Good morning, and thank you for being here. Im the United States attorney for the Northern District of illinois. I would like to start this morning by taking a moment to introduce you to my Law Enforcement colleagues, some of them you will hear from in a few moments. We are honored to have attorney general william barr here with us today. From the atf we have acting director Regina Lombardo and a special agent in charge in chicago is here as well. Dave. E Deputy Director we also have the special agent in charge of the fbi here in chicago present as well. From the dea, special agent in charge is present. We have chief deputy u. S. Arshal and the chief inspector also up here are two other United States attorneys. We have my counterpart from the Northern District of illinois. And my office, we Work Together frequently combating illegal trafficking of firearms across our common border between indiana and illinois. And my colleague justin, who is the u. S. Attorney in cleveland, the Northern District of ohio, he is here and his quarterbacking the nationwide efforts on operation legend. Anare here today to discuss incredible an important topic. Violent crime in chicago. As attorney general barr has made clear, the most basic responsibility of government is to protect the safety of our citizens. For those of us in Law Enforcement, our top priority is to keep people safe. Chicago of this year and many other cities have anerienced significant acceptable, and in many instances, staggering spikes in homicides, shootings and other Violent Crimes. In response, the attorney general launched operation legend. A systematic and coordinated Law Enforcement initiative in which Law Enforcement agencies work with state and local Law Enforcement departments to fight these crimes. Are fortunate to have one of the finest Police Departments in the country, the Chicago Police department. The brave men and women in uniform have worked tirelessly to protect the citizens of chicago. The goal of operation legend is to reinforce and accelerate their efforts to reduce Violent Crimes. The attorney general has endeavored to do so by sending additional federal resources to chicago, including a substantial number of agents from the atf, fbi, dea and the United States marshals service. The department of Homeland Securitys Homeland Security investigation also have additional agents. That time, about seven weeks ago when operation legend began in chicago on july 22, my office and our federal and local partners have worked together to investigate and prosecute the individuals who are driving the violence in chicago. The trigger pullers, drug traffickers, carjackers and critically, those individuals who illegally possess, use and traffic firearms. Fortunately, the significant investment of resources under operation legend have had an Immediate Impact on reducing homicides in shootings in chicago. The attorney general will speak about that in a few moments. The success of operation legend to date, much work remains to be done. In chicagoviolence remains far too high and it can be demoralizing. Many children have been senselessly killed and injured. While there are many things i need to be done to help chicagos Violent Crime problem, one thing that all rational people can agree upon is our violent offenders need to be held accountable for their crimes. Enforcing the rule of law and holding these offenders accountable are essential components of every reasonable strategy to ensure Public Safety in chicago and it is the backbone of operation legend. With fact, it is my honor to introduce attorney general william barr. The tattooed historian think a. G. Barr thank you, john. Thank you everybody. I am pleased to be in chicago to address the most significant threat facing the city. The explosion of Violent Crime, particularly homicide in chicago earlier this year. It threatened not only the safety, but the citys way of life. The federal government responded with operation legend. Significantost federal Law Enforcement operations in recent years. We have dedicated hundreds of federal governments investigators, analysts, fugitive trackers and other experts to work with our state and local colleagues in Law Enforcement here in chicago to help get violent criminals off the streets. I am pleased to report that operation legend is working. Crime is down and order is being restored to this Great American city. Operation legend is a vivid illustration of what dedicated Law Enforcement officers at all levels of government can do to keep people safe. Unfortunately, too many people into many cities insist on denigrating, demonizing, d funding police. Just yesterday the police chief in rochester, new york decided to retire rather than to stand while the character of his police force was attacked. Seattles police chief made a similar decision last month after the city council decided to cut the budget of her department. Other cities including new york, baltimore, los angeles and San Francisco have recklessly slashed Police Funding at a time when their residents need protection more than ever. This is a misguided and shortsighted policy and i fear the cost will be devastating. There