[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 117 (Thursday, July 12, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H6168-H6171]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           CLOUD OF COLLUSION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2017, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from New Jersey 
(Mr. Pascrell) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. PASCRELL. Madam Speaker, in light of the upcoming one-on-one 
meeting between President Trump and Vladimir Putin, I rise today to 
remind the American people about the cloud of collusion hanging over 
their heads.
  As the American people continue to learn details of this unfolding 
scandal, the implausible idea of Russia compromising the President of 
the United States becomes more fact than fiction. The President, his 
family members, his campaign staff, and his close associates have 
repeatedly lied about their multiple contacts with Russian officials 
and close associates of Putin. They have had no consistent explanation 
for these meetings. It has happened over and over.
  Furthermore, the President continues to parrot Putin's version of

[[Page H6169]]

world events over those of his own American career civil servants, 
intelligence operatives, military officials, and allies. This betrayal 
has become like clockwork, an inexplicable routine we cannot simply 
shrug off.
  While it is possible the current list of known campaign contacts, 
positive policy positions, and fawning statements have an innocuous 
explanation, there is a simpler reason the House should be 
investigating: Has President Donald Trump been covertly influenced or 
personally compromised by Russia, a hostile foreign power?
  Russian intelligence is known for using blackmail that exploits 
greed, stupidity, and ego--and other weaknesses--to leverage over 
people. He has employed Mr. Michael Cohen, Mr. Felix Sater--the record 
is very clear on this--both of whom have links to the Russian mafia. He 
has continued the secrecy about his business finances by not releasing 
his tax returns.
  The ethics commissioner told the President of the United States to 
divest. He did not, and he defied that person most responsible for 
draining the swamp, the ethics commissioner.
  From operating his business at or beyond the edge of ethical 
boundaries, Trump's penchant for compromising behavior, his willingness 
to work closely with criminals and expressed desire to protect his 
privacy makes him the ideal target.
  With close business ties, Russia has enjoyed financial leverage over 
President Trump for 15 years. This is a fact that his family has 
admitted to multiple times. The story is well known.
  After a series of brazen abuses of bankruptcy laws, President Trump, 
who was not President at the time, Mr. Trump, found it impossible to 
borrow from American banks, so he turned to unconventional sources of 
capital, including Russian cash.
  From 2003 to 2017, people from the former Soviet Union made 86 all-
cash purchases that we know of, a known red flag of potential money 
laundering of Trump properties, totaling $109 million.
  ``Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot 
of our assets.'' Those are the words of Donald Junior in 2008.
  In 2010, the private wealth division of Deutsche Bank also loaned 
President Trump hundreds of millions of dollars during the same period 
it was laundering billions in Russian money.
  ``We don't rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need 
out of Russia.'' Those are the boasts of Eric Trump from 2014.
  Shady business transactions offer the perfect cover for covert 
payments, and President Trump's adamant refusal to release his tax 
returns publicly only raises the level of suspicion.
  The idea that Russia has been cultivating, supporting, and assisting 
Donald Trump to undermine Western alliances should come as no surprise 
to anyone paying attention. Before and during his campaign for 
President--Mr. Trump--there were several odd connections between the 
two men, which they lied about to the public.
  As President, Mr. Trump called Putin ``fine people.'' He ignored the 
fact that Putin invaded Crimea; intervened in eastern Ukraine; poisoned 
people in the United Kingdom; has commissioned the murder of 
dissidents, journalists, and spies; shot down a commercial airliner in 
Europe; propped up the most ruthless dictator of our time in Syria; and 
violated our sovereignty in the 2016 Presidential election, by every--
every--intelligence organization that says ``USA.''
  To ensure the American people and future Congresses know how we got 
here today, today I will read parts of the Trump-Russia dossier into 
the Record, also known as the Christopher Steele dossier, and include a 
link to its entirety in the Congressional Record.
  Partisans on the other side of the aisle may dismiss the document as 
bogus, even fake news, but they know that several allegations in this 
document have already been verified. While the dossier represents raw 
intelligence or, effectively, a first draft, not a single thing of 
substance has been disproven--not one. And Christopher Steele has 
reliably provided intelligence to the U.K. and U.S. intelligence 
agencies for decades.
  While history will be the final judge on these matters, these are 
some of the allegations which we know have been verified.
  Madam Speaker, this is serious business. When I read from the 
dossier, I am reading from my prime source. What I read tonight has all 
been verified and certified, that which I am reading.

