[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 94 (Monday, June 3, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3920-S3921]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Trump Trial Verdict

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, a Presidential campaign and a 
political party misreported payments to lawyers as legal expenses and, 
thus, violated the law.
  Now, am I referring to Donald Trump and his trial? No. I am referring 
to the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign.
  In the 2016 Presidential election cycle, they improperly reported 
money used to fund the Steele dossier as legal expense, and in doing 
so, they hid its true purpose, which was opposition research against 
Trump.
  Now, the Federal Election Commission held, 6 years later, that it 
found probable cause that the Democratic National Committee and the 
Clinton campaign violated Federal law. They were fined over $100,000. 
Were they criminally prosecuted? Of course not.
  The now-debunked Steele dossier threw our country into crisis and did 
it for years. In 2020, Senator Johnson of Wisconsin and I were able to 
get once-classified information declassified.
  That declassified information showed that Christopher Steele's 
sources were, one, connected to the Russian Government; two, supported 
Hillary Clinton; and, three, that Russian intelligence

[[Page S3921]]

was aware of Steele's anti-Trump work even before the FBI started their 
investigation.
  This is information that the Justice Department failed to tell the 
FISA Court. The Justice Department failed to even apprise the FISA 
Court that the FBI had a counterintelligence case on one of Steele's 
key sources. The Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee 
colluded with the Russians.
  They used a former British spy, Fusion GPS, and a law firm to create 
a fake dossier and then tried to cover it up by misreporting it under 
the Federal election rules.
  This case is referred to as ``Crossfire Hurricane.'' It is a textbook 
example of government weaponization. It was to get Trump at all costs 
as they could.
  And now that weaponization has moved to the judicial system, our last 
line of defense against partisan political cancer.
  District Attorney Bragg manufactured a crime by reviving a time-
barred, State-based misdemeanor for alleging falsifying business 
records. To revive the alleged crime and elevate it to a felony, he 
alleged it was done in furtherance of another crime, and he also 
alleged interference in the 2016 election by Donald Trump.
  So what were these extra crimes? Violation of Federal election law, 
tax law, and other business records. The judge allowed District 
Attorney Bragg to essentially prosecute alleged Federal violations in 
State court, but because it was a State court, Bragg couldn't actually 
charge Trump for those further crimes, which were Federal in nature.
  So what an absolute mess and scary precedent this partisan process 
has created that is going to be a sore on public policy, statutory law, 
and a precedent to be carried on by other prosecutors in the future.
  This was a case that Bragg initially declined to prosecute, just as 
his predecessor declined to prosecute. And that was a case that Federal 
prosecutors in the Southern District of New York declined and so, too, 
and as well did the Federal Election Commission.
  Now, that prosecutor in Manhattan that failed to prosecute the same 
things that Bragg prosecuted was well-respected Cyrus Vance, Jr.
  Now, we have Bragg taking up what an outstanding prosecutor by the 
name of Vance would not do. Even liberal legal analysts have noted that 
this case wouldn't have been brought against anyone other than Donald 
Trump.
  A State prosecutor has no jurisdiction over a Federal crime, whereas 
the Justice Department does. And here the Justice Department and the 
Federal Election Commission have exclusive jurisdiction over these 
kinds of matters.
  The Biden Justice Department didn't do anything to assert its 
jurisdictional hook as it routinely does when, for example, States file 
lawsuits involving Federal immigration law.
  Biden's No. 3 official at the Justice Department, Matthew Colangelo, 
left that perch to work as a line prosecutor in the Bragg office for 
this specific prosecution.
  Eventually, the ``zombie'' case against Trump, as it has been 
described by legal scholars, was revived just in time for the 2024 
Presidential election cycle. In fact, the grand jury came out with a 
verdict less than 2 months after Trump announced for the election.
  Then, the judge allowed the jury to pick from not one but three 
different secondary crimes that I mentioned earlier that Trump 
allegedly committed to impact the 2016 election. This means that jurors 
could disagree on the crime. Yet the judge would still consider the 
verdict unanimous to convict.

  As Andrew McCarthy said in his June 1, 2024, article, ``The jurors 
were told that they needn't agree on what unlawful conduct Trump had 
engaged in to conspire to corrupt the election (which remember was not 
charged in the indictment.)''
  This is a judge who repeatedly contributed to a group ``dedicated to 
resisting the Republican Party and Donald Trump's radical right-wing 
legacy.''
  And McCarthy wrote in his article, ``How can there be guilt beyond a 
reasonable doubt if the jury doesn't agree on whether prosecutors have 
proved a key element of the case?''
  I could go on and on about the defects in this political persecution. 
What concerns me most is the damage that is done to our American 
institutions.
  Federal law enforcement, the intelligence community, and now the 
judicial branch have contorted themselves in ways unimaginable just to 
try and, at the same time, destroy Trump. In the process, they have 
broken faith with the laws, with the rules, with ethics, with the 
truth, and with the American people.
  The steel and concrete foundations of our law enforcement and the 
judicial institutions are breaking apart, piece by piece, bit by bit. 
It is not the American people who are doing it. It is those charged 
with running those institutions who are responsible for their 
shockingly quick decline.
  That decline won't stop anytime soon so long as the left and their 
allies in the media continue to use the judicial system to destroy 
their enemies based upon make-believe cases.
  The leftwing's lawfare crusade has given them what they wanted for a 
decade now: Donald Trump's conviction on something, anything, just a 
conviction.
  But what the leftwing has failed to foresee is the aftermath of their 
injecting partisan political cancer into our once storied institutions; 
that is, they run the catastrophic risk of the American people not 
caring anymore. Did the Justice Department indict someone on major 
criminal charges? Well, many people may react with doubt about the 
merits and the integrity of that indictment because of the Justice 
Department's past political decisions.
  Did the FBI arrest a major criminal? Well, many people may begin to 
question whether the person arrested is now a part of a political 
persecution based on made-up information like what happened with the 
FISA Court and Crossfire Hurricane and everything involving Hillary 
Clinton in the 2016 election.
  A Democratic judge and prosecution team tried and convicted a 
Republican in a district that is almost 90 percent Democratic voters. 
They asked for going to someplace else where they might get a more fair 
trial, and they got a quick no.
  So I hope you get the picture. That is why millions of Americans 
refuse to take this sham conviction very seriously. Trust is easy to 
lose, and trust is hard to gain.
  Andrew McCarthy stated in his excellent analysis:

       What happened in Manhattan was monstrous. The fallout is 
     the antithesis of a constitutional republic that presumes 
     innocence, imposes the burden of proof on the state, 
     venerates its due-process rules, and guarantees equal 
     protection of the law. The antithesis is now the norm. 
     Regardless of what happens to Donald Trump, all of us will 
     live to regret it.

  Ultimately, only ``We the People'' can solve the constitutional 
crisis that politicians, law enforcement, and judicial officers have 
disgracefully created.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  The Senator from Rhode Island.