[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 19 (Monday, January 29, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H657-H661]
RELEASE THE FOUR-PAGE MEMO
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 3, 2017, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Gaetz) is recognized
for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mr. GAETZ. Mr. Speaker, I come to the House this evening with several
of my colleagues principally to thank Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob
Goodlatte, Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey
Gowdy, and Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Devin
Nunes for their tireless pursuit of the truth.
There is a four-page memo. I have read it. Over 190 of my Republican
colleagues have read it. Some Democrats have read it, and some have
boycotted reading it. It details circumstances that are deeply
troubling to me and that I believe will be deeply troubling to many
Americans.
This memo encapsulates an entire year of work by these committees and
by these committee chairmen, and they are to be commended for the
excellent job that they have done, for the professionalism that they
have undertaken, and for the stunning facts that they have uncovered
that will soon be available for the American people.
I will have more to say on this throughout the hour, Mr. Speaker, but
first I yield to one of my colleagues in the Congress who was one of
the first and loudest voices calling for transparency at the highest
levels and to the maximum extent possible.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Zeldin).
Mr. ZELDIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Gaetz for organizing this
important Special Order and all my colleagues for coming to the House
floor tonight encouraging the President of the United States now to
certify the release of this memo to the American public.
[[Page H658]]
The American public is a lot smarter than a whole lot of other people
give them credit for. Present them with the facts and the truth, and
they can form their own independent judgment as to what transpired.
That was the first thought that came to my mind when I went to the
basement a week before last--the basement of the House Capitol--to read
this classified memo of the House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence, that this memo should be immediately released to the
American public so that they have all of the facts.
In addition to releasing the memo, I believe it is important to be
releasing relevant material sourced in the memo.
Now, tonight, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
voted to publicly release this memo to the American public, and, at the
same time, the House Democrats came to the committee calling for the
declassification and public release of their memo.
{time} 1945
Let me add a little bit more context on this memo that the House
Democrats came to the floor asking to be released.
They did not allow the voting members of the House Intelligence
Committee to read the memo tonight before voting to declassify and
publicly release it.
Let me repeat that. The House Democrats, led by Ranking Member Adam
Schiff, went to the House Intelligence Committee tonight calling for
the public release of their memo, asking for their colleagues to
declassify the memo and to publicly release it immediately, without
giving them the opportunity to read it first.
I can speak for myself. I haven't read the memo that the House
Democrats offered up tonight. I haven't been granted any access to read
it. I am not aware of any other of my colleagues who have been able to
read it. I can't even confirm it exists.
After the committee met, it was fascinating to watch the minority
members of the House Intelligence Committee going straight from the
hearing room to the cameras to give their narrative. At no point did
they mention whatsoever, when they were saying that they were outraged
that the majority members of that committee didn't vote to publicly
release it, at no point did they mention that they never gave them the
opportunity to read it first.
What you don't see, at the same time, are the majority members of the
House Intelligence Committee racing off to all those same cameras to
give their same side of the narrative, the members of that House
Intelligence Committee.
What we are asking for is the American public to get the facts so
that they can form the judgment of this FISA abuse for themselves.
I, too, applaud the leadership of Mr. Nunes and the House
Intelligence Committee for their work to restore faith with the
American people.
As a former Army intelligence officer and JAG officer myself, I
understand the importance of giving our intelligence agencies the
critical tools they need to protect our homeland, assist our troops on
the front lines, and surveil our enemies. However, it is critical that
we strike a balance between national security and civil liberty to
prevent any gross violation of individual liberties under the guise of
national security.
Congress has the responsibility of ensuring an appropriate balance is
struck, and when it is not, to release information we feel is in the
national interest and of public importance. Today, Congress took an
important step in making this possible.
Americans deserve the truth. To pull the wool over the eyes of the
American public insults their intelligence and debases the freedoms and
liberties on which our government was founded. Government transparency
and accountability should be neither partisan nor divisive.
I would urge my colleagues on either side of the aisle, especially
those who have voted against its release, to evaluate and reflect upon
their position and come together united in favor of our belief that the
American public is a lot smarter than many give them credit for. Give
them the facts, and we have faith they will be able to form their own
independent conclusions.
