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Senate the Senate Met at 1:05 P.M 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, THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2020 No. 20 Senate The Senate met at 1:05 p.m. and was Hear ye! Hear ye! Hear ye! All persons are rules. The White House argument to called to order by the Chief Justice of commanded to keep silence, on pain of im- the contrary is wrong, and it would the United States. prisonment, while the Senate of the United have profound negative implications States is sitting for the trial of the articles for how Congress and our democracy f of impeachment exhibited by the House of function. TRIAL OF DONALD J. TRUMP, Representatives against Donald John Trump, President of the United States. On January 9, 2019, the House adopt- PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED ed its rules, like we do every Congress, The CHIEF JUSTICE. The majority STATES and these rules gave the committee the leader is recognized. The CHIEF JUSTICE. The Senate power to issue subpoenas. They are not will convene as a Court of Impeach- ORDER OF PROCEDURE ambiguous rules. Here is the relevant ment. Mr. MCCONNELL. Mr. Chief Justice, portion of rule XI on slide 55: The The Chaplain will lead us in prayer. the Senate will conduct another ques- House’s standing rules give each com- PRAYER tion and answer period today. We were mittee subpoena power ‘‘for the pur- The Chaplain, Dr. Barry C. Black, of- able to get through nearly 100 ques- pose of carrying out any of its func- fered the following prayer: tions yesterday. Senators posed con- tions and duties’’ as it considers nec- Let us pray. structive questions, and the parties essary. This investigation began on Eternal Lord God, send Your Holy were succinct and responsive. I would September 9, before the Speaker’s an- Spirit into this Chamber. Permit our like to compliment all who partici- nouncement on September 24 that it Senators to feel Your presence during pated yesterday. would become part of the impeachment this impeachment trial. Illuminate We will again break every 2 to 3 inquiry umbrella. their minds with the light of Your wis- hours and look to take a break for din- The President doesn’t dispute that dom, exposing truth and resolving un- ner around 6:30. the subpoenas issued by these commit- certainties. May they understand that We have been respectful of the Chief tees were fully within their respective You created them with cognitive capa- Justice’s unique position in reading jurisdiction. The argument is that bilities and moral discernment to be our questions. I want to be able to con- somehow, by declaring that this inves- used for Your glory. Grant that they tinue to assure him that that level of tigation also falls under an inquiry to will comprehend what really matters, consideration for him will continue. consider Articles of Impeachment, separating the relevant from the irrele- The CHIEF JUSTICE. Thank you. which gives Congress actually greater vant. Lord, keep them from fear, as Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. Chief Justice. authority, somehow it nullifies the tra- they believe that Your truth will tri- The CHIEF JUSTICE. The Senator ditional oversight authority. And this umph through them. Eliminate dis- from Washington. just doesn’t make any sense. cordant static with the music of Your Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. Chief Justice, I The President counters that we have wisdom. send a question to the desk for the to take a full vote on impeachment We pray in Your great Name. Amen. House managers. first because that is what has been PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE The CHIEF JUSTICE. Thank you. done in the past. In the Nixon inquiry, The Chief Justice led the Pledge of Senator MURRAY asks the House however, the Judiciary Committee Allegiance, as follows: managers: needed a House resolution to delegate I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the Yesterday, when asked about why the subpoena power, and that is different United States of America, and to the Repub- House did not amend or reissue subpoenas than the Committee’s standing rules lic for which it stands, one nation under God, after it passed its resolution authorizing its today. indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. impeachment inquiry, the House Managers The President actually compels the touched upon the House having the sole THE JOURNAL Power of Impeachment as specified by Arti- opposite conclusion. Several Federal The CHIEF JUSTICE. The Senators cle I of the Constitution. Could you further judges have been investigated and im- will please be seated. elaborate as to why that authority controls peached and convicted in the Senate If there is no objection, the Journal despite any arguments brought forth by without the House having ever