Thom Tillis

Mr. TILLIS

Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. TILLIS

Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. TILLIS

Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I am coming back to the floor, sadly, to make a speech that I promised to make every week that I am in the U.S. Senate as long as a pastor from North Carolina, who has been in mission in Turkey for almost 20 years--until his release from a Turkish prison. Before I get started with that, I want to thank Senator Donnelly for his comments because I think we share a common concern with respect to the Joint Strike Fighter Program. That is something I am going to suggest in my discussions. I also thank, in advance, Senator Shaheen, who has worked with me, on a bipartisan basis, to highlight the concern we have for a man who has been in a Turkish prison for 614 days. Pastor Brunson was arrested in October of 2016 for nothing more than being a missionary. I went to Turkey about 2 months ago and visited him in a Turkish prison, after almost 17 months of being in prison, without any charges. They brought charges against him that are some of the most bogus excuses for evidence you could possibly imagine. I am certain that if it were somebody with these charges in the United States in a jail system or prison system, they would be released the day the charges were filed. This is Pastor Brunson. He is a little over 50 years old. Since he has been in prison, he has lost 50 pounds and has spent almost 17 months in a prison cell designed for 8 people that had 21 people in it, that entire time without a single formal charge levied against him. Pastor Brunson is a Presbyterian minister from Western North Carolina, an area called Black Mountain. He was swept up in the arrest that occurred after the illegal coup attempt that I think was inappropriate and that I would probably oppose because I think there is a peaceful way to change regimes, but Pastor Brunson wasn't one of the people who caused the coup. If you went to that courtroom like I did and spent 12 hours in that room, you would have heard absurd charges from over a dozen secret witnesses, many of them in prison, talking about the food that somebody may have eaten, which is a preferred food of a terrorist organization, or the fact that a light was on in a small church in Izmir for hours, and certainly there had to be something bad going on. That is the nature of these charges. I am not making it up. This man is doing everything he can to have the truth be heard, but I actually believe this is not about a judicial process. This is not about valid charges. This is about a political hostage. I will tell you the day I absolutely confirmed that this pastor became a political hostage. It is the day President Erdogan had the audacity to make this statement. President Erdogan believes that there is someone in this country who was involved in the coup attempt. We have reached out to Turkey and said: If you can process a valid basis for extradition--we have an extradition treaty with Turkey--we would be happy to consider that, based on the merits of the case, and we still would be, but the President had the audacity to say: We can just short circuit all of those by you trading your pastor for our pastor. President Erdogan clearly demonstrated that he has the authority to release this illegally and improperly imprisoned American, who has been in prison for 614 days, but he chooses not to. Now, on a bipartisan basis--I should tell my colleagues that one of the reasons I find this so insulting is because Turkey has been a NATO ally since 1952. We have to understand what being a NATO ally means. What it means is the greatest, the most powerful Nation on Earth has committed to deploying men and women in American uniforms to Turkey to protect Turkey if they are attacked by an outside aggressor. We have a commitment to protect the Turkish people. We have a commitment to our men and women in harm's way to protect the Turkish people, but we have a Turkish President who is acting less like a NATO ally and more like an adversary. By the way, this is not an argument with the Turkish people who are great people. I have been to Turkey several times--they are wonderful people--but this President is taking a position that has to have a consequence. Again, we can go back and talk about what our obligations are under the treaty. First and foremost, it is to treat an ally that has that very heavy obligation to defend another Nation--to go to some other soil and defend that Nation--to treat them with respect, to treat their citizens with respect. If they are a criminal, present the evidence and prosecute them. There are Americans in Turkish prisons. They have committed murders, robbery, and other crimes, and there was legitimate evidence put forth for me to be OK with that, but I am not at all OK with the way Pastor Brunson has been treated by the Turkish judiciary. We tried everything we could for about 1\1/2\ years on a diplomatic basis and that has gone nowhere. After my last trip to Turkey, I decided we had to get Turkey's attention, and on a bipartisan basis, we started that by passing an amendment in the National Defense Authorization Act that will ask for the answers to very important questions. Some of those have to do with the illegal detainment of American persons in Turkey. The other one has to do with a very important--in fact, the most sophisticated tactical fighter that has ever flown through the air, the Joint Strike Fighter, or the F-35. Turkey is a very important part of the supply chain to the Joint Strike Fighter and Turkey has requested Joint Strike Fighters to be put into their arsenal. On the surface, because they are a NATO ally, I don't object to it, but, today, I strongly object to it. We passed language in the national defense authorization that we will be voting on fairly soon that will actually put Turkey on notice: Choose what you want to be. Do you want to be an ally that treats your other ally citizens with respect; do you want to be an ally that actually builds defense systems that come from allies, not from a would-be adversary like Russia; or do you want to actually go down the path and lose the support of the American people along the way? I thank Chairman Inhofe for his support of the amendment. I want to thank the members of the Senate subcommittee--the Senate full Committee on Armed Services who voted for this amendment. I look forward to getting this passed into law when we finally confer with the House and sending a message to Turkey: We want to be your ally. We want to be there in your darkest hour to defend your security. Convince Members of the Senate that you want to be our ally, that you want to treat our citizens with respect, and that you will free Pastor Brunson. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. TILLIS