Now it is up to the President. I would encourage him to release the
memo. I would also encourage him to release relevant material sourced
in it. Americans have the right know. If we as their elected
Representatives fail to stand up for them, who will?
The only way forward is to give the American public more information,
not less. Release the memo.
I thank Congressman Matt Gaetz for his leadership throughout this
entire process and his efforts to make sure the American public learns
more, not less.
Mr. GAETZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his persuasive
leadership. The gentleman from New York (Mr. Zeldin) was one of the
first to sign letters to members of the House Intelligence Committee,
and particularly its chairman, expressing the sense of this body that
we supported the transparency that the gentleman spoke of.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Lamborn).
Mr. LAMBORN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his leadership on
this issue and for putting this hour together.
Mr. Speaker, I have reviewed the secret memo in a secure setting.
After having reviewed the contents of the classified memo relating to
FISA abuses, I support its full release to the public. Americans
deserve the truth, and Congress should always strive for transparency.
I am stunned at the previous administration's underhanded
surveillance methods and misuse of power at the highest levels of the
FBI and Department of Justice. This should never have been permitted to
happen.
Moreover, all Federal agencies, including the FBI, should be held to
a high standard and always be held accountable for their actions. The
issues that the memo raises must be brought to light and dealt with
responsibly.
I am pleased that the House Intelligence Committee voted tonight to
release the memo, but our work does not end there. We must continually
strive for integrity and openness within all levels of government.
Mr. GAETZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr.
Biggs), who serves on the Judiciary Committee. He has worked very hard
from the very beginning to ascertain the bases of claims made and is a
true investigator at heart.
Mr. BIGGS. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Florida for leading
tonight's Special Order. It has been an eye-opening year in office for
me, and it is an honor to serve with Representative Gaetz on the
Judiciary Committee in the pursuit of justice.
Exactly 11 nights ago, Mr. Speaker, I walked into a secure vault,
signed one of the most detailed nondisclosure documents I have ever
seen, and viewed ``the memo.'' Everything I read was what I expected to
read. That is what is outrageous to me. There was not much that I did
not expect to find.
I thank Chairman Goodlatte, Chairman Gowdy, Chairman Nunes, and
members of the House Intelligence Committee who have now voted to
present that memo to the public. I am looking forward to President
Trump shortly declassifying that memo permanently.
I have heard people say to me: You are eroding trust in government
and in the finest law enforcement agency in the country, the FBI, with
your continual attacks. But they don't understand that we are not
attacking the FBI. We are seeking clarity, transparency, and an
understanding of what went on under the leadership of the Department of
Justice and the FBI in the previous administration. To not reveal that
to the public is what erodes trust in their government.
Nothing in this memo will impair our national security. But if we are
to withhold this memo from the American people, I believe that,
instead, would harm our national security because it would harm the
integrity of those agencies, and it would further erode the trust that
Americans have in their government.
The American people deserve to see the information that I have read,
that Mr. Gaetz has read, and that over 100 Members of Congress have
read. The leadership of Chairman Devin Nunes has made a tremendous
difference, and this truth will be exposed. I congratulate him.
[[Page H659]]
Mr. Speaker, this memo will provide clarity and understanding. This
is the memo, when it gets out, where the people will say: We need to
make changes. We have got to have people in these law enforcement
agencies and that lead these agencies and these bodies be trustworthy,
follow the law, and not abuse their power for political gain or
purpose.
Mr. Speaker, I trust my constituents. Frankly, in the last week, I
met with literally hundreds of my constituents. The most common theme
talked about was: When will that classified memo be released so I can
read it, so I can make a determination, so I can understand what has
been going on in our government?
I am so pleased that the House Intelligence Committee voted today to
answer the question. In short order you will be able to read this and
make up your own mind. That is why I encourage President Trump to
quickly declassify the memo.
Again, I thank my colleague, Representative Gaetz, and all who have
been working on this issue to make this memo open and transparent for
the people.
