[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 42 (Thursday, March 5, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S871-S877]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2026--Motion to
Proceed to the Motion to Reconsider
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I move to proceed to the motion to
reconsider the cloture vote from February 12 on the motion to proceed
to Calendar No. 311, H.R. 7147.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion.
The motion was agreed to.
Motion to Reconsider
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the cloture vote on
the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 311, H.R. 7147.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion.
The motion was agreed to.
Cloture Motion
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays before
the Senate the pending cloture motion, which the clerk will state.
The 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 motion to
proceed to Calendar No. 311, H.R. 7147, a bill making further
consolidated appropriations for the fiscal year ending
September 30, 2026, and for other purposes.
John Thune, John Barrasso, John R. Curtis, Bill Hagerty,
Tim Sheehy, Thom Tillis, Tom Cotton, Joni Ernst, Jim
Banks, Markwayne Mullin, Tommy Tuberville, Steve
Daines, Josh Hawley, Tim Scott of South Carolina, Jon
Husted, Pete Ricketts, Susan M. Collins.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the mandatory quorum
call under rule XXII has been waived.
The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the
motion to proceed to H.R. 7147, a bill making further consolidated
appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2026, and for
other purposes, shall be brought to a close, upon reconsideration?
The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the
Senator from Louisiana (Mr. Cassidy), the Senator from Kansas (Mr.
Moran), and the Senator from Alabama (Mr. Tuberville).
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Hampshire (Ms.
Hassan) is necessarily absent.
The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 51, nays 45, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 47 Leg.]
YEAS--51
Banks
Barrasso
Blackburn
Boozman
Britt
Budd
Capito
Collins
Cornyn
Cotton
Cramer
Crapo
Cruz
Curtis
Daines
Ernst
Fetterman
Fischer
Graham
Grassley
Hagerty
Hawley
Hoeven
Husted
Hyde-Smith
Johnson
Justice
Kennedy
Lankford
Lee
Lummis
Marshall
McConnell
McCormick
Moody
Moreno
Mullin
Murkowski
Paul
Ricketts
Risch
Rounds
Schmitt
Scott (FL)
Scott (SC)
Sheehy
Sullivan
Thune
Tillis
Wicker
Young
NAYS--45
Alsobrooks
Baldwin
Bennet
Blumenthal
Blunt Rochester
Booker
Cantwell
Coons
Cortez Masto
Duckworth
Durbin
Gallego
Gillibrand
Heinrich
Hickenlooper
Hirono
Kaine
Kelly
Kim
King
Klobuchar
Lujan
Markey
Merkley
Murphy
Murray
Ossoff
Padilla
Peters
Reed
Rosen
Sanders
Schatz
Schiff
Schumer
Shaheen
Slotkin
Smith
Van Hollen
Warner
Warnock
Warren
Welch
Whitehouse
Wyden
NOT VOTING--4
Cassidy
Hassan
Moran
Tuberville
(Mr. BARRASSO assumed the Chair.)
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Lummis). On this vote, the yeas are 51,
the nays are 45.
Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted
in the affirmative, the motion, upon reconsideration, is not agreed to.
The motion was rejected.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The gentleman from New Jersey.
Mr. BOOKER. Madam President, your mic wasn't on. What did you call
me? What was the name that you used?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The gentleman from New Jersey.
Mr. BOOKER. Madam President, thank you. I truly appreciate the
Presiding Officer.
I hope that was recorded by the stenographer that the Presiding
Officer called me a gentleman.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Duly noted.
Tribute to Carole Darche
Mr. BOOKER. Madam President, to my colleagues in the Senate, to the
Senate President, to all those assembled here, I am rising to give this
speech, and I feel such privilege because I get to recognize someone
whose work most Americans never see but whose contribution is woven
into the very history of this institution.
When a Senator comes to the floor to speak, whether it is daily
routine address or a moment that will echo through generations, there
is always someone standing just off camera, often unnoticed, a
stenograph machine hanging from their neck, capturing every word we
say. They record our arguments and our aspirations, our disagreements
and our dreams, our long
[[Page S872]]
speeches, and sometimes our longer ones.
The dozens of people who are watching C-SPAN may not realize it, but
the words spoken in this Chamber simply don't float away into the air.
