General william barr and fbi director Christopher Wray held a News Conference on the investigation of the Pensacola Naval air station shooting. From the Justice Department, this is 40 minutes. Thee are here to discuss shooting at the Pensacola Naval air station that killed three sailors and wounded eight other americans. Four months ago, i announced this shooting was an act of terrorism. I also publicly asked apple to help us access the locked contents of the two iphones belonging to the terrorist killed at the time of his attack. Time thatar at the the phones were likely to contain very important information. Destroyhe attempted to both of the phones, even going so far as to disengage from the gunfight long enough to fire a bullet into one of the phones. Within one day of the shootings, the fbi sought and obtained court orders supported by probable cause authorizing the bureau to search the contents of both phones as part of its investigation. The problem was that the phones were locked, and the fbi did not have the passwords so they needed help to get in. Assistance,le for and the president asked apple for assistance. Unfortunately, apple would not help us unlock the phones. Apple had deliberately designed them so only the user, in this case the terrorist, could gain access to their contents. Announceam pleased to that thanks to the relentless efforts and ingenuity of fbi technicians, the fbi finally succeeded in unlocking his phones. The phones contained information previously unknown to us that definitively establishes his significant ties to al qaeda and the arabian peninsula. Not only before the attack but before he even arrived in the United States. We now have a clearer understanding of his associations and activities in the years, months, and days leading up to his attack. The information from the phones has already proved invaluable in protecting the American People. Operationerrorism targeting another operative, one of his overseas associates, was recently conducted in yemen. We will not hesitate to act against those who harm americans. I would now like to turn the wray whover to director ra will divide an update on the fbis investigation. Thank you. First, let me say i deeply appreciate the attorney generals leadership and support for the fbi both in our relentless fight against terrorism and in our drive to obtain the vital evidence we need to detect the American People. We are here today because of a tragic reminder of just how grave, how imminent, the terrorism threat still is. Al qaeda and their arabian murder ofassociates three people and wounding of eight others right here in america. As the attorney general described, through combination skill and determination, the men and women of the fbi have succeeded in accessing the terrorists phones, both of which he tried to destroy. Our investigation into decembers terror attack in pensacola continues, so there are limits on what i can say today, but this is an important moment in an important case. It is important because of what accessing the evidence of this killers phone allows us to do to protect the American People. In just a short time, we finally accessed the evidence. We and our partners have already put it to good use. ,mong other steps we have taken just a moment ago, you heard the attorney general described the recent counterterrorism operation targeting one of the overseas operatives alshamrani associated with while in the United States. It is also important because it underlines how serious our fight against terrorism is and how vital it is for the fbi to maintain its unflagging vigilance against the threat. The evidence we have been able to develop from the killers devices shows the pensacola attack was the brutal culmination of years of planning and preparation by a longtime associate. The new evidence shows alshamrani have radicalized not after training in the United States but at least as far back had beennd that he connecting and associating with a number of dangerous aqap operatives ever since. It shows that he describes a desire to learn about flying years ago around the same time he talked about attending the Saudi Air Force academy in order to carry out when he called a special operation. He then pressed his plans forward joining the air force and bringing his plot here to america. Thanks to a lot of hard work by our people, we now know alshamrani continued to associate with aqap even while living in texas and florida. And in the months before the attack, while he was here among about talked with aqap his plans and tactics, taking advantage of the information he acquired here to assess how many people he could try to kill. He was meticulous in his planning. He made pocket cam videos as he cased his classroom building. He wrote a final will purporting to explain himself and saved it in his phone, the exact same will aqap released two months later when they initially claimed responsibility. He was not just coordinating with them about planning and tactics, he was helping the organization make the most it could out of his murders. And he continued to confer with his aqap associates right up until the end, the very night before he started shooting. Now, we are still exploiting the evidence we have obtained from alshamranis phones and we are continuing to run our investigation now with the benefit of a lot more insight into the murderers mind, intentions, relations with aqap, and his tactics. We have more to learn, but we know enough now to see alshamrani for what he was, a determined aqap terrorist who spent years preparing to attack us. We now have a