[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 101 (Thursday, June 12, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3361-S3364]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Judiciary
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, the first few months of this
administration, we witnessed unprecedented, unacceptable attacks on the
Federal judiciary by President Trump and his allies.
In one particularly egregious example, President Trump demanded the
impeachment of a Federal judge who ruled against the administration,
and President Trump said this man was ``a Radical Left Lunatic, a
troublemaker and agitator.'' That is a direct, specific quote from the
President of the United States about a sitting Federal judge.
On Memorial Day, President Trump referred to members of the bench as
``USA HATING JUDGES'' and ``MONSTERS WHO WANT OUR COUNTRY TO GO TO
HELL.'' That is a direct quote from the President of the United States
about sitting Federal judges.
This kind of reckless, inflammatory language is part of the
President's ongoing attempt to intimidate the Federal judiciary. We are
supposed to take this as acceptable conduct? It should be condemned by
all political leaders, regardless of your political party. But my
Republican colleagues have said nothing in response to these attacks on
Federal judges. It is the ``silence of the lambs.''
In April, one of my Republican colleagues had the courage to say out
loud why Republicans are not speaking up. As she put it, ``We are all
afraid.''
Their fear is simply emboldening this President. Last month,
President Trump was asked if he needs to uphold the Constitution. In
response, he said:
I don't know.
It was shocking to hear that response from the President--even this
President--and it demonstrates just how little regard he has for our
fundamental rights and our Constitution. Yet my Republican colleagues
are silent.
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Their unwillingness to speak truth to power calls to mind a line from
``A Man for All Seasons":
When statesmen foresake their own private conscience for
the sake of their public duties, they lead their country by a
short route to chaos.
The American people have already seen and suffered through the chaos
that has come from the silence of our elected officials. So long as
they fail to speak up, the chaos and lawlessness will continue.
It is not only President Trump who is intimidating judges and
attacking judicial independence; House Republicans are acting as
accomplices, filing Articles of Impeachment against six Federal judges
simply because they ruled against President Trump.
House Republicans have continued their attack on the judiciary with
their reconciliation bill they passed last month. Buried in this 1,000-
page bill is a provision that would strip Federal courts of their
ability to enforce a contempt citation when a party fails to comply
with certain types of injunctions. The contempt power is integral to
the authority of the Federal courts. Without the contempt power,
parties could simply disregard court orders.
Currently, Trump administration officials know that if they violate
court orders, they can be held in contempt and subject to fines or even
jail time. But President Trump doesn't want the courts or anyone else
to stand in his way, and that led House Republicans to advance a
provision prohibiting courts from enforcing some contempt citations.
This would let President Trump pursue his agenda without any concern of
being held accountable in the courts, and it would prevent courts from
enforcing contempt citations in all manner of cases, whether the
injunction issues today, tomorrow, or even 10 years ago.
Maybe House Republicans thought no one would notice this provision.
Maybe they thought nobody would have the nerve to oppose the President.
But I can tell you, the Senate Democrats read the provision. We noticed
it. We spoke out against it all week, and we will do everything in our
power to ensure it does not become law.
The attacks on the judiciary not only threaten our Constitution, they
threaten the judges and their families themselves. Recent reporting has
revealed a dramatic spike in threats against judges. Between the
beginning of March and the end of May, 197 Federal judges were
threatened. Judges and their families have received threats in the form
of anonymous pizza deliveries to their homes. These deliveries are
meant to show that the perpetrator knows exactly where the judges and
their families live. So far, more than 100 pizzas have been delivered
to more than a dozen judges and their relatives.
It is not a laughing matter. At least 20 of these deliveries were
made using the name of Judge Esther Salas's son Daniel Anderl, who was
murdered--murdered--at his family's home by a former litigant. Even
Justice Amy Coney Barrett's family has been reportedly receiving
unsolicited pizza deliveries.
