[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 8072-8075]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Banks of Indiana). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of January 3, 2017, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. 
Raskin) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority 
leader.
  Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to be here with my partner, 
Congresswoman Jayapal from the State of Washington, and we are running 
the Progressive Caucus Special Order hour.
  We are delighted to kick off this session, which is about the 
extraordinary revelations this week and some breathtaking developments 
in Washington, with a statement by our distinguished colleague from 
Texas, Sheila Jackson Lee.
  I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman 
from Maryland and the distinguished gentlewoman from Washington. Just 
by coincidence, Mr. Speaker, all three of us are members of the 
Judiciary Committee and had a very vigorous constitutional discussion 
this morning in a hearing on the responsibilities of the Judiciary 
Committee and, as well, the responsibilities of this Congress to the 
American people.
  I think many of us offered our comments in the context that we did 
not speak as a Democrat or a Republican, though we are here on this 
floor as members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. We really 
spoke to our views and commitment as Americans.
  Having served in this House for a period of time where I have seen 
the Judiciary Committee engage vigorously in impeachment proceedings 
for judges and Presidents, I know that the role of the Judiciary 
Committee is to be assured that the government--the executive, the 
legislature, the judiciary--works within the context of the 
Constitution.
  So that is the spirit and the position in which I rise this evening: 
to share a few thoughts and to recount for our Members why this is a 
week that requires further oversight and insight and further assessment 
of whether the actions of the Oval Office, the executive--in this 
instance, the White House--have really complied with the Constitution 
of the United States.
  I would, first of all, indicate that much of what I will say I will 
qualify and say that the President, or a President, or any President, 
would have the authority to do. So although, for example, the FBI 
Director is given a 10-year term, the individual serves at the will of 
the President of the United States of America. That means that 
President Trump, President Obama, President Bush, President Clinton, 
and others would have the authority to fire this particular individual 
as they would have the right to fire Cabinet officers and others. They 
have the right to fire the Attorney General or the Deputy Attorney 
General, which may be one of the concerns we now have as we proceed to 
try to get to the facts of just a whole litany of issues.
  Let me recount for you, as I discuss the firing of Director Comey, 
that in the last couple of days we have discerned that the Trump 
campaign operatives spoke to Russian operatives, Russian Government 
officials, 18 times in the last 7 months of the campaign.
  We are well aware that the former NSA Director, something I think we, 
as Members of Congress--I will speak for myself--have never heard of in 
the tenure that I have been privileged to serve in the United States 
Congress, that an individual who was advising the President of the 
United States not in the form of a lobbyist, but in the form of an 
adviser in national security issues, was being paid by a foreign 
country.
  So the advice that was given, two different recommendations: one, to 
drag out and throw to an unknowing future a Turkish citizen who is 
here, who has been involved in a number of schools and good charitable 
work, who lives in Pennsylvania; one of his recommendations was to 
throw this individual who is statused, not undocumented, out into the 
hands of the present President of Turkey, who has been known over the 
years, recently, to deny political

[[Page 8073]]