Mr. GAETZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his service on the
Judiciary Committee.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Farenthold),
another of my colleagues on the Judiciary Committee.
Mr. FARENTHOLD. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida; he
has definitely been a leader on this issue.
I have got to tell you that I, too, am happy the Intelligence
Committee has agreed to release the memo. When I was back home in Texas
last week, it was the number one issue people were talking to me about.
I want to take a minute and step back and do a little bit of a
history lesson.
The Fourth Amendment to our Constitution arose from some of the
abusive practices that were going on in the Colonies. The King of
England would send his troops to rifle through people's effects without
a warrant. Our Fourth Amendment said we are not going to let that
happen in these new United States of America. We are going to require
the government to get a warrant before they go through people's papers.
We are protected from illegal searches.
I have been worried since the first day I got here in Congress, but
in our effort to protect ourselves--and perhaps out of fear, some of
it, perhaps, warranted--we are eroding those rights.
So, as this memo comes out, regardless of what is in it, we need to
be looking at the process: how we went to a secret court to get
permission to get this information, how that information was gathered,
what that information was, who vetted it, how thoroughly it was vetted,
how the judges reacted, and, eventually, what came out and determined
whether we need to reform that process to protect Americans' rights.
Yes, we all have a right to know what is going on with our
government. Yes, I am worried about career bureaucrats or elected
officials abusing the power of the government to get information on
their political enemies, like the King was doing back in the days of
the Revolutionary War. This is our opportunity to make sure that
doesn't happen in these United States.
Let's not lose sight of what the issue is here, and that is
protecting the people not only from foreigners who look to do us harm,
but also from an oppressive government that abuses its power to spy on
American citizens.
I am glad this memo is going to come out. I urge President Trump to
promptly release it and, in fact, go beyond that: look at some of the
sources of the material in it, determine that we can reveal some of
those sources without jeopardizing our ability to gather intelligence,
and release the source materials so we know what people knew when they
made the decision to pursue the material covered in this memo.
I think this is a great time for this country. I think this is our
opportunity to remind ourselves that we do have a right to be safe and
secure in our persons and papers from a government that may be trying
to do more than protect us.
Maybe some of these folks in the government have shifted from what we
need to protect America, such as, well, the best way to protect America
is to protect ourselves and our jobs and our political agenda.
That is not what the job of our law enforcement and intelligence
community is. It is to protect us from those who want to do us harm,
especially foreigners. I want to give them the power to do that, the
ability to do that, but I do not want to give them the ability to
affect elections, to go after their political enemies, to spy on any
one of us because they can.
Human nature is such that, if we give the government too much power,
there are those who will abuse it. So we in Congress have got to keep
our eye on the ball at all times and protect the constitutional rights
that our forefathers and our Founding Fathers gave us and that our men
and women in uniform fight for every day that they are in service to
this country.
{time} 2000
Mr. GAETZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Iowa (Mr.
King), a fellow member of the Judiciary Committee, another of the first
Members of Congress to demand the appointment of a second special
counsel to look into matters such as this.
Mr. KING of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida
(Mr. Gaetz) for yielding to me. I appreciate the gentleman for taking
the lead on this issue back some weeks or months ago to bring a
resolution to the House Judiciary Committee to call for special counsel
to more broadly investigate all of the defugalties that have been
taking place in this country, driven by political partisanship on the
other side of the aisle.
Mr. Speaker, I look back and I think about what the attitude was of
President Trump--actually, even before the election and shortly after--
when I listened to him, and he more or less expressed this sentiment,
which was that, with Hillary Clinton and her transgressions and the way
she had handled the classified material and up to the secret server
next to the bathroom up in New York in her place, essentially, the
President's position was that we need to move America forward. We
should not be dug deeply into going backwards on this or looking back
over our shoulder. Let's move forward. The public has litigated this in
the election.
Now, I think that is where President Trump wanted it to be, but it
wasn't to be because the left could not accept the idea that the
American people had spoken. They began to manufacture and continue the
manufacture this Russian investigation, these allegations that were
collusion allegations with the Russians to try to manipulate an
American election.
