Transcripts For CSPAN House Judiciary Committee Hearing On Election Security 20240713

Promised there would at some oint be open hearings. The two other chairmen have agreefment when and how in depth and how far along, how much those opening hearings will matter is anybodys guess at this point because they do seem to be putting together a case. Pretty much in private downstairs in a small room. Well continue foul on twitter house in session. And your report, thanks so much. Cspan will continue follow odays impeachment related updates. That will improve our standing in that regard. I want to congratulate congresswoman lofgren for the work of her committee on the uestion of shielding us from language in the particular says if a candidate or any individual affiliated with a campaign of a candidate knowingly receives an offer for assistance with the campaign from a source the candidate or individual knows is a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power, the candidate or individual shall refuse the offer for such assistance and notify the federal bureau of investigation of the offer not later than 72 hours after receiving the offer. Miss floris, if this legislation passed but its intent should be acted upon by the f. B. I. , what infrastructure do you have to ensure a Quick Response to any reporting of this kind of activity . Ms. Floris thank you. The f. B. I. Becomes interested in foreign influence activity when it hits the four categories i spoke about at the beginning. Subversive, coercive criminal nature of it. The f. B. I. Will respond as we do in any investigation. The full might of not overwhelm the Foreign Influence Task force but the hundreds of agents and analysts in our 56 field offices work the foreign influence threat day in and day out. Well use all of the tools we have in our toolbox ms. Jackson lee do you have enough staff . Have you ramped up your staff for the 2020 election . Do you have enough staff to deal with the potential of this reporting . Ms. Floris rest assured we are putting everything we can against this threat. And facing it with absolute determination. Ms. Jackson lee mr. Masterson i sit on the Homeland Security committee. We appreciate the deep dive you have taken. Give me an understanding how you have as a priority officially sharing actionable intelligence, how have you ramped up that very important part of your work . Mr. Masterson absolutely. I highlight two areas, maam. The first is the build out of the election infrastructure information sharing analysis. This is the hub of information sharing that we use to reach state and local officials. We have all 50 states and the territories as members of the isac as well as over 2100 local Election Officials. This ensures that actionable timely information is reaching the field so that they can take the steps they need to manage risk to their systems. The second is our continued push with the Intelligence Community to provide clearances and classified briefings whether through secure video tell conferences teleconferences. And working with private sector intelligence authorities. We have worked with private Sector Companies to provide briefings to state and local Election Officials about what they are seeing internationally. To help them manage risk assistance. We are exploring all avenues. Trying to find efficient ways to get this information to the Election Officials. Ms. Jackson lee i yield back. Chair nadler the cheal from arizona. Mrs. Lesko thank you, mr. Chairman. My first question is for ms. Floris. Does anyone at the Foreign Influence Task force draft fisa after davids or applications . Ms. Floris no, maam. Mrs. Lesko looking back at the f. B. I. Activities investigating the 2016 election, it has been reported that f. B. I. Never obtained the original servers from the Democratic National committee that had allegedly been hacked by russia. Instead relying on image copies. First of all is that correct . Ms. Floris maam, i cant speak to that. Sorry. Mrs. Lesko can someone else speak to that . Yerks maam. We got the information that we required for our investigation. And its pretty common for us to work with a security vendor in connection with an investigation of a computer intrusion. Mrs. Lesko can either one of you answer does the d. N. C. s Cyber Security consultant crowd strike still have possession of the clinton servers . Dont know what they have possession of now. Mission lesko does anyone on the panel know . Ok. My next question is or mr. Hickey. I know that million chabot asked you what other countries have shown an interest in disrupting the 2020 election, but what other countries had shown an interest or tried to interfere in the 2016 election . Mr. Hickey based on what i read both from what the i. C. Has put out and also investigations by congress, what i have seen only refers to russia that i am aware of. Miss lesk yes earlier there was a question by chairman nadler. I want to clarify what you think if you think its appropriate for a president of the United States to ask a Foreign Government to investigate previous election interference . I guess id like all of you to nswer that question. Can you repeat the question, maam. Mr. Lesky do you think its appropriate for the president to sk Foreign Countries investigate previous election irnsfeernt, if there was election interference going on to ask if there is anything he thinks was unlawful going on in other countries to ask the other country to help to determine if there was something unlawful happening . Mr. Masterson i think its appropriate top understand any attempts at interference so we can continue to work to build resilience in the process. Ms. Floris the f. B. I. s interested in any criminal violation as relates to foreign influence so long as there is that foreign angle for foreign influence operations. Mr. Hickey ill give the same answerdy before. I dont know on the appropriateness but i am focused on enforcing the criminal law. Mr. Hovland i think its important to understand what occurred with our election so Election Officials have the information they need to prepare for future elections. Mrs. Lesko thank you, i yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore