Transcripts For CSPAN Senate Judiciary Committee Meeting On Subpoenas Related To The FBIs Russia... 20240712

Walker to serve on the d. C. Circuit court of appeals. Sending his nomination to the full senate for consideration at a time to be determined. Span. I think we have chair graham i think we have enough to hold over the act and the judge for the fifth circuit. My colleagues, we will take up the access act next week. I have a call from mr. Horwood and the Justice Department trying to find out if we can find an accommodation to on board. Accommodation to on board. Will be heldon over, the circuit judge for the fifth circuit. Tell you what, we have two matters on the agenda, mr. Districtnited states judge for the district of columbia and the subpoena authorization, i do not know if we have enough to do business yet, but i thought i would make a bit of an Opening Statement here. Here is where i am going and what i am trying to accomplish. I thought it was important to get mr. Mueller the space to complete his job, i thought a special counsel needed to be comey was fired, not that i doubted that tell me waslaw that comey lawfully terminated, and Jeff Sessions was a member of the Trump Campaign, and the accusations were that the Trump Campaign was colluding with the russians, for lack of a better word, and mr. Rosenstein connect contacted mr. Mueller to conduct the investigation. I supported that and i was going in my comments. I think he was a good man. Completed,has been and he was able to do his job, and the results are out. And, you can read the report for yourself, but here is what has happened. Horwitz is the Inspector General for the department of justice and was able to find that during the course of the mother investigation that there were 17 irregularities when it came to seeking warrants against carter page by the mueller team. Crossfire hurricane, and eventually the mueller team. It was so bad that the court issued an order that senator hawley read yesterday. Isill not go over it, but it a rebuke of the fbi by the pfizer court that is stunning. We are not going to retry the Mueller Investigation senator grassley held a lot of hearings about russian interference in our election. We called donald trump, jr. Before the committee. We interviewed people who were in the trump tower meeting with the russians about adoptions and other things. Help,enator whitehouses we issued a subpoena to a bank that mr. Manafort was doing business with. I think we took seriously the allegations of russian collusion and russian interference, and i want to thank senator grassley for upholding all of those hearings. Here is where we find ourselves as the committee. The court has issued a stunning rebuke of the fbi, is that our job to find out what happened . That it is said inexplicable to him that for over nine months so many errors could have been made. I think i know, but he says it was inexplicable, they were fundamental errors, and really bad stuff over a long period of time. If theim, do you know Senior Leadership of the fbi was aware of the fact that the russian source interviewed in january who disavowed the dossier, did they know that the warrant application had fallen apart, because mr. Horwitz and mr. Mccabe tell us without the russian dossier prepared by mr. Steel who was on the payroll of gps paid by the Democratic Party, there would have been no warned. They could not get into it until they found the dossier. Others hawley and a few mentioned that a Russian Disinformation Campaign could wind its way into the hands of an fbi and eventually get warrants. None of us should ever want that to happen again. There was involvement in our campaign by the russians in our election. Itwas not the ukrainians, was the russians, and they played both sides. Peoplewant to know, the who interviewed the sub source and found out that it was a bunch of bartok, hearsay, and not reliable, did they sit on it . If they did report it up the chain, dont you think they should be disciplined . People in lawy of enforcement to disclose to the court, and their superiors information that would undercut the case. If they did not report it up the chain, and i hope they will be dealt with, and i cannot answer that question as to the subpoenas. I cannot talk to these people, the fbi will not let me talk to the case agent and until analyst. I do not know if mr. Durham is talking to them or not. I think the committee has an obligation to find out what happens when the department of justice and fbi were put on notice that the central document necessary to get a warrant no longer was reliable. How do you explain that it was used twice after the january interview, in april and june, and the court was misled. The application says that the sub source was interview and was cooperative. Mr. Horowitz found the interview a memo based on the interview. Heres the other question. Mr. Mccabe. He said he never misled mr. Rosenstein. Somebody misled the court. Mccabe,it possible mr. In charge of this investigation on a regular basis, had no wasledge that the dossier disavowed by the russian sub source . Shocked, but i would be if one of the most highprofile cases and they have to history of the fbi did not make it out of the basement that our case just fell apart. Did not did know, josh know, he should have known and how could he not. If comey knew and they continue to seek a warrant after they knew it was unreliable, then they should be held accountable, either criminally, or otherwise. And, nobody knows the answer to that question. And, we are going to get to the answer. Mr. Chairman, i support the investigation into this rogue fbi counterintelligence investigation known as crossfire hurricane, what i think what mr. Rosenstein pointed out to us yesterday and something we all know from the department of chart isrganization that the fbi director is supposed to be accountable to the Deputy Attorney general, and yet, director comey was in but josh was directing this investigation along with the deputies, director mccabe, and others. Sally yates and Loretta Lynch did not have a clue what was going on. You remember what sally yates reaction when they talked about the kislyak and the flynn conversation, and she was surprised that there was an ongoing investigation. , think it was crossfire razor as i recall as a subset of crossfire hurricane. It occurs to me that, in addition to questions i have and itse fisa court, function and whether it serves as a check, and oversight over the fbi and counterintelligence investigations because it is a nonadversarial process, that we ought to look at more fundamental issues, like is the fbi the right agency to handle counterintelligence investigations . They are the premier Law Enforcement organization in the world, but on counterintelligence, particularly where it is completely unsupervised, and, where there is so much opportunity for mischief, as we have seen as laid out in the Inspector Generals report. We ought to be asking those questions and i hope that we can work with you and our colleagues across the aisle to look at that. After 9 11, the fbi took on a whole new role in counterterrorism and counterintelligence matters that was outside of its traditional wheelhouse. So, i wanted to plant that seed. I have not thought it all the way through. It is still a kernal, but we need to be asking fundamental questions and getting answers. Chairman graham somebody who will be leaving us, you have something to say . Thank you so much for letting me take a moment to praise the service of my chief counsel, carter burwell. He came to me after working for hasrman grassley, and he served his committee for six years. He came to the committee on detail in two thousand 14 from the department of justice, originally, and then joined my staff in 2000 16 and became my chief counsel. Aid onbeen an invaluable National Security matters, which is his background as a former prosecutor. 702thorization of section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act like the back page bill and criminal justice issues like the First Step Act that i am proud we have been able to accomplish together. He and my Judiciary Committee staff have done work on judicial nominations. Yesterday we filled the last vacancy to the federal judiciary in texas with the confirmation of drew tipton. 21 new texas judges under this administration. Carter will be going over to help secretary mnuchin on National Security matters and our economic recovery. I hope youll join me in thanking carter for his service, not only to my office, but also to the committee. [applause] knowing senator cornyn the way i do, i am sure you are getting a pay raise. Senator feinstein. Let me beginn with this, and i will take a few minutes. I believe it is important to believe to know that the committee has never heard from mr. Miller and his team. Yesterday you questioned mr. Rosenstein about whether there to justifye there investigating possible ties between the Trump Campaign and russia. I wrote you a letter, signed by every democrat on this committee. 