Transcripts For CSPAN2 Panel On Prosecuting Hate Crimes At Justice Department Combating... 20240714

Officials talk about efforts to prosecute hate crimes. This is one hour 15 minutes. [inaudible conversations] ladies and gentlemen, a monarch introduce our next speaker, United States special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, elan carr. Special envoy car advises the secretary of state and is responsible for directing u. S. Policies and programs aimed at countering antisemitism all across the world. Special envoy car has served as a special District Attorney in los angeles as an offers in the u. S. Reserve, as an International President of the jewish vote early alpha epsilon phi, and on the National Council of the american israel of luck affairs committee. Special envoy carr is also the proud son of iraqis jewish parents who fled persecution in iraq. Please join in extending a warm welcome to special envoy carr. [applause] welcome thank you so much. What a pleasure it is to see not only great friends in the room but to partners in our mutual and most urgent struggle. I want to begin by thanking our great attorney general bill barr. How amazing is he and how amazing is this . I got to tell you [applause] this is an extraordinary conference. When you had the attorney general of the United States opens this conference calling antisemitism a cancer. When you have secretary of education who concert is a bds is antisemitism, and when youre the secretary of the treasury come shortly whose words will certainly be no less strong, and then of course im here to represent my boss great secretary of state mike pompeo who could not be more of a leader on the subject of fighting antisemitism and promoting religious freedom. This kind of conflict, extraordinary as it is, could not, at a better time. We meet here today at a time of strikingly rising antisemitism across the globe. As Jonathan Tobin said before lunch in the last panel, this is a global problem. Antisemitism is up in europe where jews are attacked on the streets of capitals. Antisemitism is up in the United States where vandalism in new york, in los angeles occurs on a fairly regular basis. And when they campuses as we heard during our last panel have become hostile places for jewish and pro is your students. In the middle east antisemitic venom continues unabated. Textbooks continue to inculcate children, children in violent antisemitic hatred. And, of course, social media boils over with antisemitism. This is a global problem, and just as in europe and in the middle east, antisemitism has resources. This country is no different. Weve talked about it before and you all know what though sources are. The ethnic supremacy superbus e antisigns far left, and radical islam. Three groups that should hate each other more than hate anything else on earth, and yet mysteriously are united by their hatred of the jewish people and i would argue by one of the thing as well. And that is why the fundamental incompatibility of the ideology with everything on which this country was built. Whether its the ethnic supremacist right, hostile antiwestern left or radical islam, each of those ideologies threatens the United States, no less than threatens the jewish people. But if antisemitism is a cancer as attorney general barr so correctly called it, what i want to spend a few moments talking about is the metastatic part of that cancer, the kind of antisemitism that is sweeping the globe like a wildfire, including here in the United States. That is the socalled new antisemitism, the antisemitism that attempts to disguise jew hatred as hatred for the state of israel and for the zionist endeavor. And thats what it want to speak with you about because, my friends, there is little disagreement that neonazis in their ilk represent true antisemitism. And theres little disagreement that terrorist who blow up jews in buses and cafes reflect antisemitism. But it is critical that we confront the socalled new antisemitism with no less vigor and no less resolve and we confront any other. In fact, the whole nomenclature of new antisemitism i would argue is missed place. There is nothing new about the new antisemitism. When one looks down the list of manifestations of traditional antisemitism, every manifestation then appears as a manifestation in the socalled new antisemitism. Lets begin with the blood libel. The medieval slanders that jews baked messiah with the blood of children. No different than the socalled new antisemitism when the jew among the countries is accused of perpetrating genocide, of being an apartheid regime, of infecting palestinian children with virus. Blood libels and then, blood libels now, nothing new. How about isolation . Classic age old antisemitism isolates the Jewish Community as the outsider, the ominous outsider that undermines the purity of the policy or of the ethnic race. No different. Israel isolated as the other, the ominous outsider at once different and once universally controlling. Rhetoric, the same rhetoric then, the same rhetoric now. Jewish leader in europe was recently called a dirty zionist, as though the substitution of a word my confuses as to what is actually met. Kill all the zionists, we heard quoted on the last panel as being a rallying cry of the socalled new antisemitism. My own grandfather, a jewish leader in iraq, was arrested in 1948. 