chair nadler the cheal yields the gentlelady yields back. Gentleman from tennessee. Mr. Cohen this is a question anybody on the panel can answer. In 2016 i understand there were reports that i think were found that russia tried to interfere th a lot of state election roles. Maybe all of them. Anybody here aware of those reports . Mr. Masterson, you seem to be first mr. Masterson probably foolishly, sir. Thank you. The d. H. S. In coordination with the f. B. I. Released an information product about the state and local Election Officials that stated that based on the information we have as far as the activity in 2016 that the pattern of behavior is likely. That the russian government russian actors conducted at least research on election entities across all 50 states. That doesnt necessarily mean they attempted to access the systems. It could be as simple as a Google Search to understand who runs elections in that state. But based on the information that we and the Intelligence Community have it is assumed they were at least researching all 50 States Election systems. Mr. Cohen why would they have done that . Mr. Masterson we presumeably, dont want to speculate, presumably to understand how elections are run across the United States. Mr. Cohen kind of spring training . Anybody else have knowledge of that . Any other thoughts about it . O. How about florida . Was there not reports that two different jurisdictions, voting systems, were contacted by the russians . Mr. Hickey . Mr. Hickey i think we have briefed florida officials on activity targeting systems and leading successful intrusions in two counties. Its important to clear we also reached the conclusion there was no Material Impact on registration or vote counting based on the evidence that we have seen. I think it is clear its important to be clear about that. Mr. Cohen based on what happened in 2016 and based on what mr. Mueller told us that the russians when he testified the russians were look at being involved in the 2020 elections, are you confident that given our funds directly to the states that they will use them to work against russian and cyber interference and protect those state systems . Im heaping to talk about that. We distributed the im happy to talk about that. We distributed the reports. As i mentioned it appears that the vast majority of that will be spent we are seeing over 90 of that going toward improving security. Again whether thats replacing outdated equipment, hardening systems, implementing audits, the states have done a number of things, but because of the variations and how elections are administered state to state, there have been different priorities. Mr. Cohen mr. Masterson. Mr. Masterson we worked with our Government Coordinating Council which has 24 state and local Election Officials to identify identify priorities. States have taken that information which is dated based on our work with the states and used it to apply. Prior to the 2018 election the state of wisconsin deployed two factor authentication out to its local Election Officials for the database which may seem unremarkable null realize they have 1800 local election jurisdictions in the state of wisconsin and 3200 users of the statewide Voter Registration database. Thats a focused targeted step that they have taken. Mr. Cohen mr. Masterson, the director has emphasized the importance of protecting the campaigns based on what happened in 2016 with interference with the d. N. C. , clinton combain. Shame on us if we are not ready this time around. If you consulted with the president or anyone involved in his Reelection Campaign . Mr. Masterson we have made contact with not just the Trump Campaign but campaigns across the president ial election. President ial campaigns to make sure they are aware of our services and information sharing responsibility. Mr. Cohen mr. Mulvaney did not contact you as he did your sue superior and say this is a very sensitive subject for the president and dance around it . Mr. Masterson no, sir. Mr. Cohen thats great. I want to thank the f. B. I. , the Justice Department as well. Youall are stalwarts in the american system of government and rule of law. And i would have to disagree with some previous statements made that some individuals within your organizations were responsible for hurting your organizations. I think an individual who is the president of the United States was the one that caused it by questioning those peoples actions and making statements that were adverse to both the f. B. I. And the Justice Department which we should uphold. I yield back the balance of my time. Chair nadler the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The gentleman from florida. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I wish this truly were a sincere hearing on Election Security. If it were, we might be marking up some of the Bipartisan Legislation that members of the committee have worked on, including House Resolution 3529 by congresswoman murphy, mr. Deutch, myself to have greater connectivity prior to any intrusion, or we might be marking up the legislation by mr. Ratcliffe, mr. Himes, joined by mr. Collins and mr. Khanna, 3238, that would create greater consequence for those that engage in election interferes. Thats not what this is about. This is about smearing the president of the United States and validating the corrupt people who have been involved in delegitimatizing his historic election. We know that because just moments ago the chairman said that peter strzok was acting in the highest traditions of Government Service. Mr. Gaetz mr. Floris i believe you held a job he once held. Is engaging in an extramarital affair with a coworking acting in the highest traditions ms. Floris im not going to comment. Mr. Gaetz are you aware of any regulations against it . Ms. Floris im not going to hold it. Mr. Gaetz are you saying you dont know whether or not its against f. B. I. Policy to have an extramarital affair with a coworker . Ms. Floris sir, i hold a slightly different job than he held on the d. O. D. Over the intelligence branch. He was over the operational branch. Not that we are held to a different standard. Aim not going