                              {time}  1845

  While history will be a final judge on these matters, here are some 
of the allegations. Page 1 of the dossier, the claim: ``Russian regime 
has been cultivating, supporting, and assisting Trump for at least 5 
years. Aim, endorsed by Putin, has been to encourage splits and 
divisions in the Western alliance''--in the Western alliance.
  ``So far,'' the dossier reads, I will continue, ``Trump has declined 
various sweetener real estate business deals offered him in Russia in 
order to further the Kremlin's cultivation of him. However, he and his 
inner circle have accepted a regular flow of intelligence from the 
Kremlin, including on his Democratic and other political rivals.''
  Now, here is the truth: On January 6, 2017, an intelligence community 
assessment released by the Office of the Director of National 
Intelligence stated that Russian leadership favored Trump's candidacy 
over Clinton's and that Putin personally ordered an influence campaign 
to harm Clinton's electoral chances and ``undermine public faith in the 
U.S. democratic process,'' as well as ordering cyber attacks on ``both 
major U.S. political parties.''
  Page 7 and 8, I don't have time to read the whole thing tonight, 
obviously. Dossier claim on page 7 and 8: ``The Russian regime had been 
behind the recent leak of embarrassing email messages, emanating from 
the Democratic National Committee to the WikiLeaks platform. The reason 
for using WikiLeaks was `plausible deniability,' and the operation had 
been conducted with the full knowledge and support of Trump and senior 
members of his campaign team. In return, the Trump team had agreed to 
sideline Russian intervention in Ukraine as a campaign issue and to 
raise U.S./NATO defense commitments in the Baltics and Eastern Europe 
to deflect attention away from Ukraine, a priority for Putin, who 
needed to cauterize the subject.''
  This is what he wrote. That is on page 7 and 8, what the dossier 
claims.
  Now here is the truth: In July 2016, the Republican National 
Convention made changes to the Republican Party's platform on Ukraine. 
Initially, the GOP platform proposed providing ``lethal weapons'' to 
Ukraine. That is what it originally stated, that platform. But the line 
was watered down to promise ``appropriate assistance.''
  NPR reported that Diana Denman, a Republican delegate who supported 
arming U.S. allies in Ukraine, has told people that Trump aide J.D. 
Gordon said at the Republican Convention in 2016 that Trump directed 
him to support weakening that position in the official platform.
  J.D. Gordon, who was one of Trump's national security advisers during 
the campaign, said he had advocated for changing language because that 
reflected what Trump had said. The Trump campaign did not appear to 
have intervened in any other platform deliberations, only the language 
on Ukraine.
  Here is the truth: As the President and throughout the campaign, 
Donald Trump has called NATO ``obsolete''--although he changed his mind 
today, a little bit--championed the disintegration of the European 
Union, and said that he is open to lifting sanctions on Russia or has 
declined to enforce them.
  Trump has repeatedly questioned whether our allies are paying enough 
into NATO, ultimately raising questions as to whether he is 
deliberately facilitating Putin's long-term objective of undermining 
the Western liberal order.
  Dossier page 30: ``Speaking to a trusted compatriot in mid-October 
2015, a close associate of Rosneft president and Putin ally Igor 
Sechin''--his name appears all over the place in the dossier--
``elaborated on the reported secret meeting between'' Mr. Sechin and 
Carter Page, of United States Republican Presidential candidate's 
foreign policy team, in Moscow in July 2016.
  The secret meeting ``had been confirmed to him/her by a senior member 
of the staff, in addition to by the

[[Page H6170]]