is no harder job in think nooday, and i more noble job in serving as a police officer. On behalf of the department of justice i want to think all of those in chicago and beyond who protect and serve. The increase in violence that has plagued chicago and other thees is what prompted department to launch operation legend two months ago in kansas city, missouri. The operation is named for legend tyler pharaoh, a fouryearold Kansas City Oil shying killed while asleep in his bed. The purpose of the operation is to make clear that his life mattered. His name should be remembered. And other innocent victims like cam, including the eightyearold girl killed in chicago should not suffered such sentiments death. After starting in kansas city, operation legend expanded to chicago two weeks later, and is now active in nine major cities. As part of the operation, the federal government has dispatched over 1000 of our most skilled agents to help state and local Law Enforcement fight Violent Crime. Over the past two months, federal agents involved in operation legend have made more. Han 2500 arrests many for Violent Crimes, including homicide and Sexual Assault. One of these arrests came on august 13 when kansas city , with the support of the fbi and u. S. Marshals arrested the suspected murderer of legend tyler pharaoh, the fouryearold boy who inspired the operations name. Addition to those arrested the 2500 arrests, prosecutors have brought federal criminal charges against 600 defendants through operation legend. Ringing federal charges is significant because defendants arrested for violent Violent Crimes are often detained before trial, unlike state defendants who are too often released. In addition, federal defendants serious will face sentences if convicted, with a real possibility of longterm imprisonment at the bureau of prisons facility. Knowing that, many of the arrestees cooperate with the even more and lead to violent offenders, such as leaders of gangs or drug organizations. In short, the basic premise of operation legend is that by taking chronic violent criminals off the street, we will force crime rates down. And strategy is working. Few examples. In kansas city, Violent Crime has dropped by 32 since we lost since we launched operation legend. Ath homicides down 18 aggravated down a remarkable 47 . In st. Louis, homicides have dropped by 47 in the four weeks since operation legend began. In more than 120 defendants have already been charged federally. In detroit, homicides have andped more than 25 nonfatal shootings have dropped by more than 35 . Thats in the seven weeks of operation legend in that city. In memphis, homicides in august dropped by nearly 27 and u. S. Forhals arrested 47 persons homicide. In milwaukee, nonfatal shootings have dropped by 25 in the five weeks since the operation began. Success isegends perhaps most dramatic here in chicago. Operation was announced on july 22, homicides in the city were up 51 over 2000 over 2019. Over the previous weekend, more than 60 people had been shot in a dozenwith over fatalities. Other Violent Crime, including looting and rioting was increasing also. And the signs pointed towards the problem getting even worse with the campaign to demonize and defund the police gaining believingnd criminals they can operate with impunity. What we committed to chicago was operation legend were 400 federal agents, over 9 million of grant money to the police under our cops program, which allowed the police to bring in and 3. 5positions million and Technical Assistance to support the expanded anticrime operations. Federal, state and local Law Enforcement in chicago , working as part of operation forcesin our joint task have reversed the dangerous spike in violence. Federal agents and deputy u. S. Marshals along with state and local Task Force Officers have made more than 500 arrests. For Violent Crimes like homicide, Sexual Assault and robbery. And federal prosecutors have ,harged 124 defendants including 90 with firearms related charges and 30 with Drug Trafficking related charges. Defendants are now detained, pending trial rather than causing harm on the streets. The results of those actions speak for themselves. Over the first five weeks of operation legend in chicago, murders dropped by 50 over the previous five weeks. August ultimately saw a 45 decrease in murders compared to july, and the 35 decrease compared to june. In fact, chicago in august are the lowest number of murders at any time since april. The bottom line is that operation legend has played a Critical Role in cutting chicagos murder rate roughly in half since before the operation. This progress has come at a price. Tragically, an officer in cleveland participated in operation legend was killed in the line of duty on his first day with operation legend. He was an experienced detective who volunteered for the program. Gangs,investigating particularly those involved in Drug Trafficking. His sacrifice is a reminder that it takes a special kind of courage to sign up as a police officer. Loss, and wern his will carry on his legacy by continuing the good work in operation legend. Not only in cleveland, but here in chicago and