They are preserved--faithfully, meticulously--by extraordinary
professionals who ensure that the Congressional Record becomes the
living memory of the U.S. Senate and our Nation.
For those of you who do not know about these extraordinary
stenographers, their work is not easy. It requires years of training,
immense focus and concentration, and a remarkable command of language
and speed and accents that range from a southern Texas accent to a
Jersey one. And it requires a hell of a lot of patience because, as
everyone in this Chamber knows, brevity is not always the defining
virtue of the U.S. Senate. Yet, through late nights, historic votes,
moments of celebration, and moments of national grief, Senate
stenographers have stood quietly at their posts ensuring that what
happens here is captured for the American people and preserved in
American history for generations yet to come.
Today, I want to recognize one of the very best of them. Today, I
want to recognize Carole Darche. Carole has spent more than 45 years as
a court reporter, bringing her extraordinary skill to the Senate floor
to record some of the most consequential moments in our Nation's
history.
Through long sessions, overnight debates, and pivotal moments in our
country, Carole has been there--steadfast, precise, and deeply
committed to this institution. It would not be an exaggeration to say
that the lights of this Chamber have shone a little bit brighter
because of her presence.
What has always struck me about Carole is not just her
professionalism but the spirit she brings to her work. Day after day,
she arrives with warmth and enthusiasm and a quiet pride in serving
something larger than herself.
And the dedication required is extraordinary. Each session week,
Carole boards the Amtrak from New Jersey to Washington, listening to
her audiobooks along the way, traveling hundreds of miles that would
make even Joe Biden a little bit jealous, to stand on this floor and
serve the American people. This kind of commitment to public service,
to this institution of the U.S. Senate, and to the preservation of our
democratic record is something we should all aspire to.
While we will deeply miss Carole--I am sure I speak for my 99
colleagues; we will miss her in the Senate--I must admit that I am
delighted that her retirement will take her back home to the great
State of ``New Joisey''--I mean New Jersey; forgive me--where she plans
to enjoy the Jersey Shore with her husband Fred, her three
stepchildren, and her five grandchildren. She also plans to travel to
Paris, to Portugal, and beyond. I have no doubt that the same spirit of
curiosity and joy she brought to this building will accompany her on
those adventures.
Carole, the Senate will miss you. We will miss your warmth. We will
miss your enthusiasm for this institution. And, yes, we will miss
hearing about you, witnessing your humanity, seeing every day the truth
that it is leaders in the Senate--often who don't stand in the
spotlight, who don't face the camera--it is leaders in the Senate like
you that make this institution functional for the American people.
Carole, that is what patriotism is. It is not seen often in one flash
or one flourish. Patriotism is steadfast dedication to serving this
Nation day in and day out.
What does your service render? I have come to learn that the
Congressional Record is more than ink on paper; it is the story of our
democracy. And for decades, you have helped ensure that story was
captured with precision, care, and integrity. For that, the U.S. Senate
and the Nation and every one of the Members of this body owe you
gratitude.
Carole, thank you for your extraordinary years of service. May your
retirement be filled with family, with travel, with laughter, with
yoga, and many beautiful sunsets along the incredible Jersey Shore. The
truth is, you will be leaving this Chamber, but the history you helped
preserve here--your contributions--will endure for generations.
I yield the floor as I give tribute to another great member of this
body who herself is yielding this floor and saying her farewell.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. 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 PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from Rhode Island.
Trump Administration
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, it was the spring of 2019. Public
and media interest in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report into
Russia's election interference operation reached a fever pitch.
There had been a steady drip, drip, drip of reporting on the Trump
team's cozy and peculiar relationship with Russia since his surprise
election victory in 2016.
Ahead of the Mueller report's release, Trump's Attorney General, Bill
Barr, issued a letter to Congress, purporting to summarize the report's
findings. The letter declared that Russia and the Trump campaign did
not collude to steal the election.
The press, ravenous for any news of the long-anticipated Mueller
report's conclusion, largely accepted Attorney General Barr's narrow,
carefully worded conclusion and, not yet having access to the full
report, blasted the Attorney General's summary around the world.
Trump himself declared--all caps: ``NO COLLUSION!''
He said he had been cleared of the Russia ``hoax,'' a term he
reserves only to describe things that are true, like climate change.