Mr. TILLIS. Madam President, I wish to speak briefly. I thank the Democratic leader for giving me the opportunity to speak for 5 minutes to do what I have done every week for the past couple of months and what I will do every week until we get a resolution; that is, to talk about Pastor Brunson, a Presbyterian minister who has been in prison in Turkey since October of 2016. As best as we can tell, the only thing Pastor Brunson is guilty of is being a missionary who has committed 20 years of his life to working with people in Turkey who want to hear the Word of God. That is it. We can talk about--I will not today because my time is limited--all the trumped-up charges I witnessed when I spent 12 hours in a Turkish courtroom a couple of months ago or that I discussed with Pastor Brunson about 3 weeks earlier when I visited him in a prison. Today what I want to talk about is relevant to the national defense authorization and the work we have done in committee to put Turkey on notice that this is unacceptable. Turkey has been an ally of the United States since 1952. The NATO alliance commits every member of NATO to send their men and women in uniform into harm's way to defend the national security of a nation of the alliance. We have that with Turkey; we have since 1952. Over the past month or so, we have seen a would-be adversary in North Korea release three prisoners, we have seen Venezuela release a prisoner, but in Turkey, since October of 2016, we have seen them hold a man for almost a year and a half without charges. Then I saw a man go before a court--and I witnessed for a whole day--being subjected to some of the most absurd charges possible. Next week, when I have more time, I will get into those. I thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who voted to put a provision in the national defense authorization that really makes us wonder whether we have to rethink our relationship with Turkey, particularly around the Joint Strike Fighter. The Joint Strike Fighter is one of the most sophisticated tactical fighters that has ever flown; arguably, the most sophisticated. Turkey is a NATO ally and, as such, they have access to that weapons system. In fact, they manufacture a lot of the critical parts for it. What we offered in the NDAA is an examination of whether that relationship makes sense; No. 1, because of the way they are treating one of our American citizens, not letting him come back home, he and his wife; and No. 2, if that is the behavior of a NATO ally, is that really where we should be putting, in our supply chains and in our defensive systems, one of the most sophisticated weapons, one of the most important weapons in our arsenal. I, for one, think we have to look at it. Until the Turkish Government recognizes that they are illegally holding Pastor Brunson, and a number of others, then I think we have to put the spotlight on them and hold them accountable. If I have an obligation, as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate, to defend their integrity, they have an obligation to treat our American citizens with respect. We have the amendment in the NDAA. We also have another amendment we may offer. We need to make Turkey know we believe our alliance with them is important, but it is also important to treat American citizens who are not guilty of a crime with respect and bring Pastor Brunson home. I yield the floor.

Mr. TILLIS

Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, sadly, I have to do a speech that I promised I would do every week until we find justice for someone who has been in a Turkish prison now for a number of days. This is Pastor Brunson. He is a Presbyterian minister from Black Mountain. He has been in Turkey for 20 years, doing missionary work for a small church that I will describe briefly later. On October 4, 2016, he was swept up in President Erdogan's regime's reaction to an unlawful coup--a coup that I disagree with. I believe in a peaceful transition of power, and I do believe that people who are responsible for it should be subject to Turkish laws. But the roundup of people by President Erdogan--he cast a very wide net--went so far beyond any reasonable expectation of people who could have been involved in the coup attempt. On October 4, 2016, a Presbyterian minister from Black Mountain, NC--the same church that Billy Graham was a part of--found himself arrested on charges for being a potential terrorist and plotting a coup. He is in a Turkish prison. He has been in that prison now for 593 days--593 days, almost 17 months--without charges. He is held in a prison cell that is designed for 8 people but has 21 people in it. He is not really allowed to speak with his family. In fact, the only family he has seen over the last 593 days has been his wife, because they have been afraid to let his children come into the country for fear that they would not be allowed to leave, nor will his wife Norine leave the country for fear that she will not be able to come back. She is his only connection to his family. It has been 593 days. I want to go back and tell you what really underlines why they think this Presbyterian minister is a part of the coup attempt or a terrorist organization. It is because they believe that religions in the United States are somehow joined together in this intelligence-gathering network so that, instead of doing missionary work, they can go into these countries and infiltrate their systems and then force coups or support or provide aid to people who would commit a terrorist act against the Turkish homeland--something that I would object to and something of which I would say that anybody who does that should be subject to Turkish law. They believe this of Pastor Brunson, a pastor of a church in Izmir, who for many years, when he was doing missionary work, didn't even have a church. They finally were able to get the resources together. They have 50 members. This is a 50-member congregation in a church in Izmir, which is one of the more populous cities in the Turkey. This is a very small church. On a packed day, on a Sunday, you may be able to fit 120 people in it. They open the doors so that people walking down the street can hear what they are talking about. They open the windows. They invite anybody in it. Part of the case is that they believe that people who have entered that church are Kurdish, and because they are Kurdish, they must be associated with the PKK, and if they are associated with the PKK, then, clearly, they were involved with terrorist attempts against Turkey. This church was also used in evidence. You see the picture. There is a small room upstairs in this very small church. There have been over one dozen secret witnesses. In a Turkish court, he doesn't have a trial by jury. He has three judges, and there is a prosecutor who is elevated, effectively, to be another judge, whom he is testifying before. One of the secret witnesses said that he clearly is guilty of nefarious activity because one night he saw a window open in this church for about 4 hours. That was the evidence submitted. There is a problem with that. No. 1, generally speaking, in our country, having a light on doesn't necessarily go directly to being prosecuted for terrorism or conspiracy to commit terrorism. There is another problem with this allegation. This room doesn't have a window. There is no possible way somebody could have seen the light. Even if you would argue that seeing a light could somehow be linked to terrorist activity, you can't even see it. To make matters worse, after more than a dozen secret witnesses came on, many of them in Turkish prisons themselves for the prosecution, the defense asked if they had 10 witnesses who would testify on his behalf. The judges said they would not be allowed to testify because they are suspects. They haven't been charged with anything, necessarily. They may not even be incarcerated, but they are suspects. Therefore, he has no opportunity whatsoever to defend himself. I am about to go back and do a final vote on the National Defense Authorization Act. We have to get President Erdogan's attention. In a bill that we are going to have on this floor in the next couple of weeks, I believe we are going to send a very clear message to the President and to the people of Turkey to treat our people fairly, to treat with respect a nation that is prepared to send American men and women to Turkey to fight and die for their freedom. If they don't, then we are going to have to continue to up the temperature until justice is done for Pastor Brunson and others in Turkish prisons. I yield the floor.

