[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 4932-4934]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                RUSSIA AND TRUMP CAMPAIGN INVESTIGATION

  Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, I come to the floor today, not as a 
member of any one committee or political party but as a gravely 
concerned American.
  On a seemingly daily--or even hourly--basis, there is a new 
revelation about the Trump campaign's possible ties to or even 
coordination with Russia's interference in our Presidential election 
last year. With these constant reports coming out, it can be difficult 
to see through all the smoke in the air.
  However, what is clear is that we must get to the bottom of what 
exactly happened. I know that the White House and some in Congress are 
furiously working to sweep this under the rug, but only the truth will 
serve as a public means to move past this crisis for our democracy.
  That is why I come to the Senate floor today, to address this issue 
before my colleagues and to help the American people sort through the 
details of what we know to be the undisputed facts. We know without a 
doubt, based on the assessment of credible intelligence, that the 
Russian Government hacked into Presidential campaign infrastructure and 
sought not only to damage Hillary Clinton but to try to help elect 
Donald Trump.
  Russian intelligence operatives hacked into the email servers of both 
of our two major political parties. They chose to selectively leak 
information that damaged one Presidential candidate and favored the 
other. This is not a partisan political assessment. This is the plain 
truth as proven by credible intelligence gathered by the CIA, the FBI, 
the NSA, and the military's Cyber Command. In addition, 17 U.S. 
intelligence agencies issued a statement expressing their unanimous 
assessment that Moscow had penetrated State election voting centers.
  During an open hearing in the Senate Intelligence Committee in 
January of this year, FBI Director James Comey said: ``There were 
intrusions and attempted intrusions at the state level voter 
registration databases.'' Director Comey said that there was no 
evidence of activity on election day related to this voter registration 
data. However, this clearly demonstrates that this data may be 
vulnerable to future cyber attacks and manipulations by foreign 
hackers.
  What happened in this last year's election is already disturbing 
enough. In testimony during the same Senate Intelligence Committee 
hearing, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said:

       We have high confidence that President Putin ordered an 
     influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. Presidential 
     election. The goals of this campaign were to undermine public 
     faith in the U.S. Democratic process, denigrate Secretary 
     [Hillary] Clinton and harm her electability and potential 
     presidency.

  He continued: ``Putin and the Russian government also developed a 
clear preference for President-elect Trump.''
  That shocking revelation at the very least begged for deeper 
investigation and accountability to protect our democratic institutions 
from foreign interference moving forward. After all, Russia did not do 
this to help the Republican Party. Russia did this to help Russia.
  I don't want foreign powers putting their thumb on the scales for 
Democrats or Republicans in our elections. Our democracy hinges on our 
ability to protect the voices of Americans to choose our own leaders. 
Nothing could be more fundamental in democracy.
  You can see similar ongoing Russian efforts to work seeking to 
influence and undermine democratic elections in France, Germany, and 
throughout the West, in addition to the former Soviet states, which is 
why we have to take this seriously and to see through the latest news 
cycle, political commentary, or tweet and remain focused on following 
the facts, wherever they may lead us.
  Unfortunately, the facts suggest that we not only need to hold the 
Russians accountable but that we also have reason to look into possible 
ties between key members of the Trump campaign and their connections to 
the Russian actors who we know meddled in our election.
  The obvious question Americans are demanding an answer to is this: 
Did the Trump campaign cooperate--or even coordinate--with the Russians 
in their effort to help Donald Trump? It is a logical question that has 
striking implications not only for the Trump administration but also 
for our democracy as a whole.
  The President and his senior advisers--both on the campaign and now 
in the administration--have vehemently denied any Russian connections 
whatsoever. Back in November, Hope Hicks, a Trump campaign spokesman 
said: ``There was no communication between the campaign and any foreign 
entity during the campaign.''
  A month ago, President Trump responded to a question in a press 
conference about whether anyone in his

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campaign had been in contact with Russia, saying:

       Nobody that I know of . . . Russia is a ruse. I have 
     nothing to do with Russia.