Whether I agree with these judges when it comes to their philosophy
is beside the point. This is frightening. Judge Salas herself has
characterized the deliveries as ``psychological warfare'' that sends
the message: ``Do you want to end up like Judge Salas? ``Do you want to
end up like Daniel?''
These instances are sickening. They threaten not only judges and
their families but judicial independence and the rule of law. They must
be investigated, and they must be stopped.
Over a month ago, as ranking member of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, I sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI
Director Kash Patel. I asked them to investigate the deliveries and
other threats against Federal judges and provide information on steps
they have taken to protect these judges and their families. I have yet
to receive a response.
On Tuesday, I sent another letter urging them once again to
investigate these threats against judges and highlighting the need for
action. The Federal judiciary and our government can wait no longer.
Last week, I met with three Federal judges to discuss judicial
security. Judge Salas was among them. Her experience is a reminder how
important judicial security is and how much is at stake. Our meeting
also served as a reminder of how our judges have shown tremendous
courage in the face of these ongoing threats.
We should all be grateful for their public service and their
willingness to don black robes and act without fear or favor. We should
also be grateful for law enforcement officials protecting our judges.
But it is not enough to merely acknowledge and appreciate the courage
and dedication of our judges and law enforcement.
The Justice Department and the FBI must investigate and must act now.
The President and his allies must stop these attempts to intimidate a
coequal branch of government, and congressional Republicans need to
step up publicly and stand behind these judges.
In the meantime, I will continue to stand up for the judiciary and
highlight the need to protect our judges, and I will continue to stand
against those who threaten our judges and the rule of law, whether from
the right or the left. I hope my Republican colleagues will find their
voices and join me.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act
Mr. MERKLEY. Colleagues, we are at an extraordinary time when there
is a ``Government For Sale'' sign on the White House lawn. We have
never seen this in the history of the United States of America.
President Trump is engaged in an extraordinary level of corruption.
Let me just provide two examples.
As President, he said to the world: Come and buy my meme coin, my
Trump coin, and you will be invited to a very special dinner to have
access to me. And the 220 people who buy the most coins over a
multimonth period, hold onto them. You will be invited.
This dinner was held 2 weeks ago, and 220 people spent an estimated
$150 million in order to attend that dinner.
A meme coin is basically a nothingburger. What is it? It is not
something you can do international transactions on. It is nothing you
can print out and put on your wall. It is, simply, kind of a hobby
coin.
People didn't pay $150 million for a digital hobby coin. They paid it
because the President said: This will give you access to me and my
team. And he provided that access. And he said: The top 25 buyers of
this coin will get something extra special, some extra special tour.
Initially, it was said it would be of the White House. Later, it was
not clear if it would be at the White House. In fact, there is no
transparency.
We do not have a list of who these 220 people are or what they paid.
But we do know one of these individuals; that is the individual Javier
Selgas. He is the CEO of Freight Technologies. He said: We bought $2
million of the Trump meme coin, and we are planning to buy $20 million
of the Trump coin in order to influence the policy of how freight is
treated between Mexico and the United States of America.
He was very clear about it: We are buying access, and we are buying
influence.
What happens with that money? It simply goes into Trump's pocket. Is
he producing an item of any value that he is selling? No. He is selling
access and influence. So that is one example.
Then, he has another crypto enterprise in which he is inviting folks
to use a digital coin, a different type of digital coin called a
stablecoin; use it in international transactions: Give me your dollars.
I will invest your dollars. I get to keep all the proceeds from those
investments, and you can use my digital coin called USD1 for
international business transactions.
Why would you use this coin instead of just using the dollars
themselves? To make special affection on behalf of the President of the
United States of America.
There is a company, MGX. MGX is tied to the Government of the United
Arab Emirates. MGX said: ``We will buy $2 billion of your coins.''
That makes the $2 million from Freight Technologies or the $20
million
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they were planning pretty small chump change because now you have a
company saying we will buy $2 billion of your coins.
