Transcripts For CSPAN FBI Director Christopher Wray Testifies On National Security Threats 20240712

Chairman johnson good morning. This hearing will come to order. I want to first welcome and thank our witnesses, the honorable christopher wray, the director of the federal bureau of investigation, bell honorable christopher miller, director of the National Counterterrorism center, and honorable kenneth cuccinelli, senior official performing the duties of deputy secretary. This is an annual threat hearing. When i look at all the threats that this committee has considered and all the threats facing this nation, i think it is pretty interesting how many hearings we have held on so many of these things. Before i proceed, i guess i would ask for consent to have my written Opening Statement to be entered into the record. When you consider these threats, for example, i will just go down the list cyberattacks, ransomware, intellectual property theft, something we are concerned right now as we try to develop vaccines. But the hundreds of billions of dollars of Economic Loss due to intellectual property theft. You know, potential cyberattacks and threats against our Critical Infrastructure. Drug trafficking and the overdose crisis. Gangs like ms13. Emp and gmd threats to our electrical grid. Drones human trafficking, Election Security, and school and other Mass Shootings these are threats that this committee has not only held hearings on, that passed some pretty significant pieces of legislation. One hearing we had talking about school shootings, we had the parents of lou collier and matt shafter come in from parkland, florida, to describe hopefully what could be some Common Sense Solutions to help prevent or minimize the destruction from some of these Mass Shootings. So as we consider all these things, and we will be considering these today in our hearing, i do want to raise the troubling aspect of what is happening currently in the streets of america. As serious as all these threats are just mentioned are, i have a growing fear that what is happening on the streets of america actually represents a greater threat for longterm democracy. As senator peters pointed out yesterday and should point out again today, the Mass Shootings of the last couple of years, instead of being perpetrated by islamist terror, there are is a greater percentage, a majority now perpetrated by White Supremacists. But as acting secretary wolf said in our meeting yesterday, what is happening in terms of Mass Shootings over the last couple of years is completely different versus what has happened in the last four months. I just want to cite a study published by u. S. Crisis project, it was a joint effort by the Armed Conflict location and event data project and princeton university. What this group did is they actually took a look at what was happening in the streets, they analyzed and provided data on the last three months of demonstrations. What they found is there have been more than 10,600 total. They also went back in july of 2019 and said that on average, at least for july, there were 1400 demonstrations in 2019. So, take a look at that and you can extrapolate and say, a normal level of demonstrations every three months would be 4200. This year, weve had 10,600, or an excess number of about 6400. They also analyzed who is protesting, who are the 7750monstrators, and about of those protests have been linked to black lives matter in all 50 states and the d. C. They found that of the 10,006 600, 95 or peaceful. In other words, 5 turned into some kind of riot. The peaceful once or peaceful in about 2440 locations. The 5 that turned violent ended up being a riot, where there was property destruction or loss of life, occurred in about 220 locations. Pretty minimal, 5 turned violent. But that represents almost 570 riots that occurred in this nation over the last three months of the study. Almost 570. And we have seen loss of life, we have seen destruction of property. In my state of wisconsin, in kenosha, the protests turned into property destruction. Dozens of businesses burned down. Downtown all boarded up. In the final night of those riots, two people tragically lost their lives as well. We had just seen in global last night where two Police Officers louisville last night where two Police Officers were shot. We pray for their recovery. Why did those protests turn into riots . They were protesting because they didnt agree with our system of justice, where a grand jury took a look at all the evidence and brought forward and indictment that it just wasnt the indictment they wanted. Rather than accepting our judicial system that has served us well far as long as we have been a nation, these individuals ned to writing, and rioting and destruction. To ask the Senate Recording Studio to show a little video of a supposedly peaceful protest following President Trumps acceptance speech at the white house. [video clip] [shouting] move the [beep] back move back [screaming] [shouting] chairman johnson fortunately, senator paul and his wife kelly and their guests were not harmed, but they were scared unbelievably. They had every right to be frightened by how they were a costed and how they were threatened. That is not a peaceful protest. The fact of the matter is when you look at the statistics from the center, the study found there were no riots in seattles organized protest zone, or c hop or chaz. I is not sure of these statistics, but again, 500 70 peaceful protest turned into property destruction and loss of life. By the way, i can see the point, the majority of the Mass Shootings come from White Supremacists. By the way, i denounce white notemacists, i am defending them in any way shape or form. But of those 570 demonstrations that turned into riots, property destruction and loss of life, those are not being perpetrated by White Supremacists, those are being perpetrated by people of a leftist ideology. They are perpetrating the rioting and the anarchy that we simply cannot allow to continue in this country. The other thing i want to point out before i turn it over to Ranking Member peters, is even a peaceful protest that continues to linger day after day after day, as quite honestly happened in kenosha, where the downtown was boarded up, even if it doesnt result in direct property loss or loss of life, the fact of the matter is those types of protests can turn into sieges that deny other americans of their constitutional right to operate a business or be employed in the business or quite honestly allow themselves to provide for themselves and their families. So this is a serious issue. Off. Nt just slap it so many members of the Mainstream Media continue to just slap it off and say oh, these are largely peaceful protests. I will point out the number again, almost 570 turned into riots and destruction of life and loss of life. I dont like it. Gives me theone, greatest cause of concern right now. I hope we can have a greater discussion of all the threat. I want to highlight how serious the current threats of what is happening in our streets today, what happened in louisville last night, what a serious threat that poses and what ideology, what side of the political spectrum are those protests springing from. Senator peters. Peters thank you, mr. Chairman and thank you to each of our witnesses for being here today. Our committee has no shortage of serious and consequential issues to tackle, our and will threats hearing is one of the most important opportunities that we have to discuss how we can better safeguard our nation. We continue to face a number of security threats both old and new, and over the past year since we last held the hearing, unfortunately that list has only continued to grow. Not only do we continue to face threats from foreign and domestic terrorism, cyberattacks and efforts by Foreign Governments to sow chaos country, we are also dealing with a once in a lifetime pandemic that has tragically taken the lives of americans. 0 this Public Health disaster has also further exposed significant Security Risk embedded in the tools that we use every single day to connect us with the world. As we have moved more of our daily lives online because of coronavirus, bad actors have exploited our technological weaknesses to attack the platforms we use for Remote School and work. Adversaries are working to infiltrate private companies and Government Agencies who are part of the critical race to find a vaccine. Both foreign and domestic actors have also seized on misinformation and disinformation, chipping away at the fabric of our democracy, and sowing discord and mistrust in the institutions we rely on to keep us safe. The scourge of white supremacist violence is a longstanding issue, but is now again one of the largest terrorist threats to American Safety and security. Im alarmed that this administration continues to downplay this threat and the root causes driving these violent ideologies. We cannot be shortsighted when it comes to protecting our National Security. As threats continue to develop and to evolve our national , our National Security agencies must be willing to adapt. We count on dhs, the National Counterterrorism center, and the fbi to Work Together and provide a unified effort to defend the homeland. As we discussed at yesterdays hearing, i am concerned that dhs has suffered because of the lack of qualified, consistent and stable leaders at the agencys helm. And while i am disappointed that the department does not believe the acting secretary can testify alongside his counterparts from the fbi and the National Counterterrorism center on these important issues during this confirmation process, i looking forward to testimony of all three officials here today. Many americans will never know the names of the thousands of personnel that work tirelessly behind the scenes at each of your agencies to keep our country safe. But were all counting on you and your teams to address the no threats to our safety, and anticipate the emerging as well as the unknown dangers our communities will face in the weeks, the months years and even , decades ahead. I am grateful for each of you for joining us here today. I look forward to hearing from you about the threats that america currently faces, what your departments are doing to address each of these threats, and how this committee and your agencies can continue working together to protect our National Security. Thank you. Thank you, senator peters. I think our witnesses or fear that repeatedly, because on a bipartisan basis, we appreciate your service to this nation, and the sacrifice the men and women that work in each of your departments and agencies. It is the tradition of this committee to swear in witnesses. If you will all stand and raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear that the testimony will give before this committee will be the truth about the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god . Seated. U, please be our first witness is the honorable christopher wray, director wray is the director of the federal bureau of investigation. On august 2, 2017, he was sworn in as the eighth fbi director. He previously served as assistant attorney general at the department of justice in the criminal division. Director wray. Dir. Wray good morning, chairman johnson, Ranking Member peters and members of the committee. I am honored to be here today on behalf of the men and women of the fbi to discuss our nations top threats from the fbis perspective and what were doing threats. E those i know we all share the same concerns about topics ranging from international and domestic torism, to cybersecurity, the violence in our streets and particularly this year, to the threat of foreign influence in our elections to name a few. I look forward to updating you on these and other important topics. But i would like to begin recovering a few items that have been top of mind for us at the fbi over the past few weeks. First, terrorism remains the fbis top party, though the nature of the threat has evolved significantly since 9 11. We are vigilant in our efforts to prevent attacks from groups like al qaeda and isis. Those groups pose a threat not just americans overseas but also here at home, most notably by those we call homegrown violent extremists, often alone actors inspired by foreign terrorists, self radicalized typically online, and motivated to attack soft targets with readily available weapons. But we are also working around the clock to prevent attacks by domestic terrorists who are inspired by one or more extremist ideologies to commit violent acts. In recent years, we have been laserfocused on threats posed by racially or ethnically , andted terrorists they mobilize quickly to carry out their violent plans. People, like Richard Holzer who our denver Terrorism Task force charges on hate crime last year when he was planning to blow up a synagogue in colorado. As with any terrorism case, we are focused on disruption, making arrests before the criminal can act. Just this year alone, through the hard work and dedication of countless men and women both of the sbi and across our partner agencies, we have successfully forwarded terrorist attacks fothawarted terrorist attacks in oklahoma city, boston, phoenix and other locations. In recent months, we have witnessed protests, and many members of congress have raised a variety of questions about those protests. And although the majority of protesters have been peaceful, we have opened investigations on individuals involved in criminal activity at these protests, some of whom adhere to a violent, extremist agendas designed to sow discord and upheaval. Let me be clear, we do not investigate groups or individuals based on ideology or exercising their First Amendment protected activity alone, but when their ideology leads someone to commit criminal acts and pursue violence, the fbi will not hesitate to take action. Ate that is why we have been working with our federal, state and local partners to ensure the safety of our citizens, including, i should add, the safety of all those trying to exercise their First Amendment rights peacefully. We in Law Enforcement must keep our communities safe and secure while safeguarding our citizen Constitutional Rights and liberties. And as i said before, one need not and must not come at the expense of the other. We also remain focused on other threats. In less than two months, americans are concerned one of their most cherished rights americans will exercise one of their most cherished rights to vote in a free and fair election. Americans must have confidence in our infrastructure and that is why security is and will continue to be one of our highest priorities. We will not tolerate foreign elections. E in our we are working closely with our federal, state, and local partners as well as the to share information, bolster security and to disrupt any threats. Recently we shared threat indicators with facebook and twitter that allow them to take down fake accounts created as part of the Russian Disinformation Campaign before those accounts could develop some kind of broader following. Turning to the cyber arena, we are focused on an increasingly diverse array of threats from our cyber adversaries, from statesponsored chinese i intrusion, to intrusions by russia, iran, north korea, to als trying vulnerabilities for profit. We are urged authorities to