[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 7 (Thursday, January 11, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S144-S145]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          RUSSIA INVESTIGATION

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, now a word on the Russia investigation. 
Over the past weeks, several events have shaken my confidence that our 
Republican colleagues are committed to an independent investigation in 
Congress and at the FBI.
  A rightwing smear campaign is being waged to discredit the 
investigation and the investigator. Absurd attacks have been launched 
on Special Counsel Mueller, one of the finest men that I think we have 
ever come across in this body. I remember when he was FBI Director; 
everyone loved him. He is a man of utmost integrity. A Republican 
Congressman went so far as to suggest his investigation was a ``coup'' 
when that Member spoke on the floor of the House.
  Here in the Senate, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee--I have 
great respect for him; we are the only two Charles E's in the Senate--
referred Christopher Steele to the FBI and recommended criminal 
charges, even though Mr. Steele was a whistleblower--something that our 
chairman of Judiciary has always protected. He came to the FBI with 
concerns that Donald Trump was subject to blackmail. Any American would 
worry about that. The chairman took that action

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unilaterally--that is, asking for criminal charges--without consulting 
with or providing notice to the minority. Yet he still expressed 
outrage when the ranking member of his committee released a transcript 
of his committee's interview with the chairman of Fusion GPS even 
though that was what was in contention. There is a fundamental double 
standard here. You can't complain, Mr. Chairman of Judiciary, about our 
side doing things unilaterally if you do them unilaterally. We want to 
work in a bipartisan way.
  I applaud my friend, the senior Senator from California, for 
releasing that transcript. It contained information that was crucial 
for the American people to read and understand in order to judge for 
themselves the allegations my friends across the aisle have made. You 
make a serious allegation against someone but say no one can see the 
information? That is not fair. That is not how we work here in America.
  Now, in the Foreign Relations Committee, my friend Senator Cardin was 
compelled to release a minority report about Russia's interference in 
foreign elections because the majority would not join him. Think about 
that. Senator Cardin's report showed something we already know to be 
true--no one disputes that; well, maybe a few--that Russia maliciously 
and persistently interferes in elections around the globe and will not 
cease without unified and strong countermeasures.
  Senator Cardin's report is another compelling reason that the Senate 
act on election security legislation. Before we left for the holidays, 
Senators Lankford, Klobuchar, Harris, and Collins introduced the Secure 
Elections Act. It is a good piece of legislation that would help shore 
up election security. Midterm elections are just around the corner, 
and, as Senator Cardin's report tells us, Russia will no doubt endeavor 
to sow confusion and chaos into our democracy once again. That is what 
they do. That is what Putin likes to do. We have to stop it. And making 
information public about it is very important. This should be a 
unifying, nonpartisan issue.
  Why would the Republican majority on the Foreign Relations Committee 
refuse to join that report? It is because--in my judgment, at least--
for partisan reasons, Republicans in Congress and some in some parts of 
the media--the conservative parts of the media--have sought to 
undermine the Russia investigation in countless ways. They have hidden 
behind secrecy and innuendo to cast aspersions on the investigation and 
erect roadblocks in its path. Their goal, it seems, is to discredit the 
investigation so that ultimately they can discredit any findings that 
are detrimental to their party or their President.
  President Trump makes the strategy manifest, clear as day, almost 
every day on his Twitter feed. Yesterday, he tweeted that the Russia 
investigation was ``the single greatest witch hunt in American 
history.'' That is a little self-centered. How about Salem? Those 
people were burned at the stake. And he wrote that ``Republicans should 
finally take control.'' That last line should send shivers down our 
spines, that ``Republicans should finally take control.''
  From the very beginning, this investigation has been about an issue 
most sensitive to our national interests--interference in our 
elections, the wellspring and pride of our wonderful and great and 
grand democracy. If ever there were an issue that transcends party, 
this is it. Yet here is the President of the United States imploring 
his party to ``take control'' of the investigation. You never thought 
you would hear a President say something like this. Frankly, you never 
thought you would hear such silence from the other side of the aisle 
when he does, but that is where we are. Republican lawmakers ought to 
shout down that kind of appeal. We all must commit to the essential 
truth of the matter, which is that the investigation into Russian 
interference in our election must remain as bipartisan and as 
nonpartisan as possible. The interests of the Nation are at stake. All 
of us--all of us--must choose country over party.
  I yield the floor.

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