2019, that says we are writing to you to follow up on our request, this is a followup, the committee hold a hearing with special counsel mueller regarding his report on russian electoral interference and obstruction of justice. The Mueller Report is a seminal document that caps the special counsels nearly two year investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election. As comprehensive as the report is, it is clear that there are many outstanding questions that remain unanswered. The attached document identifies at least 60 Unanswered Questions related to both russian interference and obstruction of justice. We believe that Robert Mueller would be best suited to answer these and other questions. Theuld like to put this in record, mr. Chairman. We asked for this over a year ago, and there was no answer to our plea. To address the authorization for subpoenas. Comment, e one you can read the Mueller Report for yourself, but mr. Mueller is a great patriot and served his country for a long period of time. I am not adverse to having somebody from the mueller team, until the committee what they did and how they did it. I think that is a good idea, i am not so sure mr. Mueller would be the good person the best person now, but maybe mr. Wiseman. I would agree with you, i think we need to understand how the team worked, and i am very open to getting somebody from the mueller team over here during the course of our inquiry. I want to let you know that that is not an unreasonable request. Feinstein thank you. We sent this asking for mr. Mueller. He has a man of extensive brain cells and can well recall the situation. I think the side would like to have him here. I will just leave you with that. Today i want to address the chairs authorization for subpoenas. Provide that rules a subpoena can be issued by the chair with the agreement of the Ranking Member, or a vote of the committee. In this case, neither was done. The chairs motion is a runaround Committee Rules. It does not require the Ranking Members agreement or a vote on the specific subpoena, instead, it would give the chair Sole Authority to issue hundreds of subpoenas. This removes the minority from any role in the issuance of a subpoena. This leads me to believe that the is a move to grant majority total control over investigations, and prevent the minority from gaining information in crucial areas. This would allow the majority to present a one sided, selective account of the fact, and we facts and we oppose that. With this with this motion, the chair granted unbridled authority for subpoenas for any document or witness related to crossfire hurricane. The early stages of the fbis investigations into the trunk campaigns ties to russia, and it allows subpoenas for 53 officials, named in the motion vast majoritye who served under president obama. Using a single motion to authorize subpoenas for 53 people, and possibly hundreds more documents and witnesses is unprecedented in this committee. I asked my staff to Search Committee records to find just one comparable example, they could not find a single instance where this committee has authorized subpoenas for 53 people in a single vote. In addition, the committee has not been provided with explanations for why any of these people have been listed. For example, why is treasury list,ary jacob lew on the or joe bidens chief of staff who is a Senior Advisor on bidens president ial campaign . Why is he on this list . John podesta, Hillary Clintons Campaign Chair is on this list, even though he has already testified twice before the house Intelligence Committee, and the transcripts of his testimony are publicly available. And, we have been given no explanation as to why samantha power, former ambassador to the united nations, warrants a subpoena from this committee. It simply, this motion, and am sorry to say this, but i believe it, grants the chair unbridled authority to go after obama era officials. I cannot support this kind of conductauthority, to politically motivated investigations. And, i urge my colleagues on both sides to consider carefully whether we want to set this as a precedent going forward. Committee,on this which is well over 20 years, we have always been careful about the use of subpoena authority. We have required specific explanations for what information is being sought, why we need it, and whether this process against any specific individual is truly warranted. In fact, her roles are designed to ensure that the committee our roles are designed to ensure that the committee is following bipartisan cooperation, and we have historically done so. Our last subpoena was three years ago, and 2017, when chair grassley and i agreed to subpoena paul manafort. 2007, the committee authorized several subpoenas by voice vote to white house and Justice Department officials involving the u. S. Attorney firing scandal. With the Ranking Members consent and following a bipartisan vote, we also authorized subpoenas concerning the bush administrations warrantless wiretapping program. 2008 are laheys authorization of torture memos followed years of bipartisan efforts to obtain those materials. Motionsay, the chairs is a significant departure from this tradition of bipartisan cooperation, and i am surprised. Once the door is open to proceeding in this manner, to allow the chairman sweeping, unit unilateral authority to subpoena political opponents, that door remains open of which party has majority power. I take great exception to the subpoena authorization and will oppose it. And, the second part of this is on Justin Walker, which i am happy to put in the record. Let me say this, personally, mr. Chairman, i have great belief in what this committee does. We have always considered both sides. Since i have been on it, and i have been here 26 years. It was joe biden asked me to go on it when he was chairman. This in thiss do with a bulk list of subpoenas, not knowing why anybody on this list is actually being subpoenaed, i think opens this committee to enormous concern and criticism. I am very sorry that we are at this stage, but, on our side, we have to stand up and fight this, because it sets a poor precedent that has never existed before. Thank you very much. Chair graham thank you. I will Say Something really quickly. I want to thank you for the hearing we held yesterday mr. Rosenstein, i thought it was a normatively helpful and beneficial. Thought it was something that shows front and center the need for fisa reform. What we saw yesterday was that the system that we finished for a couple of decades is not working well. It does not self police. This is one of the things that is what happens when you have a secret court. In most circumstances, absent reform, you cannot even have an amicus curiae. We need to pass something at leeleahytrong as the fisa bill which the senate adopted along bipartisan lines. Mr. We heard yesterday from rosenstein confirms the need for aggressive fisa reform, at least as strong as what we have adopted with leeleahy. This enterprise involved in fisa, the agents we heard about yesterday were of were abusing the law. , which every american are potentially at stake when they can use the apparatus of fisa to go after someone. Of these improper investigations were themselves politically motivated, and we have to get to the bottom of them to figure out what happened. ,t is essentially important regardless of what happens with those investigations that we conclude them by updating and reforming our laws. Toy have proven too easy manipulate and we must not allow them to withering on the vine. , am grateful to senator leahy with whom i have worked with. We spotted the risk of abuse of this shortly after i arrived in the senate, and he and i worked together to try and inform this. It does need to happen. Last week something significant happened, the reforms we passed in the senate died, they were not able to secure passage. For the first time in history, these were the most aggressive fisa reforms we have adopted in either house. And, for the first time, these becausestalled, not they did not do enough to help the government, but because they were perceived by many to not do enough to restrain government. This is the right direction. We need something just as aggressive. Thank you. Mr. Chairman . Chair graham yes. Senator durbin. Po durbin do i understand sen. Durbin , do i understand that we are debating . Chair graham do you want to do walker or the subpoenas . Durbin , i confer to the i defer. Chair graham i would like to do walker first. Let us turn to walker, and we will come back to this. Feinsteins statement on mr. Walker is in the record. Durbin durbin sen. When it comes to mr. Walkers appointment, can we be honest moment. Can anyone say with a straight face that this 38yearold individual with no practical courtroom experience and a few months on the job as a District Court judge in the commonwealth of kentucky is the best person for this job . Anybody . He is not, and we know it. Justin walker is enlivened for this in line for this lifetime appointment for two reasons. One, he is a family friend of senator mcconnell and an outspoken critic of the Affordable Care act. Justin walker has made it clear that at any cost he is willing to tell the Republican Party line in opposition to obamacare. Before he was a judge, he called the case that up that upheld acas constitutionality, indefensible. About hisacked jokes opposition to the aca at his investor that her Investiture Ceremony when he was still a sitting judge. These comments apparently put him on the fast track to the d. C. Circuit judge it is astonishing to me that Senate Republicans have chosen to pick so many obvious opponents, not just opponents, but people hostile to the Affordable Care act in the nominations they have brought before this committee. Grass, davideve porter, mark noris, sarah pitlick, to name a few. Whoto mention chad reedler, filed a brief in the texas versus u. S. Case which called for striking down the entire aca including protections for americans with preexisting conditions. The cases pending before the Supreme Court and chad was nominated to the sixth circuit a day after filing the brief. We are seeing this pattern again with the walker nomination. Even in the middle of a pandemic , the Republican Party of america