to comment on whether or not Peter Strzoks behavior was out of context. Mr. Gaetz is it in the highest tradition of the Government Service at the f. B. I. To engage in affairs with coworkers . You should know that if you work there. Ms. Floris sir, im not going to comment on that. Mr. Gaetz maybe ill ask you another one. The Inspector General said in his report, we do not have confidence that his position to priority advertise the Russian Investigation so if the infect spektor general didnt have confidence in the way someone prioritized something, would that be acting in the highest tradition of Government Service . Ms. Floris sir, aim not going to comment on that. Mr. Gaetz further said the o. I. G. Found its not only indicative of a bias state of mind but implies a willingness to take action to impact a president ial candidates electoral process, this is antithetical to the core values of the i f. B. I. And department of justice. If someone, anyone, is engaging in behavior that is antithetical to the core values of the f. B. I. And defendant justice is that person acting in the highest position of Government Service . Ms. Floris sir, we have an entire inspection division. We have the o. I. G. There are several measures in place that take into account those questions. Im not going to answer those questions from the position im in. Mr. Gaetz its striking that someone in the Senior Leadership at the f. B. I. Like an unwillingness to be critical of conduct that was so detrimental to our country. As people all over america are looking at the corruption that negatively impacted our president and the institution of the presidency, it doesnt really inspire confidence that current officials in the f. B. I. Say you know what its a bad idea to be having affairs with your colleagues and be squand mining the trust people have and prioritizing investigations over politics. Nonetheless, here we are sit. In fact, here we do sit. It was more than a month ago, mr. Chairman, that you announced an impeachment inquiry in this committee. I believed you that we our committee would be engaged in that process. But as we sit here today, three other committees are in the basement of the capitol conducting secret interviews, engaging in selective leaks. You have chairman schiff coming out and having his theatrical performance of transcripts that didnt occur and lie abouts contact with whistleblowers. How people feel about the president or this impeachment. One would at least think if the chairman of the Judiciary Committee announces the launch of an impeachment investigation that mefments Judiciary Committee might be willing to able to participate in that investigation. When i have gone to participate, when mr. Bigs has gone to participate, others have gone, we have been locked out. It is my sincere hope, i asked this the also time we gathered you would take the cause not just of someones partisan ambition to impeach the president but would you take up the cause of our committee and advocate for our ability to participate. One can only suspect that the reason that the house Judiciary Committee has been dealt out of a hand on impeachment is because Speaker Pelosi didnt like the outcomes going on in this committee with the churnt chairman was running it. It wasnt a surprise to the country when you brought in mr. Lieuen do you i ask. The House Democrats looked like a when they brought it Robert Mueller there were promises this was going to sway the public this. Was going to create a flood of support for impeachment. That was obviously something that didnt hold to bear. Please stand up for our committee and lets stop with this busy work. If we want to washing up bills, lets mark up real bills. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentlelady from washington. Chair nadler the gentlelady from washington. I thank our witnesses for being here today. I would hardly call this busy work to protection our elections. I wish our colleagues on the other side would be as concerned with Election Security. Back in july, the Senate Select committee on intelligence released its bipartisan report on russian interference in our 2016 elections. Senate intel found that, quote, russian government affiliated cyber actors conducted an unprecedented level of activity against state election infrastructure in the runup to the 2016 u. S. Elections, end quote. Ms. Jayapal they called for sweeping action to protect our 2020 elections. With election day just 378 days away, its crucial we move quickly. All of are you responsible for various aspects of protecting our elections and you are aware that a significant concern of securing our elections is that foreign actors will attack election reporting, or the results of elections. Take the following hypothetical. Florida reports that candidate x won after counting the votes. The next morning florida Election Officials report that the results were tampered with and in fact, candidate y won. What is being done at the federal level to first prevent attacks on our Election Results . And second, if such an attack occurs, to ensure Public Confidence in the reporting of our elections. Mr. Masterson, start with you and move to floris. Mr. Masterson thank you. Election night reporting systems, which are the ones you are referencings, are an area we have worked with state and local officials to understand ritchings. To first and most important thing to understand that all of the folks on the committee hear understand them is Election Night results are unofficial results. That there is a canvas process that goes on after election day. Ensuring that voters have that information understand the unofficial nay nature of results and there is an entire reconciliation process that Election Officials go to ensure the correctness. Top priority for us thats working with Election Officials to have audibilityability of the results awedilityibility of the results. Did awed i hadibility of the results. Thats to reassure the public their vote was counted as cast. Thats two areas of high priority for us. Working with state and local Election Officials to empower them to talk to their voters about the steps they are taking. Both to protect the systems but to really offer reassurance and traps on the back end. I know Election Officials take that seriously. Miss jaya ms. Jayapal anybody want to add anything . Where we have know a state has been targeted, its important we get to state officials at the right level and sense of urgency so they do what they can to mitigate on their systems. Le mr. Hovland i would echo what mr. Masterson said and add that the Election Assistance Commission part of the work we have done is host i. T. Trainings for Election Officials which is relevant to this topic. Work with them on improving audit processes. And certainly think that the issue you raised is one of real concern. There are a number responsibilities that he Election Officials have and i believe that the Election Assistance Commission should be more empowered to work on those. But the reality as i mentioned in my Opening Statement is that we are a 7. 