Mr. TILLIS

Mr. TILLIS. Madam President, reserving the right to object, I want to thank my friend Senator Manchin. He and I serve on the VA Committee. I know he is absolutely committed to trying to do the best we possibly can for our veterans. We may have a disagreement on what he has in mind for this particular unanimous consent request, but I don't think there is any daylight between us in terms of what we are trying to do for veterans. I look forward to working with the chair to get to a good place and to address in the Senate committee some of the concerns he has. For that reason, I object.

Mr. TILLIS. Madam President, there are a million reasons why I love North Carolina, but one of them is, it is a State of 10 million people. Half those people live in urban areas. The other half live in rural areas. One in ten people in the State are veterans--a State that proudly claims having one of the fastest growing veteran populations in the country. When I go into the VA Committee and I look at what we have to do, I don't look at it as coming from an urban State. I don't look at it as coming from a rural State. In many respects, I think North Carolina is a microcosm of the Nation as a whole. When we look at some of the changes we want to make, what I hope we get out of this review is what to do with the 430 empty buildings that are as much as 90 years old that are owned by the VA. We may have to do basic maintenance on them, but they are properties that may have a historic value. Maybe we can convey them to the States and sell them and use the resources to plow back into quality care for the veterans. I can tell my friend from West Virginia that we share a mountain range together. We share a lot of cultures out in the western part of our State with West Virginia. There is no way on Earth that I would allow the VA to move forward on something I felt was going further away from providing quality care to any veterans anywhere in West Virginia, North Carolina, or any other rural area. On the one hand, we continue to say we don't have enough money for veterans. On the other hand, we say we have to find some of those additional resources by taking steps to make the VA more efficient and shed the assets that are no longer providing value to the veterans. I, for one, believe we can do it on a balanced basis. As this process goes through, it is actually an authority the VA has today. They haven't acted on it. We are trying to put more pressure on them to make some concise decisions. The Senator from West Virginia has my commitment that any instance where we see a decision being made by the VA that is something that is going to take veterans further away from care, I will be the first one to join him in making sure we don't allow that to happen. Thank you.