1948. My mother was a young girl when the knock came at the door. He had shaving cream on his face. Face. He was dragged off and parade through the streets in leg iron before being thrown in prison. But before prison he was tried, not the kind of trials this place stands for. He was tried for being a zionist acus he was handed out allegedly zionist material at a rally. The only problem with that is, well, lets put aside the problem of whether that should be a a crime anyway, put that aside. The only other problem with it is that he wasnt there. He was in basra. When his case was called he said to the judge, your honor, i can bring witnesses to prove that i was in basra that day. I was nowhere near this rally that supposedly happen. Happened. I was working with british officers in the ports. The judge said youre challenging the accusation against you . For you, two years about what youre going to receive already. So it wasnt about him handing out material at a rally. It wasnt about a scientist rally or the content of that rally. It was about him being a jew. Same rhetoric then, same rhetoric now. Also similar is the pathological obsession of the hatred of the jewish people. In the socalled new antisemitism it is no less obsessive, no less foaming at the mouth, a student at a premier university gave me a math answer sheet. I still have it. It says the derivative of soandso is such and such, the integral of such and such is soandso. And then it says another day in the occupied palestinian territory zionist forces murdering children. And then it returned to math. The kid who gave it to me said to me in a voice reflecting utter exhaustion, in math class i cant even escape this . Even in math . Thats right, even in math. Because a new antisemitism is no less obsessive, no less topological, no less insane man the antisemitism of old. Also similar is the tendency to blame the jew for the antisomatic response. That was the case all through history, every orgy of violence blamed against something jews supposedly did, or maybe actually did. By the way, even that apex, that crescendo of antisemitic hatred before the actual extermination was blamed on an action by a jew. No blood but a real event, the assassination of a german diplomat by herschel greenspan but just because the nazis claimed that kristallnacht was response is something a jew did doesnt mean were so gullible as to believe it. We understand that kristallnacht was a response to anything but rather furthered the overarching strategy of the nazis to destroy the jewish people. We understand that very clearly. So to the new antisemitism blamed always for something the state of israel does, either fictionally or actually, a building project here, a military operation there. But just like with kristallnacht, just because those who wait israel claim that the antisemitic response is based on something israel does, doesnt mean we are so gullible as to believe it. And we understand that the actions are part of their overall strategy of destroying the jewish state. And finally, economic suffocation. Weve seen those pictures of brownshirts in front of shops throughout germany, and while bds is no different today, dont buy from the jew among the country. Thereby attempting to achieve through economic suffocation what the army has been able to achieve, the destruction of israel. And so there is nothing new about this socalled new antisemitism here it is jew hatred plain and simple, and must be treated as such. And the bad news i have for you today is that it is working. You see, these bds votes are not really about universities divesting from israel. No university will listen to what a group of students vote. But what bds is really about is poisoning the well of proisrael support in this country and in europe. I recent survey done, and rigorous poll done of jewish students in the United States shows that jewish students on College Campuses today unless supportive of israel than ever before, more inclined to give israel as a problem than ever before, even more sympathetic towards terrorism than ever before. And evangelical christians, well, the top issue at every conference of evangelical christians is how were losing the young people, and how do we keep young people per israel. I spoke to one kid at a rally in los angeles. He ran up to me and said im here as a volunteer. I was israel. And i said to them, tell me something of matthew, is true young evangelical christians are less support of the visual . He said to me, my goodness, its absolutely true. Its everywhere around us. I said why do you think that is . Do you know what he said to me . He said because we also go to college. We also hear it all the time from every angle, relentlessly. Jews and evangelical christians, those are not just any two communities. Thats the base. If those two groups are being turned come just imagine anyone else. Thats here. Let me tell you about the United Kingdom in which i just returned two days ago. You know whats happening in the United Kingdom, and thankfully, i can report that the civil war within the labour party is intensifying, bought by good people who are determined to rid themselves of antisemitism. But let me tell you about the most disturbing meeting ive had in the last five months that ive been on this job. Let me tell you, my business, i have many disturbing meetings that this one stands out. It was with the labour party mp who walked out of the labour party, not jewish, walked out of the labour party because she said i will not sit at the same table as antisemites. I met with her and she said to me this disaster that we have in england all started on the campuses, and we did nothing because they were only students. And then him up into the labour party and we did nothing because it was just the far left fringe. And today they have one and we have lost. And i no longer have a party anymore. My friends, the warning to our