is not stopping its attack on the Affordable Care act, and yet it has never, underline, never produced a substitute or alternative. So why are we brought back here five weeks ago with a nation that was being told to stay at home with the district of columbia and orders for people not to be out and about, why did we convene the senate, ringback 10,000 employees at risk to themselves and their families . We brought them back for this nomination, it was the first Justin Walker, former intern to senator mcconnell to go to the Second Highest Court in the land. It chairman, i have said before and i repeated, there has to be, among all of the people in the United States of america, a conservative republican judge with the qualifications for this court. This man is not that person, and we all know. Nominationtake, the of Justin Walker is not only a personal favor to the republican leader, but a direct attack on their Affordable Care act in the midst of a Public Health crisis in america. I oppose this nomination. Leahy i have a statement which i will put in the record. I completely concur with what senator durbin said. In his statement. It set down very clearly. I also concur with what senator lee said on the issue that he has talked about. He and i have worked very with many senators, republicans and democrats, and i hope that we can get that back online. Passed a senator from utah how many votes did we get in the senate . Votes, as polarized as it has become, it is hard to say that we have had 77 votes to say this the sun rises in the east and we got 77 votes on our amendment. I hope that we could take a step back, take a deep breath, put it back in and go forward. Thank you. Chair graham senator whitehouse. The Washington Post has reported that there is a multihundred Million Dollar network funded by anonymous donors at work trying to manipulate the makeup of our theral courts when we faced marriage garland versus jog judge versus gorsuch contest and then the problems with judge kavanaugh, political campaigns against garland for gerst gorsuch and kavanagh were run by an organization that were paid in twoh 35 million anonymous donations. There is every reason to believe that the two anonymous donations came from the same donor. There was no reason not to believe that. What you have is someone who spent 35 Million Dollars to influence the makeup of the United States Supreme Court and we do not know who they are and we do not know what business they had before the court. We see people performers funded by anonymous donors bringing and inefore the court cases of political import, we amicaes of mckee who turned out to have funding by anonymous donor groups. The extent of which are courts are now mired in dark money is unprecedented, and if i could, i heard very clearly the chairmans argument yesterday and his belief that in this matter, where the political polls reversed, our democratic hair would be on fire to get to the bottom of what the hell happened in crossfire hurricane, will i assert the same argument here. If anonymous donors on our side were picking Supreme Court judges, where funding political campaigns for their nominations, were bringing cases before the court, and were flocking in little flow tillers of flotillas of amicae to make arguments in chorus for whatever the donor interests are behind the scheme, your hair would be equally on fire. There is no precedent for this kind of dark money around the Supreme Court. We have seen dark money in our politics, that is bad enough, we should have common cause to clean that rot out of our system. Starts to creep into our judiciary, something has gone badly wrong. And, i will close with a connection between this and the matter we are about to discuss. Because, i believe very deeply that if the shoe were on the other foot, the republicans on this committee would have no hesitancy in asking the group that ran the political campaigns and received 35 million in two donations to fund those campaigns, who the hell was behind those campaigns . That is a very simple question, and it goes to the heart of the integrity of the judiciary. And we cannot even begin to get an answer to that. That is the backdrop of lack of oversight. My questions yesterday of q were the same, and the letters that went to the same bin. If we are going to do oversight, i hope we will do oversight into questions different than the Trump Campaign wants us to ask. Isall the oversight we do the oversight congruent with the political campaigns interests, that is not a good place for this committee to be. Thank you. Chair graham your request for questions for the record, i will call the number two guy from the geo day together and try to get these questions answered, because it is important that the committee be taken seriously by those who we regulate. That was a point well made. Whitehouse, sen. Whitehouse , that was a point well made. To Justin Walkers nomination, which i also cannot support, his record leaves me with concerns that he will not be able to separate his political beliefs from his judicial opinions at a time when hundreds of thousands of americans have been sickened by covid19, he has expressed a fervent desire to see the Affordable Care act repealed, at the same time when the Inspector Generals have been fired and independent oversight has been eroded. I am concerned about statements that he imply that the fbi should be nothing more than an agent of the president. I am concerned about and expanding reach of folks in the judiciary have a view that the incentive branch is eroding executive branch is eroding a lot of precedent. These are just two of the red flags that i saw. There are many other talented lawyers that could be filling his position, i will be voting no. And to the point that senators lee and leahy raised about the fisa bill and the added protections to the process that recently passed this chamber, i cosponsored it and i think my colleagues for their hard work and leadership and was proud to see the senate take action. If there are ways to improve the process, we should explore them seriously rather than the proceedings happening today. Thank you. Chair graham senator blumenthal. Blumenthal thank you for the chance to speak on the nominee, judge walker. I believe it is the height of irony that we are potentially judge who hasrm a made it his mission to destroy the Affordable Care act, which is the core of our Health Care System at a time in the midst of a healthcare crisis. Nothing could speak more powerfully to the underlying goal of the entire nomination process that is to remake the federal judiciary and the image of the far right extreme of the Republican Party. And, it is also driven by those whitehouse senator outlined minutes ago, the dark money that is driving this campaign is on full exhibits today. So, i will vote against judge walker, not because he was found to be unqualified as a nominee for a District Court judge, i believe he is unqualified to be a judge on the Appellate Court as well. But, because he is mission driven, as he said in his investiture speech when he was sworn in as a District Court judge. Legalld pursue his principles, although he said although my legal principles are prevalent, they have not yet prevailed. That is his scope as a judge, policy driven goals, and first among them to destroy the Affordable Care act and our Health Care System. , ito yesterdays hearing wish i could believe that even a tangential purpose was fisa reform. Ofpoke at the testimony Inspector General horwitz and reiterate this point. Yesterday, i have been doing and years,ng fisa reform for first under president obama and now under this president. There are ways that a corrective mechanism can be incorporated into the fisa process, making it more adversarial. Some of those ideas have been incorporated, but by no means enough of them, so i hope there will be a serious effort towards fisa reform, but that is not the court the purpose of the hearing yesterday, or of the subpoenas that we have been asked to approve. The effort to deflect the tension from the health care and the Economic Task unfolding fort dodge before us, i think really time, and thisur committee. Chair graham the hearing was not designed to find ways to reform fisa. I think that would be an outcome of what happened. The hearing is designed to find out what the hell happened. This rebuke by the court to the fbi is stunning. I want to know how you could renew a warrant on two different occasions, months of point apart when the underlying basis fell apart. I want to know why general flynn got prosecuted after everybody in the fbi looked at his case and said it should be dropped. Lawyerto know how a could manipulate and email and nobly know about it. We are trying to bring accountability. Sen. Hirono today i would like to associate myself with the remarks of my colleagues. I often hear, why are you democrats against conservatives . I thought conservatives stood for fairness, at least, but these nominees are conservatives if we can even apply a word to them. They are conservatives on steroids, sets to undo decades that protects workers and individual rights. And, yet, we proceed. I will not be voting for Justin Walker. Chair graham senator booker . Sen. Harris i joined the colleagues my colleagues on the side, and it is important to emphasize that this committee is rushing to confirm a nominee for a vacancy that does not even exist. Concernsjoined the about judge walker, in particular as it relates to the Affordable Care act while we are in the midst of a pandemic, in addition, people of all races are marching in the streets of theica, outraged about Racial Discrimination and injustices that have