happening and desperation is i and the base demands and more and more radic order to get engaged themselves we are going to see e worse things. we cannot ignore the polls on any side just go work as hard as you can, that is my p >> thank you mario, mike will wrap it uhe [applause] [background virginia.

this is about half an hour. >> right. it is my distinct stage my formr boss john sullivan. john has done just about every job you can do at the executive branch. haseen at four cabinet , coselor to this has to attorney general of the office of legal counsel, deputy general counsel are at the

department of defense, general counsel and deputy secretary at the department of commerce, deputy secretary at the department of state and his last gig, he was our man in moscow. ambsador to the russian federation. johnsume might suggest, been a public servant for really his whole life. he has done a great job. he is responsible for me getting involved in public service i amo blame. and he showed me what it was to manage other people.

we thought weight do this as more of a conversation since as you canow each other and like each other. at least some of us like some other once. with that, we were just inyou hr nla for four decades. >> since i became a lawyer, was in law school in the 84 election, reagan mondale, first got involved as a lawyer in the 88 campaign, bush dukakis and was involved likely working for president bush 41 in 92. i was telling david i remember to an event at the

convention inon in 92 and the featured speaker was somebody that was not all that well-known and obscure assistant attorney general, former assistant attorney general by the name of ted oon on to do bigger and better things. i have been in and around rnla for a long time and proud to be here. friend and i'm proud to take credit for hiring david for his first job in government. >> as you may have gathered from the different positions in which he has served, john' gigs were legal in nature but he d ov. he did what a lot of us lawyers hope to do. not all of them are as successful in doing as john did but he finished out doing nonlegal jobs.

whether that was deputy secretary at commerce, deputy secretary at state or ambassador to russia. but john, harken back if you will to the legal gigs. what did you see being on the lines as you were at justice, defense, commerce when you were in yohow did you grappt of the issues i think we are seeing with the executive branch to >> i recall not just for myself but virtually everyone i worked with.c& our overriding commitment to the rule of law. the law is not just the whim of a policymaker, someone who hay. we are committed to a rule of laws passed by

regulations, properly probably --roteby administrative agencies. i serv o republican presidents until most recently. president biden kept me in moscow as ambassador and i was proud tuesday representing the united states in that post. our commitment to the rule of law is what distinguishes us among others. david and i participated when we were at the comme in something called the u.s.. china legal eng ceased to amaze me how my -- how where when i described our legal system and how a district court judge in washington could compel t ofthe the united states to do something in a war as we called it back theglobal .

its wh distinguishes us from the prc to the one thing -- the prc. the one thing no chinese communisteaisn independent judiciary. in china, inhe say the party is in the vanguard . the party leads and everything else flows. there are no independent judges. the party rules. i contrast tt with my experience in russia where putin andimrule. what i saw amentioned this to ds to borrow a russian metaphor, a potemkin legal system. it looks like a judicial system to the judges where the most beautiful robes i have ever seen. glow -- they have gold medallions on their collars

and there's hinge t with a gold chain. they are in majestic courtrooms. i remember going to the courtroom in which paul whelan who is one of the americans has been wrongfully edta for four and a half years in russia, where his trial was. i was allowed into the courtroom occasionally which is unusual because he was being prosecuted and wasimely convicted of espionage. as in a secret court with secret evidence he never saw. i got into the courtroom occasionally to speak with him before the cessi started while he was in his holding cell. . it might as well have been in the sout dew york or any other u.s. district court around the country. but it is all for show.

the decisions are made by the kremlin and i literally by leaders in the kremlin who then communicate to administrative judges who then communicate to whatever judge oversees the local court where a particularly sensitive trial is ongng who then gives instructions to the judge. i see thisnd other wrongfully detained in sessions for trevor. i was getting a translation from one of my embassy colleagues in my ear because i don't speak russian. a difficult legalueion would come up. you could see on the judge's face. what do ihe would take a break. he would go back.

it was not apparent from anyone. he would call the administrative judge. what do i do about this? what about this evidence this american has offered? denied.d get his instruction. d i did not a real respect and comfort in our judicial system and our commitment to the rule of law which as speakers before including the most recent panel, they give us pause. if we lose that, we have lost our coury. if we don't have annt judiciary that americans have confidence in that will rule on cases on -- as a matter

of law and not a poly choice, then we have lost our republic. i have always since in the 80's with president reagan going back to the failed nomination to put then judge bork eminently qualified to be an justice on the supreme court, it is a long time ago some scars from some of that but as a long-winded answer to for this group -- long-winded answer. but for this group, i wanted toe seen what it is like. its not just americans. they do pluck americans off the street. if you are former military and you have had security clearance and you make the ue to go visit and this has happened many times asohave metl

friend. this happens. the likelihood that you are going to be accused of a crime is not insignificant and once you are in that system and you are anrican, the fsb which is one of the successors of the kgke over and there is not a thing you can do. i saw it case after case with wrongfully detained americans should it does not matter -- wrongfully detained americans. it does not matter what the evidence is. you are guilty. . will be sentenced based on the fact you are an american. the fsb and the russian government can exploit you to get something they want from the united states i will give you important the rule of law is. trevor reed's case was prosecuted for assaulting two police officers. a former marine and a tough guy.