Frustrated, Mueller wrote to Barr that the Attorney General's letter
``did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance'' of the
investigation. But by the time the dense, voluminous Mueller report was
issued, the month after Barr's letter, his message had been obscured.
The Mueller report actually concluded that the Trump campaign knew of
and welcomed Russian interference and expected to benefit from it. That
conclusion was later echoed and reinforced by an investigation led by
then-Chairman Marco Rubio's Senate Intelligence Committee, a bipartisan
report.
But Barr's scheme had largely worked. Many in the media and in the
Democratic Party seemed to internalize that the Russia speculation had
perhaps gotten out of hand and that perhaps we had been wrong to
believe there was a troubling connection between Trump and Russia after
all.
But were we? Let's take a look at a sampling of what Trump has done
for Russia just lately, and usually at the expense of American
interests. There are many, but here is a ``top 10.''
One, after Trump and Vice President Vance theatrically chastised the
heroic Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in front of TV cameras in the Oval
Office, last year, Trump paused our weapons shipments to Ukraine.
Two, in July, during the worst Russian bombing campaign of the war to
that point, Trump paused an already funded weapons shipment for
Ukraine, including the Patriot interceptors that protect civilians from
Putin's savage attacks.
Three, that same month, Trump's Treasury Department stopped imposing
new sanctions and closing sanctions loopholes, effectively allowing
dummy corporations to send funds, chips, and military equipment to
Russia.
Four, leaked phone calls show that White House envoy Steve Witkoff
and Putin envoy Kirill Dmitriev have worked together closely behind the
scenes on a peace deal favorable to Russia.
Five, last summer, Trump rolled out the Presidential red carpet for
the Russian dictator on American soil, with a summit in Alaska that
yielded, unsurprisingly, no gains toward ending the war in Ukraine.
Six, Trump's Vice President traveled to the Munich Security
Conference, last year, to parrot Russia's anti-Western talking points,
pushed by rightwing groups that Putin has long funded and used to
create political strife in Europe.
Seven, Trump installed Russia apologist Tulsi Gabbard as his Director
of
[[Page S873]]
National Intelligence, much to the glee of Russian state media.
Eight, upon the confirmation of Trump's Attorney General Pam Bondi,
the Department of Justice shuttered its anti-kleptocracy work that had
successfully targeted Putin's Russian oligarchs.
Nine, late last year, Trump unveiled a new so-called National
Security Strategy, which abandoned traditional alliances in Europe and
favored a transactional foreign policy that the Kremlin praised as
``largely consistent'' with Moscow's vision and desires.
And, 10, the Trump administration is even paving the way for Russia's
return to global sports competition, ending its isolation in those
arenas, in the wake of the hostile Ukraine invasion and state-backed
systemic doping programs in Russia.
That is a ``top 10,'' but the list goes on. If Trump were
purposefully doing Russia's bidding, it is hard to see what he would be
doing differently.
The United States is the most powerful nation in the world. Russia is
a weak, corrupt regime. My old friend Senator John McCain used to say
that Russia is a gas station, run by gangsters, with an army. It
doesn't make sense that the President of the United States, who
insists--insists--on being dominant in essentially every relationship,
is so submissive to one person. And that one person is Russia's
dictator Vladimir Putin.
So what is it about Trump and Russia? And could it have any
connection with Trump's close friendship with the deceased pedophile
Jeffrey Epstein?
Much about Epstein remains unknown. But the survivors who have come
forward and the millions of emails released through the bipartisan
Epstein Files Transparency Act have shed some light on the operation of
the late financier's global pedophile ring, and, over and over, it
touches Russia.
When recently asked by a reporter about the Epstein files, Trump said
in part:
It's just a Russia, Russia, Russia hoax.
Again, ``hoax''--the word he uses for when something is true.
But the most telling part is that Trump's mind, asked about Epstein,
immediately went to Russia--``Russia, Russia, Russia.''
I should start by pointing out that Epstein's ties to foreign
intelligence may never be fully known. It is a murky world. He had
links to officials in the U.S., Russian, and Israeli Governments, and
many others. But it is worth looking at those ties to Russia, a nation
so hostile to the United States.
Epstein's career began in the mid-1970s at the prestigious Dalton
School in New York City, where, despite dropping out of college, 21-
year-old Jeffrey Epstein was given a position teaching high school
mathematics to the children of some of New York's wealthiest families.