taken place over generations, but we have judge walker who is expressed excitement about a judicial confirmation that he believes would lead to an end to affirmative action. Let us think about the message that this sends to all of these communities of color and their allies, particularly at a time when people have taken to the streets to protest the violence and injustice that black people have faced for generations in america. That is why i oppose judge walker, and i joined with many civil and human Rights Groups including the National Asian Pacific American womens forum and 20 reproductive justice organizations and people from the american way, Leadership Conference of civil and human rights. The National Center for transgender equality, the league of conservation voters. United steelworkers, the human thets coalition, and National Education association, and the naacp, who oppose judge walkers nomination yesterday. Chair graham thank you on the motion where did senator tillis go . Ok. On the motion to report judge walker for this what circuit is this . The clerk will call the role. Mr. Hawley. Mr. Tillis. Ay. I didnt hear you. Your microphone is not on. Mr. Blackburn. Ay. Mr. Leahy . No. Mr. Whitehouse . No. No. Mr. Blumenthal . No. Mr. Booker, . No. Mr. Chairman. Chair graham the motion is favorably reported. Judge walker goes to the floor. As to the subpoena authorization, i call up the june 4, 2014 motion related to crossfire hurricane investigation, maybe i can feinstein,senator and we will open it up for debate and anything you all would like to do in terms of amending it. Heres what i have come to conclude, that the transition issues are probably better left to senator johnson. So, i know that there was a by Vice President biden to unmask general flynn, there were requests by people, Samantha Powers made a lot of requests. Maybe there is a legitimate reason, i do not know. Quite frankly, i think our time would be better served to go and look at crossfire hurricane and the Mueller Report itself, so i do not expect us to be calling people in the transition period. We will let senator johnson do that. Do isat i do expect us to try to find out rosen assigned stead rosenstein said he signed the warrant not understanding that the underlying dossier had been disavowed, and if he had known that, he would not have signed it. That is stunning to me. I want to ask other people that same question. When you sign this application, did you know what had happened . And they might have a good explanation, and we will say, ok, we are learning. But if i find one person in the thatho told a higher up our case just fell apart and they went forward anyway, there is going to be hell to pay. And, it will come from durham, not us. Sent a stunning rebuke to the fbi about the way they behaved. And senator leahy, you are right. Horwitz review review found a lot of them did not comply with procedure. That is what you and senator lee are talking about. This is different. This is not a failure to comply with the woods procedure where you check the homework. Effort to conceal information from the court and manipulate documents provided to the court. We are talking about criminality. Horwitznot what mr. Found. I want to find out how it happened and make sure that it never happens again. No more, no less. Access to theget people at the diskette the department that to the east the interviews. If i have to subpoena i will. Will ask my staff to look at what the committee has done the past. In september 25, 2008, senator subpoena for all things related to torture that passed on a partyline vote. This is a replication of that. Peoples names i put in there is anyone i could think of that are related to the unmasking and could be potential witnesses with crossfire hurricane and the Mueller Report. As to mr. Mueller. If you want to call him, i well. I would just ask that you think twice about it. If you can find somebody else. Muellernvolved in the investigation. I am very openminded to calling that person. To the people on our side. What i am doing has been done before. And, it was obvious to senator leahy that republicans were not going to go where he would like on torture. Me thatetty obvious to our friends on the others will go to where we think we need to go. In the publican judge, when i am on some calls for trump or not. A pretty goode record of saying, if that makes sense i will do it. I can promise you that the president was not enamored by the special counsel protection act. It is really not about that, it is about trying to find out what happened to the court that they had to rebuke the fbi. Think people had their lives turned upside down on unnecessarily. I think it was a legitimate thing for us to do. It will allow us the power to get to the bottom of it. I will always consult with senator feinstein. I do not know what we will need to subpoena and what documents, if any, but i am intent on trying to find out what happened. So, senator feinstein . Would like to i introduce an amendment, 243, whichnumber hen would include ensure that the Ranking Member has the same authority to issue subpoenas as the chairman is granting himself. It also ensures that the committee can obtain information about the decisions made in the Michael Flynn and roger stone cases. Mr. Chairman, you yourself noticed the importance of minority subpoena rights just last year. When you introduced a resolution to give the republican minority equal authority to issue subpoenas and other compulsory process. Thise time, you described of an issue of basic fairness. I think the motion today is a serious departure from our rules and practice. Unbridled creates authority to go after obama era officials in order to bolster conspiracy theories, and denigrate the president s political opponent. I just put the facts on the table, ladies and gentlemen. If you support my amendment, it shows that the committee is willing to show to follow the facts where they lead and gave the side the chance to get a subpoena providing the full context around the russia investigation and restore the longstanding tradition of cooperation and lead to a more fair process, and im hopeful that for all of these reasons, my colleagues will support this amendment. Willpromise you that we call the department of justice, eventually, to inform the committee as to why they decided to drop the case. I think they need to come and tell us that. Senator leahy. i just want to get a couple of facts straight. I spoke yesterday on the floor, in my capacity as dean of the senate. All of my years in the senate, i do not know if i have seen america hurting as much as it is today. Has reared itse ugly head again with the mortar murder of george floyd. Our military joined federal officers, he used rubber bullets, smoke, and tear gas clear to forcibly hundreds, if not thousands of americans exercising their First Amendment rights to the white house. So if the present so that the president could pose for a photo op. This comes on the heels of the trump administrations inept response to a Global Pandemic that has taken the lives of more than 100,000 americans. Is sinking into new unimaginable lows every day, yet this committee has little to say about any of that. No legislation on either the pandemic or Police Reform has been forwarded today. Instead, in the words of fiona hill on the white house today, this committee is busying itself with the president s political errands. The senateught of Judiciary Committee under either republican or democratic leadership as being a political arm of the white house, but i do now, because, after relentless badgering for the present from the president s twitter feed, Senate Republicans have relented. We are about to release the Judiciary Committees to a debunked conspiracy theory. To the fbi make serious mistakes during its surveillance of the former Trump Campaign manager . Yes. I said so earlier this week. We have held a hearing on that issue. It followed an exhaustive investigation, and a 478 page reports from Inspector General at a time when Inspector Generals were still allowed to do their work. The senate took steps to try and ensure those mistakes would not happen again. Including, overwhelmingly passing an amendment offered by myself and senator lee that would strengthen Civil Liberties and strengthen the fisa process that exculpatory evidence would be disclosed. That i would submit is the senate at its best, shining a light on the thorough and nonpartisan investigation into abuses within an executive agency. I applaud senator lee for holding strong, and crafting and advancing Bipartisan Legislation to try and ensure such abuses will never happen again. That is the senate that i joined when i first came here and i believe in, and that is it adds finest. You and ir. Chairman, have been friends for a long time. What we are about to do is the senate at its worst. Given what we have accomplished, what are we doing here today . No number of hearings or subpoenas will change the critical facts before us. Carter page was no more than a bit player. The serious errors that occurred, with respect to surveillance, all occurred the launch of the rush investigation. Everybody knows russia did try to interfere in our election. Errors the carter page errors had nothing to do with the attack on our democracy. Nothing to do with the fact that welcomedal counsel russias criminal intervention and attempted to exploit it. Had nothing to do with the fact that members of the Trump Campaign then apply to the American People, like to fbi, evenlied to the lied to Vice President pence about the contact and communications with russia during this time. The notion that the special