country could that be any clearer, and the urgency of this type in which we meet could that be anymore apparent. Now is the time, not tomorrow, not next week, now is the time to save our future from what is impinging on the horizon. And thats why this is so important. Ill leave you with good news. One of the great assets we have in this fight is the u. S. Administration committed in unprecedented fashion to this fight. Think about it. State, justice, treasury and education. Every player that can apply real force to this problem is here today, and it didnt just start today. Last week we were at a pcc at the white house where this issue was the topic of conversation, a coordinated meeting at the widest width white house staff to say how can we make this and administrative white fight . And so now we get it. We are going to fight this fight together and we are going to apply every legal force that we can, not only to protect and save the jewish people, althoh that would be cause enough, i goodness, that would be cause enough, but were going to fight this fight because what is at stake here is a is the future r country, nothing less than that. The kind of free, decent, Democratic Society we want our kids to inherit. Our children who deserve the very best, who deserve for us to bequeath to them a future better than ours, a society more just than ours. If we dont win, god help us. God help us, and god help them and their future. So my friends, i stand before you today as part of an administration white fight that is determined wide not to detain the scourge but to roll it back, to excise it and to really build a a better future, the kind of future that our children and that our grandchildren so richly deserve. Thank you so much and thank you for being here and all that you do. [applause] thank you, special envoy carr, for the stirring remarks, reminder of the global scope of this problem where addressing today. Our next panel is entitled prosecuting hate crimes. We are honored today to have introductory remarks from a true and trusted friend of the department of justice. Rabbi abba coitus cohen is Vice President for federal affairs, washington director and counsel for agudath israel of america picky so long career in d. C. As well not an effective advocate religious liberty and other issues of great import to the Jewish Community. As i said were proud to have him among our closest and trusted friends at the department. Hes joining welcoming rabbi abba cohen. [applause] thank you to the departments and to attorney general barr for convening this important summit on the compelling and critical issue of antisemitism. And thank you for giving me the opportunity to share some introductory observations, not on the technicalities of hate crimes, laws and policy, i believe that to the panelists, but on how i see the issue from the inside on a personal and community level. We all know the statistics. Weve heard them today. Antisemitic hate crimes have been spiking, comprising 60 of all religionbased hate crimes. Indeed, statistics continue to indicate while all hate and all hate crimes are abhorrent, antisemitism maintains its dubious distinction as the mother of all religionbased hatreds. In my position i am often asked, why has antisemitism increased . Why base on the hate Crime Statistics is antisemitism stronger today than in the past . And my answer is that i dont believe that the reality and the attitudes of the antisemitism have per se changed much, but i do believe that the readiness to openly express antisemitism has, as manifest in the increase in hate crimes. In the postholocaust era we sensed an inhibition, selfconsciousness, perhaps even a feeling of shame to openly express antisemitism. More recently, however, at home and abroad, antisemites have come out from behind their rocks and are more comfortable and confident to express blatant antisemitism. They are emboldened by the hateful words that one can hear now in respectable quarters, and in intellectual conversations, in academic circles, the political arena and social media, in mass debates on issue and the middle east, and in human rights advocacy. Antisemitism seems to have moved from grotesque bigotry to just another acceptable opinion. And it is this societal acceptability that is frightening and dangerous, and it is this accessibility that inevitably transforms it from words to Violent Crime. As a community representative, i am naturally asked questions about antisemitism and jewish security, and i tried to give my best policy wonkish analysis and response. Longterm consequence, shortterm consequences, what is real, what is not, what might be an aberration. But im also a father and grandfather, and today im also representing my children and grandchildren. My kids read news stories and are alarmed. They ask, is it safe for us here . Should we move . Our neighborhood has had a number of incidents. Can i let the children take the bus, go to the park, walk the streets . And for me its chilling. It was around 55 years ago when i was around eight, going up in washington, d. C. Just a few miles away from here, i took the bus home everyday from Hebrew Academy and wearing my yarmulke had to walk serval blocks from the stop to our house. On more than a few occasions over the years i was taunted, called ugly names and roughed up. I was frightened to make that walk each day. Now, over half a century later, im hearing a similar fear coming from my own children and grandchildren. With all my policy wonkish in us, i never feel good after talking to my kids about these things. I always end the conversation a little unsettled. Because deep down inside