I don't think anybody doubts that the Russians made some effort at
that, but all of us doubt that they had any impact whatsoever on our
election. Those of us, at least on this side of the aisle, have seen
zero information and zero evidence that the campaign of President Trump
had any kind of relationship that went on with the Russians, that
promoted it or colluded in any way. But because there needed to be some
explanation for this phenomenal Presidential election of Donald Trump,
we had to be drug back into this Russian investigation over and over
again. Now, this began within 2 weeks of the President's election,
after about November 8 or so.
Then as that unfolded, Mr. Speaker, then we saw what was really going
on here. We got into about February or March of last year. At that
point, I said: They are not going to relent on this Russian
investigation business. They are going to continue to belabor this
point. The election has already been settled and it is not in question,
as far as the results of the polls are concerned. We have a President.
Let's honor the President. Let's honor the will of the American people.
Let's respect the decision made at the polls.
But, instead, the pressure continued on and on, allegations complicit
with the mainstream media, the fake news, as we have now finally come
to know them, I think, by habit and fact. At that point, I said: If
they will not let up, then it is going to be an obligation to dig and
drill deeply into all of the things that bring us together, from Huma
Abedin and Anthony Weiner all the way across the board, from Hillary
and the sham investigation, the questioning of her on July 2, 2016, on
and on
[[Page H660]]
throughout the whole spectrum of things.
It became an obligation to drill to the complete bottom of all of the
allegations that had been made from the investigation that surely
didn't look legitimate to us, as Mr. Gaetz and I and others on the
Judiciary Committee began to question people from the FBI and the
people from the Justice Department and, at that time, James Comey, the
Director of the FBI. We put those pieces together.
Each one of those little incidents that were testified to kind of
stood up okay on their own, but when you put them together in the
string of it had to be an unbelievable string of coincidences that were
presented before the Judiciary Committee and the other committees here
on the Hill, it became clear to us, initiated by Mr. Gaetz, that we
need to go much more deeply into this and much more quickly. A good
number of us supported a resolution to call for special counsel.
Now, I support the idea of an additional special counsel to broaden
this. I would write the language even more broadly than the original
resolution. But we should keep in mind what is going on on this Hill
today, that is, that there are, by my count, at least, seven different
congressional committees that are investigating this broad picture of
the subject matter that we are discussing here today.
On top of that, we have Robert Mueller's investigation as a special
counsel. Additionally, we have an IG investigation going on in the
Justice Department under Michael Horowitz.
Michael Horowitz has a good reputation. He has about 450
investigators all together, all of whom are probably not working on
this. I would be surprised if they were. So there are seven reports
from committees that will eventually come out, Mr. Speaker, and one
from Robert Mueller that is going to come out and one from the IG that
is going to come out.
This is pretty confusing to try to understand the subject matter that
they are addressing. It is defined a little bit differently from
committee to committee and from the assigned investigation groups, but
I will envision this:
Our Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, sits there in the Justice
Department having, in an honorable way, recused himself from the
Russian investigation, which keeps his hands off of that. The
recommendation, as I understand that, came from Rod Rosenstein, the
acting U.S. Attorney General in the event that Jeff Sessions isn't
there to be the Attorney General. That was in the recommendation, by
the testimony that I believe I remember, that Jeff Sessions should
recuse himself from the Russian investigation, and that is the man who
made the appointment of Robert Mueller.
So when I look at this whole picture, our Attorney General's job is a
tough one, but it is one I think he can do better than anyone else in
this country or on this planet, and that is make sense of all of these
investigations, seven congressional investigations, an IG
investigation, and a special counsel's investigation. That adds up to
nine, by my estimation.
Now, people are human. So that says to me that these assignments of
these investigations are either going to overlap or there are going to
be gaps. When you have nine of them all together, there will be
overlapping and there will be gaps. Where there are overlaps, there is
likely to be some contradiction.
So the job of the Attorney General is to look at this whole picture
and put this back together in a way that you can figure out what the
contradictions are, fill in the gaps, investigate the places that
haven't been investigated by the assignments of these various
committees and the special counsel, and then deliver to the American
people the right kind of view on the justice that needs to come. If
there are indictments, to make that call for those indictments, clearly
and unequivocally, based upon factual evidence.
