Advantage, we hope the republican majority on the Homeland Security committee has not become a sympathetic audience and a potential Entrance Point to foreign influenced campaigns wittingly or unwittingly. What a disastrous and disgraceful fate of affairs. The senate should pass this resolution today. I yield the floor to my colleague from oregon. Wyden wyden mr. President. Mr. Wyden mr. President. The presiding officer the senator for oregon. Mr. Wyden mr. President , i rise in support for this resolution, the democratic leader. We are calling for an end to a horribl horribly flawed investigation, attempts to poison it with disinformation and to sew distrust are an established matter of fact. And it is especially troubling because for periods over the last year, two Senate Committees have conducted an investigation involving the ukraine, former Vice President biden and his son hunter. Homeland security and Government Affairs committee, led by our colleague from wisconsin, chairman johnson, and our colleague from iowa, chairman grassley of the finance committee, which i am the ranking democrat. My staff has joined in interviews and received documents pertinent to the investigation. Given my finance committee role, my position on the Senate Intelligence committee, im unable to discuss classified information or details of an ongoing inquiry. However, i can discuss Public Information about the spread of russian propaganda and the pathway its following from russian agents through the United States senate to the American People. The russian government is again interfering in our election. This has been confirmed by our Intelligence Community. Its interference Campaign Includes disinformation about Vice President biden and the work he was doing to fight corruption in ukraine. To spread this information, russia enlists the help of characters like andrei der kech. Derkach has been identified by american counterintelligence as an active agent for russian intelligence. This agent, instead of being treated as a foreign enemy, has met personally with the president s lawyer, rudy giuliani, to further his task of undermining elections in america. Im not sure, colleagues, what you should call an american who aids a russian agent but counselor to the president is certainly not it. In august the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center issued a threat assessment on foreign threats to our election. It identify derkach as someone who was involved with attempting to denigrate biden. Senator schumer and i along with several of our democratic colleagues, urging the Treasury Department to issue sanctions against derkach. It did so the following week and describing his role in what i called a covert influenced campaign on cultivating a false initiative concerning u. S. Officials in the upcoming 2020 president ial election, unquote. Telezhenko is another giuliani associate, who according to press accounts, american counterintelligence has identified as a conduit for russian attacks on our election. He has also been a star witness in the johnson and grassley investigation. Derkach and teleshanko have edited portions of bidens telephone in the course of ois anticorruption work, somewhere release some were released on the same day. Teleshenko is promising further releases. He also said he forwarded 100 emails to staff on senator johnsons committee and answered their questions. Now, our colleague from south carolina, senator graham, was involved in the earliest stages of the johnsongrassley inquiry in 2019, but in february of 2020, chairman graham said and i quote, i called the attorney general this morning and richard burr, then of course chairman of the intelligence committee, and they told me take very cautiously anything coming out of the ukraine against anybody. The disinformation that these two have spread, derkach and teleshengo have spread, largely a collection of unproven allegations and wild conspiracy theories have made it to many Media Outlets in the country all too willing to spread the product of russian intelligence. Its been circulated by the president s own legal team. From there that disinformation became the basis of much of the work of the johnsongrassley inquiry. Ill have more to say on the details of that investigation in the days ahead, but for now ill say this. Chairman johnson has repeatedly claimed in the media that he has uncovered new and damaging information about Vice President bidens activity in the ukraine. This is simply not true. Nothing i have seen, not one bit of evidence, could lead to the conclusion that Vice President biden did anything wrong in ukraine. What i have seen is a monthlong investigation that still has no legitimate basis burning through an incredible amount of manpower and taxpayerfunded resources. Neither of these committees, by the way, under the rules of the senate, has any jurisdiction over our diplomatic ties with the ukraine. It has no legislative purpose. This investigation, as ive pointed out on a number of indications, also occasions also is happening under a clear double standard that has favored republicans in the senate and stonewalls oversights by democrats. That is a sign that the flimsy accusation made against the president cant stand up to Vice President cant stand up to real scrutiny. The real nature of this inquiry has been clear all along. It began during the impeachment trial and the investigation almost seemed to die out when the trial ended. It only returned and, again, these are facts all of these are facts. It only returned when the Vice President established himself as a