beyond. I think the state and local Law Enforcement partners here in the chicago area who have helped make this operation successful, and i look forward to continuing to Work Together in the days ahead. Thank you. Good morning. The commitment to justice and upholding law and protecting and representing all is a part of our nation. This year we have faced challenges. In adversity we must not succumb to fear. And manyy in chicago, other cities, one of those challenges has been the intolerable spike of Violent Crime, particularly firearm violence. , faithful tonded its core mission. Protecting our communities from Violent Crimes. Stand here today on behalf of the brave men and women of atf, along with my colleagues, the department of justice led by attorney general barr, u. S. Attorney general tom welsh, tom perched, and my colleague from. He fbi we stand here today to reiterate our unequivocal commitment to honor the lives of legend and all of the victims and families have died from firearm violence, bringing to justice the trigger pull her to terrorize our neighborhoods. Mike in chicago, and the traffickers who fuel the violence by illegally supplying them with guns. There is no Higher Mission for atf and our Law Enforcement partners than to protect the public from violent criminals. That is the purpose of operation legend. We are in chicago, we are in other cities working with the communities to identify, investigate and prosecute those andinflict plane does pain destruction by engaging in firearm violence. Promise towith the uphold the rule of. With the fairness that reinforces the dignity of all community members, most particularly the victims and their families. Every day across the country atf special agents and industry operations investigators pursue criminals who illegally use and firearms thatnd traffic in organizations that illegally supplied those guns to people who still those guns federally from licensed dealers. We are committed to removing the most violent firearm offenders from our community. And it is most critical to dismantle those firearm trafficking networks. They gangs and organizations that fuel the violence and interdict those firearms before they are used in crimes. One of the ways we ensure we stay focus on the most violent shooters, the actual is by using forensic science. Particularly atfs National Integrated ballistic information network. It allows us to use shell shootingrom recovered scenes to specific firearms and to other shooting incidents. We know this from decades of experience that a relatively small number of offenders in our communities are responsible for multiple shootings. Leavesrating prompt allows our investigators to apprehend the shooters before they reoffend. Use wethe tools that we have deployed here in chicago. Its our mobile command center. The mobile command center is configured to process ballistic evidence within hours of a shooting to support the Chicago Police laboratory facility. It contains acquisition imaging units. A test fire room to obtain ballistic samples and is equipped to facilitate the processing of fingerprints, dna from recovered shell casings and firearms. Since its deployment in chicago the mobile command center has process at least 288 shell casings, generating over 50 leads. These are investigative leads to solve gun crimes. One of the ways to eliminate and be effective is here in chicago and is by providing our National Correlation center access. We bring that to the Chicago Police department. Withinwithout exception 48 hours the Chicago Police department can enter shell casings into the program, it completes the correlation analysis that can link multiple shooting incidents or link recovered shell casings to a specific firearm. A 48orrelation center has hour turnaround time that is essential to providing timely leads so that investigators can identify and apprehend the shooters who are driving the grim statistics chicago is combating. As your attorney general emphasized, our combined efforts of working, operation legend investigators are working around the clock. Of 500 seized one firearms in five cities, including more than 200 and chicago alone. We are on the streets making cases, watching our partners backs, holding the line and Holding Accountable those that terrorize our communities. You dont have to be in Law Enforcement to know that this is dangerous work. Our entire atf workforce has entered answered the call to protect and serve. This is atfs mission. We are committed to protect the United States and uphold our constitution. We serve you, we serve the communities, and we serve your neighborhoods. We are here to ensure that you are safe. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning. As attorney general barr noted, our nation has made great progress against Violent Crime, but it still plagues way too many of our communities. Those of us in Law Enforcement cannot rest on any american lives in fear in their own home, but certainly in their own neighborhood. The Violent Crime threat we face today is very diverse, very dangerous, and it much to all encompasses for anyone agency to be at state, local or federal to tackle alone, which is why the attorney has launched operation legend. While every agency here today that is represented has a different role and responsibility for fighting Violent Crime, its a responsibility and a duty that we all share. And one fight, thats why operation legend was established. To assist in tackling the rise in Violent Crimes in many cities throughout the u. S. By combining the resources of all these players, we believe we can have a Lasting Impact and make our communities safer. Operation legend reflects that team approach. The men and women of the fbi are committed, just as our partners are committed to meeting this challenge. Gangs Violent Crimes and task forces, the fbi and our partners bring to the table what we do best. Prior to an even more so throughout this operation, we continue working closely with our federal, state and local partners. To combine our expertise, knowledge and resources to identify, investigate and prosecute those responsible for the Violent Crimes occurring in our cities. The fbis focus is on targeting the overall Leadership Structure of our gangs and criminal enterprises that drive the scourge of Violent Crimes and many of our communities. What we bring to the table is the ability to target some of the most violent offenders in the short term while pursuing a longterm strategy to dismantle criminal enterprises and gangs. The bureau has dedicated significant resources and leveraged our partnerships in cities chosen for operation legend. Resourcesadditional to help further reduce Violent Crimes in operation legend. For example, right here in chicago we brought and 68 fbi agents in addition to what was assigned. Surged analytical resources and data expectation personnel to help in those investigations. Many of these folks have left their own communities to come and work sidebyside with the fbi agents, the atf agents, the Chicago Police department and other agencies that are here. They left their own families and their own homes because they want to be here to help chicago in any way. We have done this to take the worst offenders off the streets, and with the hope that we can cripple some of these organizations out there. ,his effort includes agents intelligence analysts, Digital Experts and personnel from field offices across the country all working together to reduce Violent Crime. To findpeople safe and and stop dangerous criminals through Law Enforcement actions, digital forensics, tips, hotlines, digital billboards, social media, press releases and the like. It is a True Team Effort that cannot be accomplished through the Law Enforcement partnerships alone. It also needs the hard work of the community. But i will tell you this. There are a lot of hardworking assistant United States attorneys throughout this country that are sidebyside with these investigators trying to help curtail the violence in many of these communities. We are already seeing real results. Many of those have been discussed already. I wont go through those. We have had hundreds of cases, arrests and seizures, which have been made across the country in the legend already. Last week alone, and between august 31 and september 7, the fbi alone opened 50 cases. We made 18 arrests and recovered 46 weapons in one week. Investigating Violent Crime is a 24 7, 365 day a year job that we do not take lightly. I am confident that with our partners working close together we will continue to make progress against the filing makes and progress that we for the American People that they expect and the progress they deserve. I want to talk now to those responsible for the violence. If you are responsible for the violence anywhere nothing else that is said, here it is. We will bring down the full weight of the federal government. In our case, the fbi to address the violent acts. If you are convicted in federal court, its very unlikely you will walk in the front door and out the back. Court, ae convicted in 5 minimum time served. To the citizens of chicago, the attorney general has used the word will. If we except this as status quo, that is not going to make any progress. If we have the will to pursue an endeavor throughout the challenges, i believe we cannot cop was a lot. That will is being led by the attorney general and all the agencies here. But it also needs the will of the community. We are asking the citizens of chicago to trust us, pick up the phone and provide the information we need to help solve crimes of violence, which are plaguing your communities and our communities. Trying towe are instill confidence in that system. I am asking you to trust us. A tip leave you with line. If you have information about significant Violent Crime, i would ask you to call 1800 call fbi. Or, send us an e tip online at tips. Fbi. Gov. Thank you. A. G. Barr we will take some questions now. Commentder if you could on this. On september the first president we have already had 1000 arrests in chicago. Total disaster with the radical left democrats in charge. There is a difference in the number of arrests from what you announced. I think he said 124 versus 1000. A. G. Barr u. S. Marshals make arrests based on state warrants and then turn those individuals