counsels investigation was not properly predicated is outrageous. Otherwise serves Vladimir Putins interest more than americas. Now, referring to something the chairman has said. The subpoena authorization on the agenda today simply follows a precedent , i said as chairman in 2008. It has false, it is balderdash. And the committee did then what it is doing now could not be more different. During the bush administration, this committee worked for over five years to obtain a limited number of olc documents and opinions related to the bush administrations policies. Republicans and democrats worked for that. For five years, the administration stonewalled these requests including the request of the then republican Ranking Member of this committee. Seekingbefore authorities after five years of trying, not five days or five hours but five years, the Ranking Member joined me in a final request to obtain the senate documents. It this committee was stonewalled again. Seek did not seek subpoena authority until the last meeting of the bush administration. That was a subpoena of last resort. It was our last chance to learn what detainee and interrogation policies white house was operating under. The authorization could not simply list a handful of apply to, it had to documents related to our narrow investigation, because the administration had spent the last five years hiding those documents from us. Refused to provide us with a index of relevant olc documents. The Ranking Member said he shared my concern about the legality of the llc opinions at issue. Issue. Opinions at he shared my opinions that we had been rebuffed for five years by the bush administration. He ultimately did not support a subpoena, but neither did he or any republican suggest that i not go for it. Quietly theyl know work for it. He noted we would have a new president in a few months and perhaps more cooperation with an Incoming Administration. I disagreed that the committee should have to wait for an take chances with a new administration. We obtained the authorization. I then issued a single solitary subpoena for the same documents the republicans and i had long sought. The committee finally obtained them. That is what congressional oversight looks like. To my knowledge, no chairman of this committee has sought authority to issue subpoenas without any effort to make it bipartisan. Suchairman has ever sought subpoena authority as a first resort. No chairman has sought limitless authorization to subpoena what , and i understand the chairman has talked about limitations, but it could be literally hundreds of individuals and millions of pages of documents. Frank, i thought i would never frankly i never thought i hasd say this, no chairman devoted the full weight of this committees resources to a full investigation to benefit a president ial campaign. Makes aauthorization mockery of our Committee Rules and sets a dangerous partisan willdent precedent and represent a new low for this committee, a committee we all hold dear. Because of that, i will vote no. Think of myt, i years and the number of chairs and Ranking Members i have served here with. Say is not an easy thing to in our committee. I love the committee at first asked to go on the day after i was elected to the senate. Knowt want everybody to and i want everyone to know that im a little annoyed when someone suggests i did this before which of course i did not. Not five years of discussion for one subpoena. Republicans at that time say you go ahead. I would note one other thing on that. , evenfter president obama still putelection, i through onto the floor with a number ofupport bush judicial nominees. Low ofre that to the this committee when we had a Supreme Court nominee that should have been considered in the last year of the Obama Administration. Especially when it was someone that a number of members of this committee had said they would be glad to vote for. I yield the floor. Respond, i know youre frustrated but so am i. Let me tell you why. Cowans came to me they said trump is saying wild things about mueller and the russian hoax and all the good stuff. I said yes, he needs to knock it down a notch. We introduced legislation. Democrats others with to let the president know that we believe special counsel mueller should be allowed to do his job and you should not fire him unless you have caused. The president believes he and his family were abused by the system. He is passed off. He thought the whole thing was a hoax. I trusted mueller to do his job. We were able to get mueller to conclusion. Now, once we find out that the Mueller Investigation was run by ,eople who hated trumps guts dripping with partisanship, nobody seems to care. We cant figure out if their hatred for trump had any effect on their actions. I dont think you have to be that smart to put the puzzle together. Were going to keep trying. Mr. Horowitz said he didntsourt is something you would want to know. It matters to meet whether or not the number two guy at the fbi knew the document was no longer reliable and kept using it. You cant answer that question, none of you can. Im going to get the answer to that question. I want to find out why they kept going after flynn went everybody who looked at him said he shouldnt be part of crossfire hurricane. You could care less. Lot not good about this committee. Having said that, we going to go or the evidence takes us and i will try to answer basic questions about how it got so off the rails and try to explain to the public why the fisa court was so upset. I dont know if anybodys going to go to jail. People went to jail in the Mueller Investigation. I think there are some people who are some good candidates for going to jail for manipulating the fisa application process and abusing the rule of law. Were going to keep going. You have made it abundantly clear you dont agree with what i am doing. You think i am in trumps pocket. I get all of that. Its not lost on me what you think. I am sad, because i like you all. You expect me to punt, you can forget it. We are not going to punt. We are not going to have a rule of law for republicans and a rule of law for democrats. It where its ok to turn the republican nominees life upside down and when you find out there were abuses in that system, not to ask questions how that happened and make sure how it happens again to anybody. Were going to keep pressing forward and the reason i am doing the subpoena is because it is clear to me you are not going to help me. It gives me the authority to do what i think i need to do. Senator leahy in 2008, im going to introduce for the record your subpoena motion. It is virtually exactly the same. There were times when the republicans would not go where you wanted to go on torture and human rights because they voted no. I now know up front. It would be an idiot to believe you were going to help me. You are not. You want tot and if hear from mueller, we will hear from mueller. Why was flynns case dropped . I want to know also. Senator kennedy . Thank you, mr. Chairman. I say this to my republican colleagues, but also to my democratic friends. Read the horwitz report. Wrong withs clearly respect to the fisa work process. Want trust us. Warrant process. A followup to mr. Horowitz after he did an audit of other fisa applications, he found an more number actually many , mistakes. It seems to me that one of two things are going on. Number one, i hope we dont find that some folks at the fbi have political opinions. My guess is they all do. You dont want to hire anybody to an important position if they havent thought about the world and have a perspective about it. Only didfind that not some people at the fbi and perhaps the doj have political opinions, they acted on it. I would remind, not that i need my but it is worth noting democratic friends that mr. Twoy investigated president ial campaigns. That his argued conduct, his behavior impacted the Election Results for secretary clinton. I wouldnt mind knowing about that either. One possibility is bias and action upon that bias. The other possibility is arrogance. I think i have been here a shorter time than anybody. , harris beat me by a few days. For some members of this town, power corrupts and absolute power is kind of cool. Here where atem member of the bureaucracy, i dont use that in a pejorative sense, can go in front of a , which based on the statistics is a compliant warrant without me knowing about it and they can open my mail, they can go to my bug my bedroom, book my house, follow me around, they can probably take my dna. I think it is bad enough that i spoke in google know everything about us. Here, we have an agency where we have given that authority. We need to find out what happened. Thats why i voted for senator lees amendments. We were told that if we voted for those amendments, the world would spin off its axis and we would see the end of western order. Didnt happen, and i like his amendments. It is not enough. To findd Work Together out what is happening here. Criticism of the fbi as an institution, but something is going on over there. Just onehis is persons point of view and then im going to shut up and not say another word. Wereieve those who involved in this, either through political bias and action upon arer breathtaking arrogance going to try to blame all of junior gman in the basement of the fbi building with green eyeshades and say it is all his fault or all her fault and we didnt know anything about it. I dont believe that. I think it was either bias or arrogance. We have to find out. I hope we can do it together. In washington dc this week, something happened, a constitutional moment of consequence. Within the jurisdiction of