they are afraid and there is nothing worse than living in fear, and there is nothing more difficult to overcome. And sometimes their questions are better than my answers. This is the reality in which we live. Our synagogues, schools, or dissenters, camps, charities and other jewish organizations and institutions and the people that occupy the space is are a vulnerable target and face risks that are real. We are reminded of this reality every day when we need to know the codes to get through the doors for morning and evening prayers, and when our children pass through School Entrances manned by armed guards. And we are beginning to engage in some real and get ranging discussions, should rabbis, cartridges, teachers come to synagogues to schools armed . Are our lock down mechanisms in place . Are our active shooter planes ready to be unfermented . Should we take the signage off of our buildings . We are vulnerable in urban areas like pittsburgh, my wifes hometown. We often visit. With a large Jewish Population and a rich jewish history. And we are vulnerable in newer, smaller, more suburban and remote settings like paoli california, two critical places that stunned us further wanton brutality and inspired us by the selflessness and heroism of the victims and police. And it is ironic at least to me that even after witnessing the horror of mass shootings, it is still shocking to view the videos in recent months of identifiably jewish men simply walking down their neighborhood streets, and suddenly without provocation being pushed or punched or pummeled. And there is a new hate crime that a growing number of orthodox communities are experiencing. The use of zoning and land use ordinances by those who unabashedly admit their intentions to keep the jews out. While these actions might not fit the technical definition of hate crimes, nonetheless that is exactly what they are. I confess that it worry about our jewish schools, the depraved souls, terrorists and extremists from home and abroad who openly announced her intentions to murder jews are not about killing the young and innocent in the bedlam and vulnerability of the school setting. Over the years we have received numerous calls from schools about suspicious loiterers, phone callers and mailings. Several years ago in my daughters school, a Saudi National was caught videotaping the girls going in and out of school during arrival and departure times. How does a parent process that . Perhaps the most frightening thing of all is that we know it will happen again. We know that despite our best and most determined efforts, there will be another attack. We dont know where or when, but it will happen again. Because after all, they are hate crimes. And as i mentioned earlier, hatred of jews is becoming more fashionable, not less. And so we wait. We wait but we must also act because the saving and safeguarding of life is an overriding jewish precept it while we a applaud congress and state legislators that is shown sensitivity to the issue and as past helpful laws, we will continue to press even more comprehensive legislation. While we congratulate and deeply appreciate the commitment and bravery of federal, state and local Law Enforcement, we will work cooperatively with authority, with authorities for even better implementation of tracking, recording, response and other critical areas. Jewish organizations will continue to liaise with government officials and community cetaceans to devise, inform, assistant, provide guidance on how best to secure facilities, address problems and concerns and hopefully allay fears and we will continue to work hard for significant increases in security grants, to help protect at risk nonprofits. Desperately needed increases that are currently the subject of an urgent effort in congress and in some state capitals. Finally, i will tell you what we will not do. We will not stop living, even if its not quite business as usual. We will continue to go to synagogue. We will continue to send our children to jewish schools and campus and committee centers. Will continue to organize, congregate and advocate as jews. We will do this because despite the adversity, life and jewish life and jewish living is precious and it is who and what we are. And we will do it because when it comes to antisemites and their hatred, rooted in our history, heritage and religious faith is the firm belief that we wont outlive them. Thank you for listening. [applause] thank you, rabbi cohen, for the excellent remarks. Our next panel will now join us on the stage, and the topic is how skewed hate crimes. Our moderator is josh rogin. Mr. Rogan is a distinguished columnist from the Washington Post covering Foreign Policy and National Security. Hes also a political analyst for cnn and desperate c covered Foreign Policy National Security issues for a variety of publications. Welcome to our panelists, and josh, the floor is now yours. Thank you so much. My name is josh rogin, a columnist with the Washington Post. Thanks for including me in todays conference on combating antisemitism. This panel is on hate crimes prosecutions and we really couldnt have a better panel of top officials and practitioners. What were going to do is were going to get each of our panelists about five is to get Opening Statements and then i will engage them in a discussion about some of the issues of the day. First, were going to have Eric Dreiband who is the im sorry what is your title . Assistant attorney general for civil rights. Then calvin shivers, Deputy Assistant director for the criminal Investigative Division of the fbi. And then of course jessie liu, the u. S. Attorney