and religious rights and human rights. That was one recommendation.
  The second recommendation, whether you liked it or disliked it, was 
to not arm the Kurds to help with the fight in Syria. That advice was 
given, both of those proposals as advice were given while General Flynn 
was on the payroll of a foreign government.
  So you would have to wonder in the series of incidents how we have 
come to the point where the FBI Director, who was actively engaged in 
investigating--or the FBI, investigating General Flynn, as were 
congressional committees--General Flynn is now under a subpoena by, I 
believe, the Senate Intelligence Committee. All of that, all of those 
elements certainly respond that the Congress and the FBI were engaged 
in active investigations. I think the American people understand that.
  The American people understand that if their chief of police was 
engaged in an active investigation of murder, one that the whole 
community was just outraged about, as any murder, as all the homicides 
that take place in a community that you desire to be safe, and one 
local elected official indicated that you are investigating my neighbor 
or you are investigating me and had the authority to fire the chief of 
police with the reason of one thing and then it became very clear that 
you were firing the chief of police who was actively engaged in a 
murder investigation that was going to help the whole community find 
the truth and bring the perpetrator to justice, you fired that police 
chief because it was either you that was being investigated, local 
elected official, or it was your neighbor that was being investigated, 
you just took it upon yourself to cease and desist of that 
investigation, and that is a simple explanation of what has happened 
here in Washington.
  Because Washington is big, because this government is huge, because 
it is the leader of the free world, because all the nations look up to 
it gives it no greater authority to stop an active investigation that 
is based upon the duties of the FBI, but also the laws of this land, 
and that is just what happened. Director Comey was unceremoniously 
fired; a man who has had great tenure in law enforcement as an attorney 
and prosecutor and, now, over the FBI.
  Of course, the so-called explanation--which, by the way, has just 
been repeated in the last 45 minutes on international television, 
saying the same thing, that his firing was based upon Deputy Attorney 
General Rosenstein's representation in a memorandum that many of us 
question that gave a whole explanation of the incidents regarding 
former Secretary Clinton, which, of course, she was not found to have 
warranted any further review or investigation or prosecution. But that 
was what was used by President Trump just in the last, as I said, 30 to 
45 minutes, when we know that the Deputy Attorney General has already 
denied that he was the cause and center of the firing of FBI Director 
Comey, yet it is still being repeated over and over and over and over 
again.
  You would also know that not only did he deny--and we look forward to 
hearing him tomorrow, the House Members, as the Senate has already 
heard him. What he also indicated, or what was also said to vindicate 
him, is that the President came out on last Thursday with interviews 
with Lester Holt on NBC News that it wasn't anybody but him, and it was 
connected to this fake Russian thing. I am paraphrasing. I may not have 
all of the words.
  So you have an executive that, one could analyze in a number of court 
decisions, may have been credited with an abuse of power. There was no 
legitimate failing in the work of Director Comey on this Russian 
investigation.
  Just 30 to 45 minutes ago, another comment that was made is that he 
was unpopular, and that he did very, very poorly in the hearings last 
week. None of those are elements of dismissal. Maybe reprimand, maybe 
study a little bit more before you go to Senatorial hearings or House 
hearings, but that has nothing to do with being fired.
  I don't know whether any of us want, every single day, as we make 
very tough decisions in this House, that we are assessed on whether or 
not we are very popular. What we want to do is do what is right for the 
American people. And whatever you might say, I assume Director Comey 
felt that he was doing what is right for the American people.
  Many disagreed with his handling and assessment of the issues dealing 
with former Secretary Clinton, particularly in the October surprise. 
That is legitimate. But it is not legitimate to say, way past that 
incident and when this individual is actively engaged--and there is no 
question or no guarantee that, in spite of our displeasure as 
Democrats, if the Office of the Presidency had gone the other way that 
Director Comey would be fired. There was no suggestion of that, none 
whatsoever, even with disagreeing with actions.
  But here we have not only the misrepresentation of the reason, but 
the declaration that the reason was because of this Russian thing.
  Let me share with you the comments of Professor Tribe in a Washington 
Post article on May 13, 2017, as he recounts the whole issue of this 
action bearing upon the actions that are in the Constitution, such as 
impeachment, that relate to the questions of whether or not the 
Presidency or the President has acted appropriately:
  ``The question of Russian interference in the Presidential election 
and possible collusion with the Trump campaign go to the heart of our 
system and ability to conduct free and fair elections.''
  Therefore, it was free. It was what we do.
  ``Consider, too, how Trump embroiled Deputy Attorney General Rod J. 
Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, despite Sessions' 
recusal from involvement in the Russia investigation, in preparing 
admittedly phony justifications for the firing on which Trump had 
already decided. Consider how Trump used the Vice President and White 
House staff to propagate a set of blatant untruths--before giving an 
interview to NBC's Lester Holt that exposed his true motivation.
  ``Trump accompanied that confession with self-serving--and manifestly 
false--assertions about having been assured by Comey that Trump himself 
was not under investigation. By Trump's own account, he asked Comey 
about his investigative status even as he was conducting the equivalent 
of a job interview in which Comey sought to retain his position as a 
Director.''
  So I believe that what we have here is a reasonable basis, those of 
us who have come to the floor tonight, to raise these questions and to 
be able to make sure that we do have a system of laws and that we do 
adhere to the rule of law.

