Schumer Floor Remarks on Investigation into Trump Campaign Ties to Russia and Criminal Justice Reform
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer delivered remarks on the Senate floor regarding recent developments in the investigation into Trump’s campaign’s ties to Russia as well as the DOJ’s order urging federal prosecutors to impose harsher punishments on non-violent, low-level drug offenders. Below are his remarks:
Mr. President, last night Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as a special counsel to oversee the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 elections.
This was a very good first step. Mr. Rosenstein has done the right thing and I applaud his decision for its correctness and its courage.
A special counsel was much called for in this situation and former Director Mueller is the right kind of individual for the job. I now have significantly greater confidence that the investigation will follow the facts wherever they lead.
Additionally, as special counsel Mr. Mueller must have broad latitude to pursue the Russia investigation. In the appointment order, it stipulates that the special counsel is authorized to investigate “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation.” That’s a really important power, given the recent reports about an active FBI Investigation into Gen. Flynn.
I am heartened by the news of the Mr. Mueller’s appointment, but it in no way diminishes the need for Congress to play an active role in helping to get to the bottom of all the recent events.
Intelligence Committee Chairman Burr and Ranking member Warner should still pursue the Congressional investigation into these matters with just as much vigor. That investigation has been proceeding in a bipartisan way, and it absolutely should continue as such.
We should still seek testimony from Mr. Comey in the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees to discuss the events surrounding his dismissal and be given access to his memos and any transcripts or “tapes” of his conversations with President Trump. Mr. Comey was central to the events of the past few weeks; we still need to hear from him. I want to thank the bipartisan leadership of the Intelligence and Judiciary committees for requesting both the records and the public testimony of Director Comey.
Congress, specifically the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees, should still be given access to any transcripts or related summaries of the President’s meetings with the Russian Foreign Minister and Ambassador – during which reports have alleged he may have divulged highly sensitive intelligence.
And finally, there is still as great a need as before for the next FBI Director to be someone who is nonpartisan, independent, fearless, and of unimpeachable integrity. A career politician of either party or anyone who suggests a lack of impartiality should not be considered.
The appointment of Mr. Mueller is a great first step towards getting the Russia investigation back on solid ground. These other things also need to happen: Mr. Comey testifying; the White House turning over to Congress the relevant “tapes” and transcripts if they exist; and the selection of an independent, impartial FBI Director.
Later this afternoon the Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein, will brief all 100 Senators at the request of the two leaders – the Majority Leader and myself. He can brief us on a great many things, including the events of Mr. Comey’s dismissal and the status of the Russia investigation.
While the briefing itself will not take place in a public setting, I hope that much of what we learn today can be shared with the American public.
So in the interest of getting all the facts, we in Congress look forward to hearing from Mr. Rosenstein this afternoon. It is a sign that while we wholeheartedly applaud the appointment of a special counsel, we in Congress must continue to do our jobs as well.
Now, on another matter, Mr. President – criminal justice reform. Last week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered federal prosecutors to "charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense.”
Functionally, this means federal prosecutors will seek the harshest possible penalty even for non-violent, low-level drug crimes.
This is a significant reversal from the Obama-era “Smart on Crime” initiative in which federal prosecutors were instructed to focus on more dangerous drug traffickers and avoid charging less-serious offenders with crimes that would require long, mandatory-minimum sentences.
As a result of the Obama policies, federal drug cases dropped by more than 19% between 2012 and 2016, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Cases with charges carrying longer, mandatory-minimum sentences fell precipitously, from nearly 60% in 2012 to 45% last year. Thanks in part to this initiative, President Obama became the first President since Carter to leave the White House with a smaller federal prison population than when he took office. Meanwhile, prosecutions of the more-serious crimes, the evil drug dealers, those who run the drugs often out of this country to here, they’re the ones we can really go after and need to go after – they increased by 17% and 14%. That’s the way we can stop these evil drugs from coming into this country.
So that policy was tough on crime AND smart on crime. Our law enforcement agencies have finite resources. They should be focused on combating violent crimes. When a prosecutor is spending hours or days in court for a low-level possession charge and not having the resources to go after the drug runners, the drug dealers who poison our kids, that’s misplaced priorities.
What Attorney General Sessions has just ordered is the exact wrong approach. Instead of giving judges and juries the discretion to use their judgment in sentencing, it compels prosecutors to seek as much jail time as they can get for every single offense, treating low-level and high-level the same.
It’s a blunt instrument approach that will result in more unnecessary, punitive sentences and overcrowding of our prisons. Undoubtedly, it will disproportionately hurt minority communities.
It runs completely counter to a bipartisan consensus here in Congress. Many members of this body -- Democrats and Republicans -- agree that mandatory-minimum sentences have led to bloated, costly prisons and disproportionately ravaged minority communities.
In the last Congress, a bipartisan group of Senators sought to make meaningful progress with a sentencing reform proposal that had among its cosponsors a group of diverse Senators, ranging from Sens. Durbin and Booker on the Democratic side to Sens. Lee and Paul on the Republican side.
Unfortunately, those efforts to strike a compromise to bring much needed reform to our nation’s criminal justice system were derailed by the obstruction of, guess who, then-Senator Sessions, with the cooperation of the Republican leadership.
And now, after making progress under President Obama and Attorney General Holder, Attorney General Sessions has chosen to simply revert back to the one-size-fits all approach that criminologists, police leaders and bipartisan lawmakers have determined is not the right answer.
In order to truly be “tough on crime,” we must be “smart on crime”. This approach is “dumb on crime.”
Congress, of course, still has the power to legislate on this issue. We have the power to override the Attorney General’s decision. So I hope this misguided change in the Department of Justice’s policy revives a bipartisan desire to pursue sentencing reform in this Congress.
When we look for significant areas where there can be bipartisan cooperation, this is one of them. And I hope Leader McConnell will choose to pursue it.
