[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 169 (Thursday, October 24, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6160-S6161]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  SENATE RESOLUTION 378--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE THAT THE 
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SHOULD, CONSISTENT WITH LONG-STANDING PRACTICE 
  AND PRECEDENT, PRIOR TO PROCEEDING ANY FURTHER WITH ITS IMPEACHMENT 
  INVESTIGATION INTO PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP, VOTE TO OPEN A FORMAL 
   IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY AND PROVIDE PRESIDENT TRUMP WITH FUNDAMENTAL 
                       CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTIONS

  Mr. GRAHAM (for himself, Mr. McConnell, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Thune, Mr. 
Blunt, Mr. Inhofe, Mr. Crapo, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. Burr, Mr. Barrasso, Mr. 
Wicker, Mr. Risch, Mr. Boozman, Mr. Paul, Mr. Lee, Mr. Johnson, Mr. 
Scott of South Carolina, Mrs. Fischer, Mr. Cruz, Mrs. Capito, Mr. 
Cassidy, Mr. Lankford, Mr. Cotton, Mr. Daines, Mr. Perdue, Ms. Ernst, 
Mr. Tillis, Mr. Rounds, Mr. Young, Mr. Kennedy, Mrs. Hyde-Smith, Mrs. 
Blackburn, Mr. Cramer, Mr. Shelby, Mr. Roberts, Mr. Moran, Mr. Hoeven, 
Mr. Rubio, Mr. Braun, Mr. Hawley, Mr. Scott of Florida, Mr. Sasse, Mr. 
Toomey, Ms. McSally, and Mr. Sullivan) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Rules and 
Administration.:

                              S. Res. 378

       Whereas one of the cornerstones of the American 
     Constitution is due process: the right to confront your 
     accuser, call witnesses on your behalf, and challenge the 
     accusations against you;
       Whereas the House of Representatives is abandoning more 
     than a century's worth of precedent and tradition in 
     impeachment proceedings and denying President Trump basic 
     fairness and due process accorded every American;
       Whereas, in our nation's history, the House has on three 
     occasions moved to formally investigate whether sufficient 
     grounds exist to impeach a President, and in all three of 
     these cases, the full House voted on a resolution authorizing 
     the House Judiciary Committee to determine whether to impeach 
     the President;
       Whereas, in the case of President Trump, a formal 
     impeachment process involving debate and a vote by the full 
     House prior to taking each step in the process has been 
     replaced by a press conference by the Speaker of the House;
       Whereas the proposition that the Speaker acting alone may 
     direct committees to initiate impeachment proceedings without 
     any debate or a vote on the House floor is unprecedented and 
     undemocratic;
       Whereas the House is denying President Trump due process 
     within the ``inquiry'' itself;
       Whereas, for the impeachment investigations of President 
     Richard M. Nixon and President William J. Clinton, the House 
     Judiciary Committee adopted rules of procedure to provide due 
     process rights and ensure fairness;
       Whereas these rights included--
       (1) allowing the President to be represented by counsel;
       (2) permitting the President's counsel to be present at all 
     hearings and depositions;
       (3) permitting the President's counsel to present evidence 
     and object to the admission of evidence;
       (4) allowing the President's counsel to call and cross-
     examine witnesses; and
       (5) giving the President's counsel access to, and the 
     ability to respond to, the evidence adduced by the Committee;

       Whereas, by contrast, the House's current impeachment 
     ``inquiry'' provides none of these basic rights and 
     protections to President Trump;
       Whereas the main allegations against President Trump are 
     based on assertions and testimony from witnesses whom he is 
     unable to confront, as part of a process in which he is not 
     able to offer witnesses in his defense or have a basic 
     understanding of the allegations lodged against him;
       Whereas all witness interviews that have been conducted 
     thus far in the House have been behind closed doors with 
     limited minority participation;
       Whereas the House's current impeachment ``inquiry'' ignores 
     the procedural rights given to the investigating committee's 
     minority in previous Presidential impeachments, including 
     granting equal subpoena power to both the chair and ranking 
     member of the committee;
       Whereas, the House is denying President Trump the same 
     basic pre-inquiry rights afforded to President Clinton;
       Whereas the Whitewater Investigation involved nearly five 
     years of painstaking investigative work by a special counsel 
     and an independent counsel before the House even voted to 
     have the Judiciary Committee open an impeachment inquiry;
       Whereas President Clinton vigorously fought that 
     investigation, including by raising multiple privilege claims 
     and he was permitted to fully litigate those claims through 
     the courts;

[[Page S6161]]

       Whereas President Trump, by contrast, fully cooperated with 
     Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller's investigation;
       Whereas, during the course of the Mueller investigation, 
     President Trump never raised privilege claims, he turned over 
     more than one million pages of documents, he directed senior 
     aides to testify freely, including making the White House 
     Counsel available to testify for more than thirty hours, and 
     he agreed to answer written questions on penalty of perjury; 
     and
       Whereas, rather than giving President Trump the same due 
     process rights that President Clinton had to raise and 
     litigate claims of constitutional privilege, House 
     Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff has repeatedly 
     threatened to use President Trump's assertion of his 
     constitutional rights as evidence of obstruction and to 
     impeach President Trump for trying to litigate those claims: 
     Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) calls on the House of Representatives, prior to 
     proceeding any further with its impeachment investigation 
     into President Trump, to vote to initiate a formal 
     impeachment inquiry;
       (2) calls on the House of Representatives to provide 
     President Trump, like every other American, with due process, 
     to include the ability to confront his accusers, call 
     witnesses on his behalf, and have a basic understanding of 
     the accusations against him that would form any basis for 
     impeachment; and
       (3) calls on the House of Representatives to provide 
     members of the minority with the ability to participate fully 
     in all proceedings and have equal authority to issue 
     subpoenas and other compulsory process.

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