Perhaps of note, the outgoing headmaster at the time of Epstein's
hire was Donald Barr, the father of future Attorney General Bill Barr
and a former intelligence officer during World War II. The elder Barr
was known for making unconventional hires at Dalton.
After a couple of years, Epstein was able to leverage the elite
connections he made at Dalton to a job at Wall Street investment bank
Bear Stearns, where he rose quickly through the company. However, after
getting caught fabricating his resume, using the company credit card on
expensive gifts for his girlfriend, and, ultimately, providing
privileged stock information to a girlfriend, among other unscrupulous
behaviors, Epstein called it quits and started his own financial firm.
Those early scams were just the start. Shortly thereafter, Epstein
fell in with a wealthy man named Douglas Leese, a British defense
contractor with connections in the arms industry and the British
Government. During this period, Epstein would tell people he was a
``bounty hunter'' who tracked down hidden money.
According to Steven Hoffenberg, a former business mentor of Epstein's
who went to prison for a massive Ponzi scheme that he later said
Epstein had designed, Leese introduced Epstein to Robert Maxwell.
Ghislaine Maxwell, who became Epstein's girlfriend and sex-
trafficking accomplice after her father's death, was Robert Maxwell's
favorite daughter, and he involved her deeply in his work.
An opportunist in pursuit of wealth, the Czechoslovak-born Robert
Maxwell had complex, shifting ties to British, Soviet, and Israeli
intelligence.
Initially bankrolled by MI6, he accepted secret payments from the KGB
through his Soviet-friendly publishing company and was the rare
individual who traversed both sides of the Iron Curtain.
In 1992, the British newspaper the Sunday Express wrote that a secret
document, signed by the head of the KGB months before Maxwell's death
at sea, showed that Maxwell was a political and intelligence asset for
the Soviet Union. The newspaper claimed that the document indicated
Soviet leadership had instructed the KGB to protect Maxwell's
reputation and business activities.
Maxwell's UK foreign office file, released more than a decade after
his death, described him as ``a thoroughly bad character and almost
certainly financed by Russia.''
Journalist Vicky Ward wrote the following in Rolling Stone Magazine
in 2021. She said:
Hoffenberg told me that Epstein had said he'd worked on
several projects with Robert Maxwell, including solving
Maxwell's ``debt'' issues.
The word ``debt'' is in quotes.
(Maxwell died in 1991, under very strange circumstances,
apparently having fallen off his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine,
in the middle of the night and it was discovered in the
aftermath that he'd stolen 100s of millions of dollars from
the pensions of his employees.)
The story continued:
Epstein had also told Hoffenberg that via Maxwell and Leese
he was involved in something that Hoffenberg described as
``national security issues,'' which he says involved
``blackmail, influence trading, trading information at a
level that is very serious and dangerous.''
The story concluded:
Four separate sources told me--on the record--that
Epstein's dealings in the arms world in the 1980s had led him
to work for multiple governments, including the Israelis.
Epstein's strategies for making money and working intelligence
contacts seem to have some similarities to Robert Maxwell's.
For the record, Epstein, a profligate liar, once told Ward that he
never met Robert Maxwell or Leese.
At some point in the 1980s, Epstein struck up a friendship with a
fellow brash New York businessman by the name of Donald Trump. Author
Michael Wolff has said of Trump and Epstein:
They shared everything. They shared their airplanes. They
shared women between them. They shared constantly business
and financial advice.
There are many photos of the two men together on the New York and
Palm Beach party circuits throughout the 1990s. Trump, now famously
said in 2002:
I've known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy. He's a lot
of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful
women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger
side.
Alan Dershowitz told the New York Times in 2019 that ``in those days,
if you didn't know Trump and you didn't know Epstein, you were a
nobody.''
Dershowitz is the well-known lawyer who served both on Epstein's
defense team when he was charged with having sex with minors back in
2006 and on Trump's impeachment defense team in 2020.
The President of Trump's Atlantic City Trump Plaza Hotel in the late
1980s said he saw Trump and Epstein together so frequently that he
believed Epstein was Trump's ``best friend.'' That same man described
an incident where Trump brought Epstein and a 19-year-old girl to the
casino gaming floor.
