all too real today, showing both the wisdom of 
the Founding Fathers and the need for strong oversight.