Mr. TILLIS

Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, this is my third occasion on a speech that I wish that I didn't have to give on the floor of the U.S. Senate, but I promise that I am going to give a speech on this subject every week that the Senate is open for as long as I am a U.S. Senator and there is a man in a Turkish prison who I don't believe should be. This man's name is Andrew Brunson, Pastor Brunson. He is a Presbyterian minister from Black Mountain, NC, who has been in Turkey for about the last 20 years with his wife. He raised his family there. He is a Presbyterian minister who at first just did ministry work. He didn't have a church to actually open up to the community. He just did ministry work--preached the Word and delivered the Word for the people in Turkey who wanted to hear it. It was a small church with only about 50 full-time members. It was a church that was just outside of Izmir. It was actually in Izmir proper, which is one of the larger cities in Turkey. As of today, this man has been in prison for 586 days. He was actually taken to prison, without charges, under the emergency order after the coup in 2016. He was put in prison on October 4, 2016. For almost 17 months, he was held in a prison cell that was designed for 8 prisoners but had 21 in it. None of the other ones were American. None of the other ones were English speaking. Many of them were charged on either ISIS or terrorist charges or for plotting a coup attempt. He was in that prison for almost 17 months. He lost 50 pounds. His health diminished. His mental state, as anyone would expect, diminished. Yet he is a strong man of faith, and hopefully he will continue to have the strength to go through this horrible process. We have been handling this. We have what we call casework. If somebody in North Carolina needs help, whatever that may be, we encourage them to call our office, and we open a case. We do any number of things for veterans, for military families, for seniors--anybody. If you need help in getting through to the Federal Government, you call our office. So we opened a case on Pastor Brunson about a year ago, and we have been trying to work through diplomatic channels to get him released. About 3 months ago or 4 months ago, we heard that the indictment was going to be served on Pastor Brunson. I received word from some of the family members and people in the faith-based community that they were concerned that the American people were going to read the indictment and really judge him as guilty and turn their backs on him and have him languish in prison for what would be, essentially, a life sentence. He is 50 years old, and the charges would be up to 35 years. It was so important for me to have him know that we cared about him that I traveled to Turkey. I got a visa to go to Turkey and made a request to go to that Turkish prison and look Pastor Brunson eye to eye and tell him that we were not going to forget about him and that we were going to do everything we could to work for his release and the release of a number of other people who I genuinely believe, in Turkey, are subject to religious persecution. I met with him in the prison for about an hour and a half. It turns out that we had just found out that his first court date was going to be about 3 weeks later, so I decided to go back to Turkey 3 weeks later and be in that courtroom to hear the testimony for myself, to hear the 62-page indictment play out. I was in that courtroom from about 9 o'clock in the morning on Monday until about 10 o'clock that night. If you don't know what a kangaroo court is and you can't read it on this slide, just Google it quickly, because what I saw was a kangaroo court. First off, you should think about the setting. It is unlike any setting you could ever imagine in the United States. It doesn't have a trial jury, but it has a three-judge panel up there, and the prosecutor is really elevated to almost being another judge. The prosecutor was up at the dais. We were in a room that was about half the size of this room. It was maybe about two-thirds the size. It was a big room. The defense attorney was off to the side about another 30 or 40 feet, and the defendant was right in front of this panel of judges and was being looked down upon. He had to testify for 6 hours on his own behalf. One doesn't have a choice in Turkey. Then they listed the charges. Why do I say it was a kangaroo court? Let me give a summary. I am not going to cover all of the charges because my time is limited today, but let me give a summary of some of the charges. In the time I was there, there were about a half dozen secret witnesses. The defendant didn't get to face his accusers. In Turkey, these secret witnesses can say what they want to say. The essence of one secret witness's testimony was that he knew that Pastor Brunson was involved in either plotting the coup or in working with the PKK, which is a terrorist organization fundamentally made up of Kurds, because he witnessed a light on in this church for 4 hours. First off, in the U.S. system, I know you are probably not going to get prosecuted for 35 years for having a light on for 4 hours--at least I hope not. Yet what makes this even more challenging is that this is the church. This church only seats about 120 people. It has two very small upstairs' rooms. I know because I have been there. We took these pictures when I visited Turkey after the visit to the prison. This is the room that is alleged to have had a light on for 4 hours, but there is one problem--no window, no way to possibly see into this room. In fact, the windows downstairs are closed with storm--I am trying to think of the name--shutters, wooden shutters. There is no way you could even see in. Yet this witness had what they considered to be compelling testimony that a light had been on, and for that reason, the pastor had to have been involved in the terrorist plot or the coup. Another of the charges that have been alleged by the prosecution is that all of the churches in America are connected and that they actually work in unison in other countries to disrupt the governments of other countries. A Christian church may take the Word to people in other countries, but it is really kind of organized as an intelligence- gathering and destabilizing force on behalf of the American Government in order to disrupt other sovereign nations. Literally, this is how they have been thinking, and this is what they have been using to prosecute him. It is a kangaroo court. I maintain that what we have is a hostage situation here. We have President Erdogan saying: If we give him a pass, give us somebody we are trying to extradite from the United States. On the one hand, they say you have to work through the system, and we have to let justice be served. On the other hand, the President has said: If you give us somebody we are trying to extradite from the United States, then we will give you Pastor Brunson. This is a hostage situation. This is religious persecution. I will finish with this. Turkey is a NATO ally. It is an important NATO ally. It has been in NATO since 1952. It is in a very dangerous part of the world. It has a lot of challenges that it has to deal with--the Syrian conflict and its own internal economic challenges. There are a number of challenges, and I understand that President Erdogan's job is difficult. I would like to make it easier. As a co- lead of the Senate's NATO Observer Group, I would like to actually strengthen our partnership and make safer and more secure its homeland and its threat from foreign adversaries. Yet, today, I have a NATO ally that is behaving like no NATO ally ever has in the history of the alliance. These are the sorts of things we are supposed to be doing as members of the NATO alliance, not illegally imprisoning for 586 days a Presbyterian minister. We will be doing the NDAA markup next week, which is the National Defense Authorization Act. I will be working with other Members and will have to put forth provisions in the NDAA, which is the last thing that I would like to do. I would like to put provisions forward that strengthen the alliance with NATO, that send a very clear signal that we want to help them secure their homeland, and that send a clear signal that we want to work together in the fight in Syria. But today I can't have that as a priority. Today my No. 1 priority is releasing Pastor Brunson. I hope everybody understands that this is something that everybody--whether you are from North Carolina, North Dakota, or any State in this Nation--should all stand as a nation saying: This is not how you treat an American citizen and certainly not a NATO ally. I look forward, hopefully, to never doing this speech again. I hope that by next week Pastor Brunson is free and that we sent a very clear message to all the other people in Turkey who are in prison because of their faith that this is unacceptable behavior. Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.

