Transcripts For CSPAN2 FBI Director Wray Testifies Before Senate Judiciary Committee 20240714

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] come to order we appreciate you coming over director ray we will try to get out of here by 1 00 oclock you have an agency to run and if there is any cleanup we will try to accommodate. Very briefly the oversight hearing comes at an important time even though there is no evidence the russians change the tally of the 2016 election they exceeded their wildest expectations or interfere with the 2016 elections. All of us are very interested in what we can do to make sure this doesnt happen again in 2020 and after what china is doing section 2015 authorities are about to expire to hear from the director what that means to the country with a pfizer warrant investigation we that is coming also media leaks at the fbi. Having said all that it is difficult time for the fbi but lets not let a few bad actors taint a Great Organization so before we start me tell you and those that work under your charge we appreciate what they do without their service day in and day out in the country would be a much dangerous place to live and we will do everything we can to get this budget deal through because sequestration would be a slap in the face senator feinstein. Thank you very much mister chairman and welcome it is great to see you slightly more gray than when we saw you last time there is good reason for that. Welcome. It has been nearly two years since you were confirmed to run the fbi so we have a lot of important topics to cover and during this time democracy and the rule of law have come under attack. Foreign governments have interfered in the United States elections and continue to conduct influence campaigns designed to divide americans along racial, religious and political lines the president has declared he has an absolute right to control the Justice Department and the executive branch is removed from congressional oversight and americans who disagree can go back to where they came from. Over the past two years the president has attacked the fbi describing in tweets as corrupt and full of dirty cops. Also that the fbi is part of the deep state and politically biased against him. It is my view that the claims are false and harmful with the fbis ability to enforce the law and survey show that while morale was high in 2016 it has declined in 2017 after the president fire the director and began publicly attacking the bureau. While the president has claimed the fbi investigation of his campaign possible coordination with russia was started illegally, the Mueller Report confirms there was a legitimate and lawful reason to open the investigation. The Mueller Report explains the fbi started investigating possible coordination between the Trump Campaign and russia. In response to information provided by a Foreign Government shortly after wikileaks started to release documents stolen by russia from the dnc. The Mueller Report further explains in late july 2016 shortly after wikileaks started to release information stolen by russia from the dnc Computers Australia told the fbi months earlier the Trump Campaign advisor George Papadopoulos had told australias top diplomat in britain that russia had dirt on Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails and as russia had indicated it could help the Trump Campaign by releasing the stolen and meals on emails to damage candidate clinton and the Mueller Report concluded welcomed, encouraged and expected to benefit electorally from russias efforts. We should be grateful for the work that Law Enforcement does to stop Foreign Governments from interfering in the United States elections. This is especially true now with another president ial election ahead. We know russias efforts are ongoing and other foreign powers will not hesitate to exploit opportunities to interfere in our elections and democracy. You have warned us, director wray that russia is adapting and upping their game and to describe their efforts to meddle in the 2018 midterm elections as quote mac address rehearsal for the big show in 2020. You have also stated quote mac enormous strideshave been made since 2016 to protect our elections. So i ask you to give us a frank assessment today of how prepared we are and in particular at a state and local level to identify and address foreign interference in the 2020 election. Moreover what more needs to be done flex threats to the nation from terrorists, criminals, and Foreign Governments seeking to steal our secrets and undermine our elections and democracy i believe are very real. 37000 men and women of the fbi are on the front lines every day addressing these threats and helping americans be safe. The fbi is not a corrupt institution or a deep state are acting against the president for political purposes so we need to come to gather in a bipartisan fashion to support you and this Institution Even as we conduct important oversight. I am very proud to be supportive of your organization and its mission. Thank you for your leadership and we look forward to hearing your testimony. Before i turn it over to the director just a comment on ms. Feinsteins Opening Statement. The committee will be looking at the counterintelligence investigation on the Trump Campaign and we will call papadopoulos and find out what happened. Even with a pfizer award to abuse with the surveillance by the fbi to make sure we know what we are doing if there are protocols in place to ensure we dont play politics with the la law. Thank you mister chairman and Ranking Member and members of the committee. Cigar the testimony about to give the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god . Thank you mister chairman Ranking Member and member of the committee for the chance to appear today program originally intended to start with a few comments from my statement from the record with the extraordinary work done by the men and women of the fbi but i want to do something a little different talking what is near and dear to me before i tie it to the many important questions of the committee. As you say senator feinstein i have been on the job just under two years and one of the toughest things of the job is the loss of a Law Enforcement officer. Certainly at the fbi we have experienced our share of loss but the success also depends greatly on the support of our dedicated local Law Enforcement partners who control our neighborhoods, protect our streets all across america and they see that much more clearly now after having visited all 56 of the fifties fbi field offices and also the head from every one of your states. State and local partners serve on the joint Terrorism Task force with force multipliers in the fight against drug trafficking, taking down gang gangs, saving kids who have been kidnapped and exploited to help keep americans safe. This gives the fbi a much clearer understanding of the threats across the different communities in the ideas how we can combat them together. Every time i attend and fbi graduation at quantico a significant number are former state and local officers perk i have the privilege to shake their hand and present them with their credentials so that line of duty death is personal to the fbi and me as director. I have a feeling it is personal to a number of you. Since i became director , shortly thereafter i asked my team to let me know if every time an officer is shot and killed in the line of duty in this country and every time it happens i ask for a picture of the officer and read about his or her family and how long they served and then i pick up the phone and call the chief or the sheriff or commissioner and on behalf of the entire fbi extend my support and our condolences. We have made an awful lot of those calls to heart broken in just last month for example i was overseas meeting with foreign counterparts making five of those calls in nine days back to the United States five lost protectors of communities and grieving families and colleagues all in a matter of days. One of the calls i made was to a Sacramento Police department the home of you senator feinstein and senator harris a few weeks ago on june 19 an officer was killed while responding to a domestic disturbance. Twentysix years old, she was only on the job for six months. Another call i made literally only one day later to the home state of senator cornyn and senator cruise from the mission Police Department was killed while trying to catch a guy who threatened his family with a gun and then fled on foot and was 44 years old and had a wife and two kids. These calls never get any easier and just under two years as director i artie had to make condolence calls like that do more than half of the states represented on this committee and i have had to speak some chiefs and stare on the sheriffs more than once per will never forget last september when i called the Mississippi Police force after two of their men were killed. To put that in context a tire force of 30 people but unfortunately we already had two more officers killed just this month what was as an officer from this past thursday. With only a few specific tragic incidents but i cannot express enough this is a powerful to express towns big and small over the country it can happen anywhere, anytime and the level of violence against Law Enforcement doesnt get a lot of National Coverage and i worry often americans dont realize the extent of the problem. Maybe that is understandable because they dont see what i see in my job with a devastating loss in each instance of those left behind in the loss to the fbi and communities, partner communities, partners, who are so critical to our mission. Finally want folks to remember the dangers of this work go beyond dead the criminals. Line of duty death in the instance that we see now from 9 11 First Responders and those that died as a result of their work and countless other examples. And they know our country faces a daunting list of challenges and well be discussing them at this hearing but i want to make sure folks are not forgetting the good work of the people who put everything on the line. It takes an incredibly special person to be willing to put his or her life on the line for a complete stranger. And to get up every morning day after day to do that is extraordinary. We owe it to them into the fallen comrades to do whatever we can to make their work safer and promote understanding and respect for their roles and all americans owe them a profound debt of gratitude. I appreciate the committee extending me the privilege and honor is fbi director to honor their sacrifice with this job and im happy to answer questions. A very good sobering reminder you dont know if you will come home if your spouse or significant other and every time somebody falls in battle we give them appropriate honor a lot of people follow the line of duty. Well done. So lets talk about foreign and domestic threats so thats what we are about at the fbi. Do you have agents. We do. From your point of view is the terrorist threat in afghanistan extinguished to the homeland or those threats alive and well quick. We are dessert about threats in afghanistan and the potential ramifications around the world and here. There is more than before 9 11 like isys. They are in afghanistan as a speak. Is sequestration if that goes back into effect how does that affect your ability to operate . I would use the word devastating and i dont tend to use hyperbole. We at the fbi in a way thats different than other agencies around the government a lot of money goes straight to personnel cost. Our ability to keep people safe would be hampered. So devastating is an accurate description. Section 215 authority is about to expire. Under usa freedom act there are three provisions that are relevant to the fbi set to expire if we dont collectively act. The first, perhaps the most widely used is the Business Records used routinely almost every day under Court Supervision to collect Business Records that which would not be available under National Security. So that is something we use all the time. Also how does that hamper your ability to operate . Counterterrorism and profoundly, counterterrorism and increasingly the cybermission and profoundly. And there are a couple of other authorities. You are hoping with reauthorization. Certainly these are indispensable tools and we look forward to working with congress to make sure we have the ability to keep america safe. Theyre all Court Supervised is subject to extensive oversight. In the 2020 election do you have what you need to provide Election Security from your lane with a Statutory Authority that you need . Our primary focus is the maligned influence peace with that infrastructure piece dhs deals with we feel we have significant resources devoted in the president s budget that is before the Congress Asking for Additional Resources to do that. Any law change that you need to help you . We can always use more tools in the toolbox but i cant think of any of the foreign influence peace right now. What are the chinese up to with Counter Intelligence . Mister chairman there is no country that poses more severe counterintelligence threat to this country right now than china. That is saying a lot. I dont say it lightly second is russia. Whats the difference . China is fighting the generational fight. When i see china, want to be clear but what it is about a country in a variety of ways through the Chinese Government the Chinese Communist party with private sector entities to spill their way up up the economic ladder and