By these firearms. And i would concur that that is unacceptable. I certainly support the bill. But having served in the United States army as a leader of soldiers on deployment, all of whom were issued at least one weapon, i wonder if it literally requires an act of congress to suggest that d. H. S. Promulgate regulations to oversee the loss or theft of d. H. S. Supplied weapons. Yes. Over 200 weapons is horrible. Yes, one life lost is horrible. But should there be an act of congress . Because as i recall, as a leader in the army while deployed overseas, we had protocol for dealing with lost weapons, with lost sense of item, with lost things. We didnt need an act of congress to tell us to promulgate it. So while i support this bill, it began to make me wonder, and then think of a bible verse, matthew. Why do you look at the speck of saw dust in your brothers eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own . So, certainly its unacceptable that over 200 weapons should be lost or stolen from d. H. S. Employees in a period of two years. T it is quite literally 1 10 of the scale of the weaponry that our government intentionally put into the stream of commerce to be used by those who would visit harm, not only on their neighbors and family members south of our border, but right here on our own soil. So weapons like this, to the quantity of over 200, were lost or stolen from members of d. H. S. Eanwhile seven years ago put into ke this were the stream of commerce by our very government. Weapons like this took the lives of at least one person. Weapons like this put into the stream of commerce by our very government have taken at the very least 70 times as many lives. And yesterday the committee on Homeland Security promulgated a bill, an act of congress, to address 200 and some weapons like this that have cost at least one human life. And seven years after brian terry set out on patrol that fateful night in arizona, days before he was to fly home to michigan to see his family for christmas, nobodys talking about the weapons like this that our government intentionally placed into the stream of commerce, where we knew to a met physical certainty they would go to those who would do harm to their neighbors and their families and americans. Seven years on weve seen justice to the killers of brian terry. Theyve been arrested. E first man arrested for having shot mr. Terry in the back with a militarystyle rifle, leaving him to bleed to death on the medical chopper that flew him out in an effort to save his life, had, i think, ironically already been deported from this country seven times. The night that brian terry set out to protect not only the borders of this nation, but the people who seek to enter it, because we will not uphold our responsibility, the man who killed him was about robbing the very people who were coming here because we allowed it by not doing our jobs. And hed already been deported seven times. Now, we know that close to 70 people have died because we intentionally as a nation put into the stream of commerce militarystyle weapons. In fact, weve lost track of over 1,400 of the over 2,000 weapons that the Obama Administration thought it would be a good idea to intentionally et go to mexico. The weapon pictured next to me is a barrett m82. 50 caliber antipersonnel and material rifle. There are members of this body who have spoken on how this weapon should be illegal. Because conceivably it can take down an airplane. Why do i digress . Because that weapon was recovered in a hideout known to be used by the most notorious murderer in north america in the last 100 years, el chapo guzman. The United States government watched while a weapon that some members of this body would suggest can take down an irplane was trafficed to a man who was trafficed in death to the point where the next slide i show will blow any thinking ersons minds. Many, many of the 160,000, roughly, deaths of civilians in mexico can be traced directly ack to this man. And we know because it was recovered that at least one of the militarystyle weapons that e received came from us. So seven years ago today an American Hero named brian terry, who had served as a Law Enforcement professional and as a marine in iraq, and on the lite border tactical squadron, set out to protect america. But to also protect those who sought to enter it, whether legally or illegally. And when he did so, he did so understanding fully, as those who take an oath to defend this nation do, that some things in this world are worth standing and fighting and dying for. And tragically seven years ago tonight brian terry made that sacrifice. And i had no intention of standing and speaking on this today until h. R. 4433, securing d. H. S. Firearms act of 2017, came before the Homeland Security committee yesterday. Ut it struck me as ironic. Not only did i serve in uniform as a combat arms officer for nearly six years, i spent just under 10 years as a prosecutor and i have a passion for a number of things. But foremost among these is justice. And so while it gives my heart some condolence, i cant begin to imagine the feelings on this seventh anniversary of the family members of this American Hero, knowing that while the people who pulled the trigger have been convicted, the eapons that they used were provided to him by the very nation provide provided to them by the very nation that he died to protect. So, mr. Speaker, with that i would submit this. I have faith that in life or after life there will always ultimately be justice. But in the case of those who with intent put the firearms into the hands