over to the state for state charges. The number i gave you were those who were charged federally. Do share the president s view that the problems of violence in chicago are related to the leadership of the city . Singledident has also the governor of illinois at. A. G. Barr i will not comment on the specifics or the leadership, but i have observed the most important ingredients to maintaining safety and dealing with Violent Crime is a Strong Police force, ada that is oriented towards taking violent , theders off the street backing of the Law Enforcement community by the political leaders, both the mayor and the governor. When those are in place, then i dont think i dont think we will see the increases in crime we have seen recently. Crimek the increases in may have a number of factors involved. Part of it is in bold inning of the credit criminal elements, the chronic offenders and which are all of the police in the wake of the attacks on the police. Its very important to support the Police Department and the chief of police in the cities. Do you believe the mayor and the governor have not been doing a. G. Barr i will not comment on that. And i can askyor, the u. S. Attorney, but my understanding is that the mayor. Nd the president talk the president discussed legend and our desire to come in and help with operation legend. She said she would accept the help. She approved us coming in and providing this assistance. I know the u. S. Attorney had discussions with her about it. This is all about working in partnership with the state and local and that partnership is working well right now. In talking about taking offenders off the street [indiscernible] a. G. Barr unfortunately, in our country, the system of state justice is going back to a revolving door system we had earlier. 1992 is the peak of Violent Crime in the United States. It had just shot up three times to 1992. Process was stopping the revolving door and having pretrial detention of people who still posed a threat to the community. A lot of states are now pulling back from that. Maybe john tot give me some specific examples, but nowadays a lot of these hoodlums on the street feel they have impunity to carry their guns on the street. They dont hide them anymore. They pick them up when they think they need them and they carry them as a matter of course because they think they can do it with impunity and they will be in the front door and out the back door under the state system. I think one of the reasons why federal support at this stage is so important. Its because we have stronger laws in this regard. There is a lot said about Community Policing, that is one of the buzzwords, we just need more Community Policing. What people have to understand an essential is prerequisite for Community Policing program. That is pretrial detention. Because people in the community and i think any police chief has been involved in Law Enforcement, i saw this back in 1992, will tell you people in the community will not come forward and engage with the someonef they feel that they have given information about will be back on the street. They need to know that when police take someone away they will not be there the next day to retaliate. In new york, for example, which had one of the best Community Policing programs in the country, its just an amazing its essentially falling apart because of the changes made in state law on bail reform. People are out on the street, was instantaneously and their lawyers get access to the information provided to the police that served as the basis for the arrest. That Community Policing program is drying up, its broken. All for Community Policing, but people have to recognize you have to keep the violent offenders off the street, otherwise he will not get the cooperation of the community. [indiscernible] is it a little premature to say that this is for sure working . [indiscernible] thatbarr i am confident what we are doing is improving the situation. It has gone down. Its half of what it was the preceding months. As the lowest murder rate since april. We are starting from a very high and it will take some time to, what would you say . I would agree with that. Very clearly operation legend helped. Werelps stop what we seeing, increases in homicide month after month. May, june, july it was getting out of control and a dropped in august. A. G. Barr dropped by half in one month. I do think its a correlation we are seeing across all of our cities right now. Are going cities down. The homicide rates in the Violent Crime rates. Now we will continue to watch what happens and adjust our activity based on that. You had a question . [indiscernible] heor lightfoot responded if wanted to help you with nmr federal resources. And former attorney generals said they sessions were welcomed warmly at the time. What took your office along . A. G. Barr so long to do what . I described with the genesis of. Egend was the four covid we started seeing violence at ticking in a number of cities. Knowing your the level he got to most recently. We tried to launch a program called relentless pursuit. At thee covid it almost thing time we were mobilizing the agents to go into the