Mr. TILLIS

Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I have 3 requests for committees to meet during today's session of the Senate. They have the approval of the Majority and Minority leaders. Pursuant to rule XXVI, paragraph 5(a), of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the following committees are authorized to meet during today's session of the Senate: Committee on Armed Services The Committee on Armed Services is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, May 10, 2018, at 10 a.m. to conduct a hearing on the following nominations: Lisa Porter, of Virginia, to be a Deputy Under Secretary, James N. Stewart, of North Carolina, to be an Assistant Secretary, James H. Anderson, of Virginia, to be an Assistant Secretary, and Gregory J. Slavonic, of Oklahoma, to be an Assistant Secretary of the Navy, all of the Department of Defense, and Charles P. Verdon, of California, to be Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs, National Nuclear Security Administration, Department of Energy. Committee on Foreign Relations The Committee on Foreign Relations is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, May 10, 2018, at 10 a.m. to conduct a hearing entitled ``Modernizing Development Finance.'' Committee on the Judiciary The Committee on the Judiciary is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, May 10, 2018, at 10 a.m. to conduct a hearing on the following nominations: ark Jeremy Bennett, of Hawaii, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Ninth Circuit, Nancy E. Brasel, and Eric C. Tostrud, both to be a United States District Judge for the District of Minnesota, Robert R. Summerhays, to be United States District Judge for the Western District of Louisiana, Andrew S. Oldham, of Texas, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Fifth Circuit, Alan D. Albright, to be United States District Judge for the Western District of Texas, Thomas S. Kleeh, to be United States District Judge for the Northern District of West Virginia, Peter J. Phipps, to be United States District Judge for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Michael J. Truncale, of Texas, to be United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Texas, Wendy Vitter, to be United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana, and Cheryl A. Lydon, to be United States Attorney for the District of South Carolina, Sonya K. Chavez, to be United States Marshal for the District of New Mexico, Scott E. Kracl, to be United States Marshal for the District of Nebraska, and J. C. Raffety, to be United States Marshal for the Northern District of West Virginia, all of the Department of Justice.

Mr. TILLIS

Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I thank Senator Lankford. I went to Turkey when I was speaker of the house in North Carolina and led a delegation there about 7 years ago, spent 9 days, met with business leaders, and met with President Erdogan. I came away with a great deal of optimism--as a matter of fact, so much optimism, I hosted a delegation from the mayor of Kayseri, who is now a Minister in the Turkish Government, to talk about how North Carolina and Turkey could build stronger economic ties. We both have textile and furniture industries. It looked like a great opportunity, but, as Senator Lankford said, the Turkey of today bears no resemblance to the Turkey I visited about 7 years ago, to the Turkey I visited just a few weeks ago. I would like to be talking about how we help Turkey take the fight to terrorist organizations threatening their homeland. I would like to work more with Turkey, as we have this week, to identify ISIS leaders, detain them, and make that region safer. I would like to be a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee-- and sit right next to Senator Sullivan--fighting for additional NDAA provisions that underscore our commitment to our NATO ally in Turkey, but now I am at a fork in the road, and right now I only have one position to take; that is, to put Turkey on notice for their bad actions as a NATO ally and for their bad actions toward American nationals in the country of Turkey. So I am with Senator Lankford, Senator Shaheen, and other Senators. When we do our markup on the national defense authorization, instead of talking about how we strengthen our relationship for their part in manufacturing the Joint Strike Fighter and what is the timeline to actually have our NATO ally have Joint Strike Fighters, F-35s, within their military base, now I have to start talking about whether they should have it at all. I have to start talking about what are the implications of a Russian missile defense system in a NATO country, with all the intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets that come with it. I have to start talking about what the future of our relationship is with a nation that is, for the first time in NATO history, holding American hostages--a NATO ally. I have to take things in a different direction. It is my responsibility, as the co- lead of the Senate NATO observer group, as the Senator of a State who has had a citizen in prison for 580 days. I have no choice. I thank the Presiding Officer for the time today. I will be back next week, and I will be back every week until we see justice served for Pastor Brunson. I yield the floor.

Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, with that approval, I will pass it over and thank Senator Lankford for his hard work--he has been aware of this issue from day one--and collaboration on it.

Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, a couple of weeks ago, I started the first of what will be a weekly speech to bring attention to what I think is a travesty of justice occurring in Turkey. I wish to speak about a pastor, a Presbyterian minister from North Carolina, who has lived in Turkey for about 20 years and who has done his very best to respect the laws of Turkey and to bring the Word to people who want to hear it. Unfortunately, he has been swept up in a coup. He has been swept up in the emergency powers of Turkey. He has been in prison for 580 days. I went to Turkey about 6 weeks ago to visit Pastor Brunson in prison because I heard that after being in prison for about a year and a half--and for much of that time in a cell that is designed for 8 people and had 21 people in it--he was then indicted. I heard he was afraid the American people were going to read that 62-page bogus indictment, with some of the flimsiest charges we could imagine--charges that wouldn't keep someone overnight in an American jail--that have kept him in prison for 580 days. About 2 months ago, he was indicted, but he said to his wife and friends, he was afraid the American people would read that indictment and turn their backs on him. So it was important for me to travel over there and tell him face-to- face in that Turkish prison that is the last thing that is going to happen. We are going to continue to work every day he is in prison. I am going to come to the Senate floor, and other Members are, every week for as long as he is illegally in prison, and we are going to make sure the American people and the Turkish people know what is going on and send a very clear message to the leaders of Turkey that this is an unacceptable way to deal with a NATO ally. It is a horrible way to deal with somebody who is only guilty of standing up for a church in Izmir. It is a small church. Actually, the seating area down below, maybe if it was packed, could hold 150 people. It opens up to a street. It is in a residential area. They let anybody come in. They open their windows. They actually talk with the police about security matters so they know what is going on, but it is just a small church, and all he was trying to do is provide aid and comfort for those who want to seek it. Every once in a while, he would go to Syria or other parts of Turkey to try to provide aid and comfort to those who need it, Syrian refugees or anyone else. Part of the charges are actually related to that. If you provide aid and comfort, food, to a Kurdish person, in Turkey today, you may be considered a terrorist or a coup plotter. That is what he has been charged with. In my second trip, I spent 12 hours in a Turkish courtroom to hear every word of the testimony from secret witnesses--whom Pastor Brunson didn't get to face--about the horrible things he did. One of the charges was that one night a witness saw for 4 hours a light on in one of the rooms in the church. Here is the problem with that charge: That is the room. It doesn't have a window. So unless they had x-ray vision, there is no possible way they could have observed that, but it became weighty testimony in the courtroom. It is a kangaroo court. I want to continue to say, if you don't know ``kangaroo court,'' there is the definition. It is just a trumped-up theater that bears no resemblance to anything you would ever see in American jurisprudence. Let me give another idea of the level of absurdity of the charges. Pastor Brunson's daughter posted how much she enjoyed a meal with friends. It turns out the prosecutor thought this particular meal was something that was enjoyed by people who participated in the Gulen movement, and therefore her father must somehow be associated with the coup attempt. These are actually serious discussions going on in a Turkish courtroom. I wasn't able to make it back to Turkey on Monday. I understand that basically the same thing happened, but it got worse. On Monday, when Pastor Brunson and his defense attorney had asked that 10 other witnesses testify on his behalf, they weren't allowed to testify because they were suspects. They weren't convicted. They apparently have been charged or considered to be charged, but in Turkish jurisprudence standards, to be suspect is enough to prevent you from actually helping defend someone who is on trial for a 35-year sentence. He has been in prison for 580 days. He has lost 50 pounds. He is struggling to keep his wits about him, and he and his wife are doing an extraordinary job. This is a miscarriage of justice. I believe, today, as I said in a speech 2 weeks ago, and I will say it again: Don't travel to Turkey right now. If you are thinking about making a trip to Turkey, make sure you don't eat this meal--and, for goodness' sake, if you do, don't post how much you enjoyed it because you may be considered a Gulenist. Don't take a picture with friendly people on the street whose ethnic origins you don't know because they may have you associated with somebody who is suspected of plotting a coup. That is the reality of Turkey today. I can't guarantee the safety of North Carolinians because I have yet to actually speak with people in their state department and their foreign ministry who actually understand the absurdity of what is going on in Turkey today. I hope we can get back to a better position, but until this man is released, and others who have been falsely charged are treated fairly, I am going to have to come to the Senate floor each and every week we are in session to make sure the American people know what is going on in Turkey and to make absolutely certain that people like Pastor Brunson who are in prison know they have people in the U.S. Senate. In fact, 66 Senate Members have signed a letter--that is a big lift in the U.S. Senate to get any 66 Members to agree on something--to send a very clear message that we are watching, and there will be consequences if this man is wrongfully imprisoned and could potentially spend the rest of his life in Turkey. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to enter into a colloquy with my friend and colleague from Oklahoma.

Mr. TILLIS

Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I further ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 2758, which is at the desk.