this committee. The president of the United States of america suggested federal militarization of Law Enforcement of the United States. This is not a minor suggestion. It is serious business. To think that federal troops would move into our cities and take control of Law Enforcement, this is a matter that we should be very concerned about. If you followhere it, the secretary of defense apparently nodded in favor of the president s position that yesterday reversed himself. Doing the same thing because they realize that the president s suggestion was downright dangerous in our constitution. Within the jurisdiction of the senate Judiciary Committee, and we are doing and saying nothing. Nothing. Instead, were reflecting on a report released by mr. Mueller more than one year ago. Is it the intent of the democrats to cover up the wrongdoing in that report . Not at all. I think we have all made it clear that what happened to at least one individual in the report was wrong. To senator kennedys point, it gets to the heart of the isa process. I want to thank he gets to the heart of the fisa process. I want to thank senator leahy. And he has with him been doing it well. Im not trying to cover up or conceal what is happening in fisa courts. America at the abuse that took place in the Mueller Investigation but also the abuses we have no clue about. Senator kennedy, the score is 982 in terms of compliance with that court when the request are made. In this case, we know that when it comes to fisa form, we had our chance. In the last few weeks, a number of us joined with the leahy approach and voted against the fisa bill even with an amendment because we dont think it went far enough. Fisa reform, we had our moment. What gets me about this, i dont think it is. It is not about fisa reform. It clearly isnt. You have a passion about this that is singular and not just personal because the president shares it. But it belies the reality. To conceal what happened during the course of the Mueller Report. Inspector general horwitz spent 19 months reviewing the investigation. Interviews reviewed the million documents and wrote a 434 page report that was released last december. It made clear that the crossfire hurricane investigation was open for an authorized purpose, had actual medication and was not influenced by bias. I dont know of anyone who tried to stop the Inspector General and his effort and i dont want to diminish it today. The democrats are turning a blind eye to the shortcomings about the Mueller Report is wrong. Its wrong. It doesnt reflect reality. Instead, what troubles me and by i support the motion senator feinstein is we are about to do something that is painful. Has explained what happened years ago on the torture issue. You remember through john mccain what happened in those days. The battle went on for years and years. Yet what we are being asked to do today is to give authority to this chairman that is going to end toput an official the bipartisan comity just been part of this committee for ever and that is unfortunate. Had we happen to just happen to have the Campaign Manager for joe bidens president ial campaign on the list . Im afraid it is obvious. This is about a president who just cant get over it. Maybe he never will. And by a chairman who wants him to have another day to make his point about how he was mistreated. With all due respect, i dont buy what you are saying at all. I didnt expect you to. Years, it was look at did they collude with the russians . Nominee democratic spent over 1000 hiring a Foreign Agent who found a russian who provided mr. Steele a bunch of garbage against candidate trump that wound up being used by a isa court multiple times to get a warrant against an american citizen. That is your theory. That is a fact. Yesterday, step out mr. Rosenstein was asked twice whether the dossier which raises the Blood Pressure of republicans had nothing to do with the conclusion of the Mueller Report. With all due respect, the dossier was the key document to get a warrant which without which there would be no more. The net result was sen. Graham you are try to change the topic. If did this whole debacle happened because some person, one or two lowlevel agents knew that it was a bunch of garbage and didnt tell anybody and misled the whole system and they are innocent victims . I am absolutely confident that it is impossible to believe that one of the most prominent investigations in the history of the fbi, a sitting president that when the case fell apart nobody found out about it. They interviewed the man three times in january, once in march, once and may, and he disavowed the entire document used to get a warrant and it never worked its way up to the top. A fascinating concept that it could be just one or two people down at the bottom. Were going to find out. If it is, so be it. I can promise you that, it is a big deal to us. The Mueller Investigation was a big deal to the country. We need to know, was the president , was the nominee of the Republican Party a russian agent . We look. 30 million. Subpoena after subpoena. Did the Democratic Party hire a Foreign Agent to find a russian stage to do the fisa court . Did the fbi know about it and did they play along . Were going to find that out if we have to do it why ourselves. May i conclude . Yes. Your personal feelings are very clear and you have expressed it over and over. We know where this committee is headed. I dont believe this is a priority or timely, you do. You are the chairman, you have the votes. I do believe what senator feinstein has asked for is not unreasonable. That there be some sort of bipartisan cooperation in this effort. The second thing is, i will be offering amendments as others will. If you found three witnesses you would like to hear from, we have 1011 we will like to hear from who have personal knowledge of effects you are talking about but work omitted from the list you produced. Before you go to senator cruz, can we get a sense of how long were going to be here . Some of us have other committees. I dont think anybody disagrees the me when i say it is bs way people grandstand in here. If we did not have cameras, the discussion would be different. The senate doesnt work. It doesnt diffuse the tensions. I am for transparency, reporters being everywhere. 90 of our committees are about people trolling for soundbites. That is what actually happens. Some of us have other work to do. People control for soundbites but can we have a sense of how long we will be here . Sen. Graham i dont think they are trolling for soundbites. The criticism is bipartisan. Sen. Graham there happens to be a tv camera, i think we would have the same conversation if there was not a television camera. That is your right. If you have to go somewhere else, go. We are going to do with this committee needs to do. Were going to fight it out and vote. We are not going to be done. Not today. If you need to go somewhere, go. Were going to let our colleagues talk on that side and we are going to vote on all these motions. I think the best thing for us to do is to carry this over for next week. I happen to agree with the chairman. When he talks about the debate, is he mr. Sasse wants to get his point through. Long before we had tb in this Room Television in this room, i was here in hearings and meetings that would go on way into the evening with debates back and forth. You and i have disagreed on things. Into my religion and what i thought was an attack on my religion once in this committee. We would have debates that would go on well into the evening. There was no radio, no television, just someone taking notes. Betterend, we were a committee and better senate for it. I am for debate. I dont think we do debate. Senator cruz . Political posturing is not new to the senate. Given that, this mornings protestations from the democratic side of the aisle have been remarkable. The subpoenas at issue are not about the Mueller Report. Page not even about carter or general flynn. The central question is about corruption and abuse of power. What has been made public is we that the previous directed the fbi, the cia, Law Enforcement and intelligence to target their political opposition. This committee has now her testimony that not only did they wiretaps of a senior campaign, the trump not only did they send in spies wearing a wire to try to monitor only didonents, not the intercept phone calls from a threestar general who was the incoming National Security advisor to the new president. Not only did they fraudulently create evidence altering emails from the cia to the fbi, this is the fbi, committing a felony of creating fake evidence, does the fbi asked the cia was carter page working with you in helping the cia, the cia said yes and the fbi lawyer fraudulently altered that emailer and turned yes into no. If anyone else did that in any court in america, they would be put in jail for a long time for fraud. Know that this was not authorized. I think senator kennedy is right. A lot of people want to blame this on some lowlevel lawyer nine levels down. Heres the problem. We know that this went quite literally all the way to the top. January 5, 2017, after the president ial election. After the whole world is shock that Hillary Clinton didnt win and oh my goodness donald trump is getting ready to be president. 