[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 91 (Monday, June 4, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2955-S2956]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Russia Investigation

  First, Madam President, let me address the President's recent 
comments on the Russia probe, then our negotiations with North Korea, 
and then healthcare.
  This morning, the President tweeted that he has the ``absolute 
right'' to pardon himself and that the appointment of the special 
counsel is totally unconstitutional. President Trump, you went 0 for 2 
on the Constitution this morning.
  First, of course no President has the power to pardon himself or 
herself. If they did, the Presidency would function above and outside 
the law, counter to the very founding principles of our country. We 
don't have a king. We are a nation of laws, not men. That is why the 
Founding Fathers created America; they didn't like the monarchy. But if 
a President can pardon himself, it is virtually a monarchy, at least as 
far as the President is concerned. If Presidents had the power to 
pardon themselves, we would no longer be a democracy.
  As the Department of Justice legal counsel wrote 4 days before Nixon 
resigned, ``Under the fundamental rule that no one may be a judge in 
his own case, the President cannot pardon himself.'' This is virtually 
indisputable.
  Does the President get to choose what he can pardon himself over--
theft, murder, who knows? The President does not have the right to 
pardon himself. That is for sure.
  Second, of course the appointment of the special counsel is 
constitutional. Never mind the fact that President Trump's own 
Republican appointees made the appointment of the special counsel; this 
is far from the first special counsel to investigate a serious matter 
concerning the President. Again, if the President were beyond the 
reproach of any investigation, there would be no check on the 
President's conduct. The President could engage in rife corruption and 
self-dealing without consequence. Surely, that is not what our 
constitutional system envisions. That is not the structure of America 
that the Founding Fathers set up and that we have followed for more 
than 200 years.
  The President's tweets are silly, farcical, and even absurd. They are 
not legal arguments to be treated seriously. Rather, they seem to 
reveal increasing desperation on the part of the President. President 
Trump has escalated his criticism of the Russia probe from smearing the 
special counsel and his team and hawking outrageous conspiracy theories 
to attacking the very legal architecture of our country.
  Special Counsel Mueller has already issued more than a dozen 
indictments. He has secured several guilty pleas from top Trump 
campaign officials. The probe is not only legitimate; it is finding 
violations of the law on the part of the Trump campaign and others.
  As wrong as President Trump was in his tweets this morning, you have 
to wonder, why is he asserting his right to pardon himself? Why is he 
questioning the constitutionality of an investigation in the first 
place? For a man who constantly proclaims his innocence, President 
Trump is doing an awfully good impersonation of someone who believes he 
has something to hide. It is hard to think of another explanation for 
the increasingly ridiculous and far-fetched legal theories peddled by 
the President and his lawyers.
  The pundits and the analysts in the media are debating whether it 
makes smart, strategic sense for President Trump to sit down for an 
interview with the special counsel. They are asking the wrong question. 
The President's strategy and political interests shouldn't be the basis 
for whether he sits down with the special counsel.
  If the special counsel requests an interview with the President as 
part of his investigation, the President should agree to provide 
testimony. If President Trump has done nothing wrong, as he so often 
and so loudly claims, he should have nothing to fear by sitting down 
with the special counsel.

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