Epstein once took a model to Trump Tower, where she says Trump groped
her while laughing with Epstein. She remarked that it seemed like ``a
twisted game'' between the two men.
One survivor says Epstein summoned her to his offices late one night.
Trump soon arrived. And according to the New York Times, ``[she]
recalled feeling scared as Mr. Trump stared at her bare legs. Then Mr.
Epstein entered the room, and she recalled him saying to Mr. Trump:
`No, no. She's not here for you.''' After the men left the room, she
said she overheard Trump commenting that he thought she was 16 years
old.
In 1992, Trump hosted a ``calendar girls competition'' at Mar-a-Lago
for
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dozens of young women. The event organizer was appalled to learn that
Trump and Epstein would be the only men present--a private showing.
During Maxwell's trial, one of Epstein's victims said he took her to
meet Trump at Mar-a-Lago when she was 14.
Maxwell recruited 16-year-old Virginia Giuffre from the spa at Mar-a-
Lago. Giuffre was abused by Epstein and trafficked to other men in
Epstein's orbit.
Trump said in 2025:
I think [Giuffre] worked at the spa. He stole her.
``He'' being Epstein.
In 1997, the UK tabloid, the Daily Mirror, formerly owned by Robert
Maxwell, claimed that Trump was dating a 20-year-old British model and
Ghislaine Maxwell had introduced them at a party. The tabloid notes:
[Trump] met [the model] at a party in Manhattan. Several
American millionaires already had their eyes on [the model].
But she was there with Robert Maxwell's daughter Ghislaine,
who has introduced several of her attractive friends to the
property developer, [Trump].
According to the Mirror:
After their meeting, Trump flew Madam Maxwell and the model
south to the sunshine state, where they enjoyed a happy
weekend together. When they returned to New York, [the model]
was installed in one of Donald's many apartments there.
In an interview with BBC ``Newsnight,'' the model stated:
Ghislaine Maxwell did introduce me to him--
That is Trump--
and she introduced me to him with a clear message of my
being with him in the same way that she had trafficked me and
brought me to Jeffrey Epstein.
She also said:
I can only speak for myself, and this is in no way to
negate any other experience that anyone else might have had
with him, but, at no time did President Trump behave with any
impropriety with me.
The same woman accused Epstein of sexually abusing her when she was a
teenager in a 2019 interview with NBC.
From NBC:
The abuse . . . spanned several years and locales. In
addition to the estate on his private island, [she] said
Epstein preyed on her at his homes in New York and Paris.
According to Craig Unger's book ``American Kompromat'':
Trump was often the center of Maxwell's attention, and
women who entered Trump's orbit sometimes ended up being
associated with both Trump and Epstein, spending part of
their time living in a Trump Tower condo and part in Florida,
at Mar-a-Lago or one of Epstein's homes.
Among them was a Russian model and beauty-pageant
contestant . . . whose journey from the world of beauty
pageants and modeling to Trump's Mar-a-Lago and Epstein's
island retreat is highly suggestive in terms of how Epstein
and his associates began manipulating young women.
The story continues:
In the early '90s, before coming to the United States, [the
woman] had placed well in a number of beauty pageants--coming
in second in Miss Russia 1993 and winning the 1994 Miss
Baltic Sea title that year. In 1995, she left Moscow, spent
six weeks learning English in St. Petersburg--
That is St. Petersburg, FL, not Russia--
and was profiled in the Tampa Tribune as ``reigning Miss
Russia.'' And before long, she met Donald Trump.
Notwithstanding the fact that Trump was still married to
his second wife, Marla Maples, [the woman] moved into a 30th-
floor condo in Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue.
There, according to an item in the New York Post, her
lavish accommodations were taken care of ``courtesy of an
unidentified sugar daddy.''
[S]he spent time with both Trump and Epstein. Flight logs
released by a federal judge in New York in 2019 showed that
in February 1999, [the woman], then 27, flew on board
Epstein's Gulfstream, the so-called Lolita Express, with
Maxwell and Prince Andrew, from Epstein's Little St. James
(a.k.a. ``Pedophile Island'') back to Florida.
Trump has tried to distance himself from his former friend, the
monstrous pedophile who is believed to have abused at least a thousand
women and girls. It is worth taking a look at how the friendship
between Trump and Epstein allegedly soured. There are varying accounts
as to whether Trump ever banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago over his
recruitment of spa workers from the resort.
