[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 117 (Thursday, July 12, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H6168-H6171]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CLOUD OF COLLUSION
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 3, 2017, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from New Jersey
(Mr. Pascrell) for 30 minutes.
Mr. PASCRELL. Madam Speaker, in light of the upcoming one-on-one
meeting between President Trump and Vladimir Putin, I rise today to
remind the American people about the cloud of collusion hanging over
their heads.
As the American people continue to learn details of this unfolding
scandal, the implausible idea of Russia compromising the President of
the United States becomes more fact than fiction. The President, his
family members, his campaign staff, and his close associates have
repeatedly lied about their multiple contacts with Russian officials
and close associates of Putin. They have had no consistent explanation
for these meetings. It has happened over and over.
Furthermore, the President continues to parrot Putin's version of
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world events over those of his own American career civil servants,
intelligence operatives, military officials, and allies. This betrayal
has become like clockwork, an inexplicable routine we cannot simply
shrug off.
While it is possible the current list of known campaign contacts,
positive policy positions, and fawning statements have an innocuous
explanation, there is a simpler reason the House should be
investigating: Has President Donald Trump been covertly influenced or
personally compromised by Russia, a hostile foreign power?
Russian intelligence is known for using blackmail that exploits
greed, stupidity, and ego--and other weaknesses--to leverage over
people. He has employed Mr. Michael Cohen, Mr. Felix Sater--the record
is very clear on this--both of whom have links to the Russian mafia. He
has continued the secrecy about his business finances by not releasing
his tax returns.
The ethics commissioner told the President of the United States to
divest. He did not, and he defied that person most responsible for
draining the swamp, the ethics commissioner.
From operating his business at or beyond the edge of ethical
boundaries, Trump's penchant for compromising behavior, his willingness
to work closely with criminals and expressed desire to protect his
privacy makes him the ideal target.
With close business ties, Russia has enjoyed financial leverage over
President Trump for 15 years. This is a fact that his family has
admitted to multiple times. The story is well known.
After a series of brazen abuses of bankruptcy laws, President Trump,
who was not President at the time, Mr. Trump, found it impossible to
borrow from American banks, so he turned to unconventional sources of
capital, including Russian cash.
From 2003 to 2017, people from the former Soviet Union made 86 all-
cash purchases that we know of, a known red flag of potential money
laundering of Trump properties, totaling $109 million.
``Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot
of our assets.'' Those are the words of Donald Junior in 2008.
In 2010, the private wealth division of Deutsche Bank also loaned
President Trump hundreds of millions of dollars during the same period
it was laundering billions in Russian money.
``We don't rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need
out of Russia.'' Those are the boasts of Eric Trump from 2014.
Shady business transactions offer the perfect cover for covert
payments, and President Trump's adamant refusal to release his tax
returns publicly only raises the level of suspicion.
The idea that Russia has been cultivating, supporting, and assisting
Donald Trump to undermine Western alliances should come as no surprise
to anyone paying attention. Before and during his campaign for
President--Mr. Trump--there were several odd connections between the
two men, which they lied about to the public.
As President, Mr. Trump called Putin ``fine people.'' He ignored the
fact that Putin invaded Crimea; intervened in eastern Ukraine; poisoned
people in the United Kingdom; has commissioned the murder of
dissidents, journalists, and spies; shot down a commercial airliner in
Europe; propped up the most ruthless dictator of our time in Syria; and
violated our sovereignty in the 2016 Presidential election, by every--
every--intelligence organization that says ``USA.''
To ensure the American people and future Congresses know how we got
here today, today I will read parts of the Trump-Russia dossier into
the Record, also known as the Christopher Steele dossier, and include a
link to its entirety in the Congressional Record.
Partisans on the other side of the aisle may dismiss the document as
bogus, even fake news, but they know that several allegations in this
document have already been verified. While the dossier represents raw
intelligence or, effectively, a first draft, not a single thing of
substance has been disproven--not one. And Christopher Steele has
reliably provided intelligence to the U.K. and U.S. intelligence
agencies for decades.
While history will be the final judge on these matters, these are
some of the allegations which we know have been verified.