democratic frontrunner. Chairman johnson sent a letter to his committee announcing the intention to kick start the investigation with a subpoena. So now what im going to do is outline what senator johnson said in his own words because i think that is also very important as senators consider this resolution. These are senator johnsons words specifically. My colleague said in march, if i were a democratic primary voter id want these questions satisfy i will answered before i cast my final vote. The chairman said in august, and i quote, i would think it would certainly help donald trump win reelection and certainly be pretty good i would say evidence about not voting for Vice President biden. He said in september, and i quote, stay tuned. In about a week were going to learn a whole lot more of Vice President bidens unfitness. Furthermore, the chairman, in my view, looking again at the Public Record cannot credibly take issue with the work the Vice President was doing because he supported it publicly at the time. In june 2014, at a Foreign Relations committee on the ukraine, chairman johnson stated, quote, if we have to tie aid or help to make sure anticorruption laws are passed, i think we should do it. In 2016 chairman johnson wrote a letter with bipartisan members of the group to former poroshenko. The letter reads, succeeding in this these reforms that putin it also offers a stark alternative to the authoritarianism and oligarch president tism in russia. We presentism in russia. We ask that you address the concerns and were talking about the minister of economic development. We ask you to press ahead with urgent reforms to the Prosecutor Generals Office in judiciary. So these are the words, colleagues, the words of the chairman of the committee. Thats why senator schumer and i believe this investigation, the johnsongrassley investigation, is baseless. We have brought forward a resolution that we believe is important to defending our democracy. It comes down to a question of what we want campaigns and elections to be all about. In my view, and i have always said this right at the core of my being, i want elections about our best ideas. Thats why i serve on the finance committee, to try to come up with the best ideas in health care, and taxes and trade and the like. Elections ought to be about our best ideas and having real debates and not attacking the other side with farfetched foreign misinformation. Especially at a time when the American People are dealing with the crushing weight of one crisis stacked on another. 200,000 americans have died of covid19. I couldnt disagree more with the president s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Weve seen so much economic hurt, and i championed on the floor and for a while we had bipartisan support, for basically bringing unemployment into the relevant century and getting an extra 600 per week to people and covering gig workers and all kinds of other people. Yet, still, the economys collapsed and millions are out of work. My oregon neighbors, a number of them have seen their communities reduced to ashes, somehows and thousands ,000s and thousands have been lost. Theres been a National Outcry against racism and violence against black americans. Our elections are supposed to be about those kinds of issues. And in all of them, what i have tried to do is devote my Public Service to bringing people together, getting parties to find Common Ground on the best ideas of how to make changes in these areas. Now, that sure seems to me to be what the senate should be all about rather than baseless attacks and foreign disinformation. I urge my colleagues to support the resolution that senator schumer and i have championed. It is long past time for this badly flawed investigation by our colleagues to end, and as if in legislative session, mr. President , i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of a resolution opposing efforts to launder russian disinformation through the congress, which is at the desk. I further ask that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. The presiding officer is there objection . A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from wisconsin. Mr. Mr. Johnson mr. President , i want to point out the fact that this is this is not a violation of rule 19, its coming pretty darn close. What you just witnessed is democrats doing what they do so well, accusing the other side of doing exactly what they do only ten times or 100 times worse. Earlier i chaired a business meeting in the Homeland Committee and Government Affairs committee that precipitated, made necessary by the fact that the Ranking Member of my committee had a ri dish lus ridiculous interpretation of the rules. Based upon the subpoena authority i received on june 4, the Ranking Member said in order to schedule a subpoena or schedule a meeting, a disposition, i had to come back for another vote. So during my Opening Statement of that business meeting, having just described that level of meddling which, by the way, the Ranking Member also provided that ridiculous interpretation to our witness and the witness jonathan weiner, an individual who decided to not cooperate with the department of justice Inspector General on his report on the fisa abuse, he decided to not show up for his deposition that previously had been scheduled. So having just explain thad in my Opening Statement, i would like to read the next part which describes the did you plicity and hypocrisy of the democrats. I said the most recent example of this hypocrisy was a letter in classified addendum created by a senior