Department of Justice Investigation

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, last Friday, the New York Times reported that during the Trump administration, the Justice Department issued subpoenas involving Members of Congress, their staff, and family members, even a minor family member. It is highly unusual for the Justice Department to investigate Members of Congress. The reason it is unusual is clear: Our Founders created three separate branches of the Federal Government with a separation of powers so that each branch could serve as a check and balance on the other and no branch would have too much power.

When the Justice Department investigates a Member of Congress, typically, it is for corruption charges. That is understandable, but that is not what happened here. This was an investigation into a leak of information. And the use of subpoenas to investigate Members of Congress is extremely strange territory.

These concerns are heightened when the President has publicly attacked those same Members of Congress. That is what former President Trump did when he repeatedly and without any evidence accused Representative Adam Schiff about leaking information about Russian election interference.

These reports and the reports that journalists and even Trump's own White House Counsel were included in the Justice Department's so-called leak investigation raise serious questions about the Justice Department and its former leaders.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has a constitutional responsibility to oversee the Department of Justice on behalf of the American people, so yesterday our committee sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland asking for more information. But yesterday Senator McConnell, the Republican minority leader in the Senate, came to the floor and warned us off. He warned the Judiciary Committee against exercising our statutory oversight responsibility because it could become ``a partisan circus.'' This came on the heels of Senator McConnell's personal veto of a bipartisan Commission to investigate the deadly January 6 mob attack on the U.S. Capitol. But now the minority leader is warning us against even looking into the targeting of Trump's perceived political enemies by the Justice Department. The minority leader claimed that the Senate does not need to look into this matter because--get this--the Department of Justice inspector general has already announced he would investigate. That is a pretty decent argument if you have no memory whatsoever.

For over 13 months during the last Congress, under a Republican majority, the Senate Judiciary Committee conducted an extensive oversight investigation into the FBI's opening of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation even though the Department of Justice inspector general had already investigated it. The Department of Justice inspector general had already completed a 19-month investigation of so- called Crossfire Hurricane involving over 100 witnesses and reviewing over a million documents.

That wasn't good enough for the Republican majority. They persisted in conducting a committee investigation nevertheless even though the inspector general's investigation concluded that Crossfire Hurricane had a proper basis and that anti-Trump bias did not affect the FBI's work on Crossfire Hurricane. Those are the very issues the Republican majority reexamined in their own investigation. In that instance, the Department of Justice inspector general satisfied all the criteria of an inspection, an investigation, and yet the Republicans rejected it and proceeded forward.

In this case, the Republican leader in the Senate is arguing that the work of the inspector general should be enough--quite a difference.

Throughout the course of that investigation, the Senate Judiciary Committee held extensive hearings, but it wasn't enough.

The Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee was so focused on investigating a conspiracy theory about Obama that they didn't hold a single hearing on the Trump administration's Department of Justice in 4 years. If they had, maybe they would have discovered this latest revelation rather than the New York Times.

Senator McConnell did not warn the Judiciary Committee that the DOJ inspector general's investigation was sufficient or that its investigation into Crossfire Hurricane would become a partisan circus. He saw it completely differently in those days.

Importantly, it seems the minority leader does not speak for his entire caucus. Yesterday the minority whip said: ``Obviously this warrants further review and investigation,'' and he ``assume[s] the committee will work through that.'' I hope that other Republican Members of the Chamber join the minority whip to call for further investigation. Congress's place in our constitutional order is too important to simply look the other way.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source