Madam Speaker, this is serious business. When I read from the
dossier, I am reading from my prime source. What I read tonight has all
been verified and certified, that which I am reading.
{time} 1845
While history will be a final judge on these matters, here are some
of the allegations. Page 1 of the dossier, the claim: ``Russian regime
has been cultivating, supporting, and assisting Trump for at least 5
years. Aim, endorsed by Putin, has been to encourage splits and
divisions in the Western alliance''--in the Western alliance.
``So far,'' the dossier reads, I will continue, ``Trump has declined
various sweetener real estate business deals offered him in Russia in
order to further the Kremlin's cultivation of him. However, he and his
inner circle have accepted a regular flow of intelligence from the
Kremlin, including on his Democratic and other political rivals.''
Now, here is the truth: On January 6, 2017, an intelligence community
assessment released by the Office of the Director of National
Intelligence stated that Russian leadership favored Trump's candidacy
over Clinton's and that Putin personally ordered an influence campaign
to harm Clinton's electoral chances and ``undermine public faith in the
U.S. democratic process,'' as well as ordering cyber attacks on ``both
major U.S. political parties.''
Page 7 and 8, I don't have time to read the whole thing tonight,
obviously. Dossier claim on page 7 and 8: ``The Russian regime had been
behind the recent leak of embarrassing email messages, emanating from
the Democratic National Committee to the WikiLeaks platform. The reason
for using WikiLeaks was `plausible deniability,' and the operation had
been conducted with the full knowledge and support of Trump and senior
members of his campaign team. In return, the Trump team had agreed to
sideline Russian intervention in Ukraine as a campaign issue and to
raise U.S./NATO defense commitments in the Baltics and Eastern Europe
to deflect attention away from Ukraine, a priority for Putin, who
needed to cauterize the subject.''
This is what he wrote. That is on page 7 and 8, what the dossier
claims.
Now here is the truth: In July 2016, the Republican National
Convention made changes to the Republican Party's platform on Ukraine.
Initially, the GOP platform proposed providing ``lethal weapons'' to
Ukraine. That is what it originally stated, that platform. But the line
was watered down to promise ``appropriate assistance.''
NPR reported that Diana Denman, a Republican delegate who supported
arming U.S. allies in Ukraine, has told people that Trump aide J.D.
Gordon said at the Republican Convention in 2016 that Trump directed
him to support weakening that position in the official platform.
J.D. Gordon, who was one of Trump's national security advisers during
the campaign, said he had advocated for changing language because that
reflected what Trump had said. The Trump campaign did not appear to
have intervened in any other platform deliberations, only the language
on Ukraine.
Here is the truth: As the President and throughout the campaign,
Donald Trump has called NATO ``obsolete''--although he changed his mind
today, a little bit--championed the disintegration of the European
Union, and said that he is open to lifting sanctions on Russia or has
declined to enforce them.
Trump has repeatedly questioned whether our allies are paying enough
into NATO, ultimately raising questions as to whether he is
deliberately facilitating Putin's long-term objective of undermining
the Western liberal order.
Dossier page 30: ``Speaking to a trusted compatriot in mid-October
2015, a close associate of Rosneft president and Putin ally Igor
Sechin''--his name appears all over the place in the dossier--
``elaborated on the reported secret meeting between'' Mr. Sechin and
Carter Page, of United States Republican Presidential candidate's
foreign policy team, in Moscow in July 2016.
The secret meeting ``had been confirmed to him/her by a senior member
of the staff, in addition to by the
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Rosneft president himself. It took place on either 7 or 8 July, the
same day or the one after Carter Page made a public speech to the
Higher Economic School in Moscow.
``In terms of the substance of the discussion, Sechin's associate
said that the Rosneft president was so keen to lift personal and
corporate Western sanctions imposed on the company that he offered
Page,'' and Mr. Trump's associates as well, ``the brokerage of up to a
19 percent privatized stake in Rosneft in return. Page had expressed
interest and confirmed that were Trump elected U.S. President,''
sanctions on Russia would be lifted.
The truth: On December 29, 2016, during the transition period between
the election and the inauguration, National Security Advisor-designate
Mike Flynn spoke to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, urging him not
to retaliate for newly imposed sanctions. Ultimately, the Russians did
not retaliate.