Rosneft president himself. It took place on either 7 or 8 July, the 
same day or the one after Carter Page made a public speech to the 
Higher Economic School in Moscow.
  ``In terms of the substance of the discussion, Sechin's associate 
said that the Rosneft president was so keen to lift personal and 
corporate Western sanctions imposed on the company that he offered 
Page,'' and Mr. Trump's associates as well, ``the brokerage of up to a 
19 percent privatized stake in Rosneft in return. Page had expressed 
interest and confirmed that were Trump elected U.S. President,'' 
sanctions on Russia would be lifted.
  The truth: On December 29, 2016, during the transition period between 
the election and the inauguration, National Security Advisor-designate 
Mike Flynn spoke to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, urging him not 
to retaliate for newly imposed sanctions. Ultimately, the Russians did 
not retaliate.
  Days after the inauguration, the Trump administration ordered State 
Department staffers to develop proposals for immediately revoking the 
economic and other sanctions imposed against Russia. Thankfully, these 
staffers alerted Congress, who took steps to codify the sanctions in a 
law passed in August 2017. The attempt to overturn the sanctions was 
abandoned after Mr. Flynn's conversation was revealed and Mr. Flynn 
resigned.
  Carter Page has confirmed this meeting with top Moscow and Rosneft 
officials, that company or corporation, in the House Permanent Select 
Committee on Intelligence testimony. It is all laid out.
  When Page was asked if a Rosneft executive had offered him a 
potential sale of a significant percentage of Rosneft, Page said, ``He 
may have briefly mentioned it.''
  Dossier claim on page 23: ``Finally, speaking separately to the same 
compatriot, a senior Russian,'' Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ``MFA 
official reported that, as a prophylactic measure, a leading Russian 
diplomat, Mikhail Kalugin, had been withdrawn from Washington at short 
notice because Moscow feared his heavy involvement in the U.S. 
Presidential election operation, including the so-called veterans' 
pensions ruse,'' which we reported previously in the dossier, ``would 
be exposed in the media there. His replacement, Andrei Bondarev, 
however, was clean in this regard.''

  The truth: Mikhail Kalugin was the head of the economics section at 
the Russian Embassy. He returned to Russia in August 2016. The BBC 
would go on to report that United States officials in 2016 had 
identified Kalugin as a spy, that he was under surveillance, thus 
verifying this key claim in the dossier. Further reporting by McClatchy 
has claimed that the FBI was investigating whether Kalugin played a 
role in the election interference.
  Mr. Speaker, these are facts. They just scratch the surface of what 
we are dealing with. This is what we know. Despite some opponents and 
opportunists and attempts, these facts are indisputable.
  Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the link to the entire Trump/
Russia dossier produced by Christopher Steele, so future generations 
will know the truth of how we got here today. The link is: https://
www.documentcloud.org/documents/3259984-Trump-Intelligence-
Allegations.html.
  Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have remaining?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Taylor). The gentleman from New Jersey 
has 14 minutes remaining.
  Mr. PASCRELL. Mr. Speaker, I am going to read a little bit more of 
the dossier, and I am going to stay away from the scurrilous things 
that have been reported in the newspaper, because they, to me, are just 
distractions from what we should be looking at.
  This is from the dossier: The ``mechanism for transmitting this 
intelligence involves `pension' disbursements to Russian emigres 
living'' in the United States as cover, using consular offices in New 
York, Miami, and D.C.
  ``Suggestion from source close to Trump and Manafort that Republican 
campaign team happy to have Russia as media bogeyman to mask more 
extensive corrupt business ties to China and other emerging countries.
  ``Speaking in confidence to a compatriot in late July 2016, Source E, 
an ethnic Russian close associate of Republican U.S. Presidential 
candidate Donald Trump, admitted that there was a well-developed 
conspiracy of cooperation between them and the Russian leadership. This 
was managed on the Trump side by the Republican candidate's campaign 
manager, Paul Manafort, who was using foreign policy adviser Carter 
Page and others as intermediaries. The two sides had a mutual interest 
in defeating Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, whom 
President Putin apparently hated and feared.
  ``Inter alia, Source E acknowledged that the Russian regime had been 
behind the recent leak of embarrassing email messages emanating from 
the Democratic National Committee'' to that WikiLeaks platform.
  Attention, attention: ``Source E said he understood that the 
Republican candidate and his team were relatively relaxed about this 
because it deflected media and the Democrats' attention away from 
Trump's business dealings in China and other emerging markets.''
  For the Record, Mr. Speaker, I will enter that in the Record at the 
proper time, not this evening. We have a whole dossier, again, having 
nothing to do with this, of every deal that we know of that the 
President and his team made in 52 foreign countries. That will be 
entered into the Record.
  ``Finally, regarding Trump's claimed minimal investment profile in 
Russia, a separate source with direct knowledge said this had not been 
for want of trying. Trump's previous efforts had included exploring the 
real estate sector in St. Petersburg as well as Moscow, but, in the 
end, Trump had had to settle for the use of extensive sexual services 
there from local prostitutes rather than business success.''
  That is what the dossier says.
  ``Trump adviser Carter Page holds secret meetings in Moscow with 
Sechin and senior Kremlin Internal Affairs official, Divyekin. Sechin 
raises issues of future bilateral U.S.-Russian energy cooperation and 
associated lifting of Western sanctions against Russia over Ukraine. 
Page noncommittal in response. Divyekin discusses release of Russian 
dossier of `kompromat' on Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton, but also 
hints at Kremlin possession of such material on Trump.''
  ``Kremlin concerned that political fallout from DNC email hacking 
operation is spiraling out of control. Extreme nervousness among 
Trump's associates as result of negative media attention/accusations.
  ``Russians meanwhile keen to cool situation and maintain `plausible 
deniability' of existing/ongoing pro-Trump and anti-Clinton operations; 
therefore, unlikely to be any ratcheting up offensive plays in the 
immediate future.
  ``Source close to Trump campaign, however, confirms regular exchange 
with Kremlin has existed for at least 8 years''--I said 5 years before; 
8 years--``including intelligence fed back to Russia on oligarchs' 
activities in U.S.''