95 million agentcy. We have one lawyer. We have one financial person for since its inception the Election Assistance Commission has been kicked around like a political football and we have never been empowered or funded in way to actually help actually help Election Officials in the way we k right now in we can. Right now we see the need for the federal clearinghouse that we were created to be and i would ask you to help make that possible. Thank you. Ms. Jayapal as a senior Cyber Security advisor, how have you nanged with local, state, and National Media outlets to ensure that unofficial vote reporting is protected from malicious interference . What Media Network specifically have you met with . And have any refused to meet with you . And what new measures are you taking in 2020 that werent applied in 2016 and 2018. Mr. Masterson thank you for the question. The first is that the associated press, the team that handles the election that results for the a. P. On Election Night is a member of our sector coordinating council, the private Sector Council we work with on providing support and Services Information sharing. A. P. Has been an active participant to understand threat and risk. Steps they could take to secure their results reporting. I know its taking that seriously. Secondly, we held a table top exercise with members of the National Media prior to the 2018 election to talk about what are scenarios that could play out, how is information being exchanged not just for state and local officials but social media companies, the political parties, and others in order to ensure that medium have access to the information they need before they report on results or other items. Heading into 2020 we anticipate engaging Media Outlets individually and having the table top exercise again heading into the 2020 election to work through those scenarios. Chair nadler the gentlelady yields back. The gentleman from virginia. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I want to thank the witnesses for being here. I, too, am concerned about foreign interference in our elections and have cosponsored ranking members bill h. R. 3442, which would amend the immigration act to provide aliens to engage in improper election are deported. An cosponsored 3 it 38, mr. Ratcliffes bill, which would prohibit interference to the voting systems and Computer Fraud and abuse act. Mr. Cline i want to go ahead and ask, ms. Floris, in your tum say we do know our adversaries are trying to influence Public Opinion in advance of the 2020 election. You mentioned in your testimony influencing Public Opinion through various session media activity, what electoral processes, what efforts to interfere with electoral processes are you aware of at this time . Ms. Floris sir, thank you for the question. Through 2020 the one thing i want to high lie countries like russia and china pose a pervasive and persistent threat. Their foreign influence operations are always present. When it comes to the electoral process you can look at something as Voter Suppression. The whole concept of pushing out false information of highlighting places to vote that are not true. This whole consetcht disinformation that we have seen the russians focus on. That if and of itself could interfere with the electoral process. Mr. Cline nothing to the extent of actively trying to hack into our interfere with Electoral Systems. Ms. Floris to date we are not seen anything specific regarding hacking into the Electoral Systems of the 2020 election. Mr. Cline thank you. I yield the remainder of my time to mr. Gaetz. Mr. Gaetz i thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Chairman, i have a series of unanimous consent request that set up my question. First is be entered into the record a email from nellie to bruce orr entitled reported tromb of documents on Ukrainian Party of regions black cash box. Chair nadler without objection. Mr. Gaetz i seek unanimous consent to enter into the ecord a New York Times article, disclosure caused meddling in u. S. Election. Chair nadler without objection. Mr. Gaetz finally, also from sirm 2018, from the kiev post, update publish days of manafort payments violated law interfered in u. S. Election. Chair nadler without objection. Mr. Gaetz whats happening is that the d. N. C. Pays a law firm to hire fusion g. P. S. Which hires nellie orr. Send an email to her husband about issues with manafort and the ukraine. That then works its way into the u. S. Election dynamic. And a court in kiev ruled that the activities to disclose the manafort activities in the United States proximate to the 2016 election constituted election interference and was illegal under ukrainian law. Is there anyone on the panel who has a reason to disagree with the conclusion of the Ukrainian Court that that constituted election meddling . No one has reacted any basis to disagree with the Ukrainian Court and the record can reflect that. My question to miss floris is, what are we doing as a government to prevent future election meddling like that with which ukraine engaged in where information was disclosed in the United States unlawfully in the foreign jurisdiction and then entered into the bloodstream of our politics . Ms. Floris thank you for the question. Ill harken back to what i said