                              {time}  1715

  We know that, subsequently, the Deputy Attorney General has appointed 
a special counsel under the provisions of the Attorney General. Of 
course, that individual could be fired. The regulation could be 
dismantled. But we hope that former Director Mueller of the FBI, who 
has impeccable credentials, will go forward and ensure that the 
American people know the truth.
  That will be one part of it. I repeat, that will be one part of it. 
But, as I look at my closing remarks here, I want to ensure that we 
know that this is not something that is made up; that it continues to 
shock us, and it shocks the American people. It is not a made-up 
entity. It just continues with a long list of incidents, starting from 
the firing and then going up.
  A comment Bill Moyers said: ``The ensuing White House cover-up tries 
to pin the blame on a newly confirmed Deputy Attorney General whose 
hastily prepared memo criticizes Comey's 2016 statements. . . .''
  But the late summer of 2015, a member of Trump's campaign staff 
called Lieutenant General Mike Flynn to ask if he is willing to meet 
with Trump. Trump agrees. Later Flynn says, four other Presidential 
candidates also reached out to him. There is a long list of items that 
may be true, may not be true, but clearly set a pattern, a pattern of 
the achilles heels of this Oval Office.

[[Page 8074]]

  And so I would say to my colleagues that we should not turn a blind 
eye on this. I believe it is important to follow the facts. I have no 
quarrel with that. But neither am I afraid to use the term 
appropriately, an impeachment inquiry, but at least to find the facts 
of whether or not any of the actions that swirled around Director 
Comey, that swirled around General Flynn's and Director Comey's or the 
FBI's investigation of this particular series of incidents are in 
keeping with the responsibilities of the Congress, the Judiciary, in 
any elements there, or the Oval Office, the Presidency of the United 
States of America.
  I think that the special prosecutor, for Americans to understand, 
deals specifically with pursuing or possible criminal acts. On the 
other hand, it is well known that the Congress can address how we fix 
this; how we make sure it doesn't happen again; how we work on behalf 
of the American people.
  And so I hope that, as we conclude this Special Order, no one will 
point to any of the Members on this floor as taking this up as a 
personal cause against the President of the United States, or any 
President, and that we will respect the office, as we have always done. 
But it is our duty to shed light on these issues and shed light on 
these potential failures. It is our responsibility to take up the cause 
of curing, responding, fixing, and serving the American people.
  Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Congresswoman for those 
extremely thoughtful and lucid remarks. I also wish to associate myself 
with the idea that, here on this issue, we cannot act purely as 
partisans. I suppose I can make a partisan speech with the best of 
them, but we are called upon during these very trying days to speak not 
as partisans but as patriots and as constitutional patriots.
  I have been a professor of constitutional law for 27 years at 
American University's Washington College of Law, and I am aware that 
the Founders of this country were determined to see that while we acted 
as partisans in the normal push and pull of legislative politics, when 
it comes to the basic character of our democracy, all of us try to need 
to act in a way that is consistent with the constitutional values that 
unify us.
  Thomas Jefferson said: ``If I could not go to heaven but with a 
party, I would not go there at all.''
  And George Washington said that we should never forget that the word 
``party'' comes from the French word ``partie.'' One part, each party 
is one part of the whole, and we have to try to keep our mind focused 
on the whole thing.
  Well, the whole country is in danger right now. The events of the 
last week have been breathtaking and extraordinary. So let's take a 
moment to try to catch our breath to remember what is really at stake 
with the Russian connection, with the firing of National Security 
Advisor Michael Flynn after 24 days, with the firing of FBI Director 
James Comey this week after he refused to drop the investigation into 
Michael Flynn, and the Russian connection.
  All of this is about, in the big picture, an organized and systematic 
assault on the American form of government and our Democratic political 
institutions.
  During the 2016 Presidential election, 17 of our U.S. intelligence 
