Durbin Delivers Opening Statement During Senate Judiciary Subcommittee Hearing On Arctic Frost

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today delivered an opening statement at a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing entitled "Arctic Frost Accountability: Oversight of Telecommunications Carriers' Responses to Jack Smith's Witch Hunt." This morning, Durbin led all Senate Judiciary Democrats in again calling for Special Prosecutor Jack Smith to testify publicly under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee, as he has offered to do, as well as request unredacted versions of the Special Counsel's report, including Volume II, which is still being blocked from public release by President Trump's Department of Justice.

Instead of allowing Jack Smith to testify, Senate Judiciary Republicans plan to proceed with a wasteful series of eight subcommittee hearings to relitigate the 2020 presidential election, despite numerous other issues worth examining within the Committee's jurisdiction. Today's subcommittee hearing is the first hearing in the series.

Key Quotes:

"For reasons that are not clear to me, we are here today to discuss Special Counsel Jack Smith using a legal procedure-created by Congress and regularly deployed by federal prosecutors-to collect the toll records of people President Trump contacted in his efforts to overturn the election of 2020."

"As a reminder, in 2020, President Trump spent months spreading the Big Lie that the election was stolen… He pressured state election officials and Members of Congress to help overturn the results of the election... This culminated in the January 6 attack on the Capitol, where President Trump's supporters tried to violently prevent the certification of the 2020 election. That same day, President Donald Trump called Members of Congress to solicit their aid in blocking the certification. Special Counsel Jack Smith investigated this criminal effort by President Trump to overturn the election. So, it's not surprising that Mr. Smith subpoenaed the call records of those the President tried to enlist in his conspiracy."

"To the extent the Committee has questions about this, it should be former Special Counsel Smith testifying as a witness today before us-not three telecom companies who responded to legally-issued subpoenas."

"What about those subpoenas for Republican Senators' call records? Mr. Smith explained. 'President Trump and his associates tried to call Members of Congress in furtherance of their criminal scheme, urging them to further delay certification of the 2020 election. I did not choose those Members, President Trump did.'"

"Whitewashing President Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election and the January 6 attack does not address a single problem facing Americans and it helps set the stage for Trump's efforts to interfere in this year's elections. This is frankly an embarrassing use of the Committee's limited time, and I urge my colleagues to turn their attention to the threats that President Trump poses to our democracy."

"The Trump Administration has been waging war against its own citizens in the streets of American cities. Federal immigration agents have become a paramilitary force, harassing, threatening, and, on multiple occasions now, killing Americans who oppose the President's mass deportation campaign."

"Instead of addressing the issues the American people care about, the President is doubling down on his baseless claims of election fraud to justify interfering in another election. Last month, the FBI seized truckloads of 2020 election materials from Fulton County, Georgia-with Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence, inexplicably in tow on the President's direct orders."

"And now President Trump is calling for Republicans to 'take over the voting.' His plan to repeat his election subversion tactics could not be plainer."

"I hope his disregard for Congress and the American people doesn't turn violent yet again-but instead of responding to this threat, Republicans here today show their undying fealty to the President's abnormal behavior and to his attempt to whitewash history and somehow make January 6 disappear. It won't work; we still have the videos."

Video of Durbin's opening statement is available here.

Audio of Durbin's opening statement is available here.

Footage of Durbin's opening statement is available here for TV Stations.

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