as we speak 1000 plus investigations all across the country with attempted theft of intellectual property counter proliferation, almost all leading back to china. It is deep and diverse and wide and vexing with those actors with those techniques and targets so we are working extremely hard to combat but this is a high priority for all of us. Are the russian still trying to interfere in elections . They are intent on to interfere with the elections through foreign influence. Everything we have done against russia has not deterred them enough. But until they stop that they are still doing it. Yes. Some of us are concerned about the 2016 election and the bias and to be fair to the country as a whole with the fisa warrant process. Mister chairman and all my experience with respect to mister horowitz although he is hardhitting he is independent and objective and thorough and professional ive no reason to doubt the integrity or the quality of the investigation he has underway. So is anybody giving a deep dive . Is that part of the charter quick. He could speak for himself but as you know the attorney general is doing a review, and thats part of his job and part of mine to get those questions answered. Director wray, may 16 filed a classaction lawsuit against the department of justice. And with that gender Discrimination Program and then accuses the fbi to allow the Good Old Boy Network from the fbi academy that directly lead to subjective training standards. Is this true . What has been done to recruitment of agencies have they refuse the Academy Training program quick. Because the matter that you refer to is pending litigation i cannot comment directly but what i will tell you is we are firmly committed to diversity and i will also tell you to make significant strides to improve the diversity of our workforce. And those new agent classes has significantly higher female representation in the current workforce. With gender diversity with every field office and those are on par with the targets. We received some of that information in writing spirit of specifics. That is extremely important and the diversity is about the ability to make better decisions for we are all more effective when it is important with the credibility to the public in the matter of respect. Has the fbi reviewed its Training Programs quick. We are taking a look at how things are working at the academy. No changes that i can describe right now but i can get back to your office with more information. I would appreciate it if you would get back to us. With any Training Programs that assure equal treatment of female candidates and strategies. I went through this as mayor of San Francisco is painful but i also know that its right. So i appreciate knowing what is happening. According to the special counsel Mueller Report the fbi embedded personnel with mothers team the purpose was to review the investigation and to send, in writing the intelligence and counterintelligence information to fbi headquarters and field offices the Mueller Report says these summaries contain information that is not included in the Mueller Report itself. Have you reviewed these summaries . I want to be careful not to be discussing the special counsel if he will be testifying tomorrow. My understanding is it is outside of the report. What i would say is the report itself describes or explains there is a number of referrals that have been made to the fbi but beyond that i dont feel comfortable commenting at this point. Have you seen any summaries of information quick. I have seen what has come out of the special counsels report and i will leave it at that. A variety of issues. Congress has not seen them. I dont know for sure exactly what different members of congress have seen. Will you make them available to congress quick. I know we are having engagement with both intelligence committees and i can see where things stand with information sharing. The Mueller Investigation confirmed Paul Manafort Trumps Campaign manager spent several years working for the Russian Oligarch and was personally aligned by Vladimir Putin. Thats in the Mueller Report and mueller uncovered during the president ial campaign, manafort provided and funneled Campaign Strategy and messaging for battleground states of michigan wisconsin pennsylvania and minnesota that is volume one of the Mueller Report. Finally manafort told the special counsel that cormac if one cormac of trump one would use manafort to use whatever interest he had elsewhere. Did the fbi assess the impact of manafort providing this specific and significant Campaign Information to russian intelligence . Senator there was a lot of work done by a huge team of professionals resulting in a 450 page report i want to be careful not to try to gloss or layer on top of that especially with the counsel mueller testifying tomorrow i will leave it there for now. I would ask for a confidential briefing than on the subject. You can say yes or no but i will request it. Did the fbi determine whether any of this information ended up in the hands of the ira quick. Theres nothing i can say on that here senator. My time is almost up. Senator lee. Thank you for being here director wray. Tell me what biggest change you have experienced since you have taken your current position. I appreciate the fact increasingly i find going from one corner of the country to another visiting all feel offices and meeting with Community Partners and private sector partners in every state had increasingly the rest of america they recognize the fbi has more than two investigations over the last two years. In may the attorney general noted there was overreach in connection with the 2016 election and seems to be a few people at the top getting it into their heads that they know better than the American People. We know what happened in part because we have seen Text Messages between fbi investigators showing a strong candidate bias against the candidate trump and they saw the purpose of their investigation as very specific to stop donald trump from become president of the United States. They use their power and im sure you would agree these are troubling reports and it has been an ongoing concern with the bureaus history is one that has a deliberate enter most of its history a successful effort to make sure the reputation precedes it and to make sure that it stays out of politics with Law Enforcement i understand you have made some personal changes in response to what happened so what else are you doing . Other internal practices and procedures you can change or implement to make sure the fbi uses its power appropriately and things like this dont happen quick. Thank you senator welcome the question. First, one of the primary messages i try to impart to every single fbi audience everywhere i go that our reputation as an agency revolves less around the wins and victories and then more than the way we accomplish the wind. Over 111 years weve made our share of mistakes and we have learned that we need to be in a position with every investigation, every intelligence analysis to say when we are criticized or somebody is not happy and there is always somebody who is not happy, to say you may not like where it ended up at you cannot challenge the professionalism and integrity. I have made personnel changes and turned over the entire Leadership Team and then we put in place a number of new policies. And third i did a full day of training for starting at the top so i brought all the workforce but the secretary general and judges trying to remind everybody it isnt just objectivity but the appearance of objectivity of what we do that so important. I will say that while we certainly have had mistakes and taken appropriate disciplinary action, that my experience with the fbi, and i say that with a pretty informed basis that it is full top to bottom of hardworking professionals of the highest integrity, committed to service over herself and im proud to work with them. If the fbi were the administration as a whole have a position for reauthorization of those expired authorities quick. I dont think they have taken an official position but as i have said to the chairman there are provisions in particular that are keenly relevant to the fbi that my experience that are controversial and extremely important to our work in all subject to Court Supervision and the wiretap provision which already exist on the criminal side. And the lone wolf provision although not used yet thats because we have chosen to use other tools where we can with a counterterrorism threat is evolving we predict over the next few years the lone wolf provision will be more and more important so we would hate to see that disappear. Collection of call detail records cdr up to 15 of the patriot act subsequently modified had been the subject of a fair amount of scrutiny after it was reported or after the nsa reported june 2018 it was deleting three years worth of records due to technical irregularities and the data provided to the nsa telecommunication providers that nsa was not authorized to receive. In march of this year the New York Times and wall street journal both reported the nsa shut down the entire Collection Program in 2018 considering closing the program entirely what is the current status of the cdr program . Really that is the nsa authority and i would defer to them for the latest and greatest on that. Dont you think the abuse of that or the propriety of its collection has to be something we take into account in deciding in what way to reauthorize these programs . Certainly that congress should make a thoughtful decision about reauthorization of many of those provisions of the patriot act and the questions of irregularities or even abuses are appropriate for congress that the specifics of the program i will defer to nsa. And those that the fbi is focused on. Thank you mister chairman. Director wray do you know what group was responsible for more homicides 2000 through 2016 more than any other domestic Extremist Group . Im not sure but im sure you will tell me. But your testimony submitted talked about the homegrown violent extremist and in an unclassified dhs bulletin in may 2017 said white supremacist extremism is a persistent threat of violence and goes on to say the white supremacist responsible for more homicides than any other domestic extremist movement. Some members of the committee join me to write a letter to you and the attorney general to explain our concern how it was taking adequate measures against the violence and against the threat. The term white supremacist and White Nationalist was not included in your statement to the committee talking about threats to america there is a reference to racism that was meant to include that but nothing more specific. We live in a world where the neonazis and white supremacist are taking lives in many places. The white supremacist murdered muslim worshipers in new zealand or six muslim worshipers in quebec city canada. And in the United States there have been shootings at the temple in wisconsin, the Episcopal Church in charleston south carolina, tree of life synagogue in pittsburgh and the t 14 synagogue at t 14 california that this is not taken as seriously and that the fbi has now changed the definition when it comes to race related crimes they have created a new category racially motivated violent extremism and it used to be white supremacist so can you explain to me why there was this change, if you consider this a serious threat and what you are doing about it . This is in context of the National Conversation taking place every day of the issue of race and inciting emotion and violence by the people who were using race as the motivator. Senator, first i will unpack the question a little bit. Designating domestic terrorism or hate crime we take that very seriously i assure you and we are aggressively pursuing it. Using both counterterrorism resources and criminal investigation resources and partnering closely with our partners. In just the last little while we have had cases involving one lieutenant who was planning an attack on elected officials and tv anchors in this area. Wasnt motivated by White Supremacy quick. A version of that certain the. Our focus talking about the categorization but our focus is on violence. As the fbi we dont investigate ideology. We investigate violence and extremist ideology when it turns to violence we are all over it. In fact just in the first three quarters of this year , we have had more domestic terrorism arrest than the prior year its the same number. I will ask you to clarify that because when you talk about homegrown violent extremist and i talk about domestic violent extremist are we talking about the same thing quick. No. We use the term homegrown violent extremism referring to people already here in the United States inspired by different parts of the Global Jihadist Movement to commit terrorist acts. With domestic terrorism refers to a broader array of threats ranging from the anarchist extremism racially motivated extremism or environmental et cetera. So the reason why i quoted this report is that the violence that motivates the fbi investigation is a statement from this Intelligence Report during the years 202,016 the white supremacist responsible for more homicides than any other domestic Extremism Movement for gracie that distinction you are making, but let me ask you can you quantify either one for us quick. In terms of number of arres arrest, through the Third Quarter of this fiscal yea year, give or take 100 arrest of the International Terrorist including