                              {time}  1900

  ``Within this context, Putin's priority requirement had been for 
intelligence on the activities, business and otherwise, in the U.S. of 
leading Russian oligarchs and their families.'' And his associates duly 
had obtained and supplied that information.
  ``Speaking in early August 2016, two well-placed and established 
Kremlin sources outlined the divisions and backlash in Moscow arising 
from the leaking of Democratic National Committee emails and the wider 
pro-Trump operation being conducted in the U.S. Head of Presidential 
Administration, Sergei Ivanov, was angry at the recent turn of events. 
He believed the Kremlin `team' involved, led by presidential spokesman 
Dmitriy Peskov, had gone too far in interfering in foreign affairs with 
their `elephant in a china shop black PR'. Ivanov claimed always to 
have opposed the handling and exploitation of intelligence by this PR 
`team'. Following the backlash against such foreign interference in 
U.S. politics, Ivanov was advocating that the only sensible course of 
action now for the Russian leadership was to `sit tight and deny 
everything'.''
  And they did.
  ``Continuing on this theme, the source close to Ivanov reported that 
Peskov now was `scared' ''--I will not

[[Page H6171]]

use the derogatory term--``that he would be scapegoated by Putin and 
the Kremlin and held responsible for the backlash. . . . ''
  Page after page, Mr. Ivanov appears. He is at the center of this. And 
if we know this, then Mr. Mueller knows this. And if we know this, Mr. 
Mueller knows more.
  So this is the dossier, which has been public now since early last 
year. And I wanted to bring this to the floor last year, but we chose 
to do it another way, if you remember, in trying to get the President's 
taxes made public.
  So I will conclude with this, Mr. Speaker--you have been patient. 
This is, to me, a big deal: 83 percent of this dossier has been proven 
correct. I did not use anything that was dubious of the 17 percent.
  So I say to you, the Congress has a right, as an equal branch of 
government, to review what has happened so that our President, as Mr. 
Shaub, the Director of the Office of Government Ethics, said to 
President Trump: What you need to do is cut yourself off from your 
assets. That is what you need to do. That is what you must do.
  And, obviously, he did not do it.
  So there is a lot of material out there. Going at this a year and a 
half is not a long time. You know how long Watergate took. But I would 
think that this is going to take longer than Watergate--that is my 
opinion--on some of these things which will have to be traced. Some 
people have been indicted. Some people are going to prison already. But 
I am telling you, the bulk of information is going to be laid out when 
Mr. Mueller is ready, not when I am ready or anybody in the Chamber is 
ready.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from 
engaging in personalities toward the President.
  Mr. PASCRELL. That is unacceptable. I did not engage in any 
personalities. I read from the record. I didn't call anybody a name. If 
I read it, it was somebody else that was writing it, not me.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Remarks in debate in the House may not 
engage in personalities toward the President, whether originating as 
the Member's own words or being reiterated from another source.
  Mr. PASCRELL. The President is not above the law, sir. I am not above 
the law.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Does the gentleman have a motion?
  Mr. PASCRELL. No, I don't have a motion.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman is not recognized for debate 
at this time.
  Mr. PASCRELL. Do you want me to make a motion to extend? Is that what 
you are asking me to do?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair would entertain a motion to 
adjourn at this time.
  Mr. PASCRELL. Fine. You have it your way. I will be back.

                          ____________________