city. So that program is effectively aborted. Thehe meantime, with incident with george floyd and the attacks on the police and the demonization of the police and discussions of defunding, we saw sharp increases in a number of cities, including chicago. At that point we essentially rebooted the idea of targeting various cities and targeting the increases in Violent Crime and tailored it to the phenomenon we were seeing in the wake of the d fund the police effort. Chicago did not meet all of the criteria we had been looking for in cities. Given the visibility of chicago and the very high levels of homicide, we decided we would include chicago. Im glad we did because it seems to be bearing fruit. I think a lot of the public , as we launched this program was, cities did not want federal help. Now you are telling me we are welcomed with open arms. That is news to me. Did said, mayor lightfoot agree, and seemed happy that we were coming in. President trump has suggested he had a quick fix by sending people in overnight. [indiscernible] distinctionhis is a that the media does not frequently make. Mind ofy mind and a most people in Law Enforcement, there is a distinction between addressing Violent Crime, which is what legend is about, and addressing civil unrest. And we have some of the violence we have seen in conjunction with supposed protests. And i think he is talking about youlatter, which is that can deal with the occupation of areas in the city and the cg at least i can about eliminating Violent Crime. Dispatch meaning quickly. It depends on the circumstances. There are some places where state resources are completely adequate. Even state civilian Law Enforcement resources can be completely adequate. It depends on the circumstances, size of the demonstration and size of the states assets. Use civilianan federal assets as we have in some places. [indiscernible] would say we already have a large number of Law Enforcement working in chicago. At a minimum there were 100 new fbi, atf and dea agents that came in. Several dozen repurposed Homeland Security agents as well. The same with the United States marshal service. Its hundreds of new people that came in to work directly with the people already here beforehand. I think there were 200 new bodies of the 400. The other 200 were repurposed from the other work they were doing and shifted to Violent Crime. My question is a little bit offtopic. [indiscernible] this has to do with something called the westfall act. That is an act that provides state court cases are brought against Government Employees in the executive branch and in the legislative branch, and the torque was allegedly committed in the course of federal employment, the case can be certified for shifting to the federal courts in the United States could be substituted as the responsible party. This has become somewhat routine to the extent that the certification process has been delegated to an attorney in the tort such an of the civil. Ection of the Civil Department it involves the employing agency. In the case the president as been in the white house sending in a memorandum requesting certification. That process was followed in this particular case. Thatase was Crystal Clear the act applies to claims against the president , the Vice President and other federal employees and members of congress. That is case law in d. C. Has been invoked by previous president s, including most , vicely, bush 43 president cheney, president obama, and now president trump. Clear and there is a d. C. Circuit judge called the ballenger on the topic that says that because we are a representative democracy, officials who are elected an answer press questions while they are in office, even if those questions relate to their personal activity and could bear , is their personal fitness in fact in the course of federal certified and can be. Nder the act the case in that situation was a congressman was answering questions about why he had separated from his wife and he was sued for defamation because of something he said in that answer. So the court said that elected ,fficials in our democracy however representative democracy, when they are answering questions in office, even about personal affairs, any defamation claim is subject to less law. This was a normal application of the law. The law is clear. It is done frequently. The little tempest that is going on is largely because the bizarre political environment in. Hich we live i will leave it at that. As they always are under westlaw, thats the statute. Thats the statute. The guns that have been ,ollected by operation legend any idea as to how many were [ indiscernible]. Atf barr i will ask the deputy to see if she has more information. I was looking at some of the cases and the number of the cases relate to straw purchasers who were going out and gathering guns for gangs. So i know that that is one of the areas that atf has been targeting. I can comment a little bit on that. Theook at the patterns of tracking factors. When we recover crime guns in chicago we trace that weapon. What we find is that many of the weapons are either purchased lawfully, but also go into unlawful commerce by