Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 336) calling on the Government of the Russian Federation to provide evidence or to release United States citizen Paul Whelan, as amended. The Clerk read the title of the resolution. The text of the resolution is as follows: H. Res. 336 Whereas United States citizen Paul Whelan is a resident of Novi, Michigan, and a United States Marine Corps veteran; Whereas Paul Whelan traveled to Moscow for the wedding of a personal friend on December 22, 2018; Whereas Russia's Federal Security Service arrested Paul Whelan at the Metropol Hotel in Moscow on December 28, 2018, and charged him with espionage; Whereas the Federal Security Service has never provided any evidence of supposed wrongdoing; Whereas Paul Whelan was imprisoned in Lefortovo Prison and was held there for more than 19 months after his arrest in pretrial detention; Whereas a Moscow court extended Paul Whelan's pretrial detention multiple times without publicly presenting justification or evidence of wrongdoing; Whereas even Paul Whelan's Federal Security Service- appointed lawyer, Vladimir Zherebenkov, said on May 24, 2019, ``[The Federal Security Service] always roll[s] out what they have, but in this case, we've seen nothing concrete against Whelan in five months.…”