[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 62 (Tuesday, April 17, 2018)]
[House]
[Page H3346]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Tennessee (Mr. Cohen) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, on this day, as a lawyer and as a 
Congressman, I want to express my appreciation for the Department of 
Justice, the FBI, Mr. Mueller, Mr. Rosenstein, Mr. Wray, and others.
  The attorneys in the Justice Department are among the best in the 
country, and Mr. Mueller and Mr. Rosenstein are in that group. The FBI 
have the finest law enforcement people in our country, and Mr. Wray 
heads that office up.
  Besides being outstanding jurists, men of rectitude, and probity, 
what else do Mr. Wray, Mr. Rosenstein, and Mr. Mueller have in common? 
They are all Republicans, and they have all been attacked by our 
President.
  Our President said, when the warrant was issued on his attorney's 
office for his materials, that that was an attack on our country. In my 
opinion, that statement and the attacks on our Justice Department and 
FBI, and on Mr. Rosenstein and Mr. Mueller and Mr. Wray, those were 
attacks on our country.
  When one undermines the Justice Department and the FBI and, 
basically, people working in the Federal Government to protect us and 
see that our laws are carried out in an appropriate manner and that the 
rule of law, which this country is respected for all around the world, 
is meted out in evenhanded fashion, that is an attack on the 
fundamental principles of the United States of America.
  Mr. Speaker, I resent that suggestion. The fact is Mr. Rosenstein 
showed great bravery in seeing--as we say in jury charges, ``going 
where truth dictated and justice demanded''--in seeing that that 
warrant was issued. They did it on the basis of probable cause and 
information that they had to have surveillance of Mr. Cohen. They had 
to have probable cause to even have surveillance. And then to go 
through--knowing this man was the attorney for the President--and 
authorize the warrant and to know his job was on the line and his neck 
was on the line showed great courage, something we all in America 
should respect and hold up as an admirable quality in a man who 
exhibits the best characteristics of our citizenry.
  Then Mr. Rosenstein, a learned attorney who didn't feel that 
attorney-client privilege was being infringed upon, sent the case to 
the Southern District of New York, where other lawyers who were trained 
took the case to a judge, who was also learned in the law, who said the 
warrant should issue.

  Attorney-client privilege is alive and is being dealt with in the 
proper fashion in Judge Wood's courtroom. She is properly seeing to it 
that it is respected, but that information that is not that of an 
attorney-client privilege will be revealed to the American public.
  For some reason, a lot of people today who normally are talking about 
the Second Amendment are talking about attorney-client privilege like 
it is the biggest legal principle in our country's fabric. What is more 
important than anything--and attorney-client privilege is being 
respected--is the information that has been garnered through that 
search warrant that could show the possibility of crimes being 
committed by the President of the United States of America. There is 
nothing more important to be seen, and attorney-client privilege is 
nothing compared to that. Why people are concerned about that and not 
the information that they are trying to keep quiet astonishes me.
  We need a transparent President. We need a President who pays his 
taxes and reveals them to the American public and who doesn't try to 
squash the Justice Department, the FBI, and means of people of probity 
and rectitude and character.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Rosenstein, Mr. Mueller, Mr. Wray, the 
Justice Department, and FBI officials.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from 
engaging in personalities toward the President.

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