But we know the falling out was at least, in part, related to a
bidding war between Trump and Epstein over a Palm Beach mansion in
2004. Trump won and purchased the property for $41.3 million.
Just 4 years later and after modest renovations, Trump sold the
mansion to billionaire Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev for $95
million. At the time, it was reported to be the most expensive
residential property sale in U.S. history, pretty stellar investment
for Mr. Trump. The oligarch, for his part, after paying the $95
million, never even moved in.
That brings us back to Russia. Epstein claimed to have given at least
some insight on Trump to the Russians. Epstein met on many occasions
with Vitaly Churkin, Russia's representative to the United Nations from
2006 until Churkin's death in 2017. Epstein wrote in an email:
Churkin was great. He understood trump after our
conversations. it is not complex. he must be seen to get
something its that simple.
Epstein wrote in 2018 to Thorbjorn Jagland, a former Prime Minister
of Norway, who was then head of the Council of Europe:
I think you might suggest to putin, that lavrov, can get
insight on talking to me.
That appears to be a reference to Sergey Lavrov, Russian's Minister
of Foreign Affairs. The email was sent prior to the Helsinki summit
between Trump and Putin.
In another email to Jagland, Epstein wrote that he wanted to help
Putin and Russia ``reinvent the financial system.''
A 2017 FBI report based on a confidential human source claims that
Epstein was ``President Vladimir Putin's wealth manager.''
Epstein tried several times to meet with Putin, often via Jagland,
although it is unclear if any such meeting took place. But Putin is
named almost 1,000 times in the latest tranche of Epstein file
documents, and there are almost 10,000 references in the documents to
Moscow.
Epstein roped many Russian and Eastern European girls and women into
his trafficking operation.
The New York Magazine profile of Epstein published all the way back
in 2002 reads:
Indeed, at a party at Maxwell's house, her friends say, one
is just as apt to see Russian ladies of the night as one is
to see Prince Andrew.
In Ward's 2003 profile of Epstein, a guest described a ``cocktail
party thrown by Maxwell that Prince Andrew attended, which was filled,
she says, with young Russian models.''
In a 2010 email, Epstein suggested a young woman as a dinner
companion to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Prince, assuring
him that she was ``Russian, beautiful and trustworthy.''
The Daily Beast recently reported on an alleged classified U.S.
intelligence document claiming that ``Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor . . .
was drawn into Moscow's orbit thanks to his relationship with Jeffrey
Epstein, which the Kremlin allegedly used as a route into the British
establishment.''
In another 2010 email to a person whose name has been redacted,
Epstein wrote:
Tomorrow I'm organising a dinner for some new Russian
girls. . . . [S]ee you at 10.
He received an email from a redacted sender in 2012 that read:
I have 2 Russian girls for you to meet, one 21, another 24.
A message left for Epstein by one of his employees in 2005 claims
French model scout Jean-Luc Brunel had found a ``teacher'' who could
give Epstein ``free lessons.''
He has a teacher for you to teach how to speak Russian. She
is two times eight years old. Not blonde.
``Two times eight years old.''
According to ``American Kompromat'';
In addition to whatever legitimate careers Brunel may have
fostered, as a ``model scout,'' he also allegedly hired
``scouters'' to identify, procure, and transport underage
girls, many 15 years of age and under, hire them to give
``massages'' and traffic them.
Brunel was found hanged in his French jail cell in 2022 after being
arrested on rape and sex trafficking charges.
Bill Gates appears. He has said he had affairs with two Russian
women, which Epstein later discovered.
Somewhere along the way, Epstein struck up a relationship with Sergei
Belyakov, Russia's former Deputy Minister of Economic Development and a
[[Page S875]]
graduate of the FSB, Russia's intelligence academy. Epstein introduced
him to contacts like Peter Thiel, the tech billionaire who would go on
to give $10 million to the super PAC that helped elect now-Vice
President JD Vance to the Senate in 2022.
In 2015, Epstein warned Belyakov that ``a Russian girl from Moscow .
. . is attempting to blackmail a group of powerful businessmen in New
York.'' It was, Epstein said, ``bad for business for everyone
involved.'' Belyakov responded back with information about the woman
who he said worked in the ``sex and escort'' business. The FSB academy
graduate said he would meet with someone who knows her.