he had to have been to survive as long as he the labor camp in mora deauville he was incarcerated in pit- incarcerated in. tough guy. but about this big. even shorter thanm.the two polis alleged to have assaulted looked like they could have played in the nfl on the defensive line of a good nfl team. the evidence at court was so -- what is the technical term -- stupid and preposterous. presiding judge laughed out loud multiple t trevor's fathery family from texas constituents of senator cruz. this is the type of man joey reed is. he spent his entire life's

savings to move to moscow and be there for his sons trial which was in court in moscow. joy would come back to the embassy after court and say it is lookingood. the judge just cracked uhing ate prosecution's case is because there was no case. trevor reed was found guilty and labor camp or he almost died because he was exposed and tuberculosis are rampant in the russian prison system. . he was exposed to a cuban inmate who died tuberculosis. tuberculosised en in young former marine is usually faat ithe way the russians treated him. wee hinge can to make sure we keep an have legal resource to protectwe ourselves and our rights. >> that is exactly right.

i guess this is closely linked to the independent you to sherry d t rule of law but the other thing i remember our e friends from the state office, it did not compute for them. on some rsta why the communist party's rule in ina but we are the republican na association. our country has a two party system. i think you heard senator cruz talk about and you have heard others talkbout efforts to effectively make this a single party country. it did not compute to them wait a second. what you mean and i think we were doing this in president term. we knew president bush was not going to be president in 2009,

2010. he was term limited. we did not know -- we know what happened now but at the time we did not know who was going to be president. it could have been a democrat. that did notteo them that there would be a handover that there was an opposition, a position hopefully. china, russia, that does not compute as well. >> in china, i use the term loosely by law by decree of the chinese communist party, the party is the state is the country there are no other parties. there is no other source of wisdom, law, punishment. the party decides when someone has committed a crime and the first signomebody has committed a crime and it is going to be prosecuted and prisoned is the decision is

made to expel that person from the chinese communist. the person is no longercomrade. after the decision is made, that person is handed over to the prosecutor for the administrati application of whatever punishment the party decides is appropriate. that is the system in china. ■vputin has developed a similar system although he ptends it is a potemkin judicial it is the expression they use in russia. it is a managed democracy. what that means is and it is gradual over the last 20 plusyet appointed prime minister and shortly thereafter president of the russian federation. reelected. i will not bore you with all of

theachinations, the ins and outs of how he has maintained of him personally through what aunited russia, his nominal political party. it involves ev from killing the opposition like alexei navalny. some of their techniques -- they are clever and i have to say russianso have a great sense -- i love the russian people. have a great sense of[ humor. one of their techniques i always thought washe best wart healers from tammany hwhern chicago. if united russia is running a candidate in a particularrictnd- hundreds of members of the state duma which is there house and the fedeti council is the

equivalent of their senate. if someone is running for the duma, tre is a credible opponent that is running a putin's pn, russia, the kremlin will put up find and put up as a third party candidate a doppelganger. literally the person looks identical to the opponent. if the name is close, they will make it closer. if it is not close, thilju chan. if i'm john sullivan running the let's make russia great again party against putin's united russia, they're to find an irishman from boston who looks like me and have his name is patri murphy, he will change his name to john sullivan. . then he is on the ballot.

and that is just whenhetalk about if you have ever seen the expression managed democracy, it would make the daily family crowd in chicago. it goes beyond that so literally murdering opposition. extrajudicial killings and imprisonments and so forth. it is one of the things tt serving a broad, the pride i -- still have in our country and the hi in our country for the future, which is important. which is why reagan wins in 80 gets reeles ho. hope, confidence in the future and our country which on the others, they in opinion for a long time have been embarrassed by country. i'm not.

so. but it is faith in our institutions which are underatt. the women and men who are working in them and i start at the supreme court, the justices who are under attack person early. -- personally. that is something that would happen in russia. that should not happen wh mif i would like to come and joiday, i said. your mission is so important to ec our institutions and the country we have. at a minimum, to reaffirm or for some people restore hope in our futureis easy to get

down and b bleak with what is going on today. >> i don't want to steal too much thunder from yo book, which is coming out this summer, midnight in moscow, but you were there when putin pulled the trigger rusa invaded ukraine. and what you went through?>> ae relationship between the united states and russia by the beginning of 2022, our bilateral relationship as we call it was so when the war started, we were alreadyered by the fsb, harassed. a difficult post in which to try to conduct dloor