homegrown violent extremism. This year but also just about the same number again dont quote me the exact digit on the domestic terrorism side and i will say the majority of the domestic terrorism cases we have designated our motivated by some version of white supremacist but includes other things as well. This is significant for quite do not want to diminish the work you are doing with homegrown domestic terrorism at all in any way that is a serious threat to the United States 9 11 is positive of that fact that what you have said is significant if the number of people in the calendar year when it comes to this conduct is about equal between those inspired by foreign actors whatever it may be in those inspired by White Supremacy or a version of race. Thats the way i heard you say it. What i gave you is the number of arrests. That isnt necessarily the same thing of investigations that is an important distinction. I will give you the dignity of your apartment on department but the point i am getting to is we are at a very tense moment in American History on the issue of race with the National Conversation we havent had a long time about racism and what is acceptable and what is not so im asking you from the fbi point of you and what you have told me we take this as serious as we do for an inspired terrorism, there is a domestic terrorism underway in the name of race that is threatening in some respects a foreign terrorism. Thats the way i hear it. The greatest terrorist threat to the homeland is a homegrown violent extremist. That is jihadist inspired. That does not mean by any stretch of the imagination we dont take domestic terrorism including hate crime committed on behalf of a white supremacist ideology extremely seriously. We have had a number of very significant arrest we had militia members in cleveland stockpiling explosive one explosives, we had a case with the package ied, the rise above movement where we arrested eight different people on federal rioting charges one fled to el salvador we got him back in the synagogue shooting case in the attack at the synagogue there in san diego. And we got a life sentence with charlottesville. Make no mistake mistake we are working with local Law Enforcement partners is all that is. Director wray thank you for opening your remarks to local state and federal officers. It is important for all of us, not just the professionals who you represent that the entire nation to honor these heroes for their service and sacrifice. Thank you for that. This friday it is my honor to deliver the metal of bravery to fbi agents for their work during Hurricane Harvey which was significant in my state. Some on their behalf i will thank you of all the rankandfile who do such a great job every day. On the fifth 2017 Patrick Kelly kelly killed 26 worshipers outside of san antonio and we found out he was a convicted felon to be detained for Mental Health and with Domestic Violence even fracturing his stepsons goal during one episode and should have failed a background check and up to this terrible tragedy surpassing that piece of legislation of that criminal background check system to try to encourage federal agencies to provide records and that background check system is maintained by the fbi. And i agree the system only works sad its best with complete information with the goal that we all share for those who are legally prohibited from possessing firearms. Last year the system had 100,000 plus denials and seeing progress of those agencies i dont know how far along we are but we are making progress and we appreciate your leadership that we move in that direction. So in all probability in response to that terrible tragedy in Sutherland Springs with a background check system has save lives quick. I do think so. Director wray i was in austin texas with senator warner the Senate Vice Senate on chair of the Senate Committee at a full one a program hosted by a Technology Community in austin which is robust and growing. At the time headed for the Counterintelligence Division made a presentation about the chinese threat and i think it was an eyeopening presentation for a lot of folks who were there. I remember in particular one said once the United States issued a visa to somebody they performed a security background check on that person and not a threat to the United States National Security. But the point was made in the old days it was five and now its spy against the whole host of informal collectors. Under the fbi and other done their best to spread the word but can you tell me what your record has been in doing that and what more needs to be done by congress i know the fbi has its hands full than to go around to make presentations like this why you keep the bad guys off the streets but is the more we need to do to supplement the efforts to educate the American People on this threat quick. When it comes to congress role, i have bitterly opposed political environment i have been heartened on this issue every time i appear in front of a committee of congress from one end of the spectrum from other compared to my earlier stages the level of alignment and consensus about the importance to confront this threat in a more thoughtful and effective way so the more congress can raise awareness i think the more we can appropriately protect the country. I will say there is a lot people dont understand of the nature of the china threat. Its not just spy versus spy. There is a slew of nontraditional collectors of businessmen, scientists, academe students, people who are not Intelligence Officers by profession but for a variety of reasons working on behalf of the Chinese Government. Sometimes people dont understand the degree to which that what we revere and cherish those are not blurred or entirely eliminated in china the difference between the government and the communist party there really isnt a difference the difference between the Chinese Government and private sector is not really a difference. I say that because under chinese law, most companies are already literally estate owned enterprise were legally are practically beholden to the Chinese Communist party. Law would require them to provide whatever information the Chinese Government or the communist party once and is usually upon demand and people dont understand virtually any company from china of any size is required to have a Chinese Communist Party Committee to ensure the company adheres to Chinese Communist party policies. So when they are out trying through legitimate means are illegitimate means through intellectual property thats what we talk about counterintelligence into the last several months we have had a whole variety of case cases, hackers with the chinese mss engage in the Extensive Campaign like 45 Different Companies in 12 different states and the mss officer assigned charged in ohio to steal aviation secrets. Different office one officers in a team of hackers in a fiveyear campaign of repeated intrusions by core Chinese State process with a couple of individuals try to steal trade secrets from a company in idaho. A guy in chicago senator durbin working with the mss to recruit employees from defense contractors. A guy in oklahoma stealing over 1 billion of confidential proprietary information from the us energy company. I have even got into teeeight literally charge from coasttocoast with a campaign of fraud intellectual property threat theft and obstruction of justice i can go on and on and it affects basically every industry in this country and agriculture and private sector, academia, human operations, cyberoperations , to be clear we welcome competition. We welcome Academic Freedom that cheating is not okay. Fraud is not okay. Cyberhacking is not okay. As long as they keep committing crimes and threatening National Security they will keep encountering the fbi. Thank you. Other than that we are in pretty good shape. [laughter] thank you. Taking you back to the fbi role of the Background Investigation. Two letters were sent to you by law firms in that timeframe and one pointed out the fbi quoting declines interview with witnesses whose names we provided requesting information highly relevant to the allegations. And the other referenced agents said provided the fbi with a list of more than 20 additional witnesses for information and attached an affidavit from a credible person and there was no follow up on that either forgot like to be asked of those letters are made a part of the record. We also experienced on this committee considerable difficulty to find out where the point of entry would be to the fbi for information. Fbi for information. To provide Committee Confidential Contact Information for an fbi agent to whom members can send credible contacts individuals being interviewed. Does that ever happen . Senator, i dont remember all of the specifics of the particular background of the investigation. You referenced the Prior Experience as an attorney and we talked about that before, its important for people to understand theres a difference between a Background Investigation and the kinds of commonlaw investigations enCounter Intelligence investigations the fbi does everyday. The bucket investigation is something that we do in a complete different way as an Investigative Service provider to declining agency. In this case it wouldve been the white house. You testified to senator harris with Homeland Security committee of an update to the previous Background Investigation with limited scope and it was omitted in scope by the white house. That is correct . I did testify to that and i stand by that testimony. I would also say i testified and consulted at length with the Security Professionals who are specialist and back on investigations to make sure that investigation was done consistent with her longstanding policies, practices and procedures for Background Investigations. Where its not unusual for the scope to be limited. Heres my hypothesis. You dont recall whether you responded to this letter by seeing to it was an fbi agent to whom members can send catapult contact. I do not believe there was but if i was trying to factor information to the right place and every door we turned to closed and then that door and then go to that door, the ultimate upshot as seemed to me was fbi established a to blame. And if people wanted to bring in information they were told to call into the tip line. Ive tried to figure out the protocol for two points. I would ask that a question for the record, you provide me whatever is relevant to the Standard Operating Procedure and practice for the fbi with respect to the treatment of tip line information when it comes in. Would you be willing to do that . Id be happy to provide you more information. Thank you. I found enough bad video that describes how two planes work when it comes in through the fbi. Gov interface and the first step that comes into the public assess owne center. The check the database to verify its a valid tip. And you vouched that those steps were undertaken with respect with the Kavanaugh Investigation to plan. What i tell you, i spoke specifically with the people responsible for the back on investigation who are career professionals specializing in Background Investigations, not to be confused with criminal investigations. I was assured repeatedly that they feel comfortable the way it was being handled was consistent with their practices, procedures and longstanding. Assented to plan before ever . I dont know the answer to that. Its hard to say if its consistent with procedures. The procedures apparently, another single tip is looked at by two individuals who have independent Quality Assurance checks. Do you know if that procedure was followed with respect to the kavanaugh to plank . I would come back to the answer that again. I expect the backward investigation which are different, fundamentally different from criminal investigation and counterintelligence. And being conducted in a way that the professionals in this area feel comfortable. You dont know whether or not the twopoint procedures were followed . Im not talked specifically about the pre once a tip is determined, the supervisor would review the tip and it gets factored in to Electronic Systems for further processing. I guess, if youre not familiar with that step took place either. I am familiar with the assurance i got it, i just need something more specific. Every single piece of information submitted by an individual is reviewed by fbi personnel and fbi headquarters. And you cant vouch for that with respect to the stippling. I cannot speak to that specifically prayed. Here is my concern, ill be perfectly candid and you can answer however, you want. But it looks like every time somebody went to get an fbi agent to take information that the tip line became a tip dump. Into which information was dumped and never ever reviewed for credibility and was not treated with the protocol that the fbi has announced and it usually handles with two points. Im happy to continue this conversation, my time is up but please, that is a legitimate question to ask and i hope the answers for the record you be able to compare the protocols that the fbi uses for two planes with a way in which this is handled by the fbi. I understand you treat these separately and they dont follow ordinary procedures for ordinary procedure is a benchmark and am interested in finding out how close the fbi came in this particular tip line. Id be happy to provide you more information as followup to your questions. I would say ordinary procedure to use your phrase, theres ordinary procedure for