The following year, Belyakov told Epstein he had a new position at
the Russian Direct Investment Fund, the Russian sovereign wealth fund,
headed by current Putin envoy Kirill Dmitriev--the same guy who was
caught in those friendly leaked phone calls with Steve Witkoff that I
mentioned earlier.
Masha Drokova, a former spokesperson for Nashi, the pro-Kremlin youth
movement, was in regular touch with Epstein in the last couple of years
before his death in prison. She was ostensibly helping Epstein with his
public relations. According to the Washington Post, she was ``the
subject of the 2011 documentary `Putin's Kiss,' whose title refers to a
widely publicized award ceremony in which she received a medal from
Putin and spontaneously kissed him on the cheek.''
In a 2017 email, Drokova asked Epstein to connect her with ``adequate
Russian oligarchs.'' The Post reported in 2022 that her fundraising
pitches highlighted her ties to wealthy Russians, although Drokova
denied writing those emails and said she did not receive Russian
funding.
Epstein advised Drokova as she launched her Silicon Valley venture
capital firm, and she introduced Epstein to the contacts she had made
in the tech world.
In one email interaction in 2017, Drokova, after claiming to meet
billionaire Jeff Bezos, tells Epstein she is ``trying to understand
what she is not understanding about him.'' Epstein writes back that
Bezos is ``smart, fun, and visionary. He is a very nice person.
Probalty [sic] the best in the valley among the Bs.''
The files also indicate Epstein had dealings with Oleg Deripaska, a
Russian billionaire who the Treasury Department identified as a money
launderer for Vladimir Putin. Deripaska also cultivated a friendship
with Peter Mandelson, a senior figure in Britain's Labour Party.
Mandelson tried to use Deripaska's contacts to acquire a last-minute
Russian visa for Epstein in 2010.
Correspondence also shows Epstein's assistant trying to set up a
meeting for Epstein and Deripaska in Moscow or Paris.
There is also audio of Epstein advising then-Israel Prime Minister
Ehud Barak to have dinner with Putin to line up work after he leaves
government.
There is at least one itinerary for a lengthy trip across Russia and
photos of Epstein and Ghislaine in what is believed to be Russia,
including with people who appear to be Russian soldiers.
Umar Dzhabrailov, a former Russian senator who committed suicide in
recent days, described Maxwell as ``a soulmate.'' Epstein had a series
of Russian visas between 2011 and his death in 2019.
Epstein's crimes left a long money trail, and that trail winds back
to Russia. Ranking member of the Finance Committee Ron Wyden has
doggedly sought the truth about Epstein's transactions with Russian
banks and Eastern European entities. One suspicious activity report
filed by JPMorgan Chase after Epstein's death shows that between 2003
and 2019, Epstein conducted 4,725 wire transactions totaling over $1
billion. And that is just one bank. Epstein used multiple banks.
According to JPMorgan Chase, the wire activity was flagged for the
suspicious activity report for being ``consistent with . . . alleged
sex trafficking of minors'' and for involving ``the high risk
jurisdiction of the Russian Federation.''
CNN notes that two accounts included in the suspicious activity
report were linked to now-sanctioned Russian banks Alfa-Bank and
Sberbank. Also named in the suspicious activity reports were Maxwell,
associated entities like Brunel's MC2 Model Management, and various
women and girls.
Let's go back to the journalist Vicky Ward:
[S]ources, who range from former arms dealers to former
spies--and also Hoffenberg--suggest that Epstein, who lacked
any sort of moral compass, decided to . . . compromise
influential people by recording them doing things they
wouldn't want made public. . . . And once he got out of jail,
in the last 10 years of his life, Epstein bragged to various
people, including journalists, that he was advising a
whole assortment of foreign leaders who included Vladimir
Putin, Mohammed bin Zayed, Mohammed Bin Salman, various
African dictators, Israel, the British--and, of course,
the Americans.
He also told several of the same people that he was making
a fortune out of arms, drugs, and diamonds.
I am still reading the same quote:
He was known in the intelligence world as a ``hyper-
fixer,'' somebody who can go between different cultures and
networks.''
Epstein was, of course, known for his parties, which he insisted on
hosting in his various mansions where he could completely control the
environment. Many of Epstein's victims have said they believe they were
recorded.