previously. The f. B. I. Certainly is not in a position to police content on the internet. That being said if the f. B. I. Can identify a foreign actor regardless of country who is trying to push out disinformation with the end goal of sewing discord, disrupting our electoral process and done in a criminal manner, thats where it becomes an investigative interest to the fibfifpblet the trickster is identifying that known foreign actor. We cant work back from content. We cannot police content on the internet. If we find that foreign actor behaving in foreign influence operations. Part of that operation tells us this information, the f. B. I. Will work with the social media providers to provide as much actionable intelligence as we can. Mr. Gaetz in this case we must know the actor because a court ruled that the disclosure of the information was illegal. Is there anything that the f. B. I. Is doing now to follow up on the decision by a Ukrainian Court that there was illegal election meddling in the United States that emanated from the ukraine . Ms. Floris sir, i cant address anything related to the possibility or existence or nonexistence of a f. B. I. Investigation. Mr. Gaetz my colleague from washington said with so few days between now and the upcoming election, i know you cant comment on this setting, but i hope that this ukrainian election meddling is being identified and being pursued by our government. I yield back. Chair nadler the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The gentleman from florida, mr. Deutch. Mr. Deutch thank you, mr. Chairman. Thanks for holding todays hearing. Thanks for the witnesses for being here. We know that russians interfered in our 2016 election. We know National Security experts have warned theyll do it again in 2020. 2020 primaries are fast approaching. We are running short to ensure every state is taking every action to guard against disinformation, improve Election Administration generally. Florida was one of fewer than 20 states still had elections with electronic machines without a paper trail to verify in 2016. Thankfully our state is moving in the right direction. The number of counties who had paper elections dropped from 24 to 4 with efforts to move to completely verified systems underway. After learning some of our systems were hacked in 2016, floridians expect a strong response to bolster election scumplet we expect whatevers done will improve coordination with state and counties teargetted by Foreign Governments and other bad actors. According to the mueller report, the Russia Military Intelligence Agency was able to gain access to the network of at least one florida county government. Our congressional delegation requested a briefing from Law Enforcement agencies and were noffed of networks two florida counties have been compromised. Most recently a report by the Republicanled Senate Intelligence Committee suggests as many as four florida counties may have been successfully attacked. Apparently no tab blation systems were accessed. Only registration rolls. Whatever the number of counties impacted, we have to learn lessons of 2016 and guard against these vulnerabilities before next years elections. Florida clearly has work it needs to do. But we cant do it alone. Mr. Masterson, certain breaches in 2016 were not immediately detected. What signs should Election Officials look for . What should they be trained to look for on election day to ensure there are no undetected attacks . How are you working with state officials to train them to detect such signs . Mr. Masterson thank you for the question, sir. It starts long before election day. You may be looking for those signs on election day and talk about our activity there. But there are indicators that Election Officials are aware of. Can be attuned to. For instance, in the states that offer early voting, you may begin to see signs of provisional ballots or registration roll activity. Thats anomalous, the ability to detect that and investigate the registration rolls to see if there is any kind of anomalies there is important. So there are early indicators that can be gained through Something Like early voting. In addition in your home state of florida is a perfect example, the deployment of our albert intrusion detect certainties across all 50 states, allows for real time alerting to not just the election official but to our elections and information sharing and Analysis Center regarding possible malicious activity targeting election infrastructure. I note in the state of florida. Florida was the first state to deploy those sensors across all county governments. Florida is uniquely positioned for that kind of intrusion detection and alerting. In addition, having that auditability in place that you mentioned, those auditable records. In florida there was less than 100 ballots cast in 2018 on systems and a drive towards a cleat auditability by 2020 is important so we can recover. Mr. Deutch thank you very much. In our hearing on Election Security last month, the witnesses treys strested the importance of the treating elections as interconnected system. Any individual device that touches processes must be safeguarded. Id like to hear from each of the witnesses what your organization is doing to help centralize and streamline the Election Security process. Mr. Hovland. Mr. Hovland yes. Essentially at the Election Assistance Commission we are participating in the Government Coordinating Council. We consist teptly work to put out best practices. Again, sort of our capacity go beyond our statutory requirements is very limited. We have the world series coming to washington. I would note that if we were a Major League Baseball player, we would be the 173rd highest paid player. We would be a middle reliever. We have no lack of ambition to take on these challenges and help, but we need the resources to do it. Mr. Deutch appreciate the world series reference. Mr. Hickey im going to answer by analogy. We have a Number Department components that touch leaks security. F. B. I. Agents in the field and headquarters. We have prosecutors in the field. We have public corruption prosecutors and National Security prosecutors, computer