Executive Calendar

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, since the Federal Bureau of Investigation launched the Crossfire Hurricane counterintelligence investigation in July of 2016, there has been no shortage of media coverage of Russia's involvement in our 2016 election. For the better part of 3 years, there has been news; there has been speculation; there have been rumors; there have been partisan accusations made about that topic.

Trying to keep up with the names and the dates, the allegations left you feeling like an old-school detective show--names and photos pinned to a board, with strings of yarn connecting all the pieces. Everyone expected the release of the special counsel's report to be the moment when those dots were finally connected and it explained what happened and who was responsible.

It is safe to say that did not happen. Even though the Mueller report did not find any collusion or obstruction, there was a lot of information that since has been made public about its origins, its motivation, and the means by which that investigation occurred. In fact, rather than settling the matter, these revelations have prompted a whole new range of questions about the investigation itself.

First of all, we had Rod Rosenstein in the Judiciary Committee. He was the Deputy Attorney General. I asked him whether he was aware of any precedent for what happened in 2016 when, at the same time, both major parties' political nominees for President of the United States were the subject of open FBI investigations. He said: No, there is no precedent for that.

First, of course, it was the Hillary email scandal, after which Director Comey made another unprecedented move and had a press conference saying that even though she had been essentially grossly negligent in handling this private email server, he thought that no reasonable prosecutor would bring charges against her.

As much as Secretary Clinton might have appreciated that announcement, or not, a few weeks later, the FBI Director wrote another letter and said: Hey, we have some Anthony Weiner emails that came up on his laptop, so we need to reopen the investigation just a few days before the general election.

Well, you can imagine Secretary Clinton didn't appreciate that. Many people have said that it is because of the FBI's unprecedented involvement in the middle of a Presidential election that it damaged, if not decided, the election in 2016.

And then, of course, there is the Trump-Russia influence investigation, better known as Crossfire Hurricane, leading up to the Mueller investigation and where we are today. In the time since the special counsel completed his investigation and issued his report more than a year ago, we have learned more about the behind-the-scenes work that guided the Russia probe.

Thanks to Inspector General Horowitz and his team at the Department of Justice, thanks to the DNI, the Director of National Intelligence, and others for declassifying important information, we have a whole lot more insight and transparency into exactly what happened. But these revelations have given all of us pause for grave concern. They have highlighted a pattern of sloppiness and outright abuse of power at the highest levels of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and beyond and raised red flags that must be addressed.

In the Senate, it is our duty to get to the bottom of how and why this happened. I can't imagine any Democrat, any Republican, any American saying what happened in the 2016 election to Hillary Clinton and to Donald Trump was OK. Our law enforcement agencies should not play a starring role in an election leading up to the Nation's highest office.

This morning, the first step in our investigation into the origins, means, and methods of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation occurred in the Judiciary Committee. That is where we heard from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. He wasn't the Deputy Attorney General until the spring of 2017, but he did play a key role in the investigation. He signed one of the applications for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant that allowed the FBI to essentially surveil an American citizen. He was the one who appointed Special Counsel Bob Mueller. He ended up being not only an investigator but also a witness in the process.

His account of what happened in the Crossfire Hurricane investigation is important to understanding both the actions and the motivations that drove that investigation. In fact, he said this morning, in response to Chairman Lindsey Graham's question, if you knew then what you know now, would you have signed, sworn to this verified application for a warrant to surveil an American citizen, Carter Page? He said: No. To his credit, he said no. ``If I knew then, what I know now.''

Some of my greatest concerns stem from the Department of Justice Inspector General's report about those FISA abuses, as they are called--Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. This is extraordinary authority given by Congress under very strict rules, and they are supervised by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which was established to provide oversight of these surveillance activities, including surveillance of American citizens under very narrow and restricted guardrails.

If the U.S. intelligence authorities, or law enforcement agencies, believe surveillance is critical to a national security investigation, they submit an application to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to receive that authorization. This is an important step in protecting the rights of American citizens and making sure that our intelligence and law enforcement authorities perform their job consistent with congressional intent and direction. But these verified, in other words, sworn documents are critical, in which accuracy is paramount. That is why they are required to be verified--that is, sworn to--by the top officials at the Department of Justice.