the united states so things did t lives they today come our mission in russia when the war starts on february 24. i was convinced and making publictemes, months before the war started and i'm not s to pat myself on the back as a proos but i did know that he was going to do it. he was going to wagegresve war e which heize as an independent country. i knew he was going to do it. was saying so publicly. particularly american ex-pats in -- >> tt do the

international thing, american chamber of commerce. >> affiliated with the chamber in the united states. they said don't scare people. for him to start a large land on the european continent, that is nuts. he to threaten it because he wants toqud states and the biden administration to get concessions in what wants so he has to make it look like he is going to do it but he wilt r. the tanks won't cross the border. that would be insane. i said, no, he is really going t. i gave a press conference. i sa the russians were negotiating with us, withhe stas before the invasion started. i said they are negotiating with us and their negotiating tactic is they walk in, they put a gun

able and -- i knew they were. to show youprognosticator, i hah the uainians were going to be able to resist. i thought what would happen would be something similar to what happened in august of 1968. there were not that many red army troops but brezhnev, the soviet union ordershe warsaw pact to invade czechoslovakia and sees progress. the so-calledrae spring. they take the czech leader, put them on a plane, taken to mo talk to him. expression they used back in the day was this was fraternal assistan to czechoslovakia .

now it is a special military operation. than it was fraternal assistance. he was lucky to survive. they put him on a plane after a little reeducation in moscow. he got back on a plane. order wa restored in czechoslovakia to the kremlin's standards check got sent to b a ranger in slovakia and they let him live. zelenskyy should be so lucky. thssng to come in. their estimates were 10 days to 14 days they would have seized kyiv, major combat operations would be over. senior officers who were going into ukraine were■x told to brig their dress uniforms for victory parades in key have.

-- in kyiv. ukrainians no. there is a famous image. some of you may have seen this youtube video. the ukrainians said you are not going to invade our country. even the russian-speaking ukrainians who have relatives in russia said you can't do this. the example i like to cite is there is atube video of a woman- ort the name of the village. the russian tr north out of primary -- of crimea. . the russian paratroopers are walking through the middle of her village. i will sanitize the language. as translated. ■pshe walks up to these paratrooperssault

rifles walking down the main street of her little village and says who the f are you. you are fascists. she picks up a fistful of sunflower seed. the sunflower is the national flower of ukraine. she sticks it in the face of this russian paratrooper and says put this in your pocket so when you are killed and buried thing good will come out of you. [laughter] you multiply that by 45 million ukrainians.it was a huge mistakn because he was md fsb and others that a majority of ukrainians, maybe they would not support the special militaryn bt resist. he was misinformed. he failed. and now he will neverrender the goals of the special military operation. we can i'm happy to support -- to

continue to support the government in ukrai.theris no dn about the government in the person of putin and his government they have done and what they will continue to do which is to wage an aggressive war. it is defined by the international militarybunal at nuremberg in 1946. which by the wayve 11 nazismmting the crime, crime against peace. he will contito he is doing now. they tried i 2022. they failed. there were driven out of the entire kharkiv in the summer and early fall of 22. he is not going to qt. there is no offramp. this war will continue until he achieves his two goals and has two to denazify

ukraine entity demilitarized -- entity demilitarized ukraine which is to replace the ve in kyiv and install a government in control ofoscow. or by minimum, for those of you aware of what has happened in belarus, the government in minsk which is -- belarus and russia have formed what they call a un s putin wants ukraine to become part of that three state, russia, belarus and ukraine. he is not going to stop. he doesn't care how many people get killed or how many millions are driven from their homes or driven further -m their countries as refugees principally in europe. it does not in the united state.

it does not bother putin. he is going to continue. he is stealing russia for a long-term war. as admitted thatow. not long after, months after the special military operation started. underestimated how good we were. we overestimated the support we were going to have in ukraine. he does not care. from his view, o forefathers which by the w army included grandfather . >> the j nazi. >> but putin's view is we

sacrificed millions to liberate ukraine from the nis. out whatever figure you want to credit for russian combat casualties to date. 400,000, 700,000. that does not bother the president of the rus federation. the casualty rates in just the special military operation exceed all of the combined deaths and all of the soviet operationsudes the two chechen wars and it is asked -- and the disastrous express and afghanistan. the number of troops killed in ukraine exceed all of the soviet combat deaths from may 9, 19 45 when the great patriotic war ends until the special military

operation started. far morehan in a year, just the first ye, lost more killed than the united states 10 years -- did in 10 years intnam putin, the price of empire from his view. >> thank you. this was fabulous. . i round of applause. -- a round of applause. [applause] >> let me make a few announcements. first, get out. [laughter] everyone needs to exit the ballroom in an orderly fashion. take all your stuff with you. i have to set up for lunch so don't leave stuff on the table. take your backs, take your folders. lunch will start at 12:15. signed copies of sor