impose risk and consequences on our cyber adversaries. We are focusing on impact and that means we are working to enable our partners operations as well as our own. For example, the fbi and nsa recently joined to expose highly sophisticated Russian Military intelligence malware providing the private sector and other partners indicators they need to disrupt that tool. Just last week, our investigations enabled a coordinated mix of disruption actions against five different irani and hacking groups, three of which iranian hacking groups, three of which worked for the government, including criminal charges by the d. O. J. , shanks than and fbi alerts enabling potential victims to protect themselves. We also faced the increasingly blended threat of statesponsored economic extra eskenazi facilitated by cyber intrusions. Indicted twoj. Chinese hackers working on the ministry of state security for carrying out a Global Computer Intrusion Campaign targeting hundreds of the use, including Companies Developing covid19 vaccines, testing technology, and treatments. Of behavior,d china continues to undercut their own claims of being a trusted and effective partner in the international community. Chargesk we unsealed against five chinese hackers targeting victims around the world from their safe haven in china. With our partners, we arrested two of their coconspirators in malaysia and or took down hundreds of the hackers domains. Servers and i have touched on only a handful of the threats we face and only lightly at that. Of course, there are many significant others. The threats evolve in scale, impact, complexity and agility, we are relying on our deep well of expertise, intelligence and partnerships. I am committed to ensuring that the bureau does great work while adhering to our core tenets of fidelity, bravery, and integrity. In these challenging times, i remind my folks that we have got to keep calm and tackle hard, to our coreithful values and best traditions while making sure we are always doing the right thing in the right way. Thank you, and it would be happy to take your questions. Chairman johnson thank you, director wray. Our next witness is the miller. E christopher he was sworn in as the seventh director of the National Counterterrorism center in 2020. Of prior to his confirmation, he served as Deputy Assistant secretary of defense for special operations in combating terrorism. He previously served as the special assistant to the president , and director of counterterrorism and transNational Threats at the National Security council. Mr. Miller has served in the army and has extensive experience in interagency and joint special operations. Dir. Miller chairman johnson, peters, ander distinct members of the committee, it is with deep humility that i appear today to present my views on the state of our war against the islamist and jihadist charged groups and other extremists that mean us harm and represent an enormously talented and committed group dutyis not that is on 20 47, 360 52 or our citizens. I want to publicly thank the department of justice for their tireless pursuit to bring the cash to justice in partnership with our good friends in the united kingdom. The beatles were isis leaders involved in the brutal killing of americans. Although our efforts can never replace their loved ones, we are hopeful that the families receive some degree of closure. This is a reminder to our enemies that we never forget and we will pursue justice to the ends of the earth. 19 years ago after the shock of okd does a tax abated al qaedas a tax abated, the nation set out to one, protect our borders, two, go overseas to destroy the sanctuaries of al qaeda and its associated groups, and three, address the drivers of instability that created al qaeda by supporting likemended partners in their efforts to combat his stomach extremism. Due to the enormous dedication, Selfless Service and sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of americans and likeminded foreign partners, we have been successful in accomplishing the first two objectives. I sense that we are on the verge, if providence is kind, of transitioning from a u. S. Led partnerenabled campaign to an era where local and regional partners take the lead, and we provide them support to fill gaps in their security, intelligence, informational and legal architectures. I must be clear and not histrionic our enemies will successfully attack us again as their adaptation and innovation is driven by a profound hatred for what we represent. Dilemmaour terrorist and their strategic advantage. They only need to be successful once, while our defenses must be successful all the time for preventing a cataclysmic attack. But our enemies have fondly underestimated the resilience of the American People time and again. I wonder if the 9 11 Al Qaeda Leaders regretted their decision to attack us. M confident the survivors they thought us soft and spoiled anchored. Ly un they are now either dead, in prison or in hiding. Their ideology is debunked in the overwhelming majority of the islamic world. No one today miss judges or resolve and commitment to protecting the security of our citizens and using all available instruments of National Power against those that bring us war and violence to our shores. However, as you have experience in the past, purveyors of extremism will periodically amass resources required to attack us. My principal concern is their potential acquisition and use of weapons of mass destruction. Accurate guide, weapons developed are ultimately used. I do know that the American People can withstand anything they throw at us. And the use of wmd by terrorist groups would make our successful pursuit of the 9 11 attackers pale in comparison. To those who underestimate the fortitude, toughness, great and resolve of the American Public do so at their profound peril and any attack would guarantee their elimination. Isis was originally formed as al qaeda and iraq is in crisis. Its caliphate is destroyed and its ideology is exposed as a brutal, perverse and horrifying abomination. The world recognizes that a positive and magnificent faith was hijacked a handful of corrupt, selfish opportunists. s territorial defeat in syria and iraq has forced the group to return to its insurgent roots and increased reliance on global branches and networks to project a narrative of strength. With superb partners from the 86member coalition that defeated isis in the middle east, we continue our efforts to render isis permanently impotent. Even as we continue to combat these traditional enemies, we face nuance, including increasingly aggressive groups in iran, and the mastech violent extremists motivated by a variety of etiologies. I am hopeful that in the coming two, we will be successful in destroying the remnants of al qaedas leadership and continue the of isis, guaranteeing that this does not become a multigenerational war. For the past 19 years, i have been involved in the struggle at all levels, from the moonscape of southern afghanistan in 2001, to baghdad in 2003, to a senior policy and strategic leadership in washington, d. C. And internationally as a ct strategist, advisor, and policymaker. The on the lesserknown have learned is that we must maintain pressure on these groups to preclude them the only lesson i have learned is that we must maintain pressure on these groups to preclude them from a position where they can train and project combat forces. We must continue to be chased and our relaxing of this tened. Nt chase it is a testament to the sacrifice of a generation that we are now at a place where terrorism is not the primary National Security priority, but rather another issue of concern. That we must not over correct or disinvest before we solidify our gains. The war has been long. Many are tired. We face new crises and challenges. We have sacrificed greatly. But as wars near their end, we must continue their focus. I thank you for this bodys uncompromising support and partnership. I rest easier knowing that your support will continue as we maintain pressure on al qaeda and isis in these final battles. I look forward to your questions. Chairman johnson thank you, director miller. Our final witness is the cuccinelli. N he is the senior official performing the duties of the that the secretary of Homeland Security. He previously served as acting director of u. S. Citizenship and immigration services, and also as attorney general of the commonwealth of virginia, where he led the states fight against human trafficking. Mr. Cuccinelli. Dep. Secretary cuccinelli good morning, chairman johnson, Ranking Member peters, and distinct members of the i am here to discuss the myriad of threats facing the American People in our homeland. In 2020, the men and women of the department of Homeland Security have carried out their mission with professional excellence as our nation faces unprecedented and dynamic challenges. From the pandemic to riots to national disasters, Trump Administration has ensured our personnel have the vital support and the resources they need to address evolving threats while continuing to fulfill our enduring no fail missions. Dhs has a clear mandate from President Trump at all times, in all decisions, in all dangers to keep the safety and prosperity of the American People as our first priority. Onay, i will briefly comment three National Threats that deserve specific attention. Civil unrest, domestic terrorism, and Transnational Criminal Organizations. When we talk about domestic terrorism, we are talking about threats or acts of violence carried out against people or Critical Infrastructure in the u. S. To advance an ideological agenda or coerce policy or social change. Generally conducted by americans who are not linked to foreign terrorist organizations. Americans have the right to believe whatever they want, but there is no right to carry out acts of violence to further those beliefs. That is when we move from protected speech to domestic terrorism. Violent civil unrest by and marcus carried on for months in portland, oregon, and local leadership refused to cooperate with federal Law Enforcement, the department of Homeland Security defended the federal courthouse without hesitation, in partnership with the u. S. Marshals there. Despite being pelted with i. E. D. s, molotov cocktails, fireworks, metal pipes, hammers, and more, our federal officers were resolute, sustaining more than 340 injuries in the course of their duties. Lawlessness has festered in too many of our communities, from chicago to seattle, minneapolis to new york, even lancaster, pennsylvania, and kenosha, wisconsin. The department will always uphold the right to peacefully protest, but there is no constitutional right to loot, to burn, or to assault others. President trump has made it clear that we cannot and will not allow acts of violence, intimidation, or chaos to andail in american streets, of the department of Homeland Security is proud to participate in implementing such policies. On the transnational criminal andnizations front beyond illegal immigration at our borders, we are also contending with the most deadly organizations in the western hemisphere. The mexican drug cartels. Power it in context, the of these Transnational Criminal Organizations is so great that it is a destabilizing force to many governments in our hemisphere. Their attempts at drug smuggling and human trafficking, not to mention their regular, brutal, and violent tactics, must be addressed. America, we lost 71,000 americans to drug overdoses. They happened and everyone of your states and every one of your communities, and i know all of you are familiar and touched by those tragedies. Familiar with and touched by those tragedies. Consistently, the majority of these deadly drugs and opioids are produced and smuggled by criminal organizations across our southern border. Working daily to decrease the flow of illegal drugs, dhs has seized or Million Pounds of 4 Million Pounds of hard drugs. It is worth note that we are on track to seize drugs at roughly twice the rate of the previous six years. In these four years, we have seized about as many drugs as had been seized in the previous eight. We are talking about fentanyl, meth, that level of drug seizures. Transnational criminal organizations and their allies are not content profiting off the destruction of lives through the drug trade. They are also destroying lives through human trafficking. 330 miles of border wall in highimpact sectors pushes human traffickers and drug smugglers to locations where we are best equipped to catch them, ports of entry. It makes their transnational efforts much harder and makes america safer. There is another reason why this administrations delivery on the promise to build that wall and the system that goes with it is so very important. Finally, while i addressed Election Security at length in my written testimony, i do want to reiterate that our goal at dhs, our fundamental goal, is to ensure that American Voters decide american elections. As we sit here in september of 2020, it seems an important point worth reiterating. Finally, we do need legislative help from congress in at least two areas. There are many we Work Together in, but there are two i would like to highlight. Orneed greater authority, some authority, to designate transnational organized crime at a level below a foreign terrorist organization, but giving us authorities above the level of mere criminal law. We will not prosecute our way out of the tco problem. We also need the authority to address the drone threat in an appropriate manner. We cant study the problem forever. We do have some authorities provided by congress, but we need to be able to bring them down and have the money, the appropriations, to purchase the equipment to allow us to do that. This problem is well studied. The danger is understood, and we are frankly behind the curve in being equipped to address it. I would note especially in my view at airports, the borders, and sensitive sites. The threats facing our homeland are vast and varied, but i can promise you the men and women of dhs are committed to rise and face the evolving threats of tomorrow, embracing their duty to safeguard the American People. Thank you. I am now happy to answer your questions. Thank you, mr. N cuccinelli. Unfortunately, democrat leader schumer is obstructing the workings of the senate, and so we are bound by some Arcane Senate rule that because of his lack of consent, his obstruction, our hearing has to have a hard stop two hours after convening the senate for business. Unfortunately, we are going to have to limit the amount of time of questioning to fiveminute rounds to make sure every senator gets a chance to ask a question, and i will keep people closely to that five minutes, so you will hear me interject if you are running over five minutes. I will ask the witness is to look at their cloaks as well and not ramble look at their clocks as well and not ramble on. I will defer my questioning, but i will for sure get it in, even if it means a member does not get to ask questions towards the tail end of the hearing. But i will defend defer to senate readers. Thank you to each of our witnesses for being here today. Wray, i will start with you and ask about election integrity, which he raised in your opening comments. Tois important for us understand that people are voting in