  I truly wish that that was what the facts had shown, but at nearly 
every turn, there is evidence--and, when forced, admission--that there 
were, in fact, communications and contact with the Russians that are 
not only unprecedented but truly hard to believe and to understand.
  Contrary to denials, we know that senior leaders and surrogates in 
then-Candidate Donald Trump's campaign had contact with the Russian 
Government and actors behind the Russian cyber attacks and leaks.
  One campaign adviser, Carter Page, traveled to Moscow in July of 2016 
on a trip approved by the Trump campaign. During the trip, Page 
delivered a lecture that slammed U.S. policy toward Russia. Three days 
later, at the Republican National Convention, Trump campaign aides 
stepped in to oppose the inclusion of language in the RNC platform that 
called on the U.S. Government to send weapons to our ally Ukraine in 
response to Russian military aggression and the illegal invasion by 
Russia of Ukrainian Crimea.
  Despite Trump campaign denials of involvement at the time, former 
campaign aides have since come forward to say that, yes, they were 
involved in defeating that language in the platform.
  While this was going on, again, despite denials to the contrary, we 
know that senior Trump advisers met with Russian Ambassador to the 
United States Sergey Kislyak on the sidelines of the Republican 
Convention.
  We know that then-Senator Sessions, a senior campaign surrogate, also 
met with Kislyak in his personal Senate office later in September.
  Again, this communication was uncovered despite Attorney General 
Sessions denying it had ever taken place.
  During his Senate confirmation hearing in January, then-Senator 
Sessions said in response to a pointed question about how he would 
respond as Attorney General to any evidence that anyone affiliated with 
the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian Government in the 
course of the campaign:

       I'm not aware of any of those activities. I have been 
     called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign, and I 
     didn't have--did not have communications with the Russians.

  Then the day after the Republican National Convention, WikiLeaks 
posted nearly 20,000 emails hacked and stolen by Russian intelligence 
from the DNC server.
  After this, Donald Trump, during a press conference in late July, 
called on Russia to hack Hillary Clinton's private email, saying:

       I will tell you this--Russia, if you're listening, I hope 
     you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I 
     think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.

