Election Security

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, history has a way of repeating itself. If we don't learn from the mistakes of the past, we are apt to repeat them. As the November election draws near and as foreign adversaries again seek to meddle in our democracy, let's review our history so we can better identify and prevent future threats.

In late July 2016, Obama's FBI opened an investigation into the Trump campaign that ended up spiraling out of control for years--4 years. The investigation was ultimately based, in large part, on what is known as the Steele dossier, which was a bunch of unverified claims from Russian Government sources. It happens that that dossier was paid for by the Democratic National Committee and by the Clinton campaign.

We know that its author, Christopher Steele, simultaneously pitched those same unverified claims to U.S. media outlets, which then reported on them without even testing their veracity. That is not responsible journalism.

We know that Members of this Senate publicly seized on those unverified media reports to attack their political rivals. They even made references to the ``secret FBI investigations'' to give the unverified, foreign-sourced claims a veneer of credibility. We know that those unverified claims became part of the focus of a sweeping and unnecessary multiyear investigation by some of the Justice Department's most aggressive prosecutors.

In the end, they found no crime by the campaign or President Trump, despite the dossier's allegations. Also, that shameful and damaging episode was propelled by selective leaks from government officials and breathless broadcasting by the press and the opposing political view.

Of course, now it is undergoing a postmortem. What we are finding out isn't very pretty, and the people behind it ought to be ashamed--ought to be very ashamed.

We have learned that some of those now-debunked claims of collusion with a foreign adversary were actually sourced to that same foreign adversary. In other words, those claims were assessed to be Russian disinformation. Democrats got duped into falsely accusing their political rivals of doing the very thing they were actually complicit in.

We have learned that senior FBI officials had such disdain for President Trump that they pushed the unverified information despite repeated warnings of its flaws. They wanted to believe so badly in the politically convenient narrative that they failed to do their jobs. They lied to a court to spy on the campaign. They leaked memos to launch a special counsel investigation. They even doctored the paperwork--all to advance an investigation rooted in lies, innuendo, and foreign disinformation.

I could go on about the harmful consequences from the hysteria that consumed the last few years, but the lesson from it all is very simple: Our adversaries will do anything to hijack our political differences to sow discord and distrust. Our adversaries want us at each other's throat. So long as we are fighting amongst ourselves, they win.

Why do I bring this up now? Because exactly 4 years later, we are watching the same group run the same play today. If we aren't careful, they will win again. Just like in 2016, foreign sources are pushing unverified material about political candidates; just like in 2016, that material has reportedly found its way into the U.S. intelligence reviews; and just like in 2016, political rivals in Congress and the press are using the unverified foreign sources and their claims to suggest collusion between Republicans and foreign adversaries. Just remember what I said--just like in 2016.

In the last few weeks, Democrats have falsely accused me and Senator Johnson of receiving packets of information, including tapes, from a Ukrainian. That is false reporting based on leaks from a letter written by Senators Schumer, Warner, Speaker Pelosi, and Representative Schiff, which is itself based on cherry-picked innuendo from classified documents.

This Ukrainian claims that he also sent the information to several Democrats. These Democrats have also denied receiving anything. Again, what is this all about? The goal is to sow as much confusion as possible. The claims are baseless. Neither I nor anyone on my staff had anything to do with him. We never reached out to him or received anything from him. We never received or reviewed anything like what was described in the Democrats' leaked documents.

Here is the rub. But that didn't stop the press from reporting the story anyway. Remember, 2016, 2017, and 2018? It didn't stop the press from reaching out to this Ukrainian to present him with the apparently leaked classified information from the Democrats' letter.

Let me be clear. My investigation with Senator Johnson is based on how the Obama administration formulated its Ukraine policy, which then- Vice President Biden oversaw while his son was on the board of a corrupt Ukrainian natural gas company that was under investigation.

Did the corrupt firm get special access or special treatment because of its ties to the Vice President's son? We should know that. Did the Obama administration appropriately address any conflicts of interest? We should know that. In fact, the American people should know that.