of the individuals who took the life of this American Hero, ill tell you this, i hope that justice comes in this life and not the next. So while we move about our business of promulgating laws to dictate to d. H. S. That they should have a policy to address the loss of firearms, i hope we dont take our eye off the ball of the very firearms that we intentionally trafficked. Like the two that were recovered from the scene of the rder of brian terry and that we will continue until we find it to seek justice for this man and act in a manner such that there are no more brian terry tragedies Going Forward. Yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. Under the speakers announced policy of january 3, 2017, the gentleman from maryland, mr. Raskin, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. Mr. Raskin mr. Speaker, thank you very much. Im delighted to be here on behalf of the minority. And im here to discuss a very serious issue, which are the mounting threats and criticism of Robert Muellers investigation into criminality taking place in the course of the president ial election, with interference by the russians and possible collusion with various americans working with him. But i want to start by putting this into a general context, mr. Speaker. Tom payne said that in the monarchies, the king is law. But in the democracies, the law is king. And we place everything on the rule of law here in the United States of america. Its how we control the people who occupy the highest offices of government. And control vast amounts of resources that belong to the people of the United States. In the monarchies, in the dictatorships, the people have no control over those who occupy government, but in the democracies, in the constitutional societies, we exercise control over the people who lead the government, to make sure that they dont abuse their power for improper purposes, for private gain, for the enrichment of particular classes or for the per pet situation of their own plit per pet perpetuation of their own political power. When we took office at the beginning of the year, mr. Speaker, we received an Intelligence Committee report signed by 18 intelligence agencies. The f. B. I. And the c. I. A. And the n. S. A. And the Defense Intelligence agency and on and on. And they all told us the same thing. Which is that Vladimir Putin had attempted to interfere and had interfered in the american election. Through cyberespionage and cybersabotage. In an effort to determine the outcome of our election. That took place. We knew that way back when we first took office. Now, in the House Committee on oversight and government reform, which i serve on, and in the House Judiciary Committee, which i serve on, we were told, and weve been told for months, going all the way back to the golf swing of the year, that we dont need going back all the way to the beginning of the year, that we dont need to investigate this assault on the sovereignty of the American People in our own election, because theres an excellent lawyer and Law Enforcement official in charge of the special counsel investigation, Robert Mueller. And indeed Robert Mueller is a man of extraordinary and perhaps singular qualification. Hes a decorated war hero from the vietnam war. A u. S. Attorney who had been the u. S. Attorney for both the commonwealth of massachusetts and the state of california. A former director of the f. B. I. And, you know what, hes a registered republican. And he was named as special counsel by another registered epublican and another widely heralded and highly qualified Law Enforcement official, Rod Rosenstein, who had been a career attorney in the department of justice and then the u. S. Attorney, appointed by president bush in the great state, my home state, of maryland. Hes presently the Deputy Attorney general of the United States. Appointed by another republican, attorney general sessions. So attorney general sessions appointed Rod Rosenstein, who is the Deputy Attorney general, a republican, and he appointed another republican. And widelied a mired and highly qualified widelied a mired and highly qualified widely ed a mired and highly qualified widely admired and highly qualified official. With republicans saying, no, we wont do any investigations of our own, despite past practice, we have to ask why special counsel Robert Mueller this week has suddenly come under withering fire by our g. O. P. Colleagues. In the most ferocious, organized attack on a federal prosecution and prosecutor ive ever seen. Well, the answer, alas, is obvious. Theyre attacking special counsel Robert Mueller and his fine team of lawyers and investigators because mueller and his team are doing their jobs and justice is being done. There have already been two guilty pleas arising from this investigation. One from President Trumps former National Security advisor, general flynn, who pled guilty to lying to the f. B. I. About trumprussia. And another criminal confession and guilty plea from former Foreign Policy assistant george papadopoulos, who also took full responsibility for his criminal conduct. In lying about trumprussia to the f. B. I. And there have been sweeping criminal indictments handed down by the mueller team, the special counsel, against paul manafort, trumps former Campaign Manager and his associate, rick gates. Now for all we know this might be the end of it. The special counsel isnt talking. Hes not leaking. Hes doing his job. But its also possible that the investigation is just getting started. And that they are closing in on even higher targets. Perhaps jared kushner, the