We now know that the applications of the former Trump campaign aide Carter Page were riddled with errors. In the initial Carter Page FISA application, Inspector General Horowitz identified what he called seven mistakes. In the three renewals, he had found an additional 10. These weren't necessarily honest mistakes. In fact, they included significant and material errors, including the deliberate falsification, lying-- lying to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court about Carter Page's past service to the U.S. Government.

To make matters worse, even as new and exculpatory material came to light, this information was not reflected in renewal applications. It was sort of a cut-and-paste job. Those agents who prepared those materials that were signed by people like Rod Rosenstein lied to deceive the court so they could continue to surveil, or spy, on an American citizen--something we do not want to happen unless they are truly an agent of a foreign power and there is probable cause to show that they are such.

These revelations were very troubling in December of 2019, and they are just as troubling today. It does also raise questions about the motivations for the investigation, in the first place. Falsifying a FISA application is clearly not an action one would take if you were in pursuit of the truth. We need to know why the initial application and three renewals were riddled with lies and omissions and how these inaccurate applications were approved by high-ranking officials at the Department of Justice.

Second, this raises serious questions about the way investigations of average Americans are being handled. If these agents were able to break every rule in the book to spy on a Presidential candidate--who ultimately was elected--and are facing no consequences, no accountability, what protections exist for the rest of us in America? Who is going to notice their error-ridden FISA applications if it is John or Jane Q. Public?

What is even more disconcerting is, if this happened once--and it did happen more than once--what is to stop it from happening again? The American people need and deserve answers to these questions, and today's hearing in the Judiciary Committee was the first step in getting the answers to those questions and hopefully corrective action.

Chairman Graham has been clear that we will look at this investigation from all angles--covering the FISA abuses, unmasking requests, and the origins of both Crossfire Hurricane, and the appointment of special counsel.

The trove of declassified transcripts that recently were released by the House Intelligence Committee--actually, declassified by the Director of National Intelligence--only underscores the important need for oversight by the Senate and by the Congress. In reading these transcripts, which were taken in secret, in a secure facility, and only recently made public, I have been shocked at some of the statements made by former Obama administration officials.

Based on the way Chairman Schiff repeatedly claimed to have direct evidence, you would think these officials would provide the smoking gun to the committee. But no--witness after witness confirmed they had no evidence of collusion, coordination, or conspiracy between anyone in the Trump campaign and Russia. What did they do? They walked outside of that secure facility, and they spoke to the TV cameras assembled there, and they lied. They misrepresented what was said during that classified testimony.

This really begs the question: Why did this investigation begin and how, without evidence, did it last for nearly 2 years?

Additionally, I have a lot of questions about the sloppy and incomplete investigative work surrounding Crossfire Hurricane when it came to the use of something called a confidential human source.

Christopher Steele, former intelligence officer from the United Kingdom, was hired by Fusion GPS to do opposition research against the Trump campaign for the Hillary Clinton campaign. Yet, at the same time, he was considered by the FBI as a confidential human source.

Inspector General Horowitz's report makes clear Mr. Steele and his FBI handler did not even agree on the terms of their arrangement. Steele said: I am a businessman collecting information. The FBI said: Well, this is just between us, and you can't talk to the public, which he clearly did, and he did so at the same time he was supposed to be a confidential human source.

The FBI background check into Christopher Steele was so sloppy, they didn't even understand that his loyalties were not with the FBI and the U.S. Government, they were with his paymaster--Fusion GPS, his employer. That is one reason there were such inaccuracies throughout this investigation, including in the FISA applications.

So we need answers, and we need accountability. Based on what I have seen so far, one conclusion is that there was a coordinated effort to manipulate our intelligence community and justice system for vindictive and biased purposes against a Presidential candidate and elected President of the United States. I realize that this is a grave and serious charge, but I think it is one conclusion you could draw based on what we know.

It is high time we learned the truth. If this kind of misbehavior and deception becomes routine, it will jeopardize important legal authorities that we rely on to protect our national security. It is counter to our values and is a direct blow to the foundation of our democracy.

I appreciate Chairman Graham's prioritizing these oversight hearings. I know we have a lot of work to do in order to restore public confidence in our justice system as well as in our intelligence community--the people charged with protecting the American people. We need to learn what really happened so we can make sure this never ever, ever happens again.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source