states across the country. In michigan, today is the day you can go to your clerk and vote. We are going to have well over 2 million ballots being mailed out today for absentee voters. You said last week at the house hearing that the steady drumbeat of information is your number one concern for the election. You noted that the threat can confidence ink of the American Voters and citizens, and the validity of their vote. Given the covid19 pandemic, we are seeing more people vote by mail. Unprecedented numbers of absentee ballots have been asked for in the state of michigan. Thisted to spell some of drumbeat of misinformation we are hearing out there. My question is very direct. Is voting by mail secure . Dir. Wray senator, i think what i would say is this. We take all election related threats seriously, whether it is voter fraud, voter suppression, in person, by mail. Our role is to investigate the threat actors. Historicallyeen any kind of coordinated National Voter fraud effort in a major election, whether it is by mail or otherwise. Theave seen voter fraud at local level from time to time, and so my comment should in no way be construed as minimizing have seriously we take our responsibility to investigate such incidents or the potential impact they could have at the local level. It is on our radar. Certainly to change a federal election outcome by mounting that kind of fraud at scale would be a major challenge for an adversary, but people should make no mor mistake, we are vigilant to the threat. We are in uncharted, new territory. As far as Risk Assessment of any particular states processes or systems, i would defer to mr. Cuccinelli and dhs, because that is more in their line. Your answer is clear, you have not seen any widespread fraud by mail, and it is something the fbi watches continually to make sure that is not happening. Dir. Wray it is something we investigate seriously and aggressively. The next question is effective interagency court nation is going to be very important. You mentioned mr. Kitchen nelly mr. Cuccinelli, we are in this to make sure there is a free and fair election. What does that interagency cooperation look like, and who is in charge . Who is actually in charge . Iis at the white house, the fbi, cyber calm, another entity . Who should we look to as being in charge . Start and i will maybe mr. Kitchen nelly would like to chime in as well mr. Cuccinelli would like to chime in as well. Inhave agencies stationed that to make sure the connective tissue is in there. As far as foreign influence, investigating that is the fbis investigatingas cyber intrusions into election infrastructure. In termsakes the lead of protecting infrastructure and mitigation in response to that. You mentioned cybercom. So there is not one entity necessarily in charge. You have your different lanes to run in, you cooperate, but there is not one person that will be called . Dir. Wray as is true with counterterrorism. We all Work Together and Work Together. Question,final because you mentioned a Foreign Government influence. Give us some advice. How can American Voters recognize an attempt by a Foreign Government to influence their opinions in a vote . Behind the scenes, youre working. All the different agencies are working. But how do we let the American Voter know this is a Disinformation Campaign perpetrated by a Foreign Government . How should they recognize that . Dir. Wray it is a challenge, as your question alludes to. I would say when it comes to information about the vote itself, where to vote, winter vote, hours at the polling vote, hours atto the polling places, it is important that americans get that information from their official state or local election website as opposed to relying to something on social media, for example. As far as getting their news, which might shift or influence their views more broadly, i would encourage people to be critical thinkers and to get their news from a variety of sources and make up their own mind and be skeptical, discerning electorate, which i think is the best defense against maligned foreign influence and disinformation. Dir. Wray i am i am out f time. Thank you. Tell them thank you because they do a lot of work behindthescenes. I want to be able to ask you about some of the violence that has happened across the country in the past several months. We have had hundreds and hundreds of peaceful protests on Racial Injustice around the country that we are grateful as a country we have that option to be able to have peaceful protests and people are allowed to be able to speak out and point issues out. But some have turned very violent. In some of your testimony in the house, it seemed you were trying to connect some groups. Have you been able to identify groups or entities behind the scenes that seem to be to incite nationally violence at these events, or you seeing these spontaneous events or small groups that are unconnected with others . Dir. Wray i appreciate the opportunity to try to be as clear as i can because this is an important topic. The first thing big picture is as the chairman referenced in his opening comments, when you look across the country, you have got three broad categories. You have the peaceful protesters, witches may be the biggest number of people. Which is maybe the biggest number of people. Then you have the criminal opportunists who engage in looting, lowlevel vandalism, etc. Then you have a third group. While it numerically might be the smallest, it is the most serious and the one we wer have to go after most aggressively, the ones who are violating federal law. Ieds, molotov cocktails, arsons of government facilities. Who those people are, that is our priority. That is our focus. However, we have certainly seen a number of violent an anarchist extremists participating in that mix. I have gotten questions about antifa, for example, so let me try to be as clear as i can. Antifa is a real thing, it is not a fiction. We have seen organized, tactical activity at both the local and regional level. Adherentsen antifa coalescing and working together in what i would describe as a small groups. All of this i said last week, but some of it got more clearly conveyed than others. We had a number of predicated investigations into some anarchists, some of whom operate through these nodes and to subscribe to our self identify with anarchists extremism, including antifa, and we will not hesitate, will not hesitate to aggressively investigate that kind of activity. So we are going to be looking at, and will look at, their funding, their tactics, their logistics, their supply chains. We are going to pursue all available charges. There are also what i would describe as the militia types, and we have had plenty of those and we have a number of investigations into those as well. But i have been trying to put a lot of these things into nice, neat, clean buckets. It is a challenge because one of the things we see more and more in the counterterrorism space is people who assemble together in some kind of mishmash, a whole bunch of different ideologies. We sometimes refer to it as a solid bar of ideologies, a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and what they are really about is the violence. And we will not stand for the violence. Sen. Lankford nor should you, and the American People are grateful for that. Peaceful protests are encouraged and allowed in this country, violence is not. We have spoken several times about oklahoma specific issues and the mcgurk decision last year and the significant change that is for the fbi and oklahoma. We are grateful for your engagement, and i asked to continue your engagement for Law Enforcement in oklahoma as we deal with the dynamics of that decision and what that means for us. I have only got a few seconds and i apologize for that. It is the issue of china. Director obrien made a comment that there is a rise in china trying to be able to engage in our election this year, and identified it as one of our greatest threats. Can you briefly comment on that and what you are seeing right now . Is it influence or actual Cyber Attacks . Look at International Terrorism specifically, not really familiar sen. Lankford can anyone else comment on that briefly . Each of the two areas he mentioned, china is a major threat. They are a rising power, and they have every intention of trying to rival and or pass us as a nation. They have stolen our levelectual property at a , the greatest transfer of wealth in the world. The chinese stealing intellectual property from americans. And for their strategic purposes, military intelligence, and their economy. We also face them trying to exercise influence via money and their media enterprises, much more overtly than other countries are able to. Last and not least in this country is there massive trade with us, which can be a positive for both sides, this also used as a lever of influence. Sen. Lankford thank you. Chairman johnson senator langford, we were just informed that senator schumer did not invoke the rule today, so we do not have a hard stop. You have another 1 15 if you would, like to do that and senator peters, if you would like to tack on another two minutes now or later, but you can continue questioning. Sen. Lankford thank you, i appreciate that. I do want to drill down on this issue about china and trying to malign influence for the election in particular. When director obrien made that comment, obviously we are dealing with russia and what they did in 2016. We are all very aware of how they were trying to engage in our election, but their comments seem to be that china is being even more aggressive behind the scenes than russia was. We also know that iran is trying to influence our elections. I dont know if theres any clarity any of you can bring to that. If there are any other comments about that. I would note that the way china acts in that arena is different from russia or iran, in part because i have so many more lovers. I levers. Do not have the relationships at every level of government that china does, and they do not have the connections to our economy. They do not have the levers that china has available to them. We have seen through this year, covid was an excellent example where they have got ambassadors in other countries, theyve got their foreign minister. They are taking on full narrative taking on false narratives and spreading them through their Media Outlets in other ways that in ways that others dont have available to them. Chairman johnson senator peters, would you like to take your two minutes now . Just so everyone knows, i am in quarantine so i will not be voting, so i will definitely defer my questioning to the very end. Peters i will take just a couple two minutes. Online extremist conspiracy theories have jumped andof obscure web forms, unfortunately now are prominently featured on traditional social media, and even more concerning, they are manifesting themselves in realworld incidents of violence. My question to you, mr. Wray, is there a risk foreign actors will try to leverage some americans belief in these conspiracy theories floating around quite widely, and will they use that to engineer some violent confrontations . How concerned should we be about that . Two strandshere are we are alluding to that we are concerned about. One is the sheer impact of social media on the threats that we face. In the terrorism context, we say that terrorism today moves at the speed of social media, and that is across all the different terrorist threats. Separately, you have this effect also facilitated by social media, where a foreign adversary will identify trends, divisive issues, in some cases conspiracy theories, and they will then piggyback and amplify and push to suit their own policy goals and propaganda, and we see that across a range of adversaries. Russia, of course, but also china, also iran. It is a real concern. Whether or not the second trend will manifest itself in terms of violence, hard to say, but certainly there is an effort to sew up people and discord. Anwe have seen there is effort to sew up people and upheaval and discord. Sen. Peters this is something they are focused on . Dir. Wray yes. Chairman johnson senator hassan. You, mr. An thank chair, and drinking member peters, for this hearing and Ranking Member peters, for this hearing. Threats tog is about the homeland. Before we begin, we must acknowledge a new and interest threat to the country and constitution. The president of the United States refusal to a peaceful transferral of power if you lose the election. I call on everyone who has sworn to uphold the constitution, including my fellow senators, to condemn the president s remarks and recommit to securing a peaceful transition of power, whatever the outcome of this election. Some of the members of this committee, from both parties, have already done so, and i appreciate their words. I hope that the rest of the committee will speak out as well. Now, to director wray. Last year, we discussed the growing threat of attacks to our communities. Over the past six months, there has been a further uptick on Ransomware Attacks on hospitals, schools amid the pandemic. Just this month, a Ransomware Attack on a german hospital led to the death of a patient. There has been a spate of Ransomware Attacks on our schools as districts have migrated to online learning. Our communities do not have the resources to effectively counter a wide range of Cyber Threats on their own, including ransomware. Openingiated in your comments your discussion on Cyber Threats. Could you drill down a bit more on what the fbi is doing to protect state and local governments and other nonfederal partners from ongoing Cyber Attacks and to deter malicious adversaries . Dir. Wray i appreciate the question, and i recall our exchange from last year. Certainly ransomware is a particularly concerning part of the cyber threat that we face and the threat of ransomware against state and local governments is particularly high. There are a variety of reasons why ransomware actors target municipalities, hospitals, police forces, etc. One of the things we have done recently is through our National Investigative joint task force, we have brought together a whole government effort to focus across multiple agencies, Intelligence Community and Law Enforcement, on the most damaging ransomware variance. That is through investigative activity disruptions. Some of that is through outreach and engagement, where we work closer with dhs to help educate those entities on how to better harden and protect their infrastructure, because certainly having good cyber hygiene, backups, etc. Is one of the best defenses against ransomware. We are seeing something that concerns me in particular, a growing trend to see ransomware actors essentially sharing ransomware across different organized criminal activities, so that basically means some of the most sophisticated forms of ransomware are now potentially available to last sophisticated an aversion of cybercrime as a service, which increases the risk. We are seeing a greater trend of ransomware actors, essentially piecemeal pushing out the information rather than just locking it up and encrypt in it. They are essentially releasing little bits of time into the Public Domain as a way of increasing the pressure. Sen. Hassan thank you, i appreciate that very much and i look forward to