democrat leader that accused senator grassley and me the presiding officer the chair will remind senators that rule 19 provides that and i quote no senator in debate shall directly or indirectly by any form or words impugn to another senator or other senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a senator. End quote. A senator i appreciate the warning. The presiding officer the senator is recognized. The most is created by senior democrat leaders accused senator grassley and me of relying on foreign disinformation. A senator this quo intelligence product, unquote, which was full of falls allegations, was produced, classified, and then leaked to the grass more than a week before senator grassley or i were given access to it. Many in the media dutifully reported this hot tip. Democrats then used those media reports to repeat, distort, and embellish the false charges. This coordinated smear thats what you have to call it a coordinated smear which continues today on the floor of the senate culminated in an august 7 opinion piece in the Washington Post submitted by senator richard blumenthal. But john radcliff, the director of national intelligence, quote, i can assure it did not create the classified addendum nor did we authorize its release. The foreign information we were falsely accused of reflg we have a misprint here. The foreign information we were falsely accused of reflg comes from Andrii Derkach who since has been sanctioned by the Treasury Department. Although neither senator gratly nor i ever ought, received or used any information from mr. Derkach, the media has continued to report otherwise for weeks despite our repeated and unequivocated denials. It is true that a chart produced by mr. Derkach is now part of our investigatory record. Not because of me or senator grassley but because so as was the case in the 2016 election, the only foreign disinformation being used to interfere in this investigation has been introduced by democrats against republicans. And not republicans. Given all the concern expressed by democrats over foreign disinformation its notable we have not heard the same concern over the steele dossier containing information. My chief counsel during the course of this investigation uncovered it in classified footnotes to the department of justice Inspector General fisa report. We also know the f. B. I. Was aware of this as early as 2016. Think about that. The f. B. I. Knew the russian disinformation was contained in the steele dossier as early as august of 2016 and yet they continued the investigation. Then the investigation spilled over into special counsel and disrupted americans government and politics for years. We also know the steele dossier was bought and paid for by the d. N. C. And clinton campaign. So apparently democrats are willing to look the other way when they pay for or use disinformation against republicans. Mr. Johnson so i read that in my Opening Statement in our business meeting today earlier. As i look at this resolution, the last whereas talks about an investigation that alleges the same discredited claims by derkach. I dont know who derkach is. As i said earlier, senator grassley and i have repeatedly, unequivocally denied we did not slis tat. We did not accept solicit. We did not accept any information from mr. Derkach whatsoever. Yet democrats persist in pushing this false allegation. As a matter of fact, im not sure our committee has alleged anything yet. About the only thing ive alleged is the glaring and obvious conflict of interest. Here ive got to step up. Ive got to get a little history about ukraine. In february of 2014, ukrainians, courageous ukrainians, basically two factions, one that wanted to integrate closer with the west and younger ukrainians who wanted to rid themselves of the corruption of the soviet legacy. Joined together in massive protests. On approximately february 20, 21, over 80 ukrainians were slaughtered by snipers protesting to rid ukraine of corruption and increase their ties to the west. Less than two responsibilities later two months later, and i ask my colleagues, is this anything from russian sources . Two months later, heres the series of events that occurred. On april 16, 2014, Vice President biden met with his sons Business Partner devon archer at the white house. Thats kind of a big deal. Anybody meeting with the Vice President of the white house. Hunter bidens Business Partner got to do that. Five days later, Vice President biden visited ukraine and described him as the public face of the administrations handling of ukraine. The next day, april 22, archer joined the board of burisma. Again burisma is this Company Owned by what george kent from the state department called an odious oligarch. Hard to say ukrainian names. Six days later after archer joined the board, british seized 20 million fro. 15 days later on may 13, hunter biden joined the board of burr reece pa and over the burisma and over the course of the next four to five years hunter and his firms were paid more than 3 million for his and archers board participation. Now, again, ukrainian had just gone through a revolution. Their leadership was desperate for u. S. Support. We all have to believe that an odious oligarch would have made the ukrainian officials well aware of the fact the son of the Vice President of the United States, the public face of the administrations handling of ukraine, was sitting on his board. So what kind of signal did that send to ukrainians who were trying to stand up and being pressured by u. S. Officials to rid their country of corruption . It basically said