; Whereas the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI issued a joint alert in March of 2018 stating that Russian government cyber actors have been targeting United States critical infrastructure sectors, including energy, nuclear, and commercial facilities, since at least March 2016; Whereas the Russian Government is known to have targeted the same critical infrastructure sectors of Ukraine shortly before interfering in the elections of that nation; Whereas in addition to the Justice Department investigation led by Special Counsel Mueller, there are three pending congressional investigations probing Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election; Whereas, on July 21, 2017, The Washington Post reported that lawyers representing the President of the United States are exploring ways to limit or undercut Special Counsel Mueller’s Russia investigation and that the President himself had asked his advisers about his power to pardon aides, family members and even himself in connection with the probe ; Whereas at the meeting in Helsinki, Finland, rather than embracing the conclusions of the intelligence community, the President of the United States sided with President Putin in heaping scorn on the ICA regarding Russian interference and called Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s interference the greatest political witch hunt in history ; Whereas at their postmeeting joint press conference in Helsinki, President Putin stated that in order for him to permit the Special Counsel to question the 12 Russian military intelligence agents indicted for conspiracy to defraud the United States, the United States must reciprocate by making available for interrogation by Russian authorities a former United States Ambassador to Russia and 11 other persons, an offensive suggestion that the President of the United States nonetheless characterized favorably as an incredible offer