[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 90 (Tuesday, May 24, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2647-S2648]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                           EXECUTIVE SESSION

                                 ______
                                 

                           EXECUTIVE CALENDAR

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I move to proceed to executive session 
to consider Calendar No. 923.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion.
  The motion was agreed to.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the nomination.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read the nomination of Jane 
Hartley, of New York, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and 
Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the United Kingdom 
of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.


                             Cloture Motion

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under 
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination 
     of Executive Calendar No. 923, Jane Hartley, of New York, to 
     be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United 
     States of America to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and 
     Northern Ireland.
         Charles E. Schumer, Martin Heinrich, Tammy Baldwin, Mark 
           Kelly, Debbie Stabenow, Gary C. Peters, Amy Klobuchar, 
           Margaret Wood Hassan, Elizabeth Warren, Jack Reed, Alex 
           Padilla, Maria Cantwell, Tim Kaine, Sherrod Brown, 
           Robert P. Casey, Jr., Richard J. Durbin, Jon Ossoff.

  Mr. SCHUMER. Finally, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory 
quorum calls for the cloture motions filed today, May 24, be waived.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. SCHUMER. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that I be able 
to finish my remarks before the vote.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                          Russia Investigation

  Mr. GRASSLEY. On September 23, 2021, November 30, 2021, and again on 
February 15, 2022, I spoke on this floor about the fake Russia Alfa-
Bank narrative. That narrative started in 2016. It took on a new life 
when Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann met with FBI General 
Counsel James Baker.
  In that meeting, Sussmann provided information and data files that 
allegedly contained evidence of a secret communication channel between 
the Trump organization and a Russian bank, Alfa-Bank. The evidence was 
fabricated by the Clinton campaign. The allegations about the Trump 
organization being linked with a Russian bank were false. Of note, 
Sussmann also provided Baker information Fusion GPS gave him as part of 
their work for the Clinton campaign. This was an all-hands-on-deck 
strategy to destroy the Trump Presidency and the campaign.
  With the ongoing Sussmann trial now underway here in DC, the false 
Alfa-Bank narrative is more relevant now than ever before. I want to 
tell you why.
  A mere several days after the meeting with James Baker, the FBI 
opened a full investigation on September 23, 2016. Around that time, an 
FBI agent working on cyber matters reviewed the information provided by 
Sussmann. That agent said:

       We did not agree with the conclusion . . . that this 
     represented a secret communication channel.

  He also stated that ``whoever had written that paper had jumped to 
some conclusions that were not supported by the data'' and that ``the 
methodology they chose was questionable to me.''
  Here is the kicker:

       I did not feel that they were objective in the conclusions 
     that they came to. The assumption that you would have to make 
     was so far-reaching that it just didn't make sense.

  So last Friday, in a courtroom, Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton's 
campaign manager, testified that Hillary Clinton was asked about the 
plan to share this fake information with the media. Hillary Clinton 
approved that plan. Jake Sullivan was involved in that decision as 
well. He is, of course, as we know, President Biden's National Security 
Advisor.
  The Clinton campaign fabricated evidence trying to connect Trump to 
Russia. They fed it to the media to start a yearslong wildfire of false 
allegations. They fed it to the FBI to trigger a Federal investigation 
into their opposing candidate.
  I said it before and will say it again: The Clinton campaign was the 
conspiracy, and it was a big bag of dirty tricks.
  This false Alfa-Bank information eventually landed with the media 
outlet Slate, which ran an article on October 31, 2016. After that 
article, Sullivan, the now National Security Advisor, issued his now-
infamous tweet: ``This could be the most direct link yet between Donald 
Trump and Moscow.'' Hillary Clinton also tweeted: ``Computer scientists 
have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump 
Organization to a Russian-based bank.''
  Now, they weren't the only ones pleased with this fake news. On 
October 13, 2020, Senator Johnson and I wrote a letter to the FBI where 
we made public texts between Andrew McCabe and Lisa Page.
  Page says to McCabe:

       And the Alfa-Bank story is in Slate.

  McCabe's reply:

       Awesome.

  The FBI's excitement didn't end there. This week, Durham's 
prosecutors introduced a message between FBI agents that said:

       People on the 7th floor to include Director are fired up 
     about this server.

  Now, they--meaning the FBI seventh floor people--were ``fired up'' 
about fake information, which is just terrible. The FBI's job is really 
to get fired up about fake information? It is more than that, however; 
it is a gut-wrenching attack on our system of government.
  Now, there is another data point that I want to share. Durham 
recently released notes from a March 6, 2017, meeting between the 
Justice Department and FBI officials. In that meeting, they discussed 
predication and Crossfire Hurricane issues. This meeting was 2 weeks 
before then-Director Comey publicly announced his investigation into 
Trump.
  On that very day, March 6, 2017, I wrote a letter to Comey asking 
questions about the Steele dossier. My press release for that letter is 
titled ``FBI plan to pay ex-spy for Trump intel during campaign sparks 
questions of Obama administration's use of federal authorities for 
political gain.'' That was from March 6, 2017. Now, in May of 2022, 
that title just about sums up Crossfire Hurricane as best as it can be 
described.
  Now, in closing, I would like to make a few notes with respect to 
predication.

[[Page S2648]]

  The September 23, 2016, FBI electronic communication opened a full 
investigation into the Alfa-Bank allegations, but let's unpack the 
first few lines from that document.

       The FBI received a referral of information from the US 
     Department of Justice.
       The Department of Justice provided the FBI with a white 
     paper that was produced by an anonymous third party.

  Well, the information didn't come from the Department of Justice; it 
came from Sussmann and the Clinton campaign--hardly an anonymous third 
party since Sussmann himself showed up at the door. By wording it this 
way, the document almost blesses this so-called white paper. Mind you, 
the white paper is the false Alfa-Bank information. By the looks of it, 
this FBI document contains false information.

  I fear these recent developments are just the tip of the iceberg. The 
FBI's exposure to false information and actually using that false 
information for investigative purposes wreaks of a political vendetta. 
It points to a ``get Trump at all costs'' attitude.
  Whether Sussmann is convicted or not, the evidence introduced by 
Durham shows serious government misconduct--misconduct by the Federal 
Government of the United States of America. Special Counsel Durham 
can't let government misconduct go unpunished.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________