Days after the inauguration, the Trump administration ordered State
Department staffers to develop proposals for immediately revoking the
economic and other sanctions imposed against Russia. Thankfully, these
staffers alerted Congress, who took steps to codify the sanctions in a
law passed in August 2017. The attempt to overturn the sanctions was
abandoned after Mr. Flynn's conversation was revealed and Mr. Flynn
resigned.
Carter Page has confirmed this meeting with top Moscow and Rosneft
officials, that company or corporation, in the House Permanent Select
Committee on Intelligence testimony. It is all laid out.
When Page was asked if a Rosneft executive had offered him a
potential sale of a significant percentage of Rosneft, Page said, ``He
may have briefly mentioned it.''
Dossier claim on page 23: ``Finally, speaking separately to the same
compatriot, a senior Russian,'' Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ``MFA
official reported that, as a prophylactic measure, a leading Russian
diplomat, Mikhail Kalugin, had been withdrawn from Washington at short
notice because Moscow feared his heavy involvement in the U.S.
Presidential election operation, including the so-called veterans'
pensions ruse,'' which we reported previously in the dossier, ``would
be exposed in the media there. His replacement, Andrei Bondarev,
however, was clean in this regard.''
The truth: Mikhail Kalugin was the head of the economics section at
the Russian Embassy. He returned to Russia in August 2016. The BBC
would go on to report that United States officials in 2016 had
identified Kalugin as a spy, that he was under surveillance, thus
verifying this key claim in the dossier. Further reporting by McClatchy
has claimed that the FBI was investigating whether Kalugin played a
role in the election interference.
Mr. Speaker, these are facts. They just scratch the surface of what
we are dealing with. This is what we know. Despite some opponents and
opportunists and attempts, these facts are indisputable.
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the link to the entire Trump/
Russia dossier produced by Christopher Steele, so future generations
will know the truth of how we got here today. The link is: https://
www.documentcloud.org/documents/3259984-Trump-Intelligence-
Allegations.html.
Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have remaining?
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Taylor). The gentleman from New Jersey
has 14 minutes remaining.
Mr. PASCRELL. Mr. Speaker, I am going to read a little bit more of
the dossier, and I am going to stay away from the scurrilous things
that have been reported in the newspaper, because they, to me, are just
distractions from what we should be looking at.
This is from the dossier: The ``mechanism for transmitting this
intelligence involves `pension' disbursements to Russian emigres
living'' in the United States as cover, using consular offices in New
York, Miami, and D.C.
``Suggestion from source close to Trump and Manafort that Republican
campaign team happy to have Russia as media bogeyman to mask more
extensive corrupt business ties to China and other emerging countries.
``Speaking in confidence to a compatriot in late July 2016, Source E,
an ethnic Russian close associate of Republican U.S. Presidential
candidate Donald Trump, admitted that there was a well-developed
conspiracy of cooperation between them and the Russian leadership. This
was managed on the Trump side by the Republican candidate's campaign
manager, Paul Manafort, who was using foreign policy adviser Carter
Page and others as intermediaries. The two sides had a mutual interest
in defeating Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, whom
President Putin apparently hated and feared.
``Inter alia, Source E acknowledged that the Russian regime had been
behind the recent leak of embarrassing email messages emanating from
the Democratic National Committee'' to that WikiLeaks platform.
Attention, attention: ``Source E said he understood that the
Republican candidate and his team were relatively relaxed about this
because it deflected media and the Democrats' attention away from
Trump's business dealings in China and other emerging markets.''
For the Record, Mr. Speaker, I will enter that in the Record at the
proper time, not this evening. We have a whole dossier, again, having
nothing to do with this, of every deal that we know of that the
President and his team made in 52 foreign countries. That will be
entered into the Record.
``Finally, regarding Trump's claimed minimal investment profile in
Russia, a separate source with direct knowledge said this had not been
for want of trying. Trump's previous efforts had included exploring the
real estate sector in St. Petersburg as well as Moscow, but, in the
end, Trump had had to settle for the use of extensive sexual services
there from local prostitutes rather than business success.''
That is what the dossier says.