trafficking organizations. Weaponsthe pipelines of being recovered in chicago come from other states. Some come from the milwaukee area. Every state has a different source, but particularly for chicago we see a lot of the trafficking patterns. We have what we call a trafficking group. We focus primarily on those in particular sourced states. When the firearms are recovered we trace them to the last known purchaser. These firearm traces give us what we call from cradle to grave. Where the firearm was purchased and where it ended up. We try to fill in the blanks. E do see straw purchasing this is a part of project garnering project guardian aspect which we were looking at just looking at going after those traffickers to cut the pipeline. That is what we are predominantly seen. That allows us to put resources in our source states. If we cut the pipeline of weapons we would have a little bit less of the use of those weapons. That is what we are seeing primarily as trafficking groups are looking at that. Are you actually tracking guns that are used in specific crimes . Re surprise at how active these guns have been . Surprised at how active these guns have been . A. G. Barr this technology that the atf deploys and brings extra resources with these mobile units are amazing. Shelle they can take a and link a gun that was used in one crime to other crimes. Chiefs will police tell you that, in their city, they could tell you they can make a list of the people responsible for most of the , thatng in their mind they think is the suspect. Its usually a relatively manageable group or modest group that is responsible for disproportionate numbers of shooting. It does not surprise me that you can find a gun and tie it to a lot of different shootings. I have seen this done and its really remarkable. And the technology is a game changer. In the old days to take the chronic violent offenders off the street you have to cast a broader net. Now you have to figure out whos doing the shooting. We call that fishing with a spear as opposed to a net. Many times the shell casings look similar to this and are recovered on the streets. We put the showcasing through the system and it makes a correlation. Its like a thumb or fingerprint that you would do as a comparison. Our shell casings are compared to different shootings seen as well as the actual firearms that this one showcasing, which is unique, to each firearm. In ahas allowed us to put mobile unit in chicago. Its been helping chicago laboratories. We can do that and a 48 hour turnaround time. Those leads that were coming out were generated, investigators get that lead. Thats a lead to a potential assault. We give it to our chicago crime gun strikeforce. Thats where we go to work. The technology is great. We have the tools to do some of the things we do, but that is where our special agents are working together. Us to make those connections. Mr. Attorney general. Earlier. Ked one i will let both of you ask your questions. [indiscernible] this is not something unusual. Was the worst july since 1957. We have seen other big shifts shared big shifts. [indiscernible] what i want to know is how many of those can you credit that is an absurd question. I did not attribute it entirely. What i said is i believe it was an important part of that drop. If you want to maintain taking fugitives off the street who are armed and have already committed homicide, known gang members, and persons correlated to guns that have committed murders in the past, the numbers and rates we are doing that, not only the federal charges but the fact the state people we have delivered over to the state, if you do not think that has an impact on Violent Crime, that is a much harder proposition to maintain. I have covered dozens of press conferences in this building with several authorities standing sidebyside. Chicago police are not here tonight. Why are they not included . They were certainly invited and could have attended. One of the odd things about our program in the city, some of the politics involved, i am sure that was an element. I think you will have to ask the mayor shed the mayor. They were invited and they did not come . Yes. Am i right about that . That is correct. I am later spending time with on af and going drive around with him. But i know that the city has put out information about the drop in crime and is crediting a , absent amongors those factors is the federal contribution. Just the way things roll in chicago. Indicateould seem to [indiscernible] on thoseot focused aspects of it. Im focused on Law Enforcement working together, the professional Law Enforcement approach and getting the job done and politicians can do what they want to do. Ok. To be very clear, there is no disconnect between federal Law Enforcement and the Chicago Police department. We Work Together all the time. They are very supportive of all our efforts and we are thrilled to help them fight violent time. Law enforcement to Law Enforcement level, things are going very well. I can assure you that. Thank you. Thanks very much. You are watching cspan, youre until or unfiltered view of government. 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