agencies, including the FBI, the CIA, the National Security Agency, the 
Defense Intelligence Agency, and more than a dozen of others, got 
together and produced a report where they said, with a very high degree 
of certainty, that Vladimir Putin and Russian agents had an organized 
campaign orchestrated to engage in cyber espionage of the United States 
of America and our political institutions, and cyber sabotage of our 
political institutions with paid operatives working to disseminate fake 
news and propaganda, and to engineer leaks of mixtures of real emails 
mixed in with fake news, and so on.
  All of it meant to throw the Presidential election, to destroy the 
chances of Hillary Clinton, and to destabilize American political 
democracy. We know that this modus operandi was used before the 2016 
election in America, and it was used again after, as recently as the 
election in the Netherlands with Mr. Wilders, who was the favorite of 
Vladimir Putin, and then again in France with Marine Le Pen and the 
National Front where Mr. Putin and his operatives did a data dump the 
weekend before the French Presidential election.
  Right before the blackout on campaigning, they again orchestrated 
hacks of the Macron campaign, and then tried to put out, again, a 
complete disinformation package on behalf of Le Pen.
  Well, the intelligence agencies warned us that this was just a dress 
rehearsal for 2020. This is what Vladimir Putin is doing. He is trying 
to organize every dictator, despot, and kleptocrat on Earth together to 
destroy the liberal democracies, from the outside and from the inside.
  Now, militarily, he is no match for the United States of America. 
Economically, he is no match for the United States of America. 
Intellectually, in terms of our political institutions and the 
democracy we have built, our Constitution, he is no match for America.
  But he perceives a weakness, and the weakness is all about the 
internet because the internet links the whole world together. And if he 
can use the internet in order to hack into our institutions, both our 
party institutions and our election systems, and the media, and 
political campaigns, and then use that to sew confusion and propaganda, 
then he may, indeed, be able to gain control over the direction of our 
country, the sovereign people of America.
  We were warned in that intelligence agency report, which is public, 
which everybody can find online, that this is their plan. It wasn't as 
if 2016 was a one-shot deal. This is exactly what Putin will continue 
to do.
  So that is the background. Now, why is the firing of FBI Director 
James Comey so disturbing? He, of course, had a 10-year term, which was 
abruptly and suddenly cut off by President Trump after Comey told him--
according Comey's account, at least--that he would refuse to drop the 
investigation into Michael Flynn.
  There are lots of people involved in this Russian connection story, 
including Page, and Stone, and Manafort, and Jared Kushner that go way 
beyond what we can talk about here tonight. But I just want to focus 
for the moment on Flynn.
  Why is this sequence of events so disturbing? Well, it came out this 
week also that the Trump transition team, headed by none other than 
Vice President Pence, knew that Flynn was under criminal investigation 
at the time that they decided to hire him as America's National 
Security Advisor. At a point when they decided to make him America's 
number one national security operative, they knew he was under criminal 
investigation for being a paid operative of the Turkish Government, a 
paid agent of the Turkish Government. And nonetheless, they brought him 
on.
  And then when it was learned from the Acting Attorney General Sally 
Yates that Mr. Flynn was vulnerable to blackmail by Russians for having 
misled Vice President Pence about his entanglement with the Russian 
Ambassador and his conversations with the Russian Ambassador, still 
they kept him on. So they brought him on, knowing he was under 
investigation, then they knew he lied about his connections to the 
Russians, and still they kept him on.
  When the media finally broke the story of Flynn's collusive actions 
with foreign governments while he was the National Security Agency 
Director, Trump finally fired him, grudgingly, let him go, but said 
that Flynn was the victim somehow, and even tried to disassociate 
himself from the firing of Flynn.
  Then we learn that the President tried to get the FBI Director James 
Comey to drop the investigation. Now, that is according to the FBI 
Director James Comey, who has never been accused of lying or perjury. 
So it is going to be his word against that of the President of the 
United States, who