continuing to work with you on that. Director wray, i also wanted to touch on another issue. I was pleased to see the announcement about operation disruptor, an effort to stop Drug Trafficking on the dark web. This operation resulted in the seizure of hundreds of kilograms of illicit drugs, including fentanyl and dozens of firearms, as well as the arrest of 179 people. Needless to say, this was a significant operation. I appreciate the work of the federal agents who carried it out. Last week, i wrote a letter to you and the attorney general asking for information about efforts to combat Drug Trafficking. Senators cornyn and feinstein joined the letter as well. We requested a reply by october 15. Can you commit to a written response by that date, which is three weeks away . Dir. Wray i will suddenly get you a response as probably as possible. Not having had the chance to read the letter yet, i dont know how involved it would mean. We appreciate your focus on the and the operation we have had that spins off these things Like Operation disruptor, is an exciting, effective tool, a coordinated interagency tool, not just the fbi, to disrupt and dismantle darknet marketplaces, which is a particularly important part of the opioid problem we are facing. Sen. Hassan absolutely. I thank you. I look forward to any Additional Resources congress can provide to help those efforts, but i will move on to one last question. To director miller and director wray, last december a member of the saudi military in the United States on a Training Mission killed three people and injured eight at a neve Naval Air Station in florida. Al qaeda affiliates claims or spots will be for the attack, barking their First Successful marking their First Successful attack in the u. S. In several years. Do you feel comfortable with the adequacy of screening done on Foreign Military trainees entering our country, and how would you assess the vulnerabilities of this Exchange Program . Dir. Miller thank you, senator. Obviously, it is a great concern, and thank you for the question. The adaptive, innovative enemy that means us harm. , they have found a loophole. The loophole has been closed. Inhouseident screening works. But they found a loophole and they exploited it. Sen. Hassan thank you, and director wray . Dir. Wray the department of defense has taken strides to address the vulnerability that was there. There is an Important Role for the saudi government to play, and they have been cooperative at different times on this issue. But they are an incredibly important partner if we are going to be able to prevent Something Like what happened in pensacola again. Sen. Hassan i appreciate all of your work very much. Lastly, director miller, as a New Hampshire senator, i thank you for everything you have done to bring the killers of james foley to justice. Chairman johnson senator romney . Sen. Romney thank you for the work that you do. Deeply appreciate the work of the men and women who work in your respective organizations, who are working every day to keep us safe. Director wray, with regards to foreign Cyber Threats and theft, i think we can agree that the best defense is a good offense. China, iran, russia are only in a to stop attacking cyber way if they are hurt more than we are. Do you believe that our offensive Cyber Efforts are as effective as they should be . If not, what should we be adding . Certainly i agree with you that an important part of fighting back against our foreign adversaries in the cyber realm is offense as well as defense. That is a big part of this new strategy, fbi strategy, which is in myea that i referenced Opening Statement about focusing on results and maximizing impact. Sometimes the way to maximize impact is through Law Enforcement action that we would take. Sometimes it is through sanctions. But sometimes it is through offensive cyber operations. And we are very focused on making sure that intelligence and information that we develop throughout our investigative work is shared with our partners to enable their operations offensively. Our National Cyber Investigative Joint Task force, we are much more effective in partnering with the relevant i. T. And dod agencies on that. I think it is a growing area and we are getting more sophisticated all the time, and you will never find an fbi director who would not welcome more tools, but i do think we are moving in the right direction. And i think you are right to raise the issue. Sen. Romney sen. Romney thank you, sir. Director miller, i appreciate your unvarnished update of where we are. With regards to weapons of mass destruction, do other nationstates recognize just how it would be for a weapon of mass destruction to fall in the hands of a nonstate actor to be used against us or anyone else for that matter . Do they recognize that, and are they taking sufficient actions to secure their Nuclear Capabilities . Dir. Miller thanks, senator, for that question. I can say definitively with our partners that they take it seriously. I cannot dispute the fact that some rogue regime might not find Strategic Value in providing such weapons. Wasously, if a nationstate too unsophisticated to do Something Like that, i feel strongly it would probably result in catastrophic effects on them. Ist we are seeing really they recognize, our terrorist enemies recognize that that is the one thing they have not been able to use against us. Again andrgeted again, and will continue to prioritize, any terrorist groups who are trying to acquire those types of weapons systems. Sen. Romney thank you. Director wray and mr. Cuccinelli, i think we have watched with dismay as what has begun as peaceful protests turned violent. Apparently organized individuals come in and do destruction, and in some cases cause death. It seems in many respects that we are not as effective as we would like to be in preventing or stopping people from that nature. Sometimes we wonder, do we need more police on the front lines . Do we need National Guard . Do we need heavier equipment . That will only encourage a violent to occur. The question is this. Given your experience so far, what are we doing wrong . What should we be doing better to prevent what began as peaceful protests from being kidnapped by the small groups of whether it is antifa or other violent groups of anarchists . How can we shut them down as violence begins to occur in a way that we are not doing now . Dir. Wray i will start. At a big picture level, if you look across the country, the places that have been most effective in countering the kind of violence and dangerous criminal activity you are describing and preventing those bad actors from hijacking otherwise peaceful protests has been quick, prompt, robust partnerships between federal, state, and local Law Enforcement. And where all the partners have worked together quickly, all on the same page, all with the same mission, all aligned, it has usually been nipped in the bud, which has allowed both peaceful protests to continue, but also prevented dangerous violence from forema fomenting. Dep. Sec. Cuccinelli first of all, i would double down on the directors comments about the necessity of state, local, and federal cooperation. Smootho you see ready, cooperation at the professional level we are not talking about mayors and city councils, we are talking about when they do not interfere with their polices ability to interact with those of us at doj and dhs, that is where you see success. I would say in terms of tactics, it is a peace through strength approach. It is not that we want to engage in the battles, it is that we want to deter them and allow the peaceful protesting to go on peacefully in a way that has succeeded around the country isr the last several months, where there is deficient, responsible Law Enforcement in place, violence is deterred and peaceful protesting can continue. I would just note, this is overwhelmingly or largely in the hands of state and local authorities. We have limitations on our federal jurisdictional authority, more so at dhs than doj, but we all respect our legal boundaries of authority. That leads many people sometimes to be frustrated about why we may not be doing more. Take portland we have federal facilities take portland. We have federal facilities, but there is no jurisdiction on the part of Homeland Security to Police Portland the way their police do, even though their police wont cooperate with our officers and the result is greater violence. Sen. Romney thank you. Chairman johnson mr. Coach nelly, you mr. Cuccinelli, you sent me a conference with the police chief of chicago. If you could describe that, this would be a good time to have you do that. Dep. Sec. Cuccinelli the video the chairman is referring to is the press conference by superintendent brown, who is the police chief in chicago. You will recall when he had 49 whaters injured during amounted to an attack on a Christopher Columbus statue in that city. That press conference, the first 14 minutes, it is in my view the simpleear and description, and he shows it to you. He does not just tell you, he shows you the video footage of the transformation of what clearly starts off as what looks like any other peaceful protest down theudy, marching street, Police Protection in front and in back, then it makes a left turn into the park. They use drone footage, they show you people changing into the clothing, they show you people dropping bags worth of weapons to be used against the police, they show you the transformation of the pvc pipes used to hold the banner and pulling those apart and using those as weapons, the use of umbrellas. The clearestne of examples and best explained that i have seen anywhere since these protests turned violent have happened this summer. It is the july 20 press conference by superintendent brent of chicago superintendent brown of chicago. I would urge anyone to watch it. Chairman johnson it certainly shows that in this case it was not spontaneous violence. This was wellorganized. Preplanned. And it was violent. Senator rosen. You, mr. N thank chairman. Thank you to the Ranking Member, and thank you for being here today for the important work you and your teams do and the analysis you are all engaging in. Learned fromcans the threat assessment that supremacy that White Supremacists represent the biggest threat. [indiscernible] it is the most lethal threat. A later draft of the report softens the language on the white supremacist threat. Mr. Cuccinelli, i was alarmed to youthe dhs alleging that personally ordered him to modify the section on White Supremacy in a matter that made the threat appear less severe, to ensure they matched up with the Public Comments by President Trump. , do you agree with the fbi director [indiscernible] dep. Sec. Cuccinelli i certainly think the lethality analysis that you cited is correct. It has been the position of the department of Homeland Security for quite some time. It has not been changed despite the implications of your question. I continue to believe that is true, and it is not a belief, it is just looking at the data. When White Supremacists act as terrorists, more people per incident are killed. That is a higher lethality. That is what we are referring to. Sen. Rosen then why the change between the earlier and updated draft where you softened the language if you believe that is true . Dep. Sec. Cuccinelli we have not softened the language, and you will see when the final report is out that what you are describing is still in our homeland threat assessment. Your concerns in that regard i can put to rest. You order why did mr. Murphy to downplay the threat . Dep. Sec. Cuccinelli i absolutely did not do that. That did not happen. Sen. Rosen you dont have the metrics you used to assess the lethality . You would say they are good or bad, how you assessed the threat to make sure we are not downplaying it . Dep. Sec. Cuccinelli the metric used with respect to the subject you and i were just talking about is the number of deaths. It is a ratio, deaths per incident. And because that ratio is highest among Domestic Violence extremists among white supremacist terrorists as opposed to the other types that we faced, that leads to the conclusion mathematically that they have the highest lethality. At least in recent years. Sen. Rosen i look forward to working with you and your team to work on stopping threats and eliminate those threats and keep our communities safer. But i do have another question for you while i have you here. I am disturbed by the allegations we have all heard hysterectomies happening in ice facilities in georgia. There must be accountability. Have you gone down to visit the facility in georgia, and if so, who was with you . Dep. Sec. Cuccinelli i agree with you that those are shocking allegations, and as a result i immediately dispatched a team from outside of ice, including a doctor from the coast guard, attorney, and one member of my staff, who is a retired army nurse to review the records in that facility. I am happy to report at this thee that the internin documentation indicates that over four years there were two hysterectomies performed on two women, and that was confirmed by the nearby medical procedure where those procedures take place. They came to the same numerical conclusion that we did. But as i said, the Inspector General is continuing to investigate that. I should also add that one of the lawyers that filed the complaint last friday was reported by the ap as indicating they hadnt actually talked to anyone who had had a hysterectomy, but they wanted the department to investigate the subject, which is not a legitimate basis to bring a complaint. But that was learned after the fact. Sen. Rosen thank you, i appreciate that, but you didnt answer the question. Did you go down to georgia yourself . Dep. Sec. Cuccinelli no, i did not go with that team. I dispatched that team to go literally within a day or two of the allegations. Sen. Rosen [indiscernible] that is all im asking. Dep. Sec. Cuccinelli i have not been to that facility. Sen. Rosen thank you. I would like to move on to director miller, to talk about iran quickly. In your testimony, you noted that your own has the ability to deploy and support terrorism within the United States. Hezbollahstified that has expanded as recently as 2018. Two iranians were arrested in for passing information back to iran. Can you please outline for us the threat to the homeland from iran . Thank you for that great question. As we all know, iran is the greatest state sponsor of terror in the world and continues to plot against america all the time, almost as if it is part of andr strategic calculus, greatly concerned by their continued ambition, as well as aggressiveness. It is something that all three of us at this table look at probably several times a day and our men and women are on point on this. But at this point, a lot of times the iranian bark is louder than the bite, and we want to keep it that way. But it is still obviously one of our principal threats. Sen. Rosen thank you. I look forward to working with you to find out what commerce can do to improve interagency collaboration to keep [indiscernible] particularly when it comes to Homeland Security. Chairman johnson thank you, senator rosen. Senator scott . Chairman, thank you, for hosting this today. I want to thank each of our witnesses here today. I want to thank director wray