picture of him we did not have before we obtained this evidence, before we could confirm his connection to aqap was real. Before we could track his long and methodical path of violence. A picture we would never have obtained without accessing his devices. Reminder is a potent for anyone who needed one of the stakes of our work. We protect the American People from a staggering range of threats. But make no mistake, securing the homeland against terrorism remains our top priority. The men and women of the fbi are deployed around the clock, all over the country, and around the world, identifying and disrupting threats and pursuing those who would do us harm. At the fbi, we remain laser focused on the terrorism threat. Not just because of how much damage an attack can cause our country, but because we also know that even as we speak, there are evolving and sophisticated groups around the us. D intent on striking whether core al qaeda or its orshoots like aqap or isis the many others, we are working with our partners to find and disrupt them wherever they are. Whether they are plotting attacks on americans at home or abroad. Our people are attacking every aspect of the terrorism threat. International like we are talking about today, and domestic, with dedication and expertise, with innovation to more than match the evolving threat, and with a commitment to getting the job done right. I the topic of innovation, want to thank and congratulate the men and women of the fbi who devoted months of hard work to accessing these devices. They successfully tackled a problem that required tenacity, creativity, and technical expertise. Those qualities are valuable in any organization, so i know how fortunate we are and how fortunate the American People are that we have so many people with those qualities at the fbi. That is why we work to recruit the kinds of people we do. The magnitude of the challenge they faced is hard to overstate. We received effectively no help from apple. We canvassed every partner in every company that might have had a solution to access these phones. Id, despite what some claimed in the media, so we did it ourselves. Unfortunately, the technique we developed is not a fix for our broader apple problem. It is a pretty limited application. But it has made a huge difference in this investigation. While we are thanking the fbis computer scientists, engineers, and other professionals for their hard work, we should also be thanking thinking about the cost of all that work. Public servants, already swamped with important things to do to protect the American People, toiling through a pandemic and with all the hardship and risk that entails, had to spend all that time just to access evidence that we had Court Authorized Search warrants for months ago. Our engineers and computer scientists working to access these phones were also needed on other pressing National Security and criminal investigations. But the delay from getting into these devices did not just divert our personnel from other important work, it also seriously hampered this investigation. Finally getting our hands on the evidence alshamrani tried to keep from us is great. But we really needed it months ago back in december when the court issued its warrants. In the aftermath of the attack, we and our partners work early urgently to collect and analyze evidence. In the weeks immediately following the summer six, we conducted december 6, we conducted over 500 interviews. Evidencese the crucial on the killers phones was kept from us, we did all that investigating not knowing what we do know now. Valuable intelligence about what to ask, what to look for. Our around the clock, all hands on deck effort, would have been a lot more productive. The attack,ter anyone he spoke with here or abroad has had months to concoct and compare stories with coconspirators, destroy evidence, and disappear. As a result, theres a lot we cannot do at this point that we could have done months ago. You will hear more from the attorney general in a moment on how vital lawful access is to every part of both our Law Enforcement and National Security missions. Cybercrime, opioid trafficking, child sex flotation, you name it. Access affects every fight we are in. Americans need to understand this is not just an issue for Law Enforcement. Lack of lawful access certainly affects our ability to do our jobs, but we know where the harm really falls when evidence is kept and available. It falls on innocent people, the people we are sworn to protect. In this case, we and our partners are not the only ones who needed that information months ago. The victims, those who were wounded and those who lost loved ones, deserved to know then what happened not to have to wait to hear it run aqap from aqap. Onths after the fact forget thati never three brave members of our armed forces were killed in this attack. They were the airmen from st. Petersburg, florida, in sin ensign of our watson, and scott watson from georgia. They were serving our country and died as he rose. We had them front of mind every day as we continue the battle against the same threat they did. I want to end by extending my and the fbis thanks to all of our partners. Our partners are essential to everything we do. This case in many ways has been a perfect example of that. Our joint Terrorism Task force e and inonvill pensacola have led the effort in partnership with the Attorney Generals Office for the Northern District of florida and with essential help from n. G. I. Osi, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The assistance of state and local