prosecutors. All of them potentially touch this issue. Its on us to train them so they are aware of each other and coordinate t thats what we are doing this week. At the end of the month the f. B. I. Is forming an all hands meeting with agents from around the country to train them. Including on how to react and relate to state officials when it comes to victim notification. Ms. Floris thank you for your question. I would just stress again the creation of the Foreign Influence Task force whose purpose was to do what you asked. Coordinate efforts across the enterprise as it relates to Election Security. We have elections crimes coordinators across all 56 field offices whose pryry goal toint act with state and local officials. We have our cyber task forces across all 56 field offices. We are working to increase our c. I. Task forces as well. Again the Foreign Influence Task force is that hub that brings all that effort together. Leading up to, during, and after the election. Mr. Deutch mr. Masterson. Mr. Masterson thank you for the question, sir. Across sisa, over a third our employees in 2018 engaged in Election Security work across the United States. We have field representatives, protector security advisors. Engaging directly with state and local Election Officials. My team, the Election Security initiative, is the hub of that information. As we get reporting, as we get request for services, we are able to quickly and efficiently serve the needs of the community to make sure theft information and services to help them manage the risk. Mr. Deutch i hope we have a chance to talk about what Additional Resources would mean. Chair nadler the gentleman yields back. He gentleman from texas. Mr. Gohmert thank you, mr. Chairman. I appreciate the witnesses eing here today. Did you replace peter strzok as Deputy Assistant director of Counterintelligence Division . Ms. Floris sir, there are three Deputy Assistant directors in the Counterintelligence Division. My particular role is over the intelligence branch. He was not over the intelligence branch. He was over one of our two operational branches within the division. Mr. Gohmert he was the one that was briefed by the Intel Community i. G. About Hillary Clintons private server potentially being hacked. You know why you were not included in that briefing . Ms. Floris yes, sir. I did not enter this position until the fall of 2018. During the 2016 time frame i was in the counterterrorism division. Mr. Gohmert you came into your current position after peter strzok left . Ms. Floris yes, sir. The hmert well, since Foreign Influence Task force is the headquarters component, im ran rned that peter strzok to the biggest cases in f. B. I. History as headquarter special cases rather than the traditional way of running cases through field offices. Is the Foreign Influence Task force running election cases from headquarters now . Ms. Floris no, sir. Mr. Gohmert can you tell us the reason they were doing so when peter strzok was there . Ms. Floris i cannot speak to why things were done or not done during his time. I can speak to currently what we are doing in the Foreign Influence Task force which is essentially program managing the cases across our 56 field offices. Mr. Gohmert i would think since there is such a big deal about influence peddling in 2016, even though you came in after that, that you would be a little bit concerned about the influence peddling when peter trzok was ms. Floris the fall of 2017 we are laser focused on the elections moving forward. Mr. Gopetgomert you dont think theres anything to be learned from looking at what occurred in the 2016 election to help you prepare for whats going on and could go on in the 2020 election . Really . You dont think there is anything to learn from history . Ms. Floris sir, there are always lessons to be learned from history. What we have learned in 2016 and i can speak strategicically not just what was happening in the f. B. I. , it was lack of cord can demation on the foreign influence threat across the entire u. S. Intelligence community. We are bert engaged. We collaborate far more on a daily basis. We are working with our social media kfments all of this. Lessons learned from 2016. Restons learned from 2018. We are going to continue to put best practices forward as we move into 2020. Mr. Gohmert since you are ncerned about 2020, have you were you aware of president poll shenko dispatching olga or any other ukrainian officials to the u. S. To influence our election in 2016 . Ms. Floris i am not familiar with that. Mr. Gohmert do you know who olga is . Ms. Floris again im not going done firm or deny the existence or nonexistence of f. B. I. Investigations or persons of interest to the f. B. I. Mr. Gohmert that was not my question. I didnt ask you that. I asked you do you know who that is . Ms. Floris sir, im not going to answer that question in this setting. Im happy to come back in a closed setting and go into detail about current investigations mr. Gohmert you cant even say if you know a person . Ms. Floris no, sir. Mr. Gohmert you realize you are supposed to be telling us about 2020 and you cant even tell us about whether you know anything about people involved in 2016. It really hurts the credibility when you cant do that. Et me ask you, will the fitf run informants against political campaigns . Ms. Floris much the same vain we do not run cases we dont run sources, either. We program manage the sources that our 56 field offices run as relates to foreign influence. Mr. Gohmert i have real concern about the credibility of whats happening for 2020. If you cant even tell us that you even know people from ukraine. Im very disturbed and concerned. Chair nadler the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The gentleman from california, mr. Correa. Mr. Correa thank you for being here today and thank you for your service to our country. As you know trust in our election system is foundation of our democracy. When it comes to sishe attacks, time is of the essence. When financial ainstitutions are attacked our military, their response within seconds, its coordinated throughout the industry not institutions, not individually but the industry