for his comments after parkland. I had a trip with a Wonderful Group of people who are making sure that with a lot of tips how to figure out how to make sure things get directed to the right person. I also want to thank director wray for his efforts after the pensacola shooting to keep us informed and figure out how Something Like that doesnt happen again. I want to thank the individuals working at the fbi for all their hard work. It is disgusting what has been going on with our Law Enforcement, how lawenforcement has been treated, and the insults they are taking. The things that are thrown at them, it is disgusting. It reminds me of what happened to people that were coming back from vietnam and they were treated disgustingly, and they are not the ones who chose to go. They chose to defend the freedom of this country and they follow the orders they were given. I did a resolution on the senate floor supporting the men and women of Law Enforcement, and it shocked me but members of the democrat decided to block it. That acant imagine simple resolution to support members of Law Enforcement would not get supported by everybody in this country, especially in the u. S. Senate. What are you all doing how has it impacted the morale of Law Enforcement people when you see how badly lawenforcement is treated, and what are you all doing to ensure the members of Law Enforcement you work with and others are safe . Of. Wray i appreciate both your comments about the fbi, and even more your concern about the men and women of Law Enforcement across this country. I will say that this is personal for me and personal for us at the fbi. All of the state and local Law Enforcement departments we are talking about have members on our task forces, and we work with them every day. I will tell you that the rate of violence, including lethal violence against Law Enforcement, is up significantly this year from last year. And when i say it is personal, i mean that in a different sense as well, which is one of the things i started doing when i became director. I decided i was going to call every time an officer was killed in the line of duty, shot and killed or killed. I was going to call the sheriff myself. My staff gives me a picture of the dead officer and a description of his family, and i called the chief or the sheriff and we have a conversation and i express my condolences. I will tell you that i have had to make too many of those calls. In fact, in late august, Early September of this year, in about one 15day period, i had to make seven of those calls. That is one every other day. Each one of those officers was a son or daughter or a mother or a father, a beloved Family Member, community members, and all they do is get out and try to serve the public. And sometimes i scratch my head at why more people cant appreciate how special it is for someone to be willing to get up every morning and put his life on the line or her life on the line for a complete stranger. To do it once is extraordinary, but to get up and do it for a living day after day, and when you pack on top of that the impact of covid on Law Enforcement, i think they are there are close to 90 lawenforcement officers in this country who die as a result of covid. Partly because they are out there protecting the public so they are more risk. It breaks my heart. Director miller . How does it make you feel when you see how badly Law Enforcement is being treated now, and what are you doing to make sure people are safe . Father was amy career Law Enforcement officer. I am focused on International Terrorism, but as a citizen and as a son of a father who dedicated his career, i am also incredibly humbled by the commitment and the Selfless Service of our Law Enforcement men and women. Dep. Sec. Cuccinelli senator, dhs has more Law Enforcement officers they in any other entity in the country, so we take your question very seriously. It is certainly something that we talk about in leadership, maintaining that morale. They are doing something, as the director describes, that no one else in america is asked to do. There is no one else we ask every morning to put on a gun with the possibility of them using it to stand between us and people. There is no real sign that evil is going to go away. I think back to George Washingtons description of veterans. Your ability to recruit your next round of troops is going to be heavily dependent on how they see your treatment of the last round of troops. The veterans for him coming out of the revolutionary war. And the same is true of our Police Officers. They deserve our respect in a way that very few other people in our society do. Is that whileound the public discussion can be very rough and tumble, they respond very positively when they see leadership in their Department Going out and affirmatively defending them and taking the position you just described. I know they appreciated when they see you doing it. I know they appreciate it when they see us doing it, because they tell us that. It matters a lot that you all in this body pay them the respect they are due. I am sorry the resolution played out the way it did. I am as shocked as you are based on the subject matter, but it is very important that you will use your leadership to encourage Law Enforcement across the country. Sen. Scott thank you for reaching out. We had 51 memos of Law Enforcement who died in the line of duty in my years as governor, and i went to all of their funerals. You get to meet their families. Almost all of them seem to have young kids and your heart goes out to them. Let anybody you come in contact with let them know how much we appreciate them. Chairman johnson senator paul . Sen. Paul i would like to begin by wishing a speedy recovery to the two Police Officers in louisville who were shot yesterday in the line of duty. I joined senator scott and others in saying we have to appreciate our police more generally. They are protecting us from the vandals, the marauders, the arsonists in our cities. It is not just the democrat proposition of defunding the police that threatens us, it is also the idea that if we dont appreciate our police we wont have more volunteering to become policeman. It is imperative that we show our appreciation for these people who are risking their lives to keep us safe. My wife and i know about this personally, as you saw from the video going into this. We were attacked by a mob in d. C. A few weeks ago. For those of you who doubt the mob had violent intent, immediately after we were safely into the hotel, one of the Police Officers was assaulted and received stitches in his face. What bothered me is i commend them for their heroism. I believe they saved our lives. But the person who assaulted the policeman was from out of state, then he was released on his own recognizance. Snarkily,out somewhat if youre looking for him, you might as well look in kenosha. But i think we do have to investigate these people and we have to put more blame where blame is. We have to find out who is financing them. If you are from out of date and you attack somebody in d. C. , i would think the fbi or federal authorities should investigate. How did he get there . I cant tell you that black lives matter is supporting these folks and we should not shy away from attributing blame where blame goes. When we were attacked, the head of black lives matter had this to say. She said, we can see the fear in their faces and that is how we want them to live. Their goal is terrorism, they are admitting it. When you look at their exchanges online, they are saying their goal is to terrorize Public Officials and really anybody. Many of the people in the restaurants are being terrorized are not Public Officials, but their goal is tear. Whether or not that equates to something you can legally investigate, i dont know, but should know that and should let Corporate America know that. Corporate america is giving millions of dollars to something they perceive as an antiracist group. In reality, it is a group that is funding terror and funding terrorists to go from city to city. I dont think anybody can comment directly on the Police Officer that was assaulted that was protecting my wife and i, but in general, director wray, is a Police Officer being attacked from someone out of state, do you think that can fall under the purview that the fbi investigating cases like this were people from out of something . Ing you would think it would be a local crime to be investigated, but if they are from out of state, is there a federal angle to me must geisha . Dir. Wray first, let me say i appreciate your sympathy and appreciation to that officer, and we are pleased that the offender was charged. The release is concerning. I would say that when it concerns to interstate travel, there are federal charges we can bring. There are federal writing charges that have an interstate nexus that we have started trying to use around the country when we can, and there are a variety of interstate commerce type folks that we can look to. We are aggressively looking for the same kinds of things that youre pointing to, funding, supply chains, networks, communications with others in different parts of the country, and certainly the interstate travelers are some of the most serious offenders. I know that in portland, for example, there were a couple individuals that i can think of off the top my head who were coming from a different state who were in one case threatening to blow up a building and in another case attempting to attack a building and charges were brought in both of those instances. Wherever we can find a tool or a legal weapon to go after those people, we are going to use it. While there are certainly a large number, even a majority, of people out there who are protesting peacefully, it doesnt take very many, as you experienced in the really shocking video that was played, i doesnt take very many people to suddenly cause harm. Sen. Paul the frustration is there is one guy on the internet who is saying he has been arrested 26 times. There has got to be some cumulative nature to that many crimes that we have to be at some point able to hold him. I think ray arresting is a good idea. If i were in portland, i would arrest them all again. It is not life in prison, but you should get 24 hours in a cell and a hearing the next day and be booked. But we have got to do did you something. The people who attacked us, within 20 minutes, people are isolating their faces and saying here is a picture of him in louisville. Here is a picture of him in portland. It costs money to travel places. There were dozens staying in hotels near the white house. It is important that we look at eight. I sympathize with some of the reforms. I had an act called the Breonna Taylor act to get made of no knock raids. They may not be necessary. But at the same time, if the trail leads to black, there is an Important Service to corporations who think that they are giving money to a peaceful protest. They need to be aware if they are being flown around. A call to not having more money flood in to a group. Ofshould not be afraid allegations that this is a peaceful group, so we cannot touch them. We do need to trace the money, and if it is coming from an organization with purposes. They do not have a right to fund may him. Feel free to respond to that or not. One of the things that we are doing in portland and other places is to work with local state partners to essentially identify who is going in and out of the local system. To prioritize those individuals to see if there is some federal charge because that can oftentimes result in detention and more strict sentences. It is something that we are looking at, including it goes a little bit here last point including where someone might be rep misrepresenting what they are fundraising for. Certain crowdsourcing activities, where somebody contributes, thinking they are giving towards a First Amendment activity, but it is being used for something else, something more pernicious. One final comment. The people hurt the worst people who are saying i want to help people in the poor sections of d. C. Need to realize that when you burn down the last pharmacy, the last mcdonalds or walmart, it hurts the people who lived there. Many of these businesses not get back. You are hurting the people you are trying to help. Thank you. I appreciate your comments. Im sorry you guys had to endure that kind of abuse. Senator portman . Have seen today, our annual discussion about the threats to the homeland is full of threat. I want to start by thanking the men and women who work for you. I hope you will pass along our respect. Safe. P us all at the state and local level, but also who you represent here today, we have a lot of threats. They are foreign actors trying to intervene and our election again. I have repeated many times that i support peoples rights to protest peacefully. Earlier thatsed some things have been locked around here. We had a bill that was very common sense. Blocked by consideration by the other side. I think that is cynical. We should have passed something, including some i guess that senator paul talked about. The riots, particularly the damage to our communities, the arson, looting, desiccation of property when i say our communities, often these are communities of color. Nothing upsets me more than to see an entrepreneur in one of these communities, like the africanamerican guy in ohio or the hispanic woman i have seen in other news broadcasts who said, i spent my life tilting this business and now it has been destroyed. Of course, the harm to individuals, to citizens. Violencerly the against federal, state, and local officers. It is a good way to put it. These people were doing their job. They get paid very little compared to what people are being paid around this place, or frankly some of the demonstrators assaulting them, taking out their frustrations on these guys, it is not fair. It is unacceptable. I want to express my condolences for dave underwood. He was one of yours, a protective service officer, who was killed while trying to protect the courthouse in oakland, california. Been300 injuries have sustained in portland. We wish them a speedy recovery, including getting their sight and hearing back. That twost discussed officers were shot last night. Alle two officers we wish them a speedy recovery, but to their families talk about trying to recruit people into this business. I wonder what their families think about that. I was of the day family in at ad, ohio i visitation. He was one of your guys. He was working with the fbi and local and state Law Enforcement. On a Violent Crime task force. He was gunned down in his car by three teenagers. Unprovoked. Just gunned down in his car. His family was incredible. They were soak create they were so courageous and so committed to the notion that jimmy died in service to his country, which is exactly what he wanted to do in his life. God bless him. It is like talking to the families of our military. This violence must stop. Terroristay groups continue on the attack. That is a threat. Cannot forget. We cannot take our eye off the ball. Cyber attacks are on the rise. This committee has focused on that a lot. As you know, the Deborah Terry deputy secretary, i am concerned that they are just not doing it. They are not protecting themselves, which means they are not protecting the taxpayers