WASHINGTON, DC] – Today on the Senate Floor, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) announced his decision to vote to convict President Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress during tomorrow’s Senate vote.
Blumenthal began his remarks by recalling specific moments from the impeachment inquiry, including testimony before the House Intelligence Committee by career public servants Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, Fiona Hill, and Ambassador William Taylor. Blumenthal also recalled, “the audible gasp, some laughs, and raised eyebrows when Professor Alan Dershowitz made the incredible, shocking argument that a president who believes that his own reelection serves the public interest can do anything he wants and his actions are not impeachable. The implications of that argument for the future of our democracy are simply indescribable.”
Blumenthal outlined the legal case against President Trump, focusing specifically on the act of bribery the president committed in corruptly abusing his power to solicit a personal, political favor in exchange for an official act:
“I’ve been a trial lawyer. I’ve spent most of my career in and out of the courtroom, so I can argue the legalities, but I’m not here to rehash the legal arguments because culpability here seems pretty clear to me. The president solicited a bribe when he sought a personal benefit, an investigation of his political opponent, a smear of his rival in exchange for an official act, in fact two official acts: the release of military funding for an ally and a White House meeting in return for that personal benefit. Those actions are a violation of Section 201, 18 United States Code today. They were a violation of criminal law at the time of the Framers. And that’s why they put it in the Constitution, bribery and treason specifically mentioned.”
Video of Blumenthal’s remarks is available for download here. A transcript of Blumenthal’s remarks today on the Senate Floor is available below:
Madam President, as we think back over these last weeks, when we have sat together on the Floor considering evidence and sitting in judgment as jurors and judges, spending countless hours deliberating, I often think about what I will remember from these days on a very personal level. It has been an historic event, but in some ways the human element strikes me as the most memorable. I will remember vividly the bravery of dedicated public servants who had everything to lose and nothing to gain by telling the American people the truth about Donald Trump and his scheme to corruptly use power for his personal benefit. Their courage, their grace under pressure, their dignity and unshakable honesty should be a model for all of us.
I will remember, for example, Colonel Alexander Vindman whose video appeared before us. A man who was brought to the United States at the age of three, and grew to love this country so much that he put his life at risk in combat and then his career at risk by coming before the Congress.
I’ll remember Fiona Hill, daughter of a coal miner and nurse who proceeded to get a PhD, swear an oath to this country, serving in both Republican and Democratic administrations, warning us not to pedal the “fictional narrative” perpetrated and propagated as she said, and I’m quoting, by the Russian security services themselves about this supposed Ukrainian effort to meddle in our election.
I will remember very vividly Ambassador William Taylor, a West Point graduate, decorated Vietnam War veteran who testified he thought it was “crazy to” withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.
And I will remember the whistle-blower who came forward to express shock and alarm that the President of the United States would attempt to extort a vulnerable fledgling democracy to help him cheat in the next election in exchange for the foreign military aid they so desperately needed to fight their adversary, Russia, our adversary, Russia, attacking and killing their young men and women. I have met some of those young men and women who came to Connecticut to the burn center at Bridgeport Hospital. So badly injured they could barely talk. And the stories of their suffering and hardship came back to me as I sat on the Floor here and their courage and their bravery and strength also will stay with me.
I’ll remember the moment that we raised our hands, took an oath to be impartial, all hundred of us – ninety-nine – at the same time in a historic moment when the weight of that responsibility shook me like a rock.
And I will remember also the shame and sadness that I felt when this body, supposedly the greatest deliberative body in the history of the world, voted to close its eyes, to put on blinders to evidence, witnesses, and documents, firsthand knowledge, eyes and ears on the president, black and white. Documents don’t lie. That were necessary to understand the complete story and give the American people the complete truth. That moment, unfortunately a moment of dismay and disappointment, will stay with me as well after aspiring for so long to be part of this body, which I respected and revered. So utterly failing the American people at this moment of crisis.
And I will remember the audible gasp, some laughs, and raised eyebrows when Professor Alan Dershowitz made the incredible, shocking argument that a president who believes that his own reelection serves the public interest can do anything he wants and his actions are not impeachable. The implications of that argument for the future of our democracy are simply indescribable.
I’ve been a trial lawyer. I’ve spent most of my career in and out of the courtroom, so I can argue the legalities, but I’m not here to rehash the legal arguments because culpability here seems pretty clear to me. The president solicited a bribe when he sought a personal benefit, an investigation of his political opponent, a smear of his rival in exchange for an official act, in fact two official acts, the release of military funding for an ally and a White House meeting in return for that personal benefit. Those actions are a violation of Section 201, 18 United States Code today. They were a violation of criminal law at the time of the Framers. And that’s why they put it in the Constitution, bribery and treason specifically mentioned.
