Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I want to thank my colleague from Massachusetts for her statement and for going into depth on the Mueller report and talking about the findings.

This morning, of course, we heard the Republican leader, Senator McConnell, come to the floor and say something quite different--to quote what he said, the work of the special counsel and the Attorney General ``and how we can finally end this `Groundhog Day' spectacle, stop endlessly relitigating a 2\1/2\-year-old election result, and move forward for the American people.''

It is pretty clear the Republican leader would like to say to the American people: Keep on moving, there is nothing to be seen here. But we know better.

If you take a look at the Mueller report: $26 million spent, 50 attorneys and agents, almost 2 years, scores of indictments that came down and some guilty pleas already and yet even more to follow. This isn't over, and it will not be over soon, nor should it be.

It is obvious my Republican colleagues want to move on as quickly as possible from talking about how Russia interfered in the 2016 election with the stated intent of helping to elect Donald Trump President. They definitely don't want to talk about the many links between the Russians and the Trump campaign or how, in the words of the Mueller report: ``The campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts.''

They certainly don't want to talk about the overwhelming evidence that Donald Trump obstructed justice.

Today I believe the count was up to 566 former prosecutors, including U.S. attorneys, who believe that, reading the Mueller report, there is ample evidence to go forward with the prosecution on obstruction.

We know Mueller himself has said in the report that it is an opinion by the Office of Legal Counsel precluding the indictment and prosecution of a President while in office that stopped him short of either charging or exonerating the President on this charge.

No, my Republican colleagues want to put the Russia investigation in the past, and as quickly as possible. And then in the next breath, of course, at the hearing where Attorney General Barr appeared, we see that they want to return to those thrilling days of yesteryear. They say we need to look at Hillary Clinton's emails all over again. That, to them, is a more compelling issue. I think they are wrong. The interference by a foreign power in the U.S. election is the most compelling issue before us, and it cannot and should not be ignored.

The work on the Russia investigation is not over. The Mueller report has 14 criminal investigations that have been referred by the special counsel to other Justice Department components. Twelve of those referred investigations are redacted so we don't know their nature.

There is also the counterintelligence side of the investigation. We need to fully understand what evidence Special Counsel Mueller uncovered about how the Russians were able to accomplish what they did.

A spokesman for the White House said several days ago that he couldn't understand all the furor behind this Russia interference. After all, they just bought a couple Facebook ads. Well, it turns out he was wrong. There was a lot more involvement, and the Mueller report pointed to it.

Here is my concern: Attorney General Barr's actions have compromised his credibility when it comes to overseeing the continuing investigations that were brought on by the Mueller inquiry. Barr's blatant mischaracterization of the Mueller report in his March 24 letter and April 18 press conference, his 19-page memo in 2018 that showed bias on the question of obstruction, his decision to make a prosecutorial judgment on obstruction despite Mueller's view that it was not appropriate for the Department to do so in light of that OLC opinion, and Barr's many stunning statements before Congress have undermined confidence in his independence and his judgment.

I have called on him publicly and renew that call that he recuse himself from those pending criminal investigations and prosecutions that emanate from the Mueller report. At a minimum, he should recuse himself from the 14 ongoing referred criminal investigations, and Special Counsel Mueller and Don McGahn should be called on to testify about unresolved questions.

Why in the world are they trying to cover up this investigation? Why wouldn't we bring Bob Mueller before the Senate Judiciary Committee, for example, and ask obvious questions?

Remember, there are two volumes in the Mueller report. The first volume relates to Russian interference in the election and our continuing concern that they are going to try it again in 2020. Shouldn't it be priority one of the Senate Judiciary Committee to have Bob Mueller before us, to have the evidence he accumulated carefully evaluated to protect the integrity of the election process in 2020? Is there any higher priority in a democracy than the integrity of an election?

Clearly, there is, and we have seen it and heard it from the chairman of the Judiciary Committee as well as from the Republican leader today. The highest priority for them is to move on; make certain that we don't spend any moment contemplating, considering, or even arguing about what we could do to make this a better and safer democracy in the next electoral cycle.

On the issue of obstruction of justice, I am afraid we are going to be debating that for some time, but I certainly would like to hear from Bob Mueller, directly, what he did find and why he did not reach a conclusion to exonerate the President on that charge. That is a critical element.

Let me say one last word about a recurring theme and message from the Republican leader about how the previous President, Barack Obama, did not take seriously the threats of Russian involvement in the 2016 election.

I think the record speaks for itself. Leading up to October 7, when the President came forward and publicly stated what he had been doing-- what his administration had been doing to investigate this Russian interference, he called for a bipartisan commitment of Republicans and Democrats to stop it in place.

There was one voice of resistance, and it came from Senator McConnell, the Republican leader. He didn't want to take this as seriously as President Obama did. So for him to blame President Obama for not doing enough is to ignore the obvious. Given the chance, as the Republican Senate leader, he did little or nothing to acknowledge the Russian threat or do anything about it.

Now we should do something to make sure 2020 turns out to be an election we can be proud of, regardless of the outcome. Let the American people have the last word, not Vladimir Putin.

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