criminal investigation and counter collagens investigation. I cannot agree with the more, and once we agree on the facts we can have a discussion on whether or not the standard is basic response fully. Thank you, mr. Chairman, thank you for being here. Addicted talk about Human Trafficking. One of the great scorches over time. There were slaves now in human history. Thank you for the work of the bureau in the Jeffrey Epstein case. That monster is in the proces ps of being brought to justice. Your agents have done good work. Lets back up from an individual case to the bigger picture. When is it appropriate for trafficking cases to be investigated by state and local versus the bureau, how do you divide the responsible . As a general rule we take the approach of Human Trafficking that we do with most threat where there is overlapping responsibility, we look at where we the fbi, most of value to the common bite in the case of Human Trafficking, we probably spend more of our efforts on the fbi side focused on sex trafficking in sex trafficking of kids in labor trafficking of adults. It does not mean we dont investigate the others but we try to work with other agencies to share the load. We can most of value is going after those who traffic kids for sex. We have extensive investigations and just this month ongoing we have something called operation Independence Day and i would lost count halfway through the month we had already rescued or recovered 40 kids. Just this month. Its ongoing and will end at the end of the month. Part of the reason that i make the distinction is because there is skills sets that we can provide an offer that are relevant to dealing with child victims for example, there are authorities that help us investigate more effectively and some of the online effectiveness for some of the traffickers have, those are some of the ways that we contribute and its a common fight. We have 85 child expectations. They have partners, in my Opening Statement how much we rely on state and local Law Enforcement. Lots and lots of state and local Law Enforcement are on the taskforces. All over the country. We try to go at it together. Great taskforces in the bureau as state and local levels. The Nebraska Attorney general has set up a task force and is very impressive. Creighton university in amal have been studying the movie that have kids in them that theyve studied that has three to five kids and they move around connected to sporting events. Praising the work, there is clearly new focus on the bureau and this is not retrospect but forwardlooking, im skeptical that we have nearly enough resources on this problem when we know the tens of thousands are marketed online at any given month and a lot of these have three to five kids moving and you think that we have enough. We have supported a lot of resources to it. I assure you it will be put to good use. It is absolutely horrifying that in the 21st century this kind of activity can happen in our country and its board alignment evil. Some of these kids are hardworking young. And utterly helpless. The more resources we can bring to the fight both on the federal side the state and local Law Enforcement but frankly we were closely with other forms of organizations to help prevent some of this activity, its a big role for awareness raising from prevention perspective. Im thrilled when we recover a child, on the other hand im a realist. In her broken because i know that kid will never be the same. Theres a lot of estimates that somewhat around a majorit majority its a crime that has content so used child rape, but the broad prosecution the majority in the u. S. And people under 21 and those over 21, some large share were trafficked into this before they were 21. We call it medieval but it seems i said particularly modern scorched because the numbers seem greater then any point in history. Do we have a National Strategy to combat it and whos in charge of it. We work collaboratively with a host of other agencies in the federal government. Engine from the department of labor to the department of state because theres a huge roller, the department of health and human services. In specific meetings with other cabinet secretary specifically focused on Human Trafficking. It is clearly one of these things that the multidisciplinary problem requiring an approach. I think thats what the ministration is bringing to them. I want to set up a set of questions for you that i will follow up later and for the record. The following on your answers about ip theft and counterintelligence efforts against the chinese and the u. S. In places where there is so much intellectual property being stolen. If you are able to give the elevator pitch to a bunch of folks and for Silicon Valley about what the training strategy is when they deal with them. Obviously that is not the case in these irregular assets of the Chinese Government and i appreciate the distinctions you want to collapse between Chinese Private Sector Institutions and the government and the communist party as being distinctions without a difference. If you are explaining your elevator pitch to Silicon Valley ceos when theyre approached by Chinese Investor and by chinese computer scientist, what is a shorthand of the way you put them on notice about ip theft. I think you can look at various fiveyear plan the chinese have that are seeking to achieve dominance in. Then you can look at the cases that we brought. Either through lawful means joint busters, Foreign Investment or in some cases criminal means, cyber intrusion, et cetera. They are determined to push themselves up the economic ladder. In other partners expense. And anybody whether its a Silicon Valley startup or fortune 100 Company Needs to be clear eyed and thoughtful about who they get into business with. Because the road is long victims and a lot of those companies wish they can get it back. There is a company in massachusetts that went down this road and once they got to foreign saul the stock drop 40 so the in one day because when they were finished they moved on. It does not mean we should not do business with chinese and it does not mean we shouldnt try to close this with china on the world fate. But it does mean that there are certain kinds of behavior that violate criminal laws. We are not going to tolerate it. It does not matter whether its chinese or anybody else we will hold people accountable and i dont care what the Foreign Government has to say. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. You have previously said that foreign interference in the 2016 president ial election and what we saw in 2018 in terms of the work was a dress rehearsal for the big show of the 2020 election. We hit have had briefing on this and we know special counsel mueller make clear how the russians interfered in the 2016 election in his report and his words and systematic fashion. I have made clear that i disagree with how the president has handled this in the meeting with Vladimir Putin where he has made jokes about it and recently at the g20 where he said he sighed with him over his own intelligence, i was going to ask about that. But i will ask you if you previously reefed the president about the . We had a number of meetings in the National Security council to include the president and the deal with russian efforts to interfere were you aware of the report that former director nielsen had been told by officials in the white house to not brief the president because it wasnt a good idea. I look at how we sell things and one of ways to solve this if there was an intrusion or election, how theres two different ways to look at this in one of the things i think would be helpful to have backup paper ballots in case that hacking occurs. Do you think that would be helpful for democracy . As you know senator, i think the responsibility for election infrastructure so things like paper ballots is more in the line of dhs of state and local officials although my limited understanding is paper ballots would be a good thing and it seems redundancy would mean everybodys interest in this important space for the country. Secondly, on the propaganda issues and particularly purchase ads, russia actually purchased at, do you think it would be helpful to know what those ads are in the next upcoming election whether paid for by russia or china or any outside group, to know what they are and to pay for them . We are taking a number of steps and working with private sector entities that provide platforms for forms of foreign influence messaging weathers propaganda big news or something else. I tend to believe that more information is better than less. And i tend to believe that the American Public would be better against this threat with greater literacy and resilience. I want to point out a bill i have with senator graham which refers to companies to put out who paid for the ads and what they are. We dont have a patchwork system when it comes we had a secure election act which would required backup paper if they get federal election money. The second bill was stopping in its tracks by the white house and very much alarms me. I want to follow up on what senator durbin was asking about and i want to focus on the homegrown terrorism which we seen in arizona. I also want to thank you on the other end of the bombing of the mosque where your agents were incredibly helpful and help solve the crime. Whitey think there has been an increase in the number of hate crimes . Im talking about the homegrown terror threat. When it comes to hate crimes we are seeing an increase in the reporting of hate crimes, we know its widely accepted in the Law Enforcement community that hate crimes historically unreported. Whether the uptick in reporting is because it uptick and he crime occurrence or an uptick in agencies that now understand the importance of reporting it is hard to tell. We have done a lot at the fbi and done hundreds of seminars and trainings et cetera, state foresman around the country to ways to raise awareness to increase the reporting. I think its a positive sign on the one hand. Many of my colleagues, both sides of the aisle were very concerned and deeply disturbed by the tweet and the chance of the rallies of the four congresswomen. I was particularly concerned because one of those congresswomen are in my state and shes particularly singled out and she had already thanks to the good work of your agents and local Law Enforcement someone who made a serious threat against her and the path underpass and arrested and sent to get jail. I will not ask you if these were women or particularly Congress Omar has sought protection, i dont think that would be appropriate. Can you tell me what type of assistance the fbi offers members of congress who are subject to threat and what are the efforts to crack these things . Certainly any time someone including a member of congress is the subject of a threat we hope they will come forward, we want to communicate with them if there is enough for an investigation we will open an investigation and work with security upon the hill itself to try to see if we can be of assistance. As first tracking goes, we have a variety of ways of tracking investigations, i dont know something specific truly sitting here right now, this is narrowed to threats of congress but im sure we are keeping track of it in a variety of ways. Just last on the subject of guns. A prescient share your deep respect for the families that the officers have put themselves senator asked the question about the background check system. There is so much more we can do by closing the gun show in hearing Congress Passing the bill if we had the bipartisan bill to improve background checks. Also, specifically one of your examples was about Domestic Violence and Domestic Violence report where the officer got killed and we had a similar one in minnesota. Right now passing the house with 33 republican votes is a provision that i worked on that closes the gun show loop and this is where an existing law alright now, if you live with someone or married to them and you been convicted of Domestic Violence and cannot go out and get a gun, what happens are involving boyfriends or girlfriends and theres a loophole that does not apply if youre convicted and you cant go out and get a gun if youre convicted of Domestic Violence against boyfriend. Do you think it would be helpful to close the loophole . I of reviews id need to take a look at to give you a sense of an operational perspective. Do you agree there is more we can do besides the questions from senator cornyn when it comes to making the world safer for our Law Enforcement with regard to them. We are looking for ways to enhance the next system. Consistent with the law and we clearly need as i said at the beginning to take a harder look at violence against Law Enforcement in this country in a variety of ways. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Welcome and thank you for your service. Let me start by thanking for your Opening Statement, it was a powerful testament to the men and women of Law Enforcement who serve on the front lines like you, ive had spent far too much time with grieving families of the men and women in blue who lost their lives protecting us, keeping a safe, theirs is a difficult job, a job, were all obliged to take the time to appreciate and to say thank you and i appreciate and encourage folks to listen to your Opening Statement because it was a powerful reminder that every single day and officer wakes up and puts on his or her uniform and straps on his or her gun and his wife or husband goodbye for the morning may not see the kids again. And thank you for the work the fbis doing to keep her officers safe and the obligation we all had to keep officers safe. I want to start with the topic has been discussed this morning which is chinese espionage. You have described the threat of china as unique and the most significant that we are facing in your testimony said the United States significantly underestimates the threat of chinese economic espionage. What avenues are we seeing,. Certainly covers the waterfront in terms of sectors from startups, hightech companies all the way to aeross space, and a culture, we had a case in kansas where they attempted to steal proprietary that were being developed in the u. S. Agriculture is the envy of the world and thats a place it covers the whole spectrum with types of specters in terms of size and businesses fortune 100 companies all the way down to startups in Silicon Valley in terms of techniques and involves everything from cyber intrusion to corruption of insiders, two things that are not illegal but still a National Security threat to Foreign Investment so there its an altar was approached by them and it requires an approach by a. One sector in particular ive been concerned about his academic som sector. In the colleges and universities. I met with quite a few and Research Institutions based on the state of texas, some of which have been victims of attempted or completed chinese espionage. One concern that i had particularly in the academic sector is leaders tend to be in some instances less aware of the scope of the threat and less sophisticated and savvy than some of the fortune 100 world in terms and means of defending against espionage and theft of intellectual property. To what extent do you see chinese espionage in the academic world as a problem and what more should we be doing . Itunes share your concerns in the space. There is a number of things that are going on, the Chinese Government and the Chinese Party has a socalled talent plan and you hear about those, there is nothing inherently unlawful about the plans themselves. However, we have seen through lots of investigations abuse of those plans. Essentially we have situations where its crated a pipeline for universities and key intellectual property, sometimes it has dual use potential and flowing back to china with the advancement of its various strategic plans and the irony is that the u. S. Is essentially funding the economic through various money through grants and et cetera. Rift be careful we dont find ourselves in a situation where u. S. Taxpayer money is misappropriated for the advancement of China Economic dominance over us. There are more cases were those plans become violate the u. S. Law and not compete and things like that and i think universities need to be more and more aware of who they are inviting over and what safeguards they could put in place. One of the things that phi did you is very good working with texas a m recently to try to raise awareness in the University Space so again, we are not requiring universities to do anything. We are trained to raise awareness so they can make voluntary decisions that are not just in the country best interest but the best interest of their own economic research. I agree with you and look forward to protect our universities and to ensure against espionage of intellectual property. Look you turn to a final topic which is an area of concern. The group that is a self into fat which ironically is assured for antifascism and if they engage in the conduct of fascist and violent protest mass men and women engaging in physical violence, we sell recently the rose city chapter in portland, oregon that was assaulting citizens, disrupting traffic and violently assaulted one journalist that he was hospitalized for brain hemorrhage, likewise this weekend another terrorist attack to u. S. Immigration Customs Enforcement center in tacoma washington. Uniting the vehicle and attempting to ignite a propane tank. Rather this is a pattern in an organization that is engaged in mast terrorism. To what extent is fbi concerned about the threat of violent activity from an organization . We are absolutely concerned about violence committed on behalf of of any ideology in any extremism in the key there is the point in response to couple different questions the fbi does not investigate ideology reinvestigate criminal activity. For us, we view it as an ideology than an organization. We have a number of predicated investigations of what we categories of extremis. And people who are trying to commit violent criminal activity and some of those people subscribe to what we would refer to as an ntp like ideology. We are saints were the same thing pre the bureau has significant tools to go after organization, criminal enterprises that engage in use and amenity and masks to carry out violent groups. And today i will be sending a letter to you and the department of justice asking the department to open a rico investigation because i believe they are engaged in a similar corrugated effort and that letter will focus on some local elected officials who have chosen to deny lees protection to their citizens based on political ideology that is a pattern that we saw and seen with politicians who favor violence and i think every citizen deserves all enforcement protection regardless of political ideology. I look forward to reviewing your letter. Thank you, chairman and director good to see you again. On behalf of all of us, i want to thank you in the 37000 men and women of the fbi for what you do each and every day in my own community. The fbi continues to make a different in the last few months and delaware and the Ongoing Partnership with state and local, and drug turks speaking broad and we too easily forget the cargill difference that the fbi partnership of the state and local Law Enforcement makes and a greatly appreciate your opening remarks we are attending line of duty funerals for officer chad and georgetown. Those are really difficult hard days. That we Work Together to reduce the risk and improve officer safety. One of my other things senator brought up was the ways in which the next background system was improved after the spring shooting which made sure the information gathered in one silo is shared across all system because had they been done in a timely way the shooter and Sutherland Springs wouldve been far from getting a weapon. We have talked in the past and lost me about the bill was senator toomey that would share with state and local Law Enforcement mixed denials. There is 99252 mixed denials which someone who is a person could get a weapon went into a federal license farm bureau and told you cannot purchase in some states, the state Police Conducted that initial transfer of information so they immediately know about it and they can go and followup where appropriate and arrest somebody and that is not the case. This is a simple bipartisan bill and would require realtime sharing with one state Law Enforcement contact of mixed denial. Since we spoke about it i wondered if you had any more thoughts or if this is something you would support as a simple way to put more information in the hands of the state and local Law Enforcement and if you work with me in my office to get through this committee. I have not had a chance to review the proposal legislation myself but i recall our conversation on this topic and how important it is to you. There are two principles that are on the same place with. One is the goal of keeping guns out of the hands of people legally prohibited from having them. In second consistent with my Opening Statement they need to support state and local Law Enforcement in their efforts. As you said, last year, they rose 100,000 record checks denied. The volume was significant. In my own sense, what would be most helpful is to have a conversation that brings in the state and local Law Enforcement has the appropriate seats at the table because i hear all the time when im in the field with state and local Law Enforcement, the burden that they feel they are under. I want to be careful lets move that quickly. Our conversation was months ago. Every chief of police that i met with and spoke with says they would welcome this information. They would handle it properly and thoroughly and help promote Public Safety with information, at least two of the questions. I would welcome further engagement at this point. I think this is a commonsense simple way and election interference theres been a lot of questioning which is constructed about chinas intelligence efforts and also want to make sure that we talk through about russias interference. I appreciate your statement. We have not successfully deter them. On the appropriations subcommittee in which you put 380 million i hope we will invest more in state and local infrastructure that you created the Foreign Influence Task force. One is the fate misleading media clips that are very difficult for the average viewer, what steps is fbi taking to address these and a number of briefings is one of the most next order threat in the 2010 election. Certainly we share the concern as a potential tool one of the things that i did not that long ago was bring together all the top executives in a discussion led from a technological perspective on this. I think the real challenge is without the right kind of training it is very hard for somebody to be able to distinguish and unpack versus not. We are looking at different technologies that we might be able to have to help unravel that so maybe technological solutions, we are also trained to look at ways to partner with the private sector because theres a role that they can play and i dont think of anything specific to report but i can assure you this is a subject everybody at the top of the fbi. I appreciate your voice on the ongoing efforts by russian interference. I hope will have the benefit of a clear voice about the risks. Last question africa. I spent friday in texas with a number of my colleagues of both parties visited the border recently. It became clear that the conversations i had with a few dozen migrant that they were all from Central America and flood significant violence and lack of order and this is in el salvador, guatemala an. I appreciate you highlighting that and remarks. How would does fbi and programs like the transnational task force making a difference in confronting Gang Violence in the northern triangle and as a changing the circumstances that drive families to make a very difficult decision to risk more than a thousand mile journey to her southern border and i think its in all of her interest to use our skills, strengths and abilities to change a condition in Central America to change the outcome under sullenberger. Certainly, we agree with you that our efforts have a tag in such america are one of the ways that we can do our part in generally the safety of americans here inside the United States the units essentially provide ways for us in el salvador in a couple of the other northern triangle countries to use the local Law Enforcement as a force multiplier and we provide expertise, some of our experience, some of our partnership and working with a larger group of local Law Enforcement it helps them learn while doing but it helps them be more effective in a very serious criminal problem down there, i met with officials from that part of the world and they came to visit me in the u. S. And its something we are very proud of and we wanted to double down on if we can. Are you requesting additional fundings . Have you had any difficulty of the continuity of effort . We had scares but were moving forward. I have questions for the record thatll send you about facial recognition. I will add, to what senator whitehouse race, and turns of concerns about current checks. Thank you for your testimony. When you came to my office i discussed with you like you do every person that comes into my office for nomination confirmation. One to bring up about whistleblowers and whistleblowing. And we answer all over letters and i advise people in the last five years instead of saying yes they odyssey may be. I dont know whether you said yes or maybe but it turns out maybe. For example, some of my oversight request, some dating back over a year, february 2018 i inquire the terrible tragedy of parks in florida, 17 lives were lost on march 2018 i shared a hearing on the shooting and the fbi told the committee that it was working on a report of internal process failures relating to and among other things the procedure for calling tips and went under what transpired in the case. As of today the fbi has not provided a report to congress. Is the report complete . I dont know that i speak to the report itself but i tell yo im not asking you to speak to the report. Is a report complete . I dont know whether the report you are referring to is complete but i do know we have completed a significant investigation, an internal investigation of what happened in the whole number of changes and id be happy to provide more information. Lets say you dont know whether the report is complete, you have given us an update on it, i appreciate that. Let me ask you, when the report is completed will congress get it . Id be happy to see what information we can provide about the work that weve done. Im not playing games but i dont know enough about the specific. I do know we would be happy to provide detailed information to you in any other member of congress that has been done to improve the Public Access . Except for National