Mr. TILLIS

Mr. TILLIS. Madam President, I have come here for the first time in what will be a weekly speech that I will give as long as we have somebody, in my opinion, who is improperly and unjustly being held in a Turkish prison. As a matter of fact, this man, Pastor Andrew Brunson, has been in a Turkish prison for 565 days. He was arrested in October of 2016. He didn't even receive charges until about 2 months ago--so arrested, without charges--conspiracy to plot a coup attempt against President Erdogan and his regime in Turkey. About a month ago--it was, maybe, about 2 months back, 3 months back--I heard from some people that Pastor Brunson was afraid that with his time in prison and the charges being levied against him, the American people were going to read the charges and forget about him and turn their backs. That is why I decided to travel to Turkey and meet with him in prison about a month ago. It was to let him know I had no intention of forgetting him and that I had every intention of making sure everybody understood what was going on with this case and why it should be a lesson to anybody who is thinking about traveling to Turkey today from the United States. Before I start this, I have to talk a little bit about Turkey. It is a NATO ally. It is a country I led a delegation to when I was Speaker of the House in North Carolina. I spent almost 2 weeks there back about 6 years ago because I saw great opportunities for our State of North Carolina and the country of Turkey to build closer ties--closer economic ties, closer cultural ties. I saw real opportunities to strengthen the relationship with a very important NATO ally. Yet now I am beginning to doubt whether what I saw in Turkey--at least the Turkey I visited 6 years ago--is the Turkey we are confronted with today. Pastor Brunson, a gentleman from Black Mountain, NC, was part of a church up there at Montreat, which was the same church, a Presbyterian church, that Rev. Billy Graham was a part of. The injustice I see displayed to him makes me wonder if the people from the State of Iowa or from the State of North Carolina should go to that country until we understand whether American citizens can be treated justly there. He has spent 565 days in a Turkish prison. For about 15 months, he was in a cell that was designed for eight people. It had 21 people in it. The others had been charged with terrorism and conspiracy to plot a coup. Pastor Brunson has been in Turkey for 20 years. All he is guilty of is of being a Christian and trying to bring a Christian message to those who want to hear it. He has a church in Izmir. It is a very small church. You can only seat about 120 people in it. They open it up, and they let anybody walk in off the street to hear what they are saying. They work with the police department to make sure they are secure and that they understand what they are saying. There was no nefarious purpose here except to have done his job for 20 years as a missionary in Turkey. I am going to come back to this slide in a minute. It is also important to understand timing. The coup occurred in 2016. Pastor Brunson and his wife Norine had actually traveled back to the United States. They were having a visit with family in North Carolina. President Erdogan and the Erdogan regime were rounding up tens of thousands of people and putting them in prison, even somebody loosely associated with the coup, and many who were not were being arrested. Pastor Brunson was in North Carolina at the time, but he and Norine went back to Turkey at a time when people were being rounded up. When he got back, they rounded him up. Why on Earth would any reasonable person go back if he had been involved with it and had seen what had been happening in Turkey? That is just one data point. Now let's cover a few more. First off, I have to bring this up. I have to say, after I went and visited Turkey for about 48 hours about a month ago, I went back last week. I, actually, spent 12 hours in a Turkish courthouse and listened to the charges against Pastor Brunson. It was remarkable. It was a three-judge panel. Imagine that they are sitting up at the dais, and next to them--unlike in our courts, where you have the defense and the prosecutor sitting on equal terms--their prosecutor is sitting up at the dais and is actually looking like a fourth judge. In Turkey, you are, more or less, considered guilty until proven innocent. It truly was, in my opinion--look it up if you do not know what a kangaroo court is--a kangaroo court. They have already decided they want to prosecute him, and they are trying to get some of the most specious, circumstantial arguments to convict him to 35 years. He is 50 years old. By the way, he has lost 50 pounds since he has been in prison. A sentence of 35 years is effectively a death sentence for the kinds of charges I will tell you a little bit about. No. 1, it is very clear to me, after spending 12 hours in a courtroom, that the Turkish authorities believe that any religious organization is actually a part of a broader plot to undermine the Turkish Government and to promote terrorist activities. They actually view the Christian faiths, the Christian religions in the United States--the missionaries--as some sort of coordinated plot to undermine the country of Turkey. They view a missionary who risks life and limb to go into the Syrian countryside to help people who are trying to flee the carnage that is occurring in Syria--to give them food, water, and comfort--as being, in some way, someone who is perpetrating and being a coconspirator in a plot by the PKK, which is a terrorist organization that is focused on opposing Turkey. That is what missionaries are subjected to. As a matter of fact, there was a part of the court proceedings during which they suggested the mere fact that Pastor Brunson, who is a Presbyterian, had Mormons enter his church--actually, it is just part of the services, and they are services that are wide open to anyone. Yet, because of the mere connection with the Mormons, who also do missionary work in Turkey and Syria, they were able to glue together, on a circumstantial basis, the idea that because they have actually talked to each other and the Mormons have also provided missions to the Kurdish region, they are a part of the PKK. That is what we are talking about. That is why I am giving everyone a stern warning. If you are traveling to this country, I can't guarantee your safety based on the facts as they exist today. I am trying to get somebody out who is only guilty for actually being a Christian missionary in Turkey for 20 years. I am not going to go into the details of this, but when you invest 12 hours in a courtroom, it is a really accelerated learning process. Let me give you an idea of some of the things they said because they observed this. We are not talking about any specific charge for something violent that occurred or something damaging that occurred. This is the level of evidence that was presented against Pastor Brunson. There is a dish that is cooked over there. I don't know. I love Turkish food. I eat anything. Usually, when I go over there, I gain weight. It is good food. Well, there was this communication between the daughter and the father about a good meal they had had. They suggested that communication--because it was of food that is, apparently, enjoyed by the Kurds--was a reason to suspect that somehow they were conspirators in the PKK plot. So I tell somebody who is traveling to Turkey, be careful what you eat and be careful what you like and don't put it on Facebook because you, too, could find yourself in a Turkish prison. That is the level of argument they are using against this man who has been in prison for 565 days. I am not making this up. You could not create a movie plot that would be more egregious in terms of the way they have treated this man for 565 days. After I went to the Turkish prison, Pastor Brunson and I spent about an hour and a half together. To the