or the government. Put the firewalls in place. Is thest of which transnational terror groups that are shipping poison into our communities. They keep doing it. That 3 Million Pounds of hard drugs have apprehended. Crystal meth, heroin, cocaine etc. I believe the ultimate issue answer to this issue lies on the demand side. Additional money on prevention, treatment, services, longerterm recovery, and we have to keep that up. We see a reversal during the covid period in Overdose Deaths come after finally getting to the point where we were making progress on that. After three decades of increases. Now we are going the other way. We have to deal with the supplyside. When it flows into this country, it is cheaper, more accessible. I want to focus on fentanyl. It mostly comes by the mail. Us stop act, you worked with and we got it passed. It is supposed to keep the stuff from coming in from china. How do you think this is working . We have a lot of experience with stop act. How is it working from an fbi point of view . They have started aggressively pursuing small package inspections at a level we have not done before our adversaries adjust before. Our adversaries adjust. We will keep up the pressure in that space. It is like my comments earlier. Opportunitynimize points, we can focus our efforts , all of us together on avenues of approach that we know that they are using. This body help from to continue that effort. I know you have been strong. Lets get the stop act in place. Is coming over land the stop act will help their too. I know i am getting close to over my time. Can i have a chance to ask about the other threats . We will get back to you. One is safeguarding our research. I love what you said about the greatest transfer of wealth in the world. Other countries systematically targeted our research and it is a threat to the homeland. With this new legislation that came out, it has gone to the floor of the senses has a proposal by senator mcconnell. Would that help you to do your job . You say you have opened up every 10 hours a china related investigation. This provides a new terminal fraud charge. Gain the help you tools to protect the homeland from this threat . We do think it will help. Of theto underscore some points that you made. From our perspective, i have said this repeatedly that there is no adversary that presents a broader and more comprehensive threat to our democratic ideas, Economic Security then the country of china. 1300 in terms of espionage investigations. 2000 plus active investigations tied to the government of china, by far the greatest chunk of our portfolio. As engaged inelf a war. U. S. Ave a pipeline of technology back to china, for their nationalistic purposes, taxpayerriating u. S. Dollars in the process. I appreciate the leadership you have shown through legislation on this topic. A itrying to tackle through investigations. It covers almost every region of the country. We are very concerned about chinas fusion policy, where they overtly focus on channeling what appeared to be civilian research to advance their military aims. ,s one illustration of that certain members of this committee may know that we have started discovering pla researchers in the country that were concealing their ties. That is a real concern as well. And it ismajor issue our highest counterintelligence priority for a reason because it will shape what this country is like and 25 to 30 years. My time has expired. I appreciate your indulgence. Your personal commitment to this is very much appreciated. It was not always so at the fbi. Learnedhocking, what we. The fbi testified and said we have been asleep at the switch on this. We need to increase what we are doing in terms of prosecutions, and boy they have. Absolutelyly, it is necessary. Followup with you in writing about that. We appreciate the additional funding. We have some good experience back home with groups getting funding and expertise. They are getting the professional help to protect againstes, pushing back thankic terrorism so we you for your support of that program. We know you have a new program. Muchthat, thank you very and thank you, chairman figure indulgence. Lex thank you very much. I want to say that while the senator is still in the room, the legislation he referred to is bipartisan legislation. The good worknd the fbi is doing in support of our efforts. This is legislation that should be before the senate. We should have the opportunity to see this signed into law. Will send. Q. Want to look at my questioning. Our witnesses,o thank you for being here. Thatery much for the work you do for us every single day. Thank you very much for the work that you do for us every single day. Winchester,ves in kentucky. This is personal for our family. No one has been charged in connection with Breonna Taylors death and we need to know why. Breonna taylors family needs to know why. We need to remember the words of Breonna Taylors mother from earlier this summer. Bigger than her, but we cannot get justice with violence. Does not help her. It does not help us. She goes on to say it does not help the world that we live in. You cannot fight violence with violence. Of words, just yesterday former Vice President joe biden. He said, violence is never and can never be the answer. We seek the whole truth and the death of Breonna Taylor, we must not sully her memory by perpetrating the same violence that took her. Pray for the two Police Officers that were shot in louisville, as we pray for Breonna Taylors family. Turn to the domestic terrorism, if i can. This will be a question for director ray. Director wray. We need to address the root cause of the problems. With the secretary to ensure that the department had the needed resources to address the root causes. , two questions, if you will. I releasing such a rise in racially and ethnically motivated extremism and violence in this country, in recent years . Why . I appreciate your concerns and i share many of those concerns. I would say that the why is something that we struggle to get our arms around. One important part of that phenomenon, which i have referred to earlier is the role of social media. As i said, terrorism moves at the speed of social media. What you have is a phenomenon where disaffected, angry, hateful people, who are may be separated geographically, they are largely lone actors, they are able to spin each other up by being virtually connected, in a way that they could not before. More of that that occurs through encrypted messaging platforms, the more that we can expect to see, unfortunately and tragically. The angry person who wants to lash out, living at in moms basement was all by himself. Now he is talking to similarly situated people across the country and the world and is more likely to get encouraged and galvanized to take hateful ideas and turn them into dangerous and lethal violence. And i grew up i remember taking a school trip with my whole seventh grade class to richmond. We had the opportunity to meet the governor. It was an amazing experience. , there was as ago demonstration. There was violence in richmond, virginia. , folks frome there the ku klux klan, those instigating racial violence. Our president was asked to comment. He said there are good people on both sides. I would suggest that words like that from our president encouraged racial extremists to act out. That is something that needs to stop. How is the fbi working to ensure you come before this committee next year, the threat is reduced. How can congress be helpful in that regard . I think a few things. I asked all of our joint forces, essentially 4500 investigators around the country, to ask they are focusing on mystic terrorism, in addition to International Terrorism. They were already doing that, but one of the things that we did recently was to elevate racially motivated violent extremism to the same National Threat priority as isis and homegrown extremists, inspired by foreign terrorist organizations. I created a hate crimes fusion cell, which brings together the expertise of domestic terrorism with our hate crimes investigators and analysts. That is designed to make sure that we are getting the synergies that are necessary. There, where we were able to proactively disrupt attemptk involving the to attack a synagogue in colorado. Agents, analysts, data analytic tools and we are going to need a solution to the encryption problem that plagues Law Enforcement in an increasingly constant basis on an increasingly constant basis. Have one lastn, i question. Can you indulge me for two more minutes . Ok. Can you give us examples of what russia, china and iran have in doing to spread misinformation before the election . How does the bureau work to combat this misinformation . You to therefer Public Statement that is the unclassified version of what the Intelligence Community says, interference. O it goes to a description of russia, china and iran. Capabletries are highly actors pursuing different means. In the case of the russians and iranians, heavy use of online tools. You have heard about the use of social media. We hash seeing online journals, fake placement of stories, use of proxies. , in many ways, our greatest counterintelligence threat. From efforts are different the russians. Much broader and wider in terms of their reach to federal officials, state and local officials. Concerned about subversive or criminal means. There is all kinds of overt law that occurs, but those are the ones we are most concerned about. Which poses the biggest threat to the upcoming election, versus the longer term . Which of the countries poses the biggest threat to the sanctity of the upcoming election . I do not think i could really rank them. They are ones that we are very concerned about in different ways. It is not really an apple to apple comparison. As i said before, the russians are engaging. On behalf of the Intelligence Community, they are engaged in a range of measures, but also the chinese are expanding their influence efforts. It is why after the midterm elections, with the Foreign Influence Task force that i created early in my tenure, we added resources to that tax bute, not just to russia, to china and iran. This countries are very much looking for a way to take a page out of the playbook that they have seen elsewhere. Thank you so much. Thank you for your generosity with an extra three minutes and 39 seconds. Thank you director and other witnesses for being here. Let me pick up on something that you testified earlier. Organized, tactical activity by part of theas rioting and violence that we have seen across the country. Louisville last night, we saw egregious acts of violence. I have seen this in my own state. We have had none Police Officers shot since the month of june. There appears to be some footage circulating on the internet from louisville that shows a part uhaul, waiting for a crowd, and it looks like it contains signs that say abolish the police and other paraphernalia that could be used for violence. I assume the fbi will investigate the shootings that happened in louisville. We be investigating coordination between extremist elements in the violent element that we have seen across the country . I appreciate the question. We are very focused on what we would call the most dangerous actors, which tend to be the and most coordinated, therefore potentially able to cause the most harm and damage. We are looking in a number of places. We are aggressively investigating funding streams, logistics, travel, networks, that kind of thing. Activity, it is organized at a more tactical level dan a strategic level. It is organized more locally and regionally, in small groups or nodes, a more structured, hierarchical way across the country. That in no way diminishes how serious and dangerous it is. We do not view how a nationally organized something is for a proxy for how dangerous it is. We are dangerously investigating everything you would be expecting us to investigate in every state in the country right now. These local and regional nodes using social media to communicate with each other and plan their activities . They are. Let me add a finer point to that. We see a lot of communication on social media, in what i would call benign ways. A lot of the communication with each other, that is the more telltale order revealing, it is happening locally, sometimes through encrypted channels that they think will cause them to be able to hide from Law Enforcement. In some cases, they are able to hide from Law Enforcement. We are taking steps to make sure that we can break through those barriers. We had trying to uncover some of the stronger evidence of what we are seeing reports of across the country. Thank you for your attention to this. I hope you devote every resource that you can to these investigations, to the potential coordination here and especially for violence being violence being directed against Law Enforcement. Against Law Enforcement. Whether it is in st. Louis, seattle, portland or wherever, it doesnt matter. Law enforcement when they are under attack in what appears to instances, again, coordinated action across state lines, but i think it deserves your attention on, and i am glad you are giving attention to that. Let me switch gears and ask you a a little bit about chinese espionage and covid. In may of this year, you released a public warning to organizations researching covid19 with an eye towards a vaccine, you released a warning about possible chinese espionage activity related to the pharmaceutical research, Health Research and ultimately vaccine development. Can you give us a sense, are chinese hackers still trying to steal Research Related to a covid19 vaccine . What is the latest . Dir. Wray certainly, as you referenced, we are seeing a very aggressive activity by the chinese, and, in some cases, by others, techtarget our covidrelated research, whether it is vaccines, treatments, testing technology, etcetera, and sometimes you can almost without being too descriptive in an open setting, we can almost see track like a news report , from some Company Research or Research Institution that is announcing or revealing some progress, because, of course, a lot of this is getting discussed in the media. And almost within days, we will see cybertargeting that goes back to china actors focusing on those institutions. That is why we, working with dhs, thought it was so important to put out information. We are also engaging as the fbi does all the time directly with targeted organizations and victims, institutional victims, to help them better protect themselves. But the chinese cyber threat is a major, major concern and something that we are prioritizing through our National Cyber Investigative Joint Task force which brings together Intelligence Community and Law Enforcement assets together to take a hold of a government response to this. Sen. Hawley give me a sense of what youre seeing in terms of the hacking at espionage activity. Is it directed toward any product as you sense, or do you get any sense that hackers or other agents of the Chinese Government are trying to disrupt the research itself and interfere with the development of either the collection of data or a vaccine . Dir. Wray i am trying to think of the best way to summarize what we are seeing. I guess what i would say is it , is clearly targeting the former, targeting information about progress