of not worldwide. So given the importance of americas democracy, i presume that we now, and ms. Floris, you were talking about lack of coordination among Government Agencies in 2016 as being one of lessons concerned, i presume we have a system in place now to coordinate that kind of information when there is a cyber attack throughout federal government . Yes . No . Question to all of you. Ms. Floris thank you for the question. You are absolutely correct. As it relates to sishe incidents we do have an extremely Strategic Plan in how we notify our victims. I yield to my colleague from d. H. S. To add on. The f. B. I. And d. H. S. Respond to incidents jointly. You can look as the f. B. I. Lead and the threat response f a crime has been committed. The f. B. I. Will open o up an investigation. D. H. S. Is the lead for protecting and mitigating whatever vulnerability existed that led to the cyber inconstitution. Mr. Correa you open up an investigation, but cyber attack happens within seconds. Ill quickly, who is the lead, if you dont have a lead how do you get that information out to all of your investigative agencies . Your Defense Task Force instantaneously . Mr. Masterson thank you for the question. Following 2016, 2017 one of our Top Priorities was to work with state and local Election Officials to establish Communications Protocols for this reason. In 2016 d. H. S. Being new to the election space didnt know who to call in the states. We now appoint a contact in all the states. We have information sharing go to all mr. Correa you do have points of contact with each and every state . Mr. Masterson yes. More importantly they know how to share information with us. The most likely people to report a cyber incident mr. Correa you have a specific individual at each state you talk to. Are we talking silos here . Or is the information a two way street . Do you have folks at the state level who you trust, you can work with to make sure you are all sharing the information on a real time basis . Mr. Masterson absolutely, sir. Thank you for that question. We have points of contact and trusted relationships across all 50 states so they feel comfortable sharing that information. We are able to take not just respond to that individual incident but take the Technical Information in that response and distributed it broadly across the entire Election Community so they can take defensive actions or look for possible compromises. Thats the biggest area of improvement since 2016 is the amount of information we are receiving from the state and local Election Officials on a regular basis whether its reporting, intrusion detect sensors. Mr. Correa the secretary of state from the state of california calls one of you and its the wrong telephone, do you return his call immediately . How does that phone call get channeled into the system to get a Quick Response . Or is it even a phone call . Do you have a digital system where somebody puts in a types in an alert saying somethings going on over o here. Certain virus is being being detected. So the rest of the country can get on their toes. Mr. Masterson secretary padilla has my number and calls me regularly and is incredibly active partner. You described it correctly. A report to one is report to all across the federal government within sisas operation center. We have members of the f. B. I. We have members of the Intelligence Community sitting on our operations floor such that as reporting comes in we are able to take that information, analyze it, support the victim, then begin the process of sharing information broadly across the sector. Mr. Correa shift quickly. It was mentioned earlier the elections are not just about election day but that election period. In california its about three weeks. As well as other states. How do you assure that whatever you begin to detect three weeks out is something that you follow up on and is coordinated . Mr. Masterson again, working through our information sharing analysis certainty a. We get reporting, if there is additional facts, jurisdictions we are able to coordinate that across the whole of government and look for those trends. Look for that information that would connect incidents mr. Correa final question. I have been to unanimous of elections. I detected irregularities. I tried to call my local d. A. In 2020 im out there walking doortodoor i see Something Weird happening. Who do i call . Or do i google your telephone number . Mr. Masterson depending on the activity mr. Correa privatepublic sector. Individuals out there. Mr. Masterson from our perspective one is you should report any activity to the local election official. The local election administrator who can understand the activity you are seeing, remediate it. In addition we worked with Voter Protection groups in 2018 and will again in 2020 to have points of contact on election day so that if there is reporting that indicates trends we are able to respond, reach out to the Election Officials and coordination to understand. Mr. Correa i yield. Chair nadler the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. I recognize the distinguished vithes chair of the committee, thank you once again for beginning the hearing in my absence, the gentlelady from pennsylvania. Thank you, chairman. Ms. Floris, on october 3 the f. B. I. Along with d. H. S. Issued an advisory to state Election Officials that the russian government would be using Voter Suppression tactics to interfere in the 2020 elections. Obviously we are extremely concerned about that. Can you give us any idea about when the f. B. I. Learned about these rush tactics and any gap in time between when the threat was identified and when the states were notified . Ms. Floris thank you for the question. I cannot speak in specifics about the reporting. Im happy to take that back for after action. I will say as we roll into 2020 as we did in 2018 it is our goal. Not just the f. B. I. But across the u. S. Intelligence community to report threat information as quickly as possible to the audience who needs to hear it. Taking into account certainly the sensitivity of the forces and methods how that intelligence was collected. Ms. Scanlon you talked a