Turkish prison officials' credit, they gave me more time than they normally would. At about 59 minutes, they get you out of there, but they told me I could spend the time I wanted to. The discussion with Pastor Brunson was really heart- wrenching. The reason it was heart-wrenching is he said: I just firmly believe that people are going to forget about me. I think Congress could read this 62-page bogus indictment and believe it is true. I told Pastor Brunson that the only reason I was there was to look at him eye to eye and tell him Congress has his back. This is not going to go away until the Turkish people release Pastor Brunson. We did something here over the course of 2 weeks. I also told him, in that meeting, I was going to get Members of the Senate to sign on to a letter and was going to prove to him that the people in the Senate, on a bipartisan basis, agreed with my position that Pastor Brunson should be set free. I know the Presiding Officer knows better than anybody that getting 66 Senators to sign on to a letter, if you spend 3 or 4 months doing it, is uncommon, but to get 66 Senators to come together and sign this letter in a couple of weeks is extraordinary. When they heard the argument, they knew they needed to be a part of the voice of the Senate. It is no coincidence that I wanted to get 60-plus votes. I wanted to send a very clear message that we are educating Members of the Senate, and we have the votes necessary to move forward with things I prefer not to do. I prefer to be moving forward with legislation that strengthens the relationship with Turkey--our military alliances, our economic alliances--our broader relationship. Yet we also need to send a clear message that we will take other steps, if that is what is necessary, to get the attention of the Turkish administration and President Erdogan to do the right thing. I thank all my colleagues who signed the letter. Since we published it with 66, we have had others express interest, and I think that is very important. Now what does President Erdogan say to that? He basically says that if we are willing to trade with someone here in this country who he believes was involved in the plot, then he will give Pastor Brunson back to us. We have an extradition treaty with Turkey. If Turkey goes through the proper processes that can prove the person he wants in this country should be extradited because he is guilty of laws broken in Turkey, great. But I find it objectionable to compare that pastor who is here or that religious leader who is here with a pastor who spent 20 years in Turkey doing nothing but missionary work. When I was in Turkey, someone asked me: What do you think about the prisoner exchange? I think what has been offered is absurd. But I promise you this: If you know of a Turkish person--a Turkish national in a U.S. prison who was held for 17 months without charges and then was convicted on circumstantial evidence for 5 years, 10 years, or 35 years, count me in on getting them released without even a concept of trade because that would be a terrible miscarriage of justice. Let me tell you, there is not somebody in a U.S. prison because there is no way that anybody in the United States would have been held overnight in jail for the charges I saw demonstrated in that courthouse just a week ago. So President Erdogan possibly doesn't know what I now know, having sat through 12 hours of court. I have to believe he is a fair person, and I have to believe that he is hearing from people in his administration who are not telling him what they are trying to do to this man in their Turkish judicial system. I am here, and I will be here every week to ask President Erdogan to invest the time that I have invested to know it is a miscarriage of justice that is going to hurt our relationship with Turkey on every level, and I will go from someone who is a strong advocate of our Turkish alliance to someone who maybe has to think twice about where this relationship goes from here. This is the beginning of what I hope is a very short time of my coming to this floor and layering in additional facts every week until Pastor Brunson is released. Again, I warn anyone who is going to Turkey to pay attention to what I have just said. Pay attention to the fact that I may not, as a U.S. Senator and the Presiding Officer, as a U.S. Senator from Iowa--we may not be able to guarantee your safety under the current emergency orders in Turkey. You may actually just find a group of friendly people with whom you take a picture and you proudly put it on Facebook because you are reaching out to people, you are traveling to countries, and you are trying to build friendships and relationships. But there may be some Turkish bureaucrat who sees that picture and sees a few Kurds in it, and suddenly you become a conspirator. You spend 565 days in a Turkish prison, and you have your Senator coming over there to take you out. That is what is going on in Turkey right now. Pastor Brunson represents just one of several people in Turkey for whom we have to fight. A NASA scientist has been convicted and sentenced to 7\1/2\ years; he has served 1\1/2\ years. He was guilty of doing nothing more than going to visit his family in Turkey at roughly the time they started the coup attempt. Now he is in prison--an American citizen, a dual citizen, a Turkish-American, a NASA scientist imprisoned, implicated as being a part of our intelligence agency. I am not making this up. I have invested the time in Turkey to follow the facts. I wouldn't pursue this if all I had were briefings from the State Department or the staff. I invested the time to go there, look at the pastor eye to eye, look at the judges eye to eye, and look at the prison guards eye to eye, and I am convinced this is a risk to every single American. Every single one of you should put yourself in Pastor Brunson's place and go from here and make sure people know what is going on there. Pastor Brunson needs to know he has the backing of the U.S. Senate. He will have the backing of the House. My colleague Mark Walker and the deputy whip Patrick McHenry are working on a similar letter in the House, and we will continue to show that we are in shape, and we are ready to run this marathon. Hopefully, they are going to sprint to a just decision on May 7. That is his next court date. But if he doesn't, you can expect me to be here, and each and every time I am going to add some other cases for why we really have to rethink our relationship with Turkey until justice is done. Thank you.

Mr. TILLIS

Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following Senate resolutions, which were submitted earlier today: S. Res. 483, S. Res. 484, and S. Res. 485.

Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to, the preambles be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, all en bloc.

Mr. TILLIS

Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m., Thursday, April 26; further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed. Finally, I ask that following leader remarks, the Senate proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the Pompeo nomination, with the time until 12 noon tomorrow equally divided between the two leaders or their designees.

Mr. TILLIS

Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the previous order, following the remarks of Senator Blumenthal.

Mr. TILLIS

Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 401 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent 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.

Mr. TILLIS

Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. TILLIS

Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I further ask unanimous consent 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.

Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 363, S. Res. 429.

Mr. TILLIS

Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate resume legislative session for a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.