  Although Trump later claimed to be joking, we now have reason to 
believe that one of his friends and advisers, Roger Stone, was in 
contact with the Russian hackers behind the cyber attacks. Stone 
boasted in a speech in August 2016 that he had communicated with 
WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange and that more damaging documents 
would be forthcoming in what he called an ``October surprise.''
  Stone also admitted to communicating via Twitter with the Russian 
hacker behind the breaches who went by the moniker ``Guccifer 2.0.'' 
Stone tweeted out predictions that Hillary Clinton senior campaign aide 
John Podesta's personal emails would soon be published, saying: ``Trust 
me, it will soon be Podesta's time in the barrel.'' Stone also tweeted: 
``I have total confidence that WikiLeaks and my hero Julian Assange 
will educate the American people soon.''
  Soon after this, WikiLeaks released its first batch of John Podesta's 
stolen emails and continued releasing more on a daily basis up until 
election day.
  In the face of these facts, the Trump administration's story has 
evolved from rejecting Russian influence on the election entirely to 
denying any connection or communication with Russian actors, to 
asserting that this contact was, in fact, innocent or routine and that 
Americans should simply trust that there was nothing more going on. But 
to ask the public to trust you when you have falsely denied that the 
communication occurred in the first place is absurd on its face and, in 
fact, it is a plausible reason to suspect possible coordination.
  After the election, we now know that President-Elect Trump's 
appointed National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, and Trump's senior 
aide and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, had a secret meeting with Russian 
Ambassador Kislyak and that Flynn later conducted phone calls with 
Kislyak that included discussion of rolling back sanctions for Russia.
  Flynn has since resigned as National Security Advisor after having 
lied about the content of his conversations with Kislyak.
  Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recused himself from the 
investigation into the Trump campaign's possible ties to Russia due to 
his undisclosed meetings with the same Russian Ambassador.
  Last week, FBI Director James Comey confirmed to the public that the 
FBI is currently conducting a counterintelligence investigation into 
possible coordination between President Trump's campaign and the 
Kremlin.
  I will repeat that because I fear that the public is becoming 
desensitized to the gravity of what we are learning about. The 
President's campaign officials are under investigation by the FBI for 
possible links with the Russian Government, including whether they 
coordinated with one another to impact our Presidential election.
  We also saw reports last week that before his time on the Trump 
campaign, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort created and then 
sold the Russians what appears to effectively be a playbook on how to 
undermine Western democracy and to further the interests of the Russian 
Government, including here in the United States.
  Manafort's reported recommendations to use political campaign 
tactics, establish front groups, and manipulate the press cycle are 
strikingly similar to the actual tactics that we know the Russians 
employed to undermine the 2016 Presidential election.
  The Trump administration's repeated attempts to now distance itself 
from its former campaign chairman, a man who played a central role in 
the Trump campaign, is indicative of its desperate attempts to cover up 
the facts.
  The facts are there if we just look.
  The Trump campaign denied having worked to scrub the RNC platform to 
be friendlier to Russia but then later had to admit to having done so.
  Michael Flynn denied conversations with the Russian Ambassador and 
then had to resign when that turned out to be a lie.
  Attorney General Sessions denied having conversations with the 
Russians but later recused himself from the investigation after having 
to admit that he secretly met on several occasions with the Russian 
Ambassador.
  The Trump campaign and Trump's advisers denied any communications 
with the Russians, but it turns out they personally met with the 
Russian Ambassador at the RNC, communicated with Russian hackers, and 
appear to have had advanced notice about impending DNC and Clinton 
leaks.
  All of this culminates with the news that the Trump campaign chairman 
sold the Russians a playbook on how to conduct a strikingly similar 
influence operation to undermine democracy and promote the Putin agenda 
throughout the West.
  This is all a complicated web of connections that we need to piece 
together. As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I am 
committed to finding the answers that the American people deserve and 
to working together with all of my colleagues on both sides of the 
aisle to put our Nation first and to make sure that we get to the 
bottom of this.
  We need to do everything possible to get to the objective truth. That 
includes subpoenaing President Trump's tax returns and financial 
statements so that we can follow the money and determine who holds the 
debt behind the President's complex international business empire. That 
includes calling President Trump's associates, such as

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Paul Manafort, Carter Page, Roger Stone, Jared Kushner, Jeff Sessions, 
and Michael Flynn to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
  But with the incredible amount of information and intelligence that 
we need to look through, I believe we also should be open to an 
independent, nonpartisan commission designed solely to investigate what 
happened.
  During the investigation of Watergate and the ensuing scandal, 
Congress conducted a thorough select oversight investigation at the 
same time that an independent special prosecutor was pursuing a case to 
uncover the truth. All of those avenues proved to be essential to 
discovering the crimes and coverup that were committed.
  If we do not take this seriously, our fundamental democratic 
institutions are at risk. History will judge severely those of us in 
this body tasked with finding the whole truth and determining 
conclusively whether or not associates of the Trump campaign 
coordinated or cooperated with this effort to undermine our American 
democracy.
  We cannot allow political pressure or unsubstantiated distractions to 
get in the way of simply following the facts.
  I don't think it is hyperbolic to state that the fate of our 
democracy depends on our ability to thoroughly and carefully get to the 
truth here. Until we are able to find out the full extent of Russia's 
operations and ensure that we set up protections against similar 
actions going forward, our democratic institutions will remain 
vulnerable.
  I want my constituents in New Mexico and all of the American people 
to know that I remain committed to seeing this important mission 
through and following the facts, wherever they may lead.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Rubio). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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