Security or privacy, what cannot be made public about what the fbi did right or wrong . I said id be happy to provide you more information. Okay. On may the ninth, senator johnson and i wrote you a letter about documents that the state department providing fbi senator johnson and i expect a response . That one i will have to ask my staff to look into and i will get back. Okay. According to news reports the fbi waited months for sexual abuse allegations made by olympic gymnast last july senator feinstein, blumenthal and i sent you a letter to request a briefing on the matter and still waiting. When can we expect to respond to a letter everything . Senator on that particular matter as you may know there is an ongoing Inspector General investigation so we turned that matter over from our Inspection Division to his team. We are waiting the results of the investigation and will be happy to engage with you in your office upon completion of the investigation. Is he supposed to report to you or the public . Probably both i would assume. I have sent several letters to the fbi regarding the investigation and the shooting of Bea John Geiser by the National Park police. I am not received a response. When can i expect clear answers to my questions in the conclusion of the investigation which i think is 18 months old . Im not familiar with investigation but i believe its still ongoing could be pretty mature to provide any information at this point. You kinda get the feeling with several of these incidents that there might be something out there that is going to embarrass the fbi. Are you worried about embracing the fbi. I am not having us withhold any information out of fear of embarrassment to the fbi. We take our share of lumps and i embrace that as part of the process, you played an Important Role in some cases and i made some of those mistakes. One of the things that distinguishes a lot of the fbi from other organizations is a commitment to learning from the mistakes. I wrote you a letter in april concerning the case of special agent parkinson. He made protective disclosures and was dismissed. After he won his case against a bureau and reinstated his security clearance was rerolled. I have not received a response. Does fbi revoke security clearances as a way of getting around Court Decisions favorable to employees customer and can i get response to my letter. Im not familiar with the specific matters lost my stuf sf and get back to pre as a written before, senator general had highly classified documents related to clayton investigation. Here is an excerpt from the Inspector General unclassified report on the clayton investigation rerelated to the classified report. Although the team drafted a memorandum to the Deputy Attorney general in late may 2016 stating the review of highly classified material was necessary to complete the investigation and requesting permission to access them, the fbi never sent this request to the department. This tells us four things, the fbi had a highly classified information potentially irrelevant to the clayton investigation and the fbi drafted on may 16. They said the review of the information was necessary to complete the investigation, the memo was never sent. Director rick, how could the fbi complete the clayton investigation if it did review the relevant information related to it. Do you know of any other examples where the investigation was completed without the fbi reviewing relevant evidence within his possession customer. As to the specific example you cited, im generally familiar with the fact, im concerned, i recognize your reading from an unclassified document but im concerned my ability to address it in the setting is limited. Let me circle back and figure out if theres a way for us to be a little more responsive. Ill be waiting for the information. Thank you, mr. Chairman, director ray and thank you for your service to our country and the men and women who every day go after threats against our nation and i want to say, i regret some of the attacks that have come from the highest levels of our government and i respect that you have to continue to work without responding to them directly but i think you have a lot of supporters and friends in this body and around the country. I want to ask you, about threats identified by members of congress, i appreciate the fbi response to them. I am concerned that the threats are increasing and they have been condoned and indeed encouraged. By the United States. I would like to know what is being done proactively, not just responsively but proactively to protect members who have been targeted by the president attacks which may ignite White Supremacists and nationalist organizations. Obviously i cannot discuss any particular investigation. But i dont think youre asking me for that. I think we have a Good Relationship and partnership with the Security Professionals on the hill and returned to work collaboratively with them especially for the Washington Field office to try to make sure that we are giving them the right kind of information so they can be more effective and protect you and your colleagues. Are you concerned as i am about the increasing number intensity of those attacks . I think we are very concerned about any threats of violence against any americans. But certainly that would be elective officials. Are you concerned that the president s rhetoric in fact is having a negative impact, no threats but on other americans in terms of encouraging hate crime . I dont really engage on rhetoric or social media commentary our focus is on violence, attempts to commit violence, conspiracies, and we will aggressively pursue that whether the victims are members of congress or any other americans. Let me turn to another area. Survivors of the 9 11 terrorist attacks in this country are engaged in an epic legal battle against the kingdom of saudi arabia for its complicity and there is quotable evidence that an embedded ten 9 11 attackers, seeking justice from them in effect along with senator schumer i was proud to lead the justice against terrorism act the how stores to their lawsuit, i was happy to work on a resolution passed in ominously by the United States senate that called on the federal government to today brett lost his dad climbing the stairs of the south tower. He perished. Mr. Froehlich made out of the south tower on that terrible day but he continues to suffer the mental experience and he continues to mourn if we all do, the ones who are lost. I am asking you for commitment if they will release all of the documents that are relevant to the litigation that you will not invoke the state secret act which is been raised as a possibility and you will provide full transparency to those families who are seeking justice against saudi arabia in the face of very significant mounting evidence, powerful evidence that the saudis abetted that killed thousands of americans. I am not going to engage on the specific engaging, certainly here in the setting. What i will say from a very personal level i was in the fbi headquarters on 9 11, i met during my time as an assistant attorney general with many many of the victims of the 9 11 attacks, it was a big part of my motivation for coming back into the service in one of the things ive done since being fbi director, mindful of the fact that as times passes we get further away from the attacks in our workforce engages out of a realtime appreciation of the horror that occurred on the morning. I have directed the allnew analyst of the fbi go as part of the training to the 9 11 Memorial Museum so they can see a particular the victim impact of our work and getting it right. Im very sympathetic and i say that from a personal level that you know im sympathetic to those families. Im also extremely sympathetic to all the families of future potential terrorist threat that i want to prevent i want to make sure it is not anyway the balances itself i dont doubt your summary. But these documents are necessary of having a fair chance to prove their case. I am concerned that the fbi may invoke the state secret privilege to block the 9 11 families from getting the documents that they need and im asking you for your commitment that you will not invoke it or block them from getting the documents. I am not prepared to make commitments about ongoing litigation or discovery ongoing litigation in the city. I assure you will be transparent as we can be off the same time protecting National Security. Will you meet with the families who are represented here today . I would be happy to see whether there is an appropriate meeting between them and parts of the fbi. Since this is subject to litigation we have to be thoughtful about that. Have you communicate with the white house about whether it will be turned over to the families . Not to my knowledge. Will you give me a list of the documents that you think would be appropriate to turnover and others that would not be . Id be happy to take a hard look of the status and whether there is information that we can responsively provide to be helpful my final question, i am not asking you to be involved in litigation or. But simply provide documents and materials that are in the possession of the fbi. The only reason to keep them secret seems to me as 19 years later to avoid embarrassment to the saudis. And that maybe an interest of the state department or the white house, they have shown very little interest in seeking justice in connection with other saudi criminal activity. Universities were not shy about inviting the institutions to their campuses. They are glad to have the money. Many of them are addicted to tuition from chinese students. In a sense you are spread thin. I sense that we are relying on the universities, and its great to educate them that as long as those tuition checks cleared you have to get an export license. Let me shift gears. Iis the fbi involved in the investigation in chicago in the Police Complaint . Im not sure that theres anything i can say about whether we are involved in a specific investigation or not. Okay. Thats fair. I consider you, first, i consider you to be doing a great job. I really appreciate it. And i dont think you are a politician. Thats what i like about you. I think you are a good lawyer and you care about the fbi and i considered you the nations chief Law Enforcement official, if not one of the chiefs. I dont mean to denigrate the attorney general. Why are there so many today in your judgment that hate cops just because they are cops . I think there is a level of misunderstanding about what Law Enforcement does and doesnt do but i also think far more americans read here lawenforcement van sometimes the media would otherwise suggest and that is one of the advantages i found to getting out of washington and trying to visit all of the offices and to visit not only the men and women of the state Law Enforcement in each of those states there is a willingness to used the without buddy against Law Enforcement that we just cannot abide and we need to be finding ways to make those people that work so hard every day more safe. We will continue and keep going to try to get you out of here by 1 00 if we possibly can. Are you okay . You know that the agents visit the 9 11 memorial and there is a time when they are to visit the holocaust museum. I wanted to go through with myself not only did i reaffirm it but i went with the class and went along the tour so that i could get a sense of what they are learning as they go through that. We also require, you may be interested to know third flight of the school. Director comey made note of the experience of visiting. Of those sick and evil leaders are followed by people that love their families and went to church and gave to charity. Good people helping and that is the frightening lesson of the humanity made us capable of for those in power convincing ourselves of nearly anything. Im really glad that your agents visit these museums and i wonder if you agree with your predecessors, and about why its so important for your agency to experience these. Im not sure that i caught everything that you read. I will say from my own perspective one of the things i found most eyeopening about my visit with a class going to the Holocaust Memorial was the scary role of Law Enforcement in nazi germany played. Most people assume the atrocities are committed by the military and while that is also true, theres a very frighteniny frightening world. Lawenforcement played and i think that is one of the parts of the tour that is a little bit tailored for our classes so that they understand in a very personal way that their profession is one that if they dont do things in the right way can have horrific consequences. I wouldnt say that i read every single word. Do you consider him to be a person of integrity, objectivity and professionalism . Do you have any reason to doubt the report . You have any reason to doubt flex no. You mentioned the threat of Domestic Violence as one of your priority is and you talked about your underlining drive for the Domestic Violence and extremismm which includes according to you his love of phobia. Can these contribute to the problem of Domestic Violence and extremism . Theres all kindthere is alls that contribute to the deranged extremism that occurs. We never know whats going to set off a loadable but what you see that the comments that are divisive can also create a situation where a lone wolf might ask . Extremist rhetoric by anybody in any public figure could have the effect of inspiring people that people that commit hate fueled violence