in much the same way, the same playbook that we are seeing from chinese hackers across other kinds of industries and research and innovation. Rather than innovate themselves, they are trying to essentially jump to the front of the line by stealing information from others. Sen. Hawley well, thank you again for your work on this and your continued attention to what is obviously a vital National Security interest of this nation. A final question as i go, what about a connection to the Chinese Government . We have talked about chinese hackers and chinese espionage. How much of a connection have you seen to the beijing government itself to these efforts . Dir. Wray of course, what you are raising there is a very important question of attribution and the standards that the Intelligence Community uses for attribution are different than, say, the private sector might use. But as i sometimes say, nothing says attribution like an indictment. As you know, we have brought some significant indictments against chinese hackers that tie back to the mss specifically on a number of occasions. And these are targeting not just american companies, american Research Institutions, but also similar institutions among some of our closest allies, and targeting pii, personal identifying information for americans. Chinese hackers have essentially stolen the pii of about half the Adult Population of the United States. Sen. Hawley that is a shocking number. Thank you for your work on this and thank you, mr. Chairman. Chairman johnson senator hawley, thank you. Senator siiema. Sen. Sinema i appreciate the gentleman joining us today. I know it is critical that we Work Together to tackle threats against the homeland and along our nations borders. I remain committed to working every day in a bipartisan fashion to secure the border arizonans safe and make sure , the migrants are treated fairly. A key part of this overall effort is attacking the challenge at our nations ports of entry. My question is for mr. Cuccinelli. Arizona ports of entry are among the busiest in the nation and the goods and people flowing through them play critical roles in both arizonas and the nations economy. C. P. B. Employees work hard every day to facilitate the flow of trade and travel, but our nation continues to struggle with significant amounts of illicit drugs entering our nation through our ports. With a month yet to go in fiscal year c. P. B. Is reporting that 2020, they have already seized more marijuana, methamphetamine and fentanyl at ports of entry than they did in 2019. So i strongly believe that technology is part of the answer here, which is why i worked with senator cornyn to introduce an dhs technology planning. I want your take on this challenge. What actions does the dhs need to take now on our ports of entry to better respond to the ongoing threat this flow of drugs represents . Cuccinellkai zeroing in on your question on the ports of entry. The most Important Program running is the nonintrusive inspection effort. As i mentioned earlier. One of the advantages of the expanded security along the border including the building of a border wall is that we are funneling more traffic between ports of entry and two parts of entry. That means that we are able to confront threats on our terms and on our turf. It doesnt mean theyre not dangerous and it doesnt mean there arent a lot of them, but as we have had Great Success in the last four years in seizing hard drugs, the ones that do the most harm in the most communities in your state and every state, of course, we have seen Great Success in that area, as i said in my opening remarks. But we will do better still as we expand the availability of nonintrusive inspection ability. And you mentioned how busy the ports in arizona are. Youre absolutely correct. One of the beauties of this particular technology, and i know it is part of why you support adding technology to the suite of problemsolving tools, is it increases the efficiency of the port itself and operate doesnth a way that require as much manpower and time to accomplish the same security goals. That is the very definition of increasing efficiency. We are also using, not in arizona yet, but hopefully to come soon, more autonomous surveillance around ports of entry to provide greater Situational Awareness and security not just our employees but everybody coming through those parts of entry as well. I look forward to expanding those efforts in the future and your help and cooperation in and support of that is much appreciated. Sinema. thank you. For my next question, i would like to ask of mr. Cuccinelli and director ray to weigh in. Behind his drugs are Transnational Criminal Organizations. They launder their profits. Recent media reports indicate able to useave been major Banking Institutions for Money Laundering purposes. What additional steps the dhs and the fbi need to take together and separately to cut off their access to Money Laundering . Dep. Secretary cuccinelli senator, i will start and then turn it over to director wray. As i mentioned up front, one of the areas we believe that you all in congress can be most helpful to us in this particular battle with these most evil people in the western hemisphere , are to provide us some tools that allow designation somewhere below a foreign terrorist organization, because of the sweeping capture of much of society because of how these organizations are interconnected with the Mexican Society so thoroughly. But above the level of near persecution of one person at a time. That allows us to attack these organizations at a strategic level and bring them down to help mexico regain control of its own country and protect ours at the same time. That is an area we would be very happy to partner with you on. It is definitely an area where there is potential for improvement. One of the key areas that you touch on is money. Mr. Miller talked about isis and al qaeda in particular. They believe, on some holy war. The folks in the tcos, they are not out there for what they think of as god, or maybe they do, but it is for money. If we can get at the money and start to cut off their ability to gain the benefits of their evil produce in the case of drugs and trafficking and is the case of humans, we will really be able to start to put a major dent in their operations and their threat to both mexico and to the United States. Director miller i would just add that i agree with what mr. Cuccinelli just said. I would just add that we have found over 112 years of fbi that whatever kind of enterprise that we are talking about is this case, the Transnational Criminal Organizations, if you want to dismantle the enterprise, then you have to go after the money as well. In fact the money becomes their infrastructure. The value of global crime ranges between 1 trillion and 2 trillion annually. About 300 billion are committed to u. S. Based tcos best transnational criminal , organizations and networks. They have figured out a way to cut off their access to money, and that will ultimately be one of the most critical part of making sure that the strategy is not just effective but enduring. Sen. Sinema thank you, director wray and thank you, mr. Cuccinelli. Mr. Chair, i do have further questions, but in the interest of my time expiring, i will submit them for mr. Cuccinelli and for director wray and i will yield back the balance of my time. Thank you. Chairman johnson appreciate it, senator sinema. Let me begin first by saying that of all the listed threats i began the hearing with, i think i mentioned border security, we have probably done a good job of covering most. But i didnt put a stopwatch on this. It kind of confirms what i ended up with talking about what i , believe is our current greatest threat to our democracy , and that literally is the rioting and anarchy and the fact that the adherence to the rule of law is actually a question in this country today. I think probably there is more time devoted during this hearing, more questions asked and more answers given in terms of what were seeing right now. So i appreciate it. I want to ask mr. Cuccinelli, as a former attorney general, one of the things i am highly can about, the lack of adherence to the rule of law and the rejection of it, as we saw in the protests in louisville yesterday, because people did not agree with what happened in the grand jury. One thing that disturbs me is the Movement Toward antibail laws, the fact that lease actually have you put donating to organizations that will pay bail so that we in effect have we saw the border catch and release, now we have catch and release in our cities. Can you speak to by the way senator paul talked about how assaultedcer who was that was protecte protecting hie officer who was assaulted, the person who assaulted him, he was charged and then released. I am not sure if he will ever be found. Mr. Cuccinelli, can you speak to my concern about this movement to antibail laws and the movement to bail people out of jail and back on the street the next night . Dep. Secretary cuccinelli that is a major concern. It does invoke state and local authority to a significant degree, not necessarily in washington, d. C. Where congress can have a say. Senator paul touched on this earlier. We see this almost recycling of criminals because they walk out in so many jurisdictions, whether it is new york or portland. The notion that antibail legislation is somehow a reform that improves the criminal justice system, honestly, it escapes me. Mind you, that is coming from someone who has been a 25year advocate for criminal Justice Reform including what was passed by congress and President Trump less than two years ago. That is the perspective that i come to this from, including my time as an attorney general. This was not an issue we faced in virginia because we didnt have localities nor do we have at the state level, this sort of treatment of bail as a punishment as opposed to a safety mechanism and a part of the justice process, which is what were seeing in other parts of the country. I would just note, also, senator portman made comments that are similar to yours, mr. Chairman. One of the most disturbing aspects of this summer of violence has been the overt encouragement of many who are in governmental positions of leadership, whether it is the speaker of the house attacking Law Enforcement, using phrases like stormtroopers to describe federal Law Enforcement doing their job properly. There wasnt even any question on her part about them not doing the job right. These are people doing the jobs she is a member of congress has cast for them. Or if it is mayor wheeler in portland who is encouraging violence. And we see this rife across large swaths of our political arena. I appreciate senator carpers comments and referencing Breonna Taylors mothers comments. I think those were extremely appropriate and they are helpful, and we appreciate hearing them from leadership in this country. But so much of the Political Leadership in the country has encouraged this violence. It has been a shocking aspect to the last four months that i find, as a former attorney general and in my current role at the department of Homeland Security, just shocking and israeli contrary to the ideals and values of this country. Chairman johnson it should surprise no one, when we put forward this greater leniency that is what is happening, that is what antibail laws are certainly is what is happening , when people contribute to organizations that bail people out and put them back on the streets, that is greater leniency and it is leading to greater lawlessness. It should come as no surprise. Asked, are there things that we need to do . Do we need to strengthen penalties, do we need to potentially create new crimes . I will ask director wray and i know attorney general barr had whether he mused about it or whether he is serious about charging people with sedition, but what can we do to gain control over our cities . Again, almost 570 of these peaceful protests turned to riots, violence and death. This is comfortably unacceptable. We need to get control of the situation. What do we need to do to get control the situation . Dep. Secretary cuccinelli certainly, mr. Chairman, you touched on one issue, which is it is hard enough to make sure , that the men and women of Law Enforcement can do what they need to do to arrest people the first time without having to go back out and rearrest the same person over and over again. Senator paul touched on that a little bit in his comments as well. In response to one of your colleagues questions, when federal, state, and local Law Enforcement all Work Together, which we do all the time around this country and do it properly, that is when we are it would to dust that is when we are able to see the best results, and anybody trying to look for what they can best contribute to the phenomenon. Of course, in your home state of , while there was significant damage comparatively quickly, i say that compared to other parts of the country, different parts of Law Enforcement banded together and worked handinhand and managed to bring law and order much more quickly by comparison. So while there was significant and tragic damage there, and, of course, some fatalities and injuries, it could have been a lot worse. I think it illustrates how Important Partnership is to dealing with this particular problem. Chairman johnson thank you, director wray. Senator portman, i know you have stayed behind as a backup, and i appreciate that. With me being remote. Though you have time for a couple of questions . I have got a few more myself. Sen. Portman let me follow up on one. Thank you, chairman. I told the chairman earlier i thought i was the last speaker when i questioned last times i when i questioned the last time, so i went a little long. But in this new virtual world, we had others. I apologize to my colleagues for taking more time. The threat i wanted to talk about was this domestic terrorism threat. Antisemitic,s for example hateful attacks, or , sometimes it is islamic extremists, but this is something, again, that department has focused on more. We understand dhs recently released the Implementation Plan for your contouring terrorism and targeted violence strategic framework. This committee has been active on a particular response, which is nonprofit security Grant Programs. It basically is a fema Grant Program that goes out usually to a faithbased organization say , a Synagogue Church or mosque, but all nonprofits are eligible, and it is for security , and now can be used for things even like armed security. A lot of it is just about getting the expertise, being sure that these organizations know, where do you place the cameras how do you ensure things , are locked, and you can help them just by doing a walkthrough. 32 organizations in ohio have received a combined total of 2. 