[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 165 (Thursday, September 23, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6639-S6640]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Special Counsel Durham

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, last week, Special Counsel Durham 
indicted Michael Sussman, an attorney for the Hillary Clinton 
Presidential campaign. He was indicted for lying to the FBI.
  The indictment gives example after example of the Democratic Party's 
bag of dirty tricks.
  In September 2016, Sussman met with the FBI's general counsel, James 
Baker. At that meeting he provided information and data files that 
allegedly contained evidence of a secret communication between the 
Trump organization and the Russian bank Alfa Bank.

  The evidence, however, was fabricated. The allegations about the 
Trump organization being linked with a Russian bank--these were false. 
The email server at issue was neither owned nor operated by the Trump 
organization.
  But the lie in the indictment occurred when Sussmann allegedly told 
the FBI general counsel that he wasn't providing the information on any 
client's behalf. He repeated the same to another government agency. 
Those assertions were apparently false. He was working for the Hillary 
Clinton Presidential campaign.
  Now, interestingly, the indictment states that although Baker was 
allegedly unaware of the political affiliation of the information 
starting in April 2016, Sussmann represented the Democratic National 
Committee and regularly met with the FBI. According to the indictment, 
the FBI failed to connect the dots. What Special Counsel Durham's 
indictment shows in significant detail, by the way, are the steps that 
the Clinton campaign and her Democratic allies took to dirty up Trump--
and did so--with known false information.
  Time and again, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have 
cast false information against Trump to tie him to a foolish conspiracy 
that he is an agent of the Russian Government. Time and again, when the 
evidence is made public, the Democratic Party is shown to be the master 
of the disinformation universe, and much of the so-called mainstream 
press fell for and peddled the falsehoods.
  What's wrong with our journalists being journalists and investigating 
everything to the bottom rather than trying to not do their work and 
letting people get away with this sort of action?
  Now I am going to take a few examples from the indictment. Notably, 
Sussmann was working with an unnamed executive at a technology firm 
that had been offered a position in the Clinton administration, should 
she have won that election in 2016.
  The information compiled and analyzed the false Alfa Bank information 
and, according to the indictment, ``exploited access to non-public data 
at multiple internet companies to conduct opposition research 
concerning Trump.''
  To accomplish those ends, the executive enlisted ``the assistance of 
researchers at a U.S.-based university who were receiving and analyzing 
Internet data in connection with a pending federal government 
cybersecurity research contract.''

[[Page S6640]]

  Now, amazingly, the indictment later says that the university 
accessed data of an unnamed executive branch agency through an unnamed 
internet company. That unnamed internet company possessed that data 
because it was a subcontract ``in a sensitive relationship between the 
U.S. government and another company.''
  Apparently, taxpayers unwittingly assisted the false-information 
campaign used against Trump by the Democrats.
  I'd like to say that you can't make this stuff up, but that is 
exactly what they did. A researcher that worked to falsely connect 
Trump to Alfa Bank said, ``We cannot technically make any claims that 
would fly public scrutiny.''
  They also discussed faking email addresses to try and beef up some 
bogus false connection between Trump and Alfa Bank. Even the unnamed 
tech executive essentially said the Alfa Bank data was a ``red 
herring.''
  One email in the indictment even says in part:

       The only thing that drives us at this point is that we just 
     do not like [Trump]. This will not fly in the eyes of public 
     scrutiny. Folks, I am afraid that we have tunnel vision.

  They recognized that what they were doing lacked any factual support, 
yet Sussmann, the Democrats, and the Clinton campaign proceeded ahead 
anyway.
  Even more than that, Christopher Steele reportedly got his 
information about Alfa Bank from Sussmann and included it in the Steele 
dossier. The indictment clearly shows the depth to which the Clinton 
campaign went to smear Trump--smear--with false evidence and plant it 
with the liberal media, who then willingly ran with it--and probably 
smiled as they ran with it. And here we are, years later, with a 
country that has been almost torn apart because of the Democratic 
Party's fake evidence against Trump.
  Special Counsel Durham stated on December 9, 2019, in part, relating 
to the Justice Department inspector general's report on Crossfire 
Hurricane, ``last month we advised the Inspector General that we do not 
agree with some of the report's conclusions as to the predication and 
how the FBI case was opened.''
  Special Counsel Durham has had several years to investigate and bring 
a case forward. We have seen two instances where folks have been 
charged with a crime, one already pleading guilty.
  One must not forget the Obama-Biden Justice Department's and the 
FBI's blatant misrepresentations to the FISA court during the Crossfire 
Hurricane and other serious wrongdoing, much of which was uncovered by 
Congress and the inspector general.
  On June 29 of this year, Senator Johnson and I asked Attorney General 
Garland if he agrees with then-Attorney General Barr's statement that 
any Durham report be submitted in the form that will permit public 
dissemination. On July 13 of this year, Attorney General Garland said 
that he agrees.
  Special Counsel Durham, let's see what you have got, and we will be 
able to see it when the report comes out.