are not logical rational people. Thats why its very dangerous i would say to speak in a way that can encourage or in some way incentivize a person that is unhinged. Let me turn to the 37 agency that you run. You do have strict policies stay and laid out by the commission. If one employee told another employee who was a minority to go back where they came from, what was the consequenc would te knowing full well that the equal Employment Opportunity commission has made it very clear such comments should subject a person to some kind of disciplinary action . Im not going to engage in hypotheticals but what i will tell you is that all of us at the fbi are committed to core values that respect, fairness, diversity. We have all procedures and policies in place to provide outlets for people who are the victims of any kind of improper discrimination or harassment. Would that be the case if one of your employees told another go back where you came from that would subject them to somand iwd of a disciplinary action . I expect all of our employees to comport with our core values and follow the rules and the wall. Left hope that means you actually follow through with the disciplinary action. In 2017, the Trump Administration launched the voice office that stands for victims of immigration crime engagement dedicated to the victims of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants and this despite repeated evidence that shows immigrants are in fact less likely to commit crime. It is the fbi has a mechanism for attracting the crimes committed against individuals because they are an immigrant or perceived to be an immigrant . I dont believe ive seen information place like that. We collect lots of different kinds of information so i am reluctant to speak on that. I wanted to ask as the president or anyone at the white house or the attorney general or anyone at the department of justice asked or suggested that you do anything unlawful or unethical including opening from altering or closing an investigation . Utterly without partisan motivation or interference, and that has been true since the day that i started and right up until today. They do anything remotely inappropriate. Thank you mr. Chairman. Earlier this year i said the fbi to letters seeking Additional Information about these reports that the agency and the bureau opened a counterintelligence investigation of the president following the exercise in the prerogatives to direct foreignpolicy and otherwise oversee the executive branch. I didnt receive a response of those beyond the letter acknowledging receipt. I have you here under oath let me ask you what i want to know to your knowledge has the fbi launched a counterintelligence investigation of another president in history . I dont know the answer to that question. It would be no then coming you are not aware of one personally. Its fair to say im not aware of one. To the best of your knowledge, such a move would be indias unprecedented. Weve been around 111 years, so i dont know what is or is not in that regard. But you dont have any knowledge of the previous investigation. Not sitting here at this moment. Would it be unusual to hide the existence and results from their superiors . Certainly in my experience it would be unusual. In the decision to launch this where it stands where we might hear about it and when we might expect results. There are two things going on. One is a ongoing fairly far along i guess i would say investigation by the Inspector General. We are working with them, cooperating with him to try to help get those questions answered, but i dont think i have any kind of status update at this point. Its very much under way. Theres some overlapping them publicly and in their own ways they touch on different aspects of what you describe they are fully cooperating with both. Yes. Let me shift gears and talk about china and other things my colleagues asked about. You said you were concerned about the espionage of universities, that is a quote from you and you are concerned about the use of the nontraditional collectors went on to say they are exploiting the very open Research Development environment and youve reiterated those concer concerns. The activities are focused to be a serious threat is he that is continuing to be an ongoing threat. I think an awful lot of the most Sensitive Research that is conducted across either military or dual use technologies but also in areas like healthcare and things like that are conducted in our leading academic institutions is a fairly significant pattern of espionage that is occurring in that arena so that is something we are concerned about. That the institute on the campuses can you spell that out for us to . The answer i gave is more about the academic sector and the Confucius Institute are a source of concern that we view those as more a part of the soft power strategy and influence. In other words, those offer a platform to disseminate the Party Propaganda to encourage the censorship to restrict Academic Freedom etc. So it is an area of concern, and we are encouraged somewhat similar the Confucius Institute on the campuses. We are even more concerned about what i would consider more traditional efforts and either cyber intrusion or espionage within the Research Facilities themselves and in the private sector as ive testified about a little here today. For one minute, what would you say to the University President who is considering partnering and allowing with the institute on the campus and what considerations do you think that the University President ought to have in mind . They ought to do an awful lot of homework and we would be happy to have the local field office to sit down wit sit downo talk to them about what we know that can be shared about the institute so they can make a thoughtful decision themselves about whether its something that they really want to have on their campuses. Do you think it is time for new legislation to help secure and protect the universities from that kind of espionage i do think that the level of awareness that is starting to increase in this country including in the academic sector come and of course you and your colleagues played an Important Role in helping to raise awareness i think is positive, and i think it is time for the National Conversation about how we can all play our respective roles in helping to protect the country. Has introduced legislation that would require students or researchers from china and several other countries that engage in these activities to get an additional screening by the department of Homeland Security if they are replying to work on a Research Project that involves either classified information or highrisk security information as designated by the department. Are those kind of additional screenings for folks that come from the countries who have a history of espionage and want to work on projects that are sensitive or classified is that the kind of thing you think we should be concerned about looking for ways to protect . I think as a general rule, both making sure that universities especially some of our universities that are leaders in the science and technology are really know who it is and so that is who on the one hand. Then went on the other side, what information are they giving people the ability to work on. Not all information an and reseh is created alike just like not all visitors are created alike for the potential threat that it presents to the National Security. We ask that we keep it somewhere on time a member of the Law Enforcement officials we know from the search warrants that hes a coconspirator in Campaign Finance scheme to cover up an affair during the campaign in the oval Office Investigation ended abruptly last week although he didnt face any consequences. Do you know whether the decision to close the investigation made by prosecutors in the Southern District of new york or by appointees of the main justice in washington . The decision to decline the matter when involving the prosecutorial discretion is made by the curators and in this instance, i dont know exactly who made the decision. I dont know which ones were involved in making the decision. Do you know whether they were in washington or new york . Are you aware of any political pressure that may have been brought to bring about that decision . Im not aware of any political pressure. We know the Justice Department believes a sitting president cannot be charged with a crime and leave such matters. Since this investigation is now closed will you release other above and files in the investigation . It isnt normally our practice to produce investigative information for investigations that are closed, especially when it comes to other individuals in the matter. I think that is part of the protection that we provide through the confidentiality of the work that we do. You provided congress with 880,000 pages of a indie investigation of Hillary Clinton differently than the investigation involving donald trump in my first two years almost as the fbi director we have been engaged numerous committees and countless oversight requests involving all sorts of things. With each one on a casebycase basis. Will you release the others in the same way that you did on the clinton investigation . Id be happy to take a look at any requests by you or any other member to see if theres more information we can provide. I dont want it to be just a little longer. I would be happy to have my staff followup of yours. They stopped using the call detail records authorized a you mentioned this morning you would like them to reauthorize the Business Record im not aware of the formal position on the freedom act or process timing for when there will be one. My description earlier in response to the questions wasnt a formal request for the authorization of rather the description of somebody from an operational perspective with me at the fbi feel are some of the most important tools currently in the law of th wall that we we to lose. We can follow up on that. The department of Homeland Security plays a Critical Role based on your testimony, if they were held today are you confident that the state and local Election Officials are prepared to defend against Cyber Attacks and i ask that because the attorneys general and we will put that in the record. Americans should feel confident in our electoral system. That doesnt mean that there are not threats facing it and it doesnt mean that there isnt a lot of hard work already being done or that needs to be done still between us, our colleagu colleagues, state and local officials, the congress on the private sector. This is an American Issue for all of us and we all need to Work Together but americans should feel confident that we have a fine selection in the world. I want to thank you for your patience today and as you are aware we have a valid series and i appreciate that youve reached out to local Law Enforcement when they do have a loss of life from into the attributes that you pay and i will tell you in tennessee when i talk to people, what they are concerned about with the fbi is that the that te agents are going to talk the truth because they know if they raise their hand and take an oath that they swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and building, rebuilding the confidence and integrity in the system i think is of a paramount importance, so i appreciate that you are putting attention on that. I do want to talk about the crisis in the Opioid Crisis has taken such a toll in tennessee. We know now that its more than double the deaths of homicide. Its actually too plain for opioid deaths for each got this from a homicide. And i know youve had the appellation strike force. I would like an update on that. I know that you issued the 50 medical professionals that have an indictment issued. They had issued 32 million pills and we had a pain clinic with these issues but when i talk to local Law Enforcement, most of the crime they are dealing with has a access with the drug issue could talk with me about how you are managing that, how you are partnering with dea and local Law Enforcement and then continued emphasis that you expect to have on the opioid issue. I appreciate you flagging this issue. I know it is at the top of the mind for many people as it should be. You may be interested to know that the first of the 56 field offices i visited was knoxville and ive actually now made my way to round two in addition to the Memphis Office but the reason i bring up knoxville is that office in particular has done some very good work in the opioid arena. I would say that overall, our focus on this thread is much like i said to some of your colleagues on a couple of the other threads cant try to figure out where we the fbi about the added value that complements what everyone else is doing the dea, state local lawenforcement and of course in this arena, Public Health etc. You eluted to this we have a Prescription Drug initiative so we are going after medical professionals, medicaid fraud, nurses, pharmacies, that kind of thing because its a big part of the problem and a place where we bring unique expertise. Those that are distributing the opioid and related substances we also have an initiative that is focused on disrupting and dismantling the dark net marketplaces for others. We also have through the Transnational Organized Crime Program a focus on the Transnational Criminal Organizations that are a source of the supply and the last piece i wouldve been janice from kind event awareness perspective weve done things like partner