3 million in grants in fiscal year 2020 and they are using it well in my view. I had a chance to visit with them. One thing we did last year that was effective is we did a conference in columbus, ohio where we had the fbi, and they did a great job. We also had dhs there, and they did a great job of explaining what the threat was and kind of starting down the process of what do you do to respond to it . The folks in the room, this was the sikh community, Muslim Community, everybody was there and people really appreciated it. That is one thing to think about, the possibility of doing more of these around the country where you have a conference bringing together leadership so people get a sense of, one, what is going on in the real world out there in terms of the threat, and it is not a classified environment but you are able to provide some good information. And then second, what do you do about it. So that is my question to you, is what can we do . , i know that you have a Grant Program. I would like to hear about that. If all three of you could speak briefly about the issue, that would be great. Just this month, the first, i would say 10 million went out to 29 recipients, and that is, as so much of the dhss responsibility in the domestic arena, it is prevention, and it goes hand in hand with standing to the office for targeted violence. Some people are familiar with the u. K. Model, this big group of people who work for their federal government that goes out to try to interdict yours and not in a Law Enforcement fashion but more like an intervention before violence occurs. That is a very different model than we are taking. Have just started building out we have got our first 12 fulltime employees for Regional Directors to expand partnerships so we get a whole of america, including working with exactly those nonprofits youre talking about, senator, to integrate them into our preventive efforts, both planning for resistance to potential assaults, but also for their partnership in intervening when they see people going down toath that may lead them violence. So that is the approach that we are taking in that office. It is one of the areas of greatest expansion that you will see over the course of the next year at the department of Homeland Security as we grow that effort out in the communities across the country, and certainly, you described one way that those contacts can be made more deeply and more quickly, and rare very open to repeating that sort of performance. It. Hank you, i appreciate it makes sense in this sense that you are leveraging federal dollars. As director miller knows, in columbus, ohio, the first indictment was made several years ago of an islamic terrorist who the fbi had worked , through an informant, and we were able to stop a horrific act. What really happened was that the community, the Muslim Community in columbus, ohio was cooperating with local state, federal Law Enforcement to find the individual and prevent what would have been a terrible loss of life. That is an example of having those relationships, made a big difference. It was at every level of government. I wonder if you have any thoughts on this, director wray or director miller . Community i think engagement is something that is critical to dealing with what we consider the biggest threat to the homeland, which is this combination of homegrown t extremists and domestic violent extremists, lone actors who are radicalized online. Because that is such a challenge, what we have seen both with the attacks we have repented and unfortunately the attacks that have occurred that we have investigated after the fact, is that almost every time, if you look back, there was someone along the way, a friend, Family Member, coworker, classmate, what have you, who knew the person well enough to frome the transformation radicalization of whatever kind it was to mobilization. So you have often heard the saying if you see something, say something. Most of us when we hear that, we think the an intended backpack in the Greyhound Bus terminal or something, and of course we want people to call when that happens, but we are trying to of ourt through all field offices, and i have met with communities in every single one, if used the something about somebody, we need you to say something. I have been encouraged by those instances where sometimes having wrestled with great interpersonal demons, a Family Member or a parent will say, and think about how hard that is my child, you know, my 18 or 19yearold child is going off the rails and i am concerned he might do something, and they call us. It is a heck of a lot better situation is both for them and more importantly, for the public, if we can do something before that person acts. Sen. Portman thank you, director. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Chairman johnson thanks for sticking around and backing me up. Thattor miller, i feel bad you havent been fielding a lot of questions. I would like to think it is because of the foreign threats that the National Counterterrorism center is normally known to address have been reduced, but i know that is not the case. I think the main reason is what i said in my opening, the unrest, the rioting, the lawlessness and anarchy on the streets of america are just posing a more pressing risk and the greater risk to our overall democracy. I did want to give you a quick opportunity to tell us, is there anything else you think is important to the American People, that they understand about what youre trying to do to keep this nation safe, the men and women in your agency. Dir. Miller i am not offended in the least, i think is a testimonial to the success we have had that it is no longer the principal concern of this committee and others. Caps on right. This is what we wanted. That is all right. We didnt want this to be a war. Generational i take solace in the fact that we are talking about other things for a change. In closing, thank you for allowing me the opportunity to make a few comments. We just need to finish this thing and maintain our focus and take oura cliche foot off the gas too soon and the support of this committee and the senate and congress writ large are so important to that and i really thank you for the opportunity to make a few comments. Chairman johnson i appreciate the point you made about 2011, leaving iraq to early which gave the rise to isis and the caliphate. That have to learn from type of blunder, we have to learn those types of lessons. Finally, director wray, this is not on threats, but i just have to take this opportunity to ask a couple of questions about our investigation, and the unfortunate fact that my frustration got to the point where i have to speak to the fbi now. I appreciate the fact that weve had conversations and since that point in time, the fbi has become more responsive. But the fact of the matter is my staff continues to not the pain the materials, that they not obtained the materials. They have to go into the reading room, and quite frankly so much of the material they are reviewing is not censored or classified. There is no reason we cant take possession of it. To really ask you to look into that and be open with the information the Congress Certainly deserves and the American People have a right to know what all happened. The you make that commitment to look at that and fraud the people who work under you prod the people who work under you to make this available . Dir. Wray i will certainly drill into it further and have my staff he if there are ways in which we can improve the process. The reading room construct that you have described is, of course, a process that we and others in the Intelligence Committee use with all committees for this kind of information. We have surged Additional Resources to your request, and brought staff from multiple divisions. Of course, we are working with a lot of other agencies and a lot of times parts of the information that make something classified are other agencies information. But we will can today to work as hard as we can in good faith to be responsive and accommodating. I appreciate your forbearance and the conversations we have had lately. Chairman johnson i appreciate that. One particular piece of information frustrating my staff is, there are unclassified Text Messages with Andrew Mccabe which are not being made available. Would you commit to making those things delivered to us in our possession . Dir. Wray i am happy to look into that and have someone get back to you as quickly as we can about where that stands. Chairman johnson appreciate it. ,n the department of justice Inspector General horwitzs report, former assistant director bill priest up was quoted as saying the fbi didnt have any indication as of may of 20 because my staff uncovered four classified footnotes, and that points to what makes this so important that we make this information available. In this classified footnotes, we know the fbi in early october 2016, the team did obtain information from a steel sub source that he was suspected of being linked to intelligence question services and rumored to be a former kgb officer. In january 2000 cementing 2017 based on rumors, speculation that the sub source never expected to the report were presented as facts. Proof to support the statements from the sub source, and it was just talk. Conversations you had with friends over beers, statements made in jest. Of fbi had indications possible infiltration of the Steel Organization by Russian Intelligence Services in january 2017. That is an indication of a sub possibly being kgb officer in october 2016. They found7, confirmation of that and how grossly unreliable the dossier was, and to get the investigation continued. It continued to the point where we set up the special counsel to take a look at this largely based on the steele dossier. My question on this is as the current fbi director do you believe the investigation should have proceeded at all once the fbi knew that the kgb might have been one of the steel sub sources . And that russian disinformation was contained within the steele dossier . Dir. Miller first let me dir. Wray first let me try to answer your question this way. I believe the Inspector General report describes conduct that i ,onsider unacceptable unrepresentative of who the fbi is as an organization and not allowed to be repeated. 40 measurested over to address those issues, some of which is relevant to the ongoing john durham investigation with which we are fully cooperating. I want to be careful about how i weigh in on that. As you know, the justice thattment has concluded the quarter page fisa applications after that date should not have been submitted, and i believe all of this happened before i became director but i believe doj officials around at the time said they would not have signed those applications. In some respect, that speaks for itself. It is pretty obvious that best january 2017, there should have been no further investigation into the trump campaigns possible collusion with russia. Crumbled andon simply did not support any further. My final question is that you were not fbi director back then but you were in march 2018, and in march, the fbi provided a briefing to the Senate Committee on intelligence in which they briefed that Community Committee and the steel reporting was reliable. With thealked about fbi knew and when they knew it. 2017 thatby january the steele dossier was not reliable. My question for you is that happened under your watch. How could that happen . Thethe fbi going to brief Senate Select committee on intelligence over a year later when they knew the steele dossier was not reliable brief the Senate Committee that it was. Dir. Wray the issue that you are raising is one i have been in close contact with chairman graham about. I will say this. Debriefing in question as i understand it was a staff briefing, and it was happening at a time when we were largely in standdown mode because of the special counsel investigation. Aboutsly, i am concerned what i have heard about that briefing, but i probably for right now should leave it at that. , are thereant to ask employees of the fbi there were part of that briefing who are still employees and is there justr has there been what every action taken against the individuals. This is a year after the fact that we know the steele dossier was not reliable. Dir. Wray by describing it as a staff briefing, that is in no way intended to suggest that that is not important. Second, as a disciplinary action, i believe that all of the most Senior Executives involved in the investigation, who participated in that briefing are all gone from the fbi. Beenme cases, people have fired. In other cases people have retired or resigned on my watch. As far as disciplinary action beyond that, every individual referenced in the Inspector General report at any level, even in passing, as betty referred to our office of has ofn referred to our office anse tend to be people at aligns level. As far as action toward them, that has largely been a little bit on a stand still in order to accommodate mr. Durham and his investigation and certain steps we have to wait on in order to let him complete case investigation, which we are fully cooperating as the attorney general has said quite publicly on a number of occasions. I appreciate your answer. I think we share the same goal here. We have to restore the credibility to the fbi, and the only way to do that is in the fbi as got to come clean. The American People need to understand what happened and they need to have assurance that the fbi it will take corrective actions and hopefully put policies and place where this will never happen again. I look forward to working with you. Fulllly encourage cooperation. The American People have a right to know. They should have known years ago. I want to thank all of the witnesses for your service, your sacrifice, as was said by most members of this committee. Please convey to the men and women who work with you our appreciation for their service and sacrifice. I need to underscore the point. I truly believe the vast majority of americans are so appreciative of what Law Enforcement does every day, day in and day out trying to keep our cities, our states, this country safe, and i think it is an abomination that there is the police movement, so many people attacking Law Enforcement. We need to support Law Enforcement. How are we going to recruit defined men and women that put their lives on the line to keep us safe if we keep denigrating, attacking them . People hearing this hearing today understand that there is a great deal of support for Law Enforcement. That is by and large the vast majority of americans. God bless everybody in Law Enforcement. God bless everyone in your department and agencies. With that, the record will remain open for 50 days. Submit statements and questions for the record. This hearing is adjourned. [indistinct conversation] [indiscernible] journals washington every day taking your calls live on the air on the news of the day and we discussed policy issues that impact you. Coming up friday morning, we discussed michigan as a key battleground state in november with Detroit Free Press correspondent and with oakland Clinical University scientist david dileo. Watch cspans washington journal join the discussion with your phone calls, Text Messages, facebook messages, and tweets. Between john f. Kennedy and richard nixon. On friday, the Late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader ginsburg becomes the first woman to lie in the u. S. Capitol. Our live coverage begins at 9 30 a. M. Eastern with a ceremony in statuary hall. Members of congress will pay their respects and passed by the casket. Her casket leaves the capital at 12 30 accompanied by her family. Female members of congress will line the steps during the departure ceremony. 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