And what did they say they wanted? They said they wanted advanced AI
chips, artificial intelligence chips. They wanted a world-leading AI
center to be built in the United Arab Emirates.
Now, technically, it would be done through MGX. But who is the chair
of MGX? The national security advisor for the Government of UAE.
So what transpired is UAE says: We want this AI center.
MGX, associated with the government, says: We will buy $2 billion of
your digital coins.
And the President goes to the Middle East and says: Do you know what,
I support establishing an advanced AI center, and we will partner with
it in Abu Dhabi.
Abu Dhabi is one of the Emirates of UAE.
So here we have Freight Technologies on one type of coin saying we
are buying these coins to get influence. Now you have MGX and UAE
buying $2 billion of coins in order to get influence. This is the U.S.
Government for sale in a way we have never seen. This is the Mount
Everest of corruption.
And right at this moment, the Senate is debating a cryptocurrency
bill. Isn't this the moment we should debate whether or not Federal
elected officials--ourselves, the Vice President, the President,
members of the Cabinet--should be offering for sale our personal coins
in order for people to give us money? Because, really, it is just like
somebody handing us a sack of money. That is what this is like.
Forbes magazine has now estimated that within the first few months of
the Trump administration, the Trump family has built value in their
crypto industry of $1 billion. If he had not been elected, it would be
worth nothing. But because he is pumping it as President, both the meme
coin and USD1 the stablecoin, the world is saying: If we want
influence, we have to buy these coins. Just like in his first
administration, folks said: If we want influence, we have to stay at
his properties. We have to book his hotel rooms. We have to hold our
events at his special locations, be it his golf courses or his hotel
conference centers.
But those hotel rooms or booking conference centers in his first term
are nothing on the order of magnitude of selling these cryptocurrency
coins.
That $2 billion that Trump holds, his family holds, even if 4 percent
is invested, that is $80 million a year. And with the passage of this
bill, if we do not put an anti-corruption measure into this bill, the
world will be saying: Just as we rented his hotel rooms when we do an
international business transaction, we have to use USD1.
That is why we should be debating amendments on this bill. We have a
responsibility to address the concerns of the people of the United
States of America.
And from our very beginning--from the very beginning--on through the
last now 250 years, we have been concerned about corruption and having
our government end up for sale. If we turn the clock back to our
Founders, Hamilton said we put an emoluments clause in our Constitution
so our elected leaders could not be bribed:
[M]any mortifying examples of the prevalence of foreign corruption in
republican governments.
It was to counter that foreign corruption that he had already
witnessed in republican governments. So in establishing our Republic,
with our separation of powers, with our checks and balances, with our
vision of government by and for the people, you can't allow the elected
leaders to take bribes or to take, if you will, tribute money to
influence.
People say: Well, it is not a bribe if it is not tied to a specific
act. Obviously, the CEO of Freight Technologies had a specific act in
mind. He wanted to change a rule regarding freight transactions between
Mexico and the United States of America. Clearly, the UAE had a
specific desire in mind. They wanted AI chips, and they got them.
Maybe in a court you could not establish a direct this-for-that--quid
pro quo, if you will--but certainly these companies knew what they were
doing. They were buying access and influence. So in that sense it is at
least a payment of money to the President of the United States to gain
access and gain influence, and that is exactly the type of corruption
that Hamilton said he had witnessed ``mortifying examples,'' and so we
put a clause into the Constitution to say this could not be done.
All right. So we have a responsibility. We took an oath to the
Constitution. Every single colleague, all 53 across the aisle, took the
same oath to the Constitution. So now is the time to actually debate
this issue and defend the Constitution. If you are not willing to
debate an amendment to defend the Constitution, then essentially you
are ignoring your oath to the Constitution; you are violating your oath
to the Constitution of the United States of America.