5, at then january end of a president ial term, people are packing up getting ready to leave. What are they doing in this white house . January 5, barack obama, joe biden what are they talking about . Directed at the incoming National Security advisor. What do we know now also . Sally yates the acting attorney general was surprised. What are you talking about Michael Flynn . It turns out james comey the fbi director was briefing president obama. Sally eighth said she learned about it from barack obama. This, the acting attorney general of the United States has no idea that our lawenforcement is surveilling and targeting a threestar general who is the incoming National Security advisor. But the president knows. Comey briefing barack obama directly on the targeting of their political opponent mr. Mark . Askedr from california why are these people on this list . Because every one of them unmasked Michael Flynn. Put in multiple orders, these are senior political players in the white house and Obama Administration. They are on their way out the door. Get mass intercepts that protects the privacy of a u. S. Citizen and they put in multiple requests. Joe biden put in that request also. Why are they trying to unmask Michael Flynn . After thewas the day fbi had concluded there is no basis to investigate Michael Flynn. We are going to close the case. They prepared the report saying we are closing the case because there is no evidence. We interviewed everyone and there is no evidence, no basis to target this guy who is the incoming National Security advisor for the president. January 4 is when the president said to close it. January 5, there is james comey in the oval office saying we are going after it. Were going after Michael Flynn. Later,way, 15 days 500 years, there are of government experience in this room. I encourage all of you to pick up and read the susan wright emails. Number one, it is january 20, 2017. Everyone here knows what that date means. The very last day of the Obama Administration. Guy getting sworn in on the steps of the capitol. We were all sitting there. While we were sitting there, anyone else in the white house, we have been involved in outgoing and ministrations, you are packing up your stuff. Taking down the pictures on the wall. Putting your personal belongings in a box and leaving. Susan rice is typing in a mail to him . Herself. You you know yourself . You emailen do yourself . Which is onememo of the funniest memos you will ever read. , the investigation of Michael Flynn is by the book. Book . Mention it is by the she mentions by the book three times. Any who have ever played poker, there is a tell. Writes we are not doing anything wrong, thats an indication they are scared they are doing something wrong. The only reason she writes that she says these, guys are going to arrive and shes afraid they are going to find out that we turned the fbi into the personal research arm of the dnc. We all thought hillary was going to win. Nobody would know they had abused Law Enforcement to target their personal enemies. If ong is by the book january 4, they say we are closing the investigation because there is no evidence. January 5, the fbi director is in the oval office with the president saying we are going after the guy. Book that lays that out. What is astonishing, not a single democrat here cares. Not one of you is troubled or at least you wont say it publicly. Joe biden is your nominee. Encumber nt to uncover something that shows joe biden was part of corruption. I get it, you revere barack obama. You dont want to reveal that he was involved in the corruption and you cant reveal that joe biden was. Yesterday, we have Rob Rosenstein, the number two guy in the doj was like i didnt know that i didnt know that i didnt know that. I didnt know what i was signing was completely false. None of yall cared. Dont talk about this. This committee should care. We have a lot of talk about if the shoe were on the other foot. Imaginer a second and how you would feel if donald what was doing exactly barack obama and joe biden did. Right now, are you guys copacetic with trump putting wiretaps on the joe biden president ial campaign . If trump has the fbi send in agents wearing wires to the Joe Biden Campaign . Thats all good. Everything ok if you if they fraudulently create evidence, if emails and send them to a court . This is an absolute outrage and abuse of power. To be clear, because im sure someone on twitter will say senator cruz has called on using the fbi to go after joe biden. No. Law enforcement and intelligence should be a political. We should enforce the law regardless of party and this committee should be deeply concerned. Its not about revisiting the Mueller Report. Its about was there a partisan deliberate decision that we are going to use the machinery of government to go after and target our political opponents. There is more and more evidence that looks like it was, and that should concern everyone on this committee because i guarantee abuses, administration another administration is going to abuse and that is dangerous for this country. Senator whitehouse and senator harris, Everyone Wants to talk. We were going to let them speak. We will hold over senator feinsteins motion. I think you have other motions. We will take this up next week so we can go out about our business. This is an important discussion and we will get to conclusion next week and we will take up the legislation senator lee has been pushing about the oversight of the attorney generals office. I promise everybody will get to speak. Senator whitehouse, senator harris, then can we adjourned to next week . I promise you will be right on deck . Senator whitehouse . I am about to speak, so i am good. [laughter] thank you for the way you are handling this discussion. Withnk that is consistent the best traditions of the committee and i appreciate it. I think you know and everyone in the room knows of my affection and admiration for you and i have considerable affection or admiration or both for a considerable number of my colleagues on the republican side of this committee. Are think that there legitimate questions that need to be asked and answered. That we are on the precipice of falling into a political errand. Which way we choose to go in this committee is going to have huge ramifications in the future. Forward, it is impossible for me to consider unique exercise of Committee Oversight without considering the background of no Committee Oversight on many other important questions. Yesterday, 17 doj witnesses under Rob Rosenstein who refused to answer from this committee. That is not an oversight. That is a policy. We as a committee, if we will not defend our own ability to pursue questions for the record, we have emasculated ourselves. We have made ourselves preposterous. That is not a good sign when against that background, now suddenly we have an investigative interest. Multiple letters have been ignored on multiple subjects. I could go separately through a list of letters. We heard her postures privilege assertions that stood on no Legal Foundation and we did not pursue those assertions and did not have a hearing to determine what a legitimate privilege assertion is. Inelieve the fbi took a dive the Kavanaugh Investigation and set up a fake tip line that they never reviewed and never followed their own Agency Procedures on. My questions have been thrown into a been, ignored. I believe the fbi previously investigation into corporate fraud. No questions. The answers. No answers. 35 million spent by one or two donors to influence the makeup of the u. S. Supreme court and we dont have that donor was . That is a preposterous state of affairs yet we have taken no interest. A little bitthing questionable to me. When i seered flag this as the only exercise of Committee Oversight and so long. Thes also hard to overlook congruence of this Committee Oversight with the interests of the president campaign. When you flag onto that that a person from the Biden Campaign is a listed witness again, another red flag begins to fly. It is impossible for me to overlook the bad example of the house Intelligence Committee. It is my belief that if a proper and full investigation were made, we would find that the obstruction of justice that Robert Mueller found to have taken place in his investigation involved house members who colluded with trumps lawyers to participate in that obstruction of justice. , may be right, i may be wrong but it is a predicated believe i would say and we should be looking at it and what it did if i am right is it trained the Trump White House to come to and make usongress their political agents. They have every incentive, indeed they have been rewarded and trained to try to do it with us. Another red flag. It is hard not to notice the start this got off to yesterday and today. There has been a lot of talk about playing for the cameras. I would hazard that a good deal of what has been said in this committee already has been trying to push this into a partisan political narrative rather than to pursue the dispassionate pursuit of truth that would be a reassurance that the asking and answering of legitimate questions is where we are going on this. Again, another red flag. Letter. Senator graham a i would like to ask that the letter be made a record of this market today. What i asked for is that there be enforceable insurance assurances, sincere and enforceable assurances that this investigation will not be directed or controlled by the white house. I think that is reasonable and fair. Also, assurances that this investigation will not be advised, directed, or controlled the Trump Campaign. I think that is reasonable and fair. Assurances that witnesses will not be called or subpoenaed selectively to produce only one side of the story. Regard, to regard minority witnesses to be called. To it that witness interviews and document reviews are fair and bipartisan. That if you are going to get a look at documents, we get a look at documents, that this is done as a committee