partners in pensacola has been invaluable as well as has been that of our Intelligence Community partners. I especially want to recognize the brave Naval Security forces personnel and deputies from the county Sheriffs Office who responded to that initial call for help. The Defense Department has also been an essential partner. In addition to deities work personnel at all levels have been vital to our effort to investigate this heinous finally, to the victims and their families, know that our work continues. Right now we are asked pointing the evidence exploring the evidence. We come in every day dedicated to prevent terrorism from any place by any actor. That work will never rest. Thank you. Thank you. Wally thank all of your for the outstanding work you have done in this case. Of thees as a reminder efforts of the professionals at on fbi who every day stand the ramparts protecting the safety of the American People. I must express great disappointments that it took four months and large sums of taxpayer money to obtain evidence that should have been easily and quickly accessible when we update kirk court orders. Apple made a business and marketing decision to design its phones in a way that only the user can unlock the content. No matter what the circumstances. This, apples decision has dangerous consequences to the Public Safety and National Security. Fores desire to provide its customers is understandable, but not at all costs. Standing nations long constitutional principles, where a Court Authorizes a search for. Vidence of a crime they maintain very high standards of data security. Striking this balance should not be left to Corporate Board rooms. It is a decision that must be made by the American People. Public safety and privacy are not usually exclusive. There can be secure products that protect user information and allow for Law Enforcement access when permitted by a judge. This willingly for many years. Others are still doing it today. Thatof the Tech Companies advocate most loudly for warrant proven encryption in the name of privacy rights are at the same time willing to accommodate authoritarian regimes when it serves their business interests. Apple has reported with the communist party of china and the russian regime to relocate data centers to enable bulk surveillance by those governments. If Technology Companies like apple are willing to oblige the demands of authoritarian regimes, they certainly have no excuse for failing to cooperate with rule of law nations that respect Civil Liberties and privacy rights. And have judicial safeguards. This demonstrates the need for a legislative solution. There is no guarantee that we can be successful. This is not a scalable solution. Our odds of success diminish with each passing year. When combating threats to our we need american tech leaders to work with us. No progress has been made. We cannot afford to wait any longer. That is the end of our prepared remarks. We will now open it up for questions. He said he was associated with al qaeda and the arabian peninsula. You describe it as inspired or directed . President trump recently said he wants to see the Justice Department prosecute figures of the Obama Administration for what he calls crimes. Is that something the doj will do . Let me ask the director to respond to the first question i will come back and answer the second one. With respect to his , we areons with aqap describing what we are able to share at this point. We know he was sharing plans and tactics with them. He was coordinating with them and giving them an opportunity to take credit for the attack. I will have to stick for the moment with some of the verbs we have used. More to come on that as we continue to build out what we now know from his phone search. I am not going to comment on what the president or Vice President biden says in connection to their campaigns. I will address the role of the department of justice. I have commented since i have been attorney general and even during my confirmation hearing stead over the past few decades, there have been increasing attempts to use the criminal Justice System as a political weapon. There have been allegations of criminality by ones political opponents based on the flimsiest of legal theories. Good development. We will not be used for partisan political and. We live in a very divided country right now. It is critical that we have an election where the American People are not are able to based on thee robust debate of policy issues. Cannot allow this process to be hijacked by efforts to drum up criminal investigations. This election will be conducted without this kind of interference. Any effort to pursue an investigation of either candidate has to be approved by me. What happens to the president in the 2016 election and throughout the first two years of his administration was abhorrent. It was a grave injustice. It was unprecedented in american history. The Law Enforcement apparatus in this country was involved in advancing a false and utterly baseless collusion narrative. We saw two different standards of justice emerge. One that applied to President Trump and his associates and the other that applied to everyone else. We cannot allow this to ever happen again. The investigation is trying to get to the bottom of what happened. Whether thereine were any federal laws broken. If there were, those who broke the laws will be held to account. Cannot be and will not be a. Itfortat exercise the only way to break away from a dual system of justice is to make sure we scrupulously apply the single and proper standard of