[[Page 8075]]

has said things like: Well, Ted Cruz' father participated in the 
assassination of JFK; and 5 million people voted illegally in the 
United States, with no evidence at all; and Barack Obama was born in 
Kenya, or Indonesia; and he had his phones tapped, and so on.
  And so that issue might come down to a swearing contest between the 
former Director of the FBI, Mr. Comey, and President Trump. But in any 
event, according to Comey, Trump said to him: Will you let it go? Will 
you let the investigation of Flynn go? And Comey said he would not. And 
then Comey was let go instead.
  So the question is: What does Michael Flynn know that everybody bends 
over backwards in the Trump administration to try to please him and 
placate him?
  This is an administration that doesn't mind insulting our longest and 
most cherished allies in the world: NATO, which he has said is 
obsolete; Mexico, which he has had no problem insulting and affronting; 
Australia; and so on. Yet with Michael Flynn, everybody is tiptoeing. 
Everybody is doing a tap dance. What does Michael Flynn know about 
President Trump? It would seem as if he has got some kind of 
information about the President that the President doesn't want to get 
out there.
  That is why a special counsel had to be appointed, and I am glad a 
special counsel was appointed. And I believe that Mr. Mueller is up to 
the task. And he has been known as a straight shooter, and a 
nonpartisan, someone who will follow the facts where they will go.
  Well, in the meantime, we have got to look at the much broader issue. 
Because, of course, that is about the criminal deeds or actions of 
particular people. And some people may end up facing prosecution for 
what they did. But there is a much larger issue here. Because as a 
country, we have got to stand up for strong democracy all over the 
world.
  But what is happening with all of these shenanigans, and sinister 
contacts and connections with the Turkish Government, and the Russian 
Government, and Orban in Hungary, and the killer dictator Duterte in 
the Philippines who orders that people he thinks are drug users should 
be shot on sight in his country, who has been invited to the White 
House by President Trump?
  Well, our country has got to stand up for what is great about our 
country: our Constitution and our Bill of Rights. President Trump said 
this is a witch hunt. But I want to close by telling you about a real 
witch hunt that is going on right now on the planet Earth.
  And if we were not so distracted by the spreading staph infection in 
the White House, we would be able to help in terms of this situation. 
And I refer to you an article that was in the newspaper a couple of 
days ago in The New York Times about the governor of Jakarta, one of 
the largest cities in Indonesia.

                              {time}  1730

  He is Christian. He is the Governor of Jakarta. Someone was running 
against him and said that all the Muslims should vote against him 
because he is Christian. They should have to vote for a Muslim because 
the Koran tells them to. The governor objected.
  Mr. Basuki said: That is not right. The Koran doesn't say that 
Muslims must vote for Muslims. Muslims can vote for me, even though I 
am a Christian.
  He was prosecuted, arrested for blasphemy against the Koran, against 
Islam, and sentenced to 2 years hard time in a maximum security prison 
in Indonesia.
  In America, where we have a First Amendment and freedom of 
conscience, free exercise of religion, separation of church and State, 
we got rid of blasphemy a long time ago. But now we have got a human 
being--a governor, no less--who is in prison for hard time in 
Indonesia, one of our allies. We should not let that stand.
  There are hundreds of people all over the Earth who are in prison for 
blasphemy or apostasy or heresy--religious offenses--and we are saying 
nothing about it. In Russia itself, there were just marches a month ago 
against political corruption and authoritarianism. Tens of thousands of 
people. Our government did nothing. Why? Some of them are on the 
payroll of Russian autocrats, and others just don't care.
  We should be on the side of the people of Russia who are fighting for 
democracy, fighting for religious freedom, fighting for human rights. 
That is what America should be about. That is what is really at stake 
here.
  Our government should not be consumed with self-interest and 
promoting people's corporate agendas. It should not be consumed with 
the personal vanity of the President. It should not be about private 
agendas. It should be about the public good of the American people and 
standing with democracies all over the Earth.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________