for the district of columbia. Eric dreiband, go ahead. Thank you. Thank you for that kind introduction. And thank you everyone for taking the time to attend today. This is an important issue and what i thought i would do in my opening remarks is talk about really two things. One, the department of justice hate crimes enforcement prevention initiative, and two talk about a few examples of our criminal prosecutions. I had the Civil Rights Division and we along with the United States Attorneys Offices work with fbi, the federal bureau of investigation and local Law Enforcement to help investigate but primarily in our case to prosecute a crimes including in particular antisemitic hate crimes that weve seen around the United States. I initiative is something that started in 2017. We have a new new website which i encourage you to look at, www. Justice. Gov hate crimes. We use that website as well as our initiative about hate crimes to coordinate training, outreach, enforcement, Data Collection and other works with national, regional and local Law Enforcement and other groups the antidefamation league, the Jewish Community center association, and other groups who are dealing with antisemitic hate crimes in the United States. We use our website as a centralized portal for the departments hate crime resources, including information about training, technical assistance, statistics as well. We also have at the department of justice something called task force on Crime Reduction of Public Safety and we have a hate crime subcommittee of that task force, and they also focus on hate crimes, particularly antisemitic hate crimes throughout the United States. In the last couple of years we have hosted several hate crime summits and hate crime events, both at the department of justice and throughout the United States at the lower level. Ill just mention a couple. One, we had a national Law Enforcement roundtable on hate crimes in october of last year that we hosted. The United States Attorneys Office in the Western District of pennsylvania in pittsburgh and the fbi also convene a Community Meeting in response to the tree of life synagogue shooting that occurred in october of 2018. We have worked with the antidefamation league, United States Attorneys Office and georgia more about that on the United States attorney jessie liu boost to my left but we have worked with them in raising awareness and securing Sacred Places and spaces in the Eastern District of pennsylvania as well. Many of my colleagues at the department continue to speak out about the plague of hate crimes threat the United States. With that i want to talk about a few of our relevant cases. Since january of 2017 the Civil Rights Division has obtained indictments against 16 defendants, and 11 convictions in cases involving arson or other attacks or threats against basis of worship. And we also obtained from this is just the Civil Rights Division, 13 indictments and nine convictions involving hate crimes against individuals because of their religious beliefs. Ill just talk about a few examples of that. In august the 2017 an individual in florida pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes are trying to attack or attempted to attack a synagogue, and attempting to a weapon of mass destruction. He was sentenced in november 2017 to 25 years in prison. In february 2018 the department of justice obtain an indictment of an intimate multiple threats and call involving bomb threats and active shooter threats to numerous Jewish Community centers throughout florida, and for threatening other people there. He was charged both in georgia and in florida and that case is ongoing. In september 2010 at 10 and wisconsin man was indicted for threatening the harry and rose sampson family Jewish Community center, and most recently i think there are two case of a particular i want to talk about, which some of you may know about. What is the one i mentioned earlier involving the tree of life synagogue in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, where an individual there we allege a guy named Robert Bowers killed 11 individuals who are at the synagogue while there were worshiping, practicing their faith. He also injured several others people including Law Enforcement individuals. And the most recently just a month or so ago at the poway synagogue in california. The Civil Rights Division along with the United States Attorney Office work with the fbi obtained an indictment of an individual who murdered one person and attempted to murder 53 of the people at that synagogue. And finally what i would say is this work unfortunately will continue but here at the department of justice the Civil Rights Division of the department as a whole will continue to prosecute antisemitic hate crimes vigorously so that all people no matter the faith throughout the United States can live freely, can worship freely and without fear. Thank you. Thank you very much. [applause] mr. Shivers, go ahead. Good afternoon. My name is calvin shivers, Deputy Assistant director of the fbis criminal Investigative Division. What i would like to do is give you an overview of the fbis Civil Rights Program which encompasses hate crimes. Within the fbi Civil Rights Program, hate crimes is the number one priority, and this is based on the Significant Impact that these types of crimes have on communities. Understanding the fbi how we work and the definition we define hate crime as a criminal offense motivated in whole or part by the offenders bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic or national origin, Sexual Orientation, gender or gender identity. In order for the fbi to