justice. Appropriaterges are only when we have enough evidence to charge a crime. That is the standard we are applying. I have a general idea of how the investigation is going. Some aspects are being examined as potential crimes. We have to bear in mind that the thatme court reminded us there is a difference between abuse of power and defend her crime. Not every abuse of power, no matter how outrageous, is necessarily a federal crime. As to president obama and Vice President biden, whatever their level of involvement, based on the information i have today, i dont expect that it will lead to a criminal investigation of either man. Our concern over potential criminality is focused on others. Thank you for your question. Question is from abc. Thank you for the time. What can you say about the relative strength of al qaeda . And what it says about the ability to export terror to the u. S. . Neither made clear that Vice President biden or former president obama are currently the subject of an investigation. Can you make it clear what group of people you are focused on in terms of possible wrongdoing . Are we talking about fbi officials . With the work underway, i cannot comment specifically on who is being looked at. Are all familiar with the set of circumstances that is generally being reviewed. Let me Say Something briefly about the vetting process. Notre this incident, it was sufficient. Fullyudis have been cooperative throughout this investigation. We are working closely with them. They have been working to buttress the screening process and the vetting process to make sure this kind of thing does not happen again. Relative strength of al qaeda, let me ask the director to comment on that. I think what this investigation reveals is something we have been saying for some time. Al qaedas offshoots, including intent on attacking us wherever they can. Including here in the u. S. If they can find a way to do it. Howink it also illustrates dangerous one operative can be. The number of ways in which we can be had. Counterterrorism remains our number one priority. And why our partners are so focused on this issue. Israel. At it is still here. We are determined to thwart it. This counterterrorism airstrike . Was it an did the operation kill him . Information implicate people at other pensacola . The ones who had that are with him the night before or the ones who use their cell phones to record the actual shooting . I am afraid we cannot get into further details. We were talking about the relative strength of al qaeda. The almaliki group has been seriously degraded. I am pretty pleased with the results of the counterterrorism operation. It has further degraded the capabilities of al qaeda on the arabian peninsula. At this stage, in terms of our exploitation of the information on his phones, we have not identified any current threat here in the u. S. Or current operative here in the u. S. Based on that information. This is an ongoing investigation. There are questions based on the information we now have that we would like to have been able to ask all of the people he was associating with while he was here. More to come on that. We will take one more question. You mentions President Trump specifically got in touch with tim cook at apple. That did not seem to do anything. Do you feel like apple is moving the needle at all or, obviously i want you you want this to be a good conclusion or it will be a standstill for years to come. That apple hasn moved the needle or is willing to move the needle. This is not a unique situation. That ifes frequently couldd out in the market create dangers to Public Safety. Normally what we do in that not leavece is we do the decision up to the business. If we feel that it will cause harm to the public. Left toision is not participants. It is a social decision that is made by our society and made by the public. In the public interest. We see that with restrictions or or features that are imposed on manufacturers to make sure the public is not put in danger. This is nothing new. This is what we normally do. For some reason, there are Tech Companies who feel they are above that. They can make decisions based on their business interests regardless of the dangers posed to the public. That concludes the conference today. I appreciate all of you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] the senate is in session this week as members return to washington to consider judicial and executive nominations. The chamber has no plans to take up the 3 trillion Coronavirus Relief act is passed by the house last friday. You can follow the senate live on cspan2. Short produring a forma session, to newly elected republican members will be sworn into the house. The house returns to work on may 27, starting with debate on whether to extend the phis act fisa act. Night, a historian discusses his book about the summer road trips taken by henry ford and thomas edison. The idea came that they would go ahead and take a little car trip to the everglades. It would be an adventure. It was pointed out to them that there are no roads there and it is dangerous. The trip lasted a day and a half. There was a monsoon. There were snakes, alligators. They fled. But they liked the idea. And so it came about that they would take a trip once a year if they could. With a little bit of planning so disaster would be less looming. Sunday night at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Next, the chinese president addressed the world health organization. He announced china would provide 2 billion to help countries around the world with vaccines