with dea on a film called tracing the dragon which we put out in schools together coming and i think we have a slew of youtube hits to raise awareness from the perspective. I know that right now, we have got 30 child pornography sites that are operating on the dark web. This is on top of what we see through a lot of what is happening with the ads that are out there that pedophiles are using and groups are using traffic women and children. And ive done a good bit of work on this issue and it is just heart wrenching to me. Are you following the Human Trafficking and is there an additional emphasis on that Human Trafficking component . Its a good question. I would say the initiative is a program that is more geared towards the trafficking that we also have all kinds of efforts focused more on Human Trafficking and various others. The at some point there is a juncture because right now they are making more money on trafficking in human beings then on trafficking drugs or that is my understanding and we definitely want to get after that. With the ask you one more thing. When it comes to the issue of illegal immigration and illegal century, ncic isnt collecting reentry data or that is something our local Law Enforcement has to deal with quite a bit, and if they were to change their protocol and begin to collect a data, do you think that would be helpful and is there a value to doing that . I think i would want to evaluate more closely but i would be happy to take a look at its. That sounds great. I guess i am the last one. We are going to do a brief second round. Ive been authorized to close the hearing if nobody else comes iand in the meantime so relief s in sight. I did want to followup a little bit. We have a good discussion about the foreign interference and im interested in your thoughts of the role of clarifications that obscure the identity of the true actor behind the corporation and the jargon in this area that is called the beneficial owner. Can you tell me the kind of way in which the obscurity provided by such interferes with Law Enforcement efforts generally . As a general matter, they are often used as a way to conceal the true owner of a business and that then can have the effect of not only frustrating regulatory requirements, but also of course Law Enforcement efforts and we spend a lot of your time and oud across a lot of defectors that we investigate having to cut through the kind of form over substance quality that exists on the alter egos that are created. Money laundering, fraud, criminal investigations, counterterrorism investigations, all affected by this . I can think of it wouldve counterterrorism investigations off the top of my head, but certainly the first few that you listed. Does this problem creates National Security concerns in addition to lawenforcement concerns to the extent that foreign actors might be behind those corporations . There certainly can be times, for example, one of the things we are trying to do more now in the foreign influence base is to more aggressively use the act in order to break through not just the openly declared foreign agents but various other entities that might affect the updating that way and we are pushing into new territory. And foreign in our political system can be directly facilitated by these corporations, correct . Absolutely. When facebook was here he rolled out his new and improved method for detecting efforts to buy political advertising and disclosed that he was going to go as far as the nominal by but not look beyond that to see who the Party Interest was. Suddenly it was the end of the inquiry so i think its important that we continue to focus on this for some of the leading political platforms seem to be taking very little interest in finding out who is actually behind the corporation and obviously you need to know that if you are going to be effective. The last thing i will ask about her is a famous phrase. Clearly money is a tool used for foreign influence in political systems by russia and other adversaries, correct . Yes. And if you cannot tell who the real donor is for a big political expenditure, that leaves a very obvious avenue for the foreign interference does it not . Certainly any effort to conceal the true source behind the effort and interference is something we have to take seriously and can present significant challenges. And money flowing into politics is a vector for that influence. It can be. Thank you very much. Senator booker an and senator leahy and we will finish right at 1 00. Thank you, director, for your patience. Thank you very much. I would like to go into something wsomething leta ditkad individually and senator durbin and i know brought it up and i watched it back and forth. You said you dont investigate ideology but clearly to the White Supremacists the ideology and motivating factor helps you and your investigations, correct . Certainly it can be a very important part of an investigation of the result the other pieces that we have to ask thave two be able to investigat. Right now it is the significance of the attacks the majority of them if im correct have been rightwing extremist attacks. Is that correct . I would want to be of little but careful but i will say certainly the mystic river was on into violent extremism of all shapes and sizes when it turns to violence is something that is a great concern and continuing threats that we are taking very seriously, and i will say that an awful lot of the racially motivated violent extremism is motivated by what you might call a white supremacist type of ideology. Thats what i want to drill down on. We know from a 2017 joint intelligence briefing from the white extremists responsible for more homicides than any other domestic Extremist Groups according to th the report was declassified and based on your testimony, the number of arrests this year is internationally inspired extremists is roughly the same as those for domestic violent extremists and the majority of whom again are white supremacist groups and to me that is a stunning amount of violence occurring in the country, and why its all the more important that we understand the full scope of the threat and i know you take this very seriously so for more than a decade the fbi used 11 different categories to describe documents, the mystic terrorist threats and these categories included a separate category for white supremacist activities. Now the administration is using a system with only four categories, and one of those is called racially motivated violent extremism. Thats correct, right . One of them is called racially motivated. This combines incidents involving White Supremacists with a new category that we discussed before called black identity extremists and so that is really problematic to me. When did the fbi eliminates thee white premises category favored . That was just in the last number of years in favor of the racially motivated violence category . We have tried to make clear in some if it frankly is based on conversations you and i had about not the white supremacist part of the other part, and we had some very constructive and hardhitting conversations early on about that and i think one of the points we tried to emphasize to our folks across all these factors is that we only investigate violence. We dont investigate extremism or ideology or rhetoric it doesnt matter how repugnant or whatever it is its got to be those three things we talked about before for there to be an investigation, so what we have tried to do by the re categorization is to make it clear that its about the violence, not about the ideology and thats the nature. If i can make this point the category of the extremism has caused extreme concern to the lawenforcemenLaw Enforcement cd you know that the National Organization issued a pretty strong statement that black identity extremism is hurting the community and youve seen ththat reaction from both congressional leaders and more. The report, quote on quote, resurrected the legacy of civil rights leaders who were unconstitutionally targeted and attacked by federal, state and local lawenforcement agencies. The merit of the report do not warrant the belief that an ideology movement is even there that exists and predisposes them to negatively targeted Law Enforcement officers. So, quite specifically if you are investigating violence, how many attacks in facilities have been attributed to White Supremacists since 2017 and how many have been attributed to socalled black identity extremists . I dont have numbers right here. Has there been any to your knowledge, attacks contributed to the socalled black identity extremists, have there been any since 2017 . Whatsoever, the socalled new movement . I think that we have had attacks in the violent extremist categories that cover both ends of the spectrum if you will. But that language as you just said both ends of the spectrum, murders at the synagogues, murders that we have seen motivated since 2017 that you previously had to deal with. The end of the spectrum as if there is a movement of, again, black identity extremism. Its almost creating this reality that theres a spectrum that goes back and forth and im questioning that language. We dont use the term black identity extremism anymore, first. Second, you mentioned the organization of black Law Enforcement executives. Ive made on countless occasions with them and i tell you the partnership and significantly energized it coming and weve discussed with them as well some of the efforts that we are making to try to better characterize. So that is no more. Nobody is being surveilled or investigated. We dont use that terminology anymore. Anymore. That was part of the reorganization oareorganizationr domestic terrorism threat categorizations. That terminology went away as a part of this category so whatever investigations there are or word that would be previously funded at that label would now be in this violent extremism category. Okay. I look forward to continuing the conversation. Thank you, sir. Thank you mr. Chairman. A few months ago, we held a series of confirmation proceedings regarding the Justice Kavanagh. They became something of a public spectacle as was mentioned earlier, there were a number of allegations made in some cases it then Committee Chairman senator grassley concluded that some of the people making the accusations knowingly made materially false accusations against Justice Kavanagh and on that basis referred to the matter. What if anything can you tell me whether its following up . I am aware as a general matter of the letters and referrals that you are describing and i know we have reviewed them but im not as you would expect going to be commenting on the existence or the nonexistence of an investigation. I appreciate the fact that you have received it and as you can imagine, its important to the process and to the committee that those appearing and testifying not be allowed to make materially false statements and hope and expect thats going to be just fine. The reports recently indicated that the fbi has been using photos from various drivers license databases including utah to conduct facial recognition searches. The fbi of course maintains a number of databases including some databases with photographs in them. But unlike others containing photos that it maintains, most of the photos are not going to be people that have been convicted of crimes. So tha what we ask for us to fal under what Legal Authority does the fbi access and use these for criminal investigations . So, theres a couple of things that i would say on this topic. I think that the first is when we use facial recognition, i think a lot of people dont really understand this we use it for the lead value. There is no one thats out there getting arrested, much less convicted based solely on some kind of a facial recognition match using the kind of database that you are describing. Second, i think that there is a level of confusion about where the photos reside. We, the fbi, dont have the dmv photographs in our database. We have a database of photographs, but we have access. We can make requests to the states for them to run searches in their photographs only subject to memorandum of understanding they are negotiated with the states to ensure proper compliance with the law. The third thing people dont necessarily understand is that we only provide access to a database to the people properly trained on the technology and the last thing people dont understand is we are working closely to develop an even better algorithm and we are on track that should have over 99 accuracy by the end of the calendar year probably. So you dont take them and download them in their entirety. The fbi generates photos in the investigations and we have some other databases we get photographs from him about the dmv photographs i think theres been confusion as to some of the press coverage. Its not like all are just available for the guy to roam around and we have to make requests to those states again on the subject to those weve negotiated with in the states. And even then it is on a casebycase basis you are conducting the investigation into there is an individual thel involved in that investigation do you want to match it against the threat. Or the lead value. In other words, that helps us then figure out whether we are on the right track. It is not evidence that allows somebody to then get arrested much less convicted. Thank you very much, thank you mr. Chairman. Outstanding job. Atop the men and women that we appreciate the hard work, and the hearing is adjourned