Bribery is included as an abuse of power as it was when Judge Porteous was convicted and impeached. And many of the members of this chamber voted to impeach him although bribery was never mentioned in the articles charging him with the abuse of power. The idea that bribery or any crime has to be mentioned for there to be an abuse of power is clearly preposterous. The elements of bribery have been proved, in my view, beyond a reasonable doubt and there is no excuse for that criminal conduct. I’m going to submit a detailed statement for the record that makes the legal case, but clearly bribery has been committed by this president.
What strikes me perhaps looking beyond the legalities as most telling here is the constant theme of secrecy. The fact that the president kept his reasons for withholding aid secret, unlike other suspensions of aid to other countries, like the Northern Triangle in Central America or Egypt where it was announced publicly and Congress was notified. Here he kept it secret. He operated through his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, in secret. Not through the State Department, not through the Department of Justice. Despite all his claims of corruption and wrongdoing by Hunter or Joe Biden, he either never went to the Department of Justice or they declined to investigate because there was no “there” there. Instead he sought secretly the investigation of political rival through a foreign government targeting a U.S. citizen secretly.
His refusal to provide a single document to Congress, allow a single witness to testify, keeping their testimony and that evidence secret, concealing it, his defiance of every subpoena in court effectively neutering Congress’ oversight authority, our oversight authority to check any of these abuses, all of it for the purpose of secrecy. His claim of absolute immunity totally discredited and rejected by the courts because, as the court said in McGahn’s case, he is not a king. His claim of executive privilege as the reason for keeping that evidence secret – well, he never really invoked executive privilege. But executive privilege cannot be invoked to conceal criminal conduct. It fits within the crime of fraud exception.
While the president’s lawyers argued before this body that the House should have gone to court to enforce those subpoenas instead of resorting to the remedy of impeachment, they had the audacity to simultaneously at exactly the same time argue in court that Congress cannot seek a judicial remedy to enforce subpoenas because it has the remedy of impeachment. No jurisdiction because of impeachment and at the same time no access to evidence necessary for impeachment because supposedly you can go to court. This duplicity is absolutely stunning.
And I will say just again on a personal note as a prosecutor, it’s a dead giveaway. He’s guilty. Regardless of what we do tomorrow, we know for sure in this great democracy the truth will come out. It always does. It’s just a question of when. It comes out about all of us at some point. And for this president, the truth is coming out in real time as we speak on this Floor, as we vote tomorrow. The revelations in The New York Times about what John Bolton has written in his book indicate the truth is going to come out in mid-March with John Bolton’s book, assuming the president doesn’t try to censor it and tie him up in court or exercise some prior restraint.
It will come out in Congressional investigations. When John Bolton and others testify, it will come out because there are courageous men and women like Ambassador Taylor and Fiona Hill and Colonel Vindman and others who are willing to put country ahead of their personal careers.
When my children grow up – and they are pretty well grown – I hope they will be more like them than like the president, and I never ever thought I would say that in the Senate of the United States, let alone anywhere. Because this president has shown that he will take advantage of every opportunity for self-enrichment and self-aggrandizement, whether it’s violating the Emoluments Clause. I have sued him along with 199 of my colleagues on that issue, making money from the presidency, profiting and putting profit ahead of his official duties or seeking to smear a political rival and soliciting a bribe, even if the aid went through and even if the investigation was never announced, it’s still a crime. Putting that kind of self-benefit ahead of his duty to the country and our national security, the welfare and fight of an ally at the tip of the spear against a common adversary who is seeking to destroy western democracies.
He is someone who has said, “show me the boundaries of the law and I’ll push them. And if I can successfully cross them, I will do it again.” And he will do it again. Everyone in this chamber knows it. So as we make this momentous decision, I implore each of my colleagues to think about the gravity of what we will do if we fail to convict this president.
The message that we send to countries struggling to overcome corruption. Because America is more than just a country. America is an idea and an ideal. When we implore them to fight corruption, our credibility is shredded when we condone it at home.
The Framers in their wisdom knew that elections every four years were an inadequate check against any president who corruptly abuses power for personal gain, and this situation and this president is exactly what they feared when our young, infant country was struggling to avoid foreign interference in our election. It was their worst nightmare. Foreign interference, the threat of foreign meddling, exactly what this president has invited. It was delegate William Davie of North Carolina who said, “if he be not impeachable whilst in office, he will spare no efforts or means whatever to get himself reelected.” It was precisely cheating in a future election, foreign interference in our domestic affairs that the Framers established impeachment to prevent. That’s why the remedy exists. And that’s why we must use it now.
History will judge us harshly if we fail in this historic challenge. History will haunt the colleagues who fail to meet this challenge, who lack the courage that was demonstrated by those heroes; Taylor, Vindman, Hill, Cooper, others. And they will continue to serve our country. And the truth will come out.
The heroes of this dark era will be our independent judiciary and our free press. They will continue uncovering the truth. They will continue providing freedom of information material under the law. They will continue to protect civil rights and civil liberties. They will continue their vigilance, even if we fail in ours. But we have this task now.
History will sit in judgment of us and the future of our republic will be in jeopardy if we fail tomorrow to do the right thing.
Thank you, Madam President.
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