Virginia Giuffre wrote in her posthumous memoir that Epstein had a
``huge library of videotapes'' and a room in his New York home where
monitors displayed real-time surveillance footage from his properties.
``He explicitly talked about using me and what I'd been forced to do
with certain men as a form of blackmail, so these men would owe him
favors,'' she wrote.
Another survivor said Epstein once walked her through his mansion
pointing out pinhole-sized cameras. He boasted that they were in every
room.
According to Epstein's emails, in 2014, he directed a staffer to
procure hidden cameras, which were installed in tissue boxes.
The New York Times obtained photos of the interior of Epstein's New
York mansion, which show a camera installed near the ceiling of the
master bedroom and another along the molding of an adjoining room. The
Times also spotted cameras near a suite of bathrooms on the same floor
as Epstein's bedroom.
When police searched his Palm Beach home in 2005, they ``located two
covert (hidden) cameras.'' Both cameras were located inside clocks--one
by a desk and the other in a garage.
It is worth noting that Epstein often seemed to get tipped off in
advance as to when the Palm Beach police would be dropping by. Epstein
is said to have once told an ex-girlfriend:
I collect people. I own people. I can damage people.
The disgraced financier Hoffenberg allegedly claimed to the National
Enquirer in a final account before his death that ``wherever Epstein
was entertaining, he [and Ghislaine] were taping.'' That report was
only released last summer, as Hoffenberg had asked the Enquirer not to
publish his comments until 3 years after his death.
According to the Daily Beast, the former U.S. attorney for the
Southern District of Florida, Alex Acosta, is once said to have claimed
Epstein ``belonged to intelligence'' and that the decision to let him
off easy in 2008 was made above his ``pay grade.''
The Prime Minister of Poland, a country that has extensive experience
with Russian intelligence operations, has opened an investigation into
potential links between Epstein and Russian intelligence. Prime
Minister Tusk said:
More and more leads, more and more information, and more
and more commentary in the global press all relate to the
suspicion that this unprecedented paedophilia scandal was co-
organised by Russian intelligence services.
According to alleged anonymous intelligence sources published in the
British tabloid the Daily Mail last month, some believe:
Jeffrey Epstein was running ``the world's largest honey
trap operation'' on behalf of the KGB when he procured women
for his network of associates.
I want to stress that we don't have answers here. Epstein was an
inveterate liar and criminal who often sought to exaggerate his own
power and influence, and the Epstein files need to be viewed through
that lens. He could have been working with an intelligence agency or
several intelligence agencies. He could have just been what the
Russians call a useful idiot. We may never know.
[[Page S876]]
What we do know is that a significant number of powerful men--our
current President, some of his Cabinet Secretaries, tech billionaires
like Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and others--were very mixed up with Epstein
at different times, and Epstein seems to have been very mixed up with
Russia.
We also know that there is a coverup afoot at the Department of
Justice. The MAGA Department of Justice is trying to shield Trump from
something in the Epstein files. We know that documents in the files
about President Trump that should be released have not been released.
The missing files--first discovered by independent journalist Roger
Sollenberger--are alleged to detail claims by an Epstein accuser who
said she was also sexually assaulted by President Trump when she was a
young teenager.
One of the great forces that Washington runs on is normalcy bias. It
is often in the interest of the bureaucratic establishment to look
skeptically toward outlandish or extreme stories because, in most
cases, the truth is more ordinary than what may first appear. What I
have done here today is lay out the facts, as documented by the many
brave survivors who have come forward at great personal risk, as well
as the many journalists who have tried and continue to try to get to
the truth.
As a lawyer, I know that you can prove cases with circumstantial
evidence. You don't always need the smoking gun. Here, we have links
with Russia, girls from Russia, money from Russia, people from Russia,
deals and transactions with Russia, contacts with people with Russian
intelligence, news reports exploring contacts with Russia, and an
official investigation from the Government of Poland into an Epstein-
Russia connection. Sometimes, with a little imagination, you have the
chance to see what is right in front of your face.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that this document, which is a
bibliography of all of the sources that I quoted from in this speech,
be printed in the Record and appended at the conclusion of my remarks.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
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cemurQK-9hb902ZliUVfjDN&gaa_ts=69a4cfb c&gaa_sig=
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[[Page S877]]
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Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Budd). The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Husted). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
____________________