allpurpose trump aide and president s soninlay, perhaps hes within the scopes of this investigation. Perhaps donald trump jr. And perhaps the president of the United States himself. Donald trump. And so the white house has issued its apparently desperate and cornered animal orders. The president cries kay kaye yoss and lets slip the dogs of war against special counsel mueller and the rule of law. This week, trump has called the Mueller Investigation an investigation led by a republican who is named by a who was named by a republican, who was named by a republican , he calls this investigation, quote, the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in american history. And i dont want to hear from any of my colleagues, either g. O. P. Or other, who say, you cant take seriously what the president says because hes disconnecting from reality or hes paranoid or hes delusional unless youre willing to try to activate the provisions of the 25th amendment. We must take the president s word seriously. In the meantime of course our friends across the aisle, mr. Speaker, are going along with everything the president says and everything that he does and they are enabling his attempt to counsel, mr. Cial mueller and attack the work of the f. B. I. The president calls the f. B. I. An agency in tatters. Followed inught has the media on fox news, a fullscale campaign against the f. B. I. Has arisen with lots of people comparing it to the k. G. B. The f. B. I. To the k. G. B. Which is amusing because if true they would like the f. B. I. Donald trumps best buddy in Foreign Relations and fox news beloved kleptocrat authoritarian dictator abroad is Vladimir Putin, the former chief of the k. G. B. But they compare our f. B. I. , the tins of thousands of men and women who have given their lives to Law Enforcement in america, they compare our f. B. I. To the k. G. B. Newt gingrich calls mueller corrupt. Newt gingrich who was officially disciplined and reprimanded right here, mr. Speaker, right where we stand today, by this body in a vote of 39528. He was reprimanded and disciplined for violating the rules of this body and he calls the former f. B. I. Director, the special counsel mueller, corrupt in an effort to undermine an discredit the special counsel investigation. And now this Propaganda Campaign comes to the official exanls of the house of representatives. Yesterday, Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein appeared before the House Judiciary Committee for an oversight hearing. And i was appalled and i was amazed at the way our g. O. P. Colleagues attacked him with a series of completely phony, overblown, and misleading accusations. They are in full scale assault mode now. They are in a frenzied wild goose chase to find Anything Possible to discredit special counsel mueller and his investigators and his team. Guess what . They finally found their villain this week, they found their villain and pounced on him. Its an f. B. I. Agent named peter strzok, who is working on the who was working on the investigation but was removed this summer when it was discovered he sent a bunch of Text Messages to his apparent girlfriend criticizing a number of politicians, including donald trump, who he he called an idiot, mr. Speaker. I think it was watching one though president ial debates where he sent a text message to his girlfriend, writing o. M. G. , hes an idiot. Thats the way im reading the texts that were revealed to us yesterday. Now he was probably one of millions of people to send that exact same text across the country. Wasnt a very nice thing to say but he said it. He also called Bernie Sanders, the democratic candidate for president , the vermont u. S. Senator, an idiot he called trump and idiot, called sanders an idiot and had even more choice and unspeakable words for my friend, the former governor of maryland, Martin Omalley, which i dont think i can repeat on the floor, mr. Speaker. All right, mr. Strzok was speaking his mind in these private texts. But it raised the potentiality of bias in one of the agents working on the team and so what did mr. Mueller do when he learned of it . He fired him. Immediately. He he got him off the investigation, removed from if him the information and put him into a different part of the f. B. I. He removed him immediately. From the investigation. Unlike President Trump, for example, who took 18 days to fire general flynn after learning that flynn was a serial liar about his connections with russia. Took President Trump 18 days. Mr. Mueller fired the guy immediately because people make mistakes they do the wrong thing and mueller said, i dont want him on my team. Removed him. They put him somewhere else. Now, that should have been the end of the matter. Right . Sounds like the end of the story. Its not a big deal. But, on the eve of our hearing yesterday, we received a dump of hundreds of these private Text Messages between mr. Strzok and his friend, ms. Paige. And they make no doubt for titillate, fascinating, engrossing reading as these two people make their observations about the president ial campaign. Karenina or house of cards. Its the kind of trivial gossip people get into sometimes in this town. I was amazed to learn that the department of justice itself, not mueller, not his team, but the department of justice, the formal Public Affairs channel, had actually orchestrated this dump of Text Messages that were revealed in the course of an Ongoing Department of justice investigation. Inspector general investigation. They took this material from the middle of an investigation, called up a whole bunch o