taken of proceedings of the trial is approved members of the defense team contesting the an official vote to authorize the in- to date. validity of those subpoenas? quiry, and a Federal court recently The Deputy Sergeant at Arms will Ms. Manager LOFGREN. Mr. Chief confirmed there was no need for a for- make the proclamation. Justice and Senators, that is a good mal vote of the full House to com- The Deputy Sergeant at Arms, Jen- question. mence impeachment proceedings. nifer Hemingway, made the proclama- The answer is that these were validly Even assuming a House vote was nec- tion as follows: issued subpoenas under the House essary, there was a vote. The text of H. ∑ This ‘‘bullet’’ symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. S693 . VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:21 Jan 31, 2020 Jkt 099060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 4624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\A30JA6.000 S30JAPT1 SSpencer on DSKBBXCHB2PROD with SENATE S694 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE January 30, 2020 Res. 660 declared that the six investiga- You are right. They were not able to plenty of emails, text messages, and tive committees of the House were di- directly answer that question, and we other correspondence within the entire rected to continue their ongoing inves- believe that there is a tremendous interagency process that we know is tigations as part of the existing House amount of material out there in the robust that would illustrate that to be of Representatives inquiry into wheth- form of emails, text messages, con- the case, but they have failed to pro- er there was sufficient grounds for the versation, and witness testimony that vide any evidence to corroborate that. House of Representatives to exercise can shed additional light on that, in- Let me finish with this. I happen to its constitutional power to impeach. cluding an email from last summer be- know that a lot of people in this Cham- And the committee report, which ac- tween Mr. Bolton and Mr. Blair, where ber, a lot of people in the Chamber on companies the resolution, specifically we know from witness testimony this the other side of the Capitol, including described the subpoenas that had been issue was discussed. me, have often described much con- issued by the investigating committees What we do know is from multiple sternation about redtape and bureauc- and said ‘‘all subpoenas to the execu- witnesses. Ukrainian officials knew racy and layers of government that run tive branch remain in full force.’’ that President Trump had placed a too slow. And I sometimes share that So why didn’t the House committee hold on security assistance soon after concern, right, that sometimes it takes just reissue these subpoenas after the it was ordered in July of 2019. So we a long time. There are memos for ev- resolution? The short answer is they know that not only did U.S. officials erything, emails for everything. There didn’t need to. The subpoenas were al- know about it and OMB communicated are paper trails for everything in this ready fully authorized. about it, Ukrainians knew about it as town. I think that is true with respect In any event, even after the resolu- well. to this issue, and it is time that we ac- tion passed, the committees issued sub- We know from former Deputy For- tually see that information so we can poenas to Mick Mulvaney, Robert eign Minister of Ukraine, Olena get to the bottom of what actually Blair, and four other witnesses, and the Zerkal—she stated publicly, in fact, happened. This body could get that in- President continued to block those that the Ukrainian officials knew formation. subpoenas. The argument about a full about it and had found out about it in The CHIEF JUSTICE. Thank you, House vote really is just an excuse July. We also know from the testimony Mr. Manager. about President Trump’s obstruction. of Laura Cooper that her staff received The Senator from Pennsylvania. The President refused to comply with two emails from the State Department Mr. TOOMEY. Mr. Chief Justice, I the House subpoenas before the House on July 25 revealing that the Ukrain- send a question to the desk on behalf of vote and after the House vote. The only ian Embassy was ‘‘asking about secu- myself and Senators SASSE, MCSALLY, logical explanation is the one that rity assistance’’ and that ‘‘the Hill CRAPO, THUNE, YOUNG, ERNST, and President Trump gave us all along: He knows about the FMS situation to an BRAUN. was determined to fight all the sub- extent and so does the Ukrainian em- The CHIEF JUSTICE. The question poenas because, in President Trump’s bassy.’’ That was on July 25, the same from Senator TOOMEY and others is for view, according to what he said, he can day as President Trump’s call with counsel for the President: do what he wants.
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