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Congressional Record United States Th of America PROCEEDINGS and DEBATES of the 116 CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION

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Congressional Record United States Th of America PROCEEDINGS and DEBATES of the 116 CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 116 CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION Vol. 166 WASHINGTON, FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2020 No. 15 Senate The Senate met at 1:05 p.m. and was States is sitting for the trial of the articles That is what you should expect for called to order by the Chief Justice of of impeachment exhibited by the House of the day, and with that, I will now yield the United States. Representatives against Donald John Trump, to Mr. CROW of Colorado. President of the United States. f Mr. Manager CROW. Mr. Chief Jus- The CHIEF JUSTICE. The majority tice, good afternoon. I woke up this TRIAL OF DONALD J. TRUMP, leader is recognized. morning and walked to my local coffee PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED ORDER OF PROCEDURE shop, where, unlike my esteemed col- STATES league Mr. JEFFRIES from New York, Mr. MCCONNELL. Mr. Chief Justice, The CHIEF JUSTICE. The Senate for all of our colleagues’ information nobody complained to me about Colo- will convene as a Court of Impeach- about scheduling, today we will plan to rado baseball. So I could only conclude ment. take short breaks every 2 to 3 hours that this is only a New York Yankees The Chaplain will please lead us in and will accommodate a 30-minute re- problem. As Mr. SCHIFF mentioned, we talked prayer. cess for dinner, assuming it is needed, last night about the July 25 call and PRAYER until the House managers have finished The Chaplain, Dr. Barry C. Black, of- the multiple officials who had con- their opening presentation. firmed the intent of the President in fered the following prayer: For scheduling purposes, we have or- Let us pray. withholding the aid, so now I would ganized tomorrow’s session to convene like to turn to what happened around Almighty God, as we resume this im- at 10 a.m. and run for several hours as peachment trial, let Your will be done. the time the aid was lifted. the President’s counsel begin their We know that the aid was lifted ulti- Enlighten our Senators as You show presentation. them Your will. Lord, guide them with mately on September 11, but it wasn’t The CHIEF JUSTICE. Pursuant to lifted for any legitimate reason. It was Your wisdom, supporting them with the provisions of S. Res. 483, the man- Your power. In spite of disagreements, only lifted because President Trump agers for the House of Representatives had gotten caught. Let’s go through may they strive for civility and re- have 7 hours 53 minutes remaining to how we know that. spect. May they respect the right of make the presentation of their case. On August 26, the whistleblower com- the opposing side to differ regarding The Senate will now hear you. plaint had been sent to the Director of convictions and conclusions. Give them OPENING STATEMENT—CONTINUED National Intelligence, and public re- the wisdom to distinguish between ports indicate that President Trump Mr. Manager SCHIFF. Mr. Chief Jus- facts and opinions without lambasting was told about the complaint by White tice, Senators, distinguished counsel of the messengers. House Counsel Pat Cipollone. We pray in Your strong Name. Amen. the President, I keep wanting to say On September 5, though, the scheme PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE ‘‘good morning,’’ but good afternoon. I became public. An editorial in the The Chief Justice led the Pledge of just wanted to give a very brief ori- Washington Post on that day, for the Allegiance, as follows: entation to the argument you will hear first time publicly, explicitly linked I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the today. the military aid hold and the investiga- United States of America, and to the Repub- We will begin with JASON CROW, who tions that President Trump wanted. lic for which it stands, one nation under God, was talking about the conditionality of Keep in mind that public scrutiny of indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the military assistance. This is the lat- the President’s hold increased exponen- THE JOURNAL ter part, although not the end, of the tially after this became public. And The CHIEF JUSTICE. Will Senators argumentation on the application of this is where things start moving real- please be seated. the constitutional law as it respects ar- ly fast. If there is no objection, the Journal ticle I, the abuse of power. I will have A few days later, on September 9, the of proceedings of the trial are approved a presentation after Mr. CROW, and House investigative committees pub- to date. soon thereafter we will conclude the licly announced their investigation of Hearing no objection, it is so ordered. presentation on article I. We will then the President’s conduct in Ukraine. The Sergeant at Arms will make the begin the presentation on article II, Lieutenant Colonel Vindman testified proclamation. once again applying the constitutional to the National Security Council, and The Sergeant at Arms, Michael C. law to the facts on the President’s ob- others at the White House learned Stenger, made proclamation as follows: struction of Congress. We will then about the investigation when it was Hear ye! Hear ye! Hear ye! All persons are have some concluding thoughts and announced. And a colleague of his said commanded to keep silence, on pain of im- then turn it over to the President’s that it might have the effect of releas- prisonment, while the Senate of the United counsel. ing the aid. On that same day, the ∑ This ‘‘bullet’’ symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. S531 . VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:34 Jan 25, 2020 Jkt 099060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 4624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\A24JA6.000 S24JAPT1 SSpencer on DSKBBXCHB2PROD with SENATE S532 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE January 24, 2020 House Intelligence Committee learns support for Ukraine. And regardless of told the GAO at one point. But the evi- that the administration had withheld whether the aid was ultimately re- dence shows the opposite. The evidence the whistleblower complaint from Con- leased, the fact that the hold became shows that the administration didn’t gress. The scheme was unravelling. public sent a very clear signal to Rus- conduct a review at any time after the What happens 2 days later? President sia that our support for Ukraine was President ordered the hold. Trump released the military aid. wavering, and Russia was watching Laura Cooper was not aware of any He only released it after he got very closely for any sign of weakness. review of the funding conducted by caught. But there is another reason we The damage was done. DOD in July, August, or September, know the President lifted the aid only Now, any possible doubt about and, similarly, George Kent testified because he got caught: because there is whether the aid was linked to the in- that the State Department did not con- no other explanation. The testimony of vestigations has been erased by the duct and was never asked to conduct a all of the witnesses confirmed it. Both President’s own Chief of Staff. We have review of funding administrated by the Lieutenant Colonel Vindman and Ms. seen this video before during the trial, State Department. In fact, on May 23, Williams testified that they were not but there is a really good reason for the anti-corruption review was com- provided any reason for lifting the this. It is a complete admission on na- plete and DOD certified to Congress hold. Vindman testified that nothing tional TV that the military aid was that Ukraine had complied with all of on the ground had changed in the 2 conditioned on Ukraine helping the the conditions and that the remaining months of the hold, and Mark Sandy of President’s political campaign. half of the aid should be released. This the OMB also confirmed that. Ambas- Here, once again, is what Mulvaney was confirmed by the June 18 press re- sador Taylor, too, testified that ‘‘I was said. lease announcing the funding. not told the reason why the hold had (Text of Videotape presentation:) Do you remember the fictitious been lifted.’’ Mr. MULVANEY. Did he also mention to ‘‘interagency review process’’? That Let me take a moment to address an- me in the past the corruption related to the was made up too. No review is nec- other defense I expect you will hear: DNC server? Absolutely. No question about essary because it had already been that the aid was released and the inves- that. But that is it. And that’s why we held done. tigations were never announced; so up the money. Next, the President’s counsel keeps therefore no harm, no foul, right? Well, Mr. Manager CROW. When pressed saying this was about corruption in this defense would be laughable if this that he just confessed to the very quid Ukraine. President Trump was not con- issue wasn’t so serious. pro quo that President Trump had been cerned with fighting corruption. It is First, I have spoken over the past 3 denying, Mulvaney doubled down. difficult to even say that with a days about the real consequences of in- (Text of Videotape presentation:) straight face. The President never serting politics into matters of war. QUESTION. To be clear, what you just de- mentioned corruption on either call Real people, real lives are at stake. scribed is a quid pro quo.
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