When this bill came to the floor, the majority leader said we will
have an open amendment process, and that was a factor considered by
many colleagues when they voted for moving this bill to the floor, that
there would be an opportunity for amendments. But now that the bill is
here, suddenly, the Republican leadership that controls the floor says:
No. We are closing off amendments. We are not going to allow any
examination of the corruption that is present through this industry. We
are not going to allow any examination of the loopholes in the
regulatory framework that is in this bill. We are not going to allow
any examination of the scams being enacted on ordinary citizens using
these digital currency--these cryptocurrency ATMs.
I had never even heard of these ATMs. It turns out that there are
over 300 of them in my State of Oregon. I have asked my colleagues on
both sides of the aisle: Have you heard of these? They said no.
But one of our colleagues was very familiar with this form of scam on
seniors--Senator Durbin. He has an amendment that should be considered.
So because it is so important that we take this moment and we honor
our responsibility to examine these issues, I will be coming back to
the floor in order to offer a point of order that this bill violates
the Senate pay-go provisions and, therefore, we shouldn't be doing this
bill until that is remedied. I will also be coming back to table the
blocking amendment that the majority leader put in place to prevent
anyone from offering amendments. So both those votes will occur about
half an hour from now.
Let's get our heads together about our responsibilities as Senators
representing the people of the United States. Let's get our heads
together about our responsibility to the Constitution. Let's get our
heads together about taking on this open sale of the government being
conducted out of the Oval Office, just down Pennsylvania Avenue.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Hagerty). The Senator from Rhode Island.
Mr. REED. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss S. 1582, the so-
called GENIUS Act.
Several weeks ago, when the majority leader said we would have votes
on amendments, I took him seriously, and I was one of the first to
file. And we could have been voting on amendments--my amendments, those
of my colleagues--at any time in the last few weeks, but that hasn't
happened.
That is regrettable because the GENIUS Act, as it is currently
drafted, is, I believe, fundamentally flawed. The GENIUS Act exposes
taxpayers, consumers, and the financial system to unacceptable risk and
creates venues for criminals, terrorists, and rogue governments to
finance their illicit activities.
Among other things, this bill places the U.S. Government stamp of
approval on Tether, the world's largest stablecoin, which is based in
El Salvador and favored by North Korea, Russian arms dealers,
ransomware attackers, the Iranian military, the drug cartels, and so
many other criminal organizations.
The GENIUS Act takes already weak State laws and makes them weaker
and applies them nationwide, making it possible for stablecoin
companies to operate with near-zero capital and unable to withstand a
financial crisis. It is possible for stablecoin companies to avoid
getting an audit. It is impossible for the government to revoke a
stablecoin company's charter, even if it turns out to be a Ponzi scheme
or if an executive dips into customer funds.
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The GENIUS Act buys into the belief that the billionaires running the
industry know what they are doing and that the marriage of complex
financial products and complex technology simply can't fail. The one
thing the billionaires do know how to do is protect their interests.
But, not surprisingly, this bill leaves open the door to bailouts,
which we have seen time and time again for other lightly regulated
nonbanks that got into trouble, like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, and
Bear Stearns.
When there is a run on a stablecoin--and there very likely will be a
run one day--the industry will turn to the American taxpayer for a
bailout, and the GENIUS Act paves the way for that to happen with no
limits on the Federal Reserve's authority to prop up the industry.
Finally, this bill perpetuates Donald Trump's naked corruption. It
actually green-lights the name of Trump's stablecoin, USD1, and it
allows Trump's handpicked regulators to write the rules of the road
governing his most recent business venture.
We need to provide real guardrails that will protect consumers, real
tools for our national security Agencies to address this new
technology, and real authority for regulators to intervene in a
crisis--real guardrails and real tools, not words on a page that give
only the aura of regulation and protection with no teeth.
My amendments and those offered by colleagues on both sides of the
aisle would provide these tools and authorities. However, it appears
that we won't have the opportunity to consider a single one of them and
improve this legislation. Because of that, I would urge my colleagues
to oppose this bill.
With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.