In pursuit of those facts--now, following the leads where they take you, so I say, in pursuit of the facts, we have requested records from the State Department, National Archives, Department of Justice, some other Federal agencies, and the U.S. consulting firm Blue Star Strategies. We have also talked with current and former U.S. Government officials.

Isn't this odd? Apparently, Obama administration records and speaking with Obama administration officials is, to our Democratic friends, foreign or Russian disinformation. Isn't that odd?

As Senator Johnson and I noted to our Democratic colleagues in a letter when we answered their letter--if it is, then that means the Obama administration routinely peddled in it as well.

Democrats have suggested that the cause of their concern is Andrii Telizhenko. In March 2020, the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee sought to subpoena him only for records from his yearlong employment with Blue Star Strategies--a Democratic consulting firm that lobbied the U.S. Government on behalf of the Biden-connected Ukrainian energy firm. Blue Star also had contracts at the highest levels of President Obama's administration. Notably, Mr. Telizhenko had working relationships with Obama administration officials

I don't recall ever any Democrat raising concerns about Mr. Telizhenko being a national security threat while he was meeting with the Obama administration, but, apparently, he suddenly becomes one when Republicans ask for records involving his time at a Democratic lobby shop.

Truth be told, the Democrats should know a thing or two about Russian disinformation. Investigative work by me and Senator Johnson has revealed now declassified intelligence reporting that parts of the Steele dossier were parts of the Russian disinformation campaign.

I am not aware of the Democrats commenting publicly on this very disturbing revelation. Where is their outrage about concerns of actual Russian disinformation contained in the Steele dossier and at the same time Russian disinformation paid for by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton?

Did the Democrats and the Clinton campaign know that the dossier was filled with Russian disinformation and run with it, anyway, knowing it would cause damage to Trump, his campaign, and administration?

Is Russian disinformation synonymous with Democratic National Committee disinformation? Maybe the Democrats don't want to look under the hood of the fake Russia investigation because--because they would be front and center.

I would like to remind my Democratic colleagues that I ordered my staff to interview Donald Trump, Jr., and Republican officials during my time as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and we did so. At the same time, ask yourself if I ever requested an interview with Hunter Biden. If I did that, how would the Democrats react?

My fellow Americans, this is where we are at now. The Democrats live by the motto ``Do as I say, not as I do.'' Yet they accuse me and my colleague, Senator Johnson, of playing politics and engaging in a disinformation campaign.

The hard truth is, it is the Democrats who are engaged in a disinformation campaign all because the facts don't fit into their political narrative. Their silence regarding the Steele dossier and fake Russia investigation, yet complaints about my legitimate oversight investigation, is proof of that.

In conclusion, these recent media reports hinge on the leak of Democrats' classified documents, which they hadn't shared with their Republican colleagues. Only after the stories were published--I want to emphasize, only after the stories were published--were I and my staff able to review the Democrats' documents.

Their letter is full of cherry-picked lines designed to shoehorn Republicans into warnings of a very real threat that faces all of us. Their letter attempts to cast Republicans as unwitting pawns in foreign disinformation, but it appears that the Democrats are playing the role as a useful idiot for foreign adversaries.

The leaks only further distort the content of their letter. In no conceivable way do the facts support the Democrats' and the media's preposterous narrative.

Here is what really bothers me the most. My Democratic colleagues have known me for a very long time. They know who I am. They know where to find me. And they know that if they were so concerned about what I was allegedly up to, they should have just raised all of those issues with me. This nonsense of orchestrated leaks to plant stories and falsely accusing me of dealing in disinformation based on actual disinformation that I wasn't even privy to serves only the interest of our shared adversaries. This happens to be the behavior of cowards. And, of course, it should stop. As I started out my remarks today, we have seen this movie before. It didn't end well for those who relied on a disinformation dossier in 2016.

Finally, the truth is slowly starting to come out and the FBI, the media, and the Members of Congress who touted the disinformation look pretty bad today. I started out by saying we need to learn from history--I believe it was George Santayana who said something like that maybe 100 years ago--or you are going to repeat the mistakes of the past. Let's not repeat this history. Instead, we ought to be learning from it.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source