[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Page 8404]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          RUSSIA INVESTIGATION

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, yesterday former CIA Director John 
Brennan testified in the House Intelligence Committee that he had 
growing concerns about Russian interference in the final months of the 
2016 election, adding that an investigation into potential collusion 
between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin was well founded. He issued 
very strong words.
  Coming from a very careful civil servant from the intelligence 
community, Mr. Brennan's testimony should further compel Congress and 
the special counsel to pursue the full truth. What Mr. Brennan said was 
happening gets at the very core of our democracy, the free and fair 
election of our representatives. Americans of all political stripes 
should be outraged by what Putin and the Russians did during the 2016 
elections. As former Director Brennan said, in America, ``we cherish 
the ability to elect our own leaders without outside interference or 
disruption.''
  So, again, I expect that the Senate Intelligence Committee will 
continue its bipartisan investigation into these events. I expect that 
Special Counsel Mueller will help us all get to the bottom of this. We 
must make sure he is not interfered with.
  Finally, I expect this body will hold up a high standard for the next 
FBI Director. He or she should be someone who is nonpartisan and 
independent, a Director's Director, a prosecutor's prosecutor, not a 
politician of either party.
  Amidst all of the furor, we cannot lose sight of the most serious 
part of this investigation: the scope of Russian interference in our 
elections and whether they colluded with representatives of an American 
campaign in the process. That is very serious stuff--very serious. We 
must pursue that investigation with vigor no matter who might stand in 
the way of it.

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