[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 38 (Monday, March 5, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1341-S1342]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            RUSSIA INVESTIGATION BY SPECIAL COUNSEL MUELLER

  Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I restate my support for the investigations 
by Robert Mueller into Russia's election interference, as well as to 
condemn the partisan attacks on the independent investigation being led 
by Robert Mueller, who has been an honorable public servant over many 
decades.
  In 2016, our Nation came under attack by a hostile foreign power. 
Everyone knows that now. Our election process--the bedrock of our 
system of government--was targeted by Russian agents. They used a 
variety of measures to pursue their goals. The intelligence community's 
unclassified report concluded:

       We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an 
     influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential 
     election. Russia's goals were to undermine public faith in 
     the U.S. democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and 
     harm her electability and potential presidency. We further 
     assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear 
     preference for President-elect Trump.

  That is from the unclassified report of our intelligence community.
  These brazen and illegal actions have already resulted in the 
indictments of 13 Russian individuals and three Russian companies as 
part of Special Counsel Mueller's investigation.
  Russia may not have used traditional military force against us, but 
the actions they took present just as serious a threat to our national 
security. Make no mistake, when a foreign adversary targets an American 
election, it has targeted America, itself. Yet the President, whose own 
campaign is being examined as part of the Russia investigation, has 
refused to enforce sanctions against Russia. He has refused to fight 
back against Putin and his regime, despite there being clear evidence 
that they attacked us. The President's failure to take action against 
Russia underscores the urgent need for Special Counsel Mueller's 
independent investigation to continue unfettered.
  In this investigation, Mr. Mueller has already amassed enough 
evidence to have a grand jury indict Russian operatives and high-
ranking members of the Trump campaign, including former Trump campaign 
manager Paul Manafort and deputy campaign manager Rick Gates. Other 
Trump advisers, like Mr. Papadopoulos and Michael Flynn, have pled 
guilty to Federal crimes.
  Unfortunately, as this evidence has come forward, unwarranted, 
dangerous, and partisan attacks on Mr. Mueller's investigation and on 
Mr. Mueller, himself, have accelerated; yet a brief glance at Mr. 
Mueller's lifetime of service reflects his commitment to serving the 
American people with honor, integrity, and courage that, I think, is 
unmatched by anyone I know in Washington. Here are a couple of 
examples.
  As a young man, Mr. Mueller served with distinction in the Vietnam 
war and was awarded a Bronze Star, two Navy Commendation Medals, the 
Purple Heart, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry for his leadership 
and exemplary service.
  Mr. Mueller received the Bronze Star for his ``heroic achievement'' 
after leading his fellow marines through an 8-hour battle, where, under 
enemy fire, ``Second Lieutenant Mueller fearlessly moved from one 
position to another, directing the accurate counterfire of his men and 
shouting words of encouragement to them. . . . [H]e then skillfully 
supervised the evacuation of casualties from the hazardous fire area.'' 
After that battle, he was promoted to first lieutenant.
  Just 4 months later, he sustained a bullet wound when he responded to 
an ambush by enemy forces on marines who were in his command. For his 
heroic response, Mr. Mueller received the Navy Commendation Medal with 
a citation praising him for rushing to save his fellow marines while 
``completely disregarding his own safety.''
  I will give a recitation of some of the record that Special Counsel 
Mueller developed long before he was named to this position. I was 
going through his actions as a marine in combat, and I have a few more 
parts of his record to review.
  Mr. Mueller not only fought courageously on the battlefield, but upon 
returning home earned his law degree. He continued serving his country 
throughout his legal career.
  After serving in U.S. attorney's offices in both Boston and San 
Francisco for over a decade, he later served at the Justice Department 
leading the Criminal Division of the Justice Department under President 
George H.W. Bush. There he oversaw cases ranging from the prosecution 
of the Panamanian dictator, Manuel Noriega, to the Lockerbie bombing.

[[Page S1342]]

  In 1995, Mr. Mueller left a high-paying position in the private 
sector to join the DC U.S. attorney's office--in this case, the 
Homicide Division--working to hold violent offenders accountable for 
their crimes.
  Three years later, he became a U.S. attorney himself, serving again 
in San Francisco and earning a reputation as a dogged and fair 
prosecutor committed to enforcing the rule of law.
  In 2001, Mr. Mueller was nominated by a second Republican President, 
President George W. Bush, to be the Director of the FBI. He was then 
confirmed unanimously by this body. His tenure at the FBI included 
leading the response to the September 11 attacks, spearheading the 
Bureau's efforts to combat cyber crime, which has been widely praised. 
In fact, in 2011, when his 10-year term was scheduled to end, we in the 
Senate voted 100 to 0 to extend his term as FBI Director through 2013, 
another 10 years.
  Though our political system has become more polarized, each time Mr. 
Mueller has been named or nominated for a new position, he has received 
unqualified praise from people across the political spectrum and 
rightly so.
  With Mr. Mueller's record as a war hero, a dedicated public servant, 
and an expert in law enforcement, it is hard to imagine anyone better 
suited to lead the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 
election. There is no one in Washington, DC, or, frankly, in all of 
America better prepared to do this job.
  Serious congressional oversight of executive branch operations is 
always appropriate. However, the reckless partisan attacks on Mr. 
Mueller's investigation and on Mr. Mueller himself are not the same as 
congressional oversight. Such attacks have made us less safe as a 
nation. The political smears like those we have seen undermine our rule 
of law and strike at the heart of our democracy. They are a disservice 
to the brave men and women in law enforcement who put their lives on 
the line to keep all of us safe.
  As Members of the U.S. Congress, we have a duty to uphold the rule of 
law and the principles of fairness and independence that American 
democracy is built upon.
  I call on my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to defend the 
integrity of Mr. Mueller's investigation and reject the politically 
motivated attempts to discredit the investigation and its underlying 
conclusions. I call on the House and Senate majority to give us a vote 
on legislation to protect Special Counsel Mueller's independence and 
ensure that he can continue his investigation free from interference.
  To ensure the integrity of our elections and our democracy, we must 
make sure we never allow a hostile foreign power to interfere in our 
electoral process again, and to do that we must allow the special 
counsel to get to the bottom of what Russia did in 2016 and whether it 
was aided by American individuals. That is what the whole investigation 
is about--those two parts.
  History, of course, will be our judge. We will be judged about how we 
handled this crisis. We know that in 1787, when the Constitutional 
Convention had just adjourned, Benjamin Franklin was asked what kind of 
government the Convention had chosen for our young nation. He responded 
that the Convention has given us ``[a] Republic, if you can keep it.''
  Democratic principles are only as strong as those elected to uphold 
them. I hope my colleagues will stand together and stand strong to 
preserve the rule of law and the institutions of this Republic we have 
been given, and we must ``keep it,'' as Franklin said.
  I yield the floor.

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