and not just as the republicans on the committee , even if that is the way the boat reg out. Vote breaks out. That document production be complete and not be orchestrated with the white house or the Trump Campaign to produce a selective package of documents documents. Relevant finally, that it will not be released selectively and will not be orchestrated with the white house or the Trump Campaign. Are very fair, sensible, responsible guardrails that should guide whatever inquiry we pursue. I urge that we consider those as we go forward to make sure that on the precipice between legitimate questions that need to be asked and answered and turning this committee into a political errand runner for the Trump Campaign, we stay on the right side, on the fair bipartisan asking and answering questions side of the precipice. If i may make one final factual point, because it illustrates how narrative building has taken over dispassionate inquiry here. It has been repeatedly mentioned that the Obama Administration was surveilling the National Security advisor and that is why he was recorded. I believed that the fact of the matter are that our Intelligence Community was surveilling the Russian Ambassador, which it is their job to do. And in their surveillance of the Russian Ambassador, guess what . Call from the a president s National Security advisor. Everybody here who has done search warrants knows the difference between the target of a search warrant and a person who calls in to a targeted surveillance. That,are misrepresenting then we are off to a very bad start as to whether we are answer realk and questions, or whether we are trying to run a clinical narrative political narrative and political errand. If you are the Intelligence Committee or the fbi and you pick up a conversation when you are surveilling the Russian Ambassador with the National Security advisor and you know the National Security advisor said something because you have it from your surveillance and the Vice President of the United States says the exact opposite, misleads the american public, because he was lied to by the , ifonal security advisor you dont see that that creates a potential National Security problem a counterintelligence problem, then i think you need to go back to Intelligence School and figure out how counterintelligence and International Pressure systems work. Please, i was so proud when i came onto this committee when i got here. There were titans on the senate on both sides when i got here. Please lets make sure that whatever we do stays on the side of honor and decency and fairness. That we do not replicate the experience of the house Intelligence Committee and allow ourselves to become political errand boys for political campaigns. That is what i asked. Sen. Graham thank you. Sincerely that i joint efforts with your colleagues to make sure mr. Mueller could do his job when it came to President Trump. I thought it was important. I have the same passion to try guy in out, is this some the bowels of the basement of the fbi or something higher . You are right. It was being lawfully monitored by our government. I am concerned about unmasking the incoming National Security advisor the outgoing administration. If i find out that the government is listening to my conversations with the kurds or i am taking on trump or anybody else, i will be upset because we are a separate range of government. This is dangerous stuff when you start making unmasking requests to find out what the Incoming Administration is talking about. Mr. Chairman, a quick point. As i understand it, the conversation with the russian that particular conversation there is not an unmasking request. The reason and unmasking request comes if you have a cia intercept, and Intelligence Community and the intercept that would be what would typically be applied to the Russian Ambassador and a russian citizen is mast, my understanding is there is not an unmasking for that call. Suggest it was not the cia who intercepted rather the fbi who intercepted. I think there is a real possibility that fbi was targeting flan. Thats why we need the subpoenas. Yes that is a distinction that matters. Senator harris . Committee has a responsibility to concern itself with the system of justice in america. Today, a man of the name of george floyd will be honored, his memory will be honored at a funeral. He died because the knee of a Police Officer was on his back for over eight minutes on his neck for over eight minutes ,hile he pled for his life called for his late mother, and said he cant breathe. America is wrong right now. Raw right now. I would dare say the conversation we are having today is irrelevant to what we are what is happening on the streets of america today. At people ing pain. People by the thousands of every race, age, and geographic location shouting for justice in america. Yet this committee. Protest too much as shakespeare might say. On an issue that is not relevant to the people and the pain that america is feeling today. Feelingns that we are are deepened by a president of the United States who has fanned the flames of hurt and pain. Civil rights and matters involving Law Enforcement are this committees responsibility. This committee alone. Instead of engaging in political partisan gains on behalf of this president , what the American People need this committee to do is be relevant to why they are shouting and marching and crying in the streets of our country. They need us to address the real issue of police vitelli. And implicit bias Police Brutality and implicit highest. They need us to address donald trump and bill barrs assault on this countrys Constitutional Rights of Free Expression and peaceful assembly. They need us to address the disbelief that former secretary of defense jim mattis expressed in seeing our nations troops being ordered to violate the Constitutional Rights of their fellow citizens. They need us to talk about the lives that have been taken from us. George floyd, breonna taylor, ahmaud arbery, tamir rice, sandra bland and so many others. This Committee Meeting today sent a message to millions of americans that have taken to the streets to protest this violence. But in this Judiciary Committee doesnt care. Committee has a duty to confront these issues, mr. Chairman, and an obligation to address the pain that people are feeling. The suffering they feel. By shying away from this responsibility, this committee will not only dishonor the body that we serve, it will dishonor the very memory of those we should be naming today. Mr. Chairman, i have an amendment offered by myself and senator booker and it relates to the fact that on monday, peaceful demonstrators were gathered in front of the white house to protest the murder of george floyd. They were violently forced out by federal Law Enforcement. Shortly thereafter, it was reported that attorney general barr ordered the removal and the protection of civil rights and underies falls squarely the jurisdiction of this committee. I am offering an amendment that this committee not issue any subpoenas under authority of this motion until this committee has conducted a thorough investigation and held a hearing to examine the conduct of attorney general barr on june 1, 2020, when he reportedly ordered federal Law Enforcement personnel to remove Peaceful Protesters who were engaged in constitutionally protected activity. Pendingham with a business before the committee, senator feinsteins mission motion, i promise we will take this up thursday and we will vote on your amendment. We will get the subpoena debate behind us. I think it is best to carry it over and we will talk. As for what the committee will be doing on june 16, we will have a hearing about policing and race and a bunch of things about how hard it is to fire a bad cop. Why is it that if you are a young black person and the cops pull up behind you, you get worried and i dont . Tim scott has been stopped six times on capitol hill. I have never been stopped. Onre is a line of thinking fox news, i saw that there are only 10 africanamerican unarmed men who died in Police Custody and that is at the lowest level possible, that is not the issue. The issue is that why if you are an africanamerican male teenager or mail in general, you see the cops behind you and it is a different experience than if the cops are behind me . I dont know. Enough of the conversation. It has to be had, we have to do something about it. There has to be better policing methods than what currently exist. Im willing to spend a lot of money to get the system to engage in better policing. I am willing to make it easier to fire bad cops who shouldnt be wearing the uniform to begin with. Cap me in for solutions. We are going to have a conversation, it will start june 16. This committee has the potential to reinforce things in society that will lead to better policing and hopefully, one day if you are a young black man and the cops pull up behind you, you will be wondering if you were going to fast rather than you are going to get beat up. Thats the goal. We will see you next week. Thank you. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [no audio] government federal at work in d. C. And throughout the country, use the directed directory for contact information. Order your copy online today at cspan store. Org. Up next, laura olson, a political reporter in allentown, pennsylvania talks about the fate of the 2020 president ial race in the keystone state were President Trump won by less than 1 . She explains how the Political Climate has changed, and what issues are driving voter decisions at the polls, including the economy and the response to the coronavirus pandemic