``Trump adviser Carter Page holds secret meetings in Moscow with
Sechin and senior Kremlin Internal Affairs official, Divyekin. Sechin
raises issues of future bilateral U.S.-Russian energy cooperation and
associated lifting of Western sanctions against Russia over Ukraine.
Page noncommittal in response. Divyekin discusses release of Russian
dossier of `kompromat' on Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton, but also
hints at Kremlin possession of such material on Trump.''
``Kremlin concerned that political fallout from DNC email hacking
operation is spiraling out of control. Extreme nervousness among
Trump's associates as result of negative media attention/accusations.
``Russians meanwhile keen to cool situation and maintain `plausible
deniability' of existing/ongoing pro-Trump and anti-Clinton operations;
therefore, unlikely to be any ratcheting up offensive plays in the
immediate future.
``Source close to Trump campaign, however, confirms regular exchange
with Kremlin has existed for at least 8 years''--I said 5 years before;
8 years--``including intelligence fed back to Russia on oligarchs'
activities in U.S.''
{time} 1900
``Within this context, Putin's priority requirement had been for
intelligence on the activities, business and otherwise, in the U.S. of
leading Russian oligarchs and their families.'' And his associates duly
had obtained and supplied that information.
``Speaking in early August 2016, two well-placed and established
Kremlin sources outlined the divisions and backlash in Moscow arising
from the leaking of Democratic National Committee emails and the wider
pro-Trump operation being conducted in the U.S. Head of Presidential
Administration, Sergei Ivanov, was angry at the recent turn of events.
He believed the Kremlin `team' involved, led by presidential spokesman
Dmitriy Peskov, had gone too far in interfering in foreign affairs with
their `elephant in a china shop black PR'. Ivanov claimed always to
have opposed the handling and exploitation of intelligence by this PR
`team'. Following the backlash against such foreign interference in
U.S. politics, Ivanov was advocating that the only sensible course of
action now for the Russian leadership was to `sit tight and deny
everything'.''
And they did.
``Continuing on this theme, the source close to Ivanov reported that
Peskov now was `scared' ''--I will not
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use the derogatory term--``that he would be scapegoated by Putin and
the Kremlin and held responsible for the backlash. . . . ''
Page after page, Mr. Ivanov appears. He is at the center of this. And
if we know this, then Mr. Mueller knows this. And if we know this, Mr.
Mueller knows more.
So this is the dossier, which has been public now since early last
year. And I wanted to bring this to the floor last year, but we chose
to do it another way, if you remember, in trying to get the President's
taxes made public.
So I will conclude with this, Mr. Speaker--you have been patient.
This is, to me, a big deal: 83 percent of this dossier has been proven
correct. I did not use anything that was dubious of the 17 percent.
So I say to you, the Congress has a right, as an equal branch of
government, to review what has happened so that our President, as Mr.
Shaub, the Director of the Office of Government Ethics, said to
President Trump: What you need to do is cut yourself off from your
assets. That is what you need to do. That is what you must do.
And, obviously, he did not do it.
So there is a lot of material out there. Going at this a year and a
half is not a long time. You know how long Watergate took. But I would
think that this is going to take longer than Watergate--that is my
opinion--on some of these things which will have to be traced. Some
people have been indicted. Some people are going to prison already. But
I am telling you, the bulk of information is going to be laid out when
Mr. Mueller is ready, not when I am ready or anybody in the Chamber is
ready.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from
engaging in personalities toward the President.
Mr. PASCRELL. That is unacceptable. I did not engage in any
personalities. I read from the record. I didn't call anybody a name. If
I read it, it was somebody else that was writing it, not me.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Remarks in debate in the House may not
engage in personalities toward the President, whether originating as
the Member's own words or being reiterated from another source.
Mr. PASCRELL. The President is not above the law, sir. I am not above
the law.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Does the gentleman have a motion?
Mr. PASCRELL. No, I don't have a motion.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman is not recognized for debate
at this time.
Mr. PASCRELL. Do you want me to make a motion to extend? Is that what
you are asking me to do?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair would entertain a motion to
adjourn at this time.
Mr. PASCRELL. Fine. You have it your way. I will be back.
____________________