That is why I support this memo being released in the vote of the
Select Committee on Intelligence today. It is essential that the
American people get to the truth. They can't absorb this truth all in
one day. It has to come out a piece at a time because we are human and
they are human.
So I encourage the Attorney General to keep his hand on this in the
steady way that he has. I am very confident that the decisions made on
the Select Committee on Intelligence are the correct ones, and I am
very confident that the President will make a decision to release the
memo so the American people can get at the truth. How far the truth
takes us, history will write that book.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for putting this all together here
this evening.
Mr. GAETZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King)
for being a clarion voice for calling this Congress and this
administration to act in a way that is consistent with the values and
the principles of the American people.
Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Florida has 33 minutes
remaining.
Mr. GAETZ. Mr. Speaker, I will not take that full allotment of time.
I will say, though, that it is worth repeating the great work that
Chairman Bob Goodlatte has done in the Judiciary Committee; the
excellent work that Trey Gowdy has done, the chairman of the Oversight
and Government Reform Committee; and the excellent work that Chairman
Devin Nunes has done. Each of these committees has jurisdiction over a
different component part of the information that is laid out before the
American people that has given rise to so many concerns about bias,
departure from standard practices, familial relationships, and the
potential political corrosion of institutions that we have to rely on
for an effective democracy.
I also want to thank the thousands of people who work in the FBI and
the Department of Justice who are patriots, who go to work every day to
protect us from threats at home and abroad, who really do do a great
job in defense of this country. It is not their work that we question;
in fact, it is their work we hope to empower.
When you have circumstances where folks at the head shed or the
leading bureaucrats can rip investigations away from field offices, can
alter the contents of information that is shared with the American
people, it undermines the work that true law enforcement members are
doing. We want to highlight and honor that work while, at the same
time, exercising our oversight function to go after the bad conduct
and, where we find it systemic, institute reforms so that it does not
happen again.
The FBI and the Department of Justice should never be a political
weapon used to go after adversaries. This is an issue where we ought to
have more bipartisan agreement, Mr. Speaker. While I am grateful that
the Republicans on the Intelligence Committee this evening were able to
carry the day in the fight for transparency, I am disappointed that
these issues led to party-line votes.
The reality is that all Americans--Republican, Democrat, Independent,
Libertarian, or members of the Whig Party--have an interest in ensuring
that we have systems in place that protect our constitutional rights
and liberties. We all have a stake in the action to ensure that, no
matter which party wins or loses an election, the political apparatus
of intelligence won't be used to go after enemies or people we disagree
with.
I believe this was an opportunity missed, but it won't be the last
one. I believe that the President is going to declassify this
information within the 5-day window allowed to him. When he does, all
Americans will see why Republicans have been concerned with the
information we have learned. Then the opportunity will arise to work
together, to take these facts, to take what we know, and to liberate
ourselves from the partisanship of this town and to try to make things
better so that, in the future, you don't have a circumstance where one
investigation is called a headquarter special and taken away from the
Washington field office, as the Hillary Clinton email scandal was.
We certainly don't want cases where people's family members--familial
relationships, spousal relationships--influence the outcomes of
decisions; and we also don't want systems in place that allow leaks to
the media within the apparatus of intelligence to cloud
[[Page H661]]
our mind, to cloud our judgment, to cloud the facts, or to cloud the
review of our courts.
So, again, while I am proud of the work of the people who have spent
a year investigating these matters, while I am confident in the
findings of this report, I still remain disappointed that we don't have
more unity to ensure that these types of abuses never happen again.
Mr. Speaker, tomorrow, the President of the United States will walk
down the center aisle. He will address this floor. There might be a few
more folks than there are here this evening. I hope that the first
thing he does is hand to the Speaker of the House his consent and his
agreement to allow transparency to rein, to declassify this memo, to
put it before the American people, and then let's have a great debate
about its consequences and about the opportunity that it presents to
make things better so that these things never happen again.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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