little about the Foreign Influence Task force formed in 2017 and expanded after the 2018 election. You described a growing list of foreign adversaries you are looking at. Can you tell us what resources can you describe the number of people who make up that task force and whether thats grown from 2017 to the present . And if you need additional people or resources to do that job. Ms. Floris thank you, maam, for the question. Im not going to get into the specifics about the actual number of individuals on the task force. What i will say we certainly surge resources as we roll into 2018, our intention will surge resource noose 2020. I will note that individuals are not the only individuals in the f. B. I. Working the foreign influence threat. Given the nature of it its what so much we do on the investigative side of the house from criminal, to sishe, counterterrorism. There are agents and analysts and professional staff across all 56 of our field office who work for and influence investigations tied to foreign influence. Regarding your question about resources, as i stated earlier we are always happen to happy to have more resources, but the f. B. I. Is using everything we can to mitigate this very serious threat. Ms. Scanlon is the reason you cant give us numbers between 2017 and the present because you dont have them or is there some security reason . Ms. Floris theres no security reason. Its hard to compare 2017 we were focused only on russia. With the expansion to all global actors participating in foreign influence operations its not necessarily a good one to one comparison. Ms. Scanlon mr. Hickey, you mentioned one aspect of the d. O. J. s efforts to disrupt maligned foreign influence operatives is stepped up enforcement, that foreign agents registration act, which requires people who act as agents of foreign principles to register with our government. I guess we know some of those enforcement acts would include a guilty flee by michael flynn, President Trumps first National Security advisor, the convictions of the Trump Campaign manager, paul manafort, and richard gates. The possible involvement of mr. Giuliani and his associatesed arrested last week for possible violations. Are those alt kinds of things you are talking about . Mr. Hickey with respect to the last case those are Campaign Finance violations. I think the charges allege a connection to a foreign location. Kind of activity we want to be alert to. Ms. Scanlon included there. Mr. Hickey at the moment the charges are Campaign Finance allegations. Stepping back from that specific case, if there are indications of a foreign principal covertly trying to influence our whether through Campaign Finance or political activities, that is something we would be involved in. Ms. Scanlon the one im concerned about listed on d. O. J. s fara ebb formente actions is the one involving the 13 russian nationals who worked on behalf of the russian government to interfere in the 2016 election. By manipulating social media, to advocate for the Trump Campaign and against the Clinton Campaign because that included organizing political rallies in states like pennsylvania, which i represent. They literally took pictures of pennsylvania coal miners and slapped them on these rally things and tried to stir up in a particular direction. Does d. O. J. Have the resource it is needs to identify and prosecute maligned actors as we approach 20920 election . Mr. Hickey we do because we use those resources to bring that case. Unfortunately the 2020 budget includes additional funding for the sections i supervise, including the counterintelligence section, which is devoted to foreign influence. Ms. Scanlon how about moving proactively before the 2020 election. Unfortunately those convictions came two years after the influence in 2016. Mr. Hickey as i said in my Opening Statement, preventing a crime or disrupting it is more rewarding and important that convicting someone after the fact. We have put a loft fact into how we will disrupt that and whether we will provide notifications to Congress Based on various factors including wanting to make sure we the public is as educated as we can make them. Chair nadler the gentlelady yields back. The gentlelady from texas. Thank you, mr. Chairman. As my colleague, mr. Jayapal, noted earlier the Senate Intelligence Committee Report of russian interference in 2016 election states, Disinformation Campaign are not just manipulate one platform. The information moves across various platforms or a cyber attack threatens multiple companies. Network security and data integrity. Must be gritter cooperation with the tech sector in between the tech sector own government address these issues we sauted that facebook removed a network of russian backed accounts posted as locals coming into political issues in swing states. Praising President Trump and attacking former Vice President joe biden. Ms. Garcia this is a familiar threat we saw in 2016 and appears to be repeating as we approach 2020. The report rereference recommends formalized mechanisms for collaboration that facilitate content sharing among social media flat forms to defend against foreign disinformation as occurred with violent extremist content. Y question is to mr. Masterson and ms. Floris. Have your organizations create add task force to coordinate cooperation between government and the tech sector as they did with violent extreme we leave the hearing at this point. Fulfilling cspans commitment to live house coverage which you can continue watching the hearing live online at cspan. Org. Take you to the house now as it starts the legislative day. Nine measures are on the calendar, including one to fight money laundering. Another concerning the display of the p. O. W. M. I. A. Flag. You are watching live coverage from the floor of the house here on cspan. The speaker pro tempore the house will be in order. The prayer will be offered by guest chaplain reverend dr. Marilyn monroe harris, First Baptist church of teaneck, teaneck, new jersey. The chaplain let us pray. O lord, our gordon, how excellent our god, how excellent is your name on all the earth. We thank you for this day and we pray for those who gather in