initiate a hate Crimes Investigation we look for three things. First we look for an act of violence or threats of violence. Number two, the perpetrator must have acted willfully. And then finally the perpetrators actions must of been motivated by a bias towards the victim. One of the things we look at when we look at hate crimes is the distinction between a hate incident and a hate crime sometimes theres a a little bt of confusion. I just describe what hate crime and i talked about criminal offense motivated by an offenders bias against a race religion, national origin, gender or gender identity. A hate incident is more of an act eye contact than through words motivated in part by a bias against protected characteristic of an individual, a group or an establishment in which there is no violation of law pixel by example if i i cad someone a racial slur and theres no physical threat or physical assault, that is protected via the First Amendment. And so nonthreatening hate conduct, no matter how offensive or bigoted, is protected by the First Amendment. However, however, if that slur the balls into an act of violence the balls into a threat and your potential a hate crime. One of the things understand but hate crimes is hate crime investigations are by their very nature reactive. When incident occurs, sometimes its very difficult to immediately determine whether or not this particular act is a hate crime or an act of domestic terrorism. From the fbis perspective, were not really concerned what category falls into. Our primary concern is to first and foremost address the threat, next, we are concerned about the victims so we want to provide the appropriate care for victims. And from there we focus on the investigation. And from the investigative perspective we bring the full force of the fbi to bear on the lens of not only the criminal Investigative Division but also from the Counter Terrorism division. And we work collectively, and again, the initial assessment is not as important as addressing the issue and the victims. And then the investigative piece. And because hate crimes and domestic terrorism sometimes intersect, we address the hate crimes against from the criminal perspective but also from the perspective of domestic terrorism. There are a number of instances where we would work a parallel criminal investigation into hate crime as well as a domestic terrorism investigation. The what weve understood by analyzing sharing intelligence between the criminal Investigative Division at a catechism division, what we hope to do is to prevent hate crimes before they occur. But he gave it do occur we work diligently collectively as one fbi to address and hold those responsible accountable for the actions and seek justice for victims. One of the things the fbi has done within the last few months is to develop a hate crimes domestic terrorism fusion silver and again because of the overlap between domestic terrorism and hate crimes, we have subject Matter Expert on the domestic terrorism site working with our civil rights investigators to aggressively address the threat. The how does it fbi address the threat beyond just a typical investigation . Law enforcement support for us is important, and this is not only working with our federal partners but also our state and local partners. We will expand fbi resources even if there will not be a federal prosecution. We provide our music expertise as well as experience in a dedication and hatebased motivation. And so we work handinhand with the state and local partners, again not always focus on the federal prosecution but addressing the issue. From outreach perspective, the fbi forges partnerships again with our partners not only in Law Enforcement but in the civil rights community, within minority and religious organizations and with ngas. One of the things we understand very important you have to establish those relationships before theres an incident, and thats very important. So for us for Law Enforcement peace but also the outreach of reaching up to the organizations is critical. And then we have our National Training initiative. For a National Training initiative we seek to educate and train not only get our Law Enforcement partners but all of our community partners. We throughout the year will conduct hundreds of seminars and workshops with our Law Enforcement partners and communities helping our citizens and our partners understand the Law Enforcement perspective, but also understanding the laws. And again its important to provide the educational piece. Following the tragic events in South Carolina in 2015 we established a protecting houses of worship. What we understood was not only that incident but also incidents targeting synagogues, churches and mosques. What we understood is that we should work with the community to better train and to better prepare our houses of worship in the event they have to do with an active shooter situation. And then we have our Data Collection and dissemination. Historically, the fbis use the uniform crime report to collect and disseminate comprehensive data relative to hate crimes. The ucr program is being transition to the national incidentbased reporting system. It collects data that is more comprehensive than the ucr and what that will do is provide not only fbi Law Enforcement partners policymakers with greater detail as a seek to address the hate crime issue. So when you look at hate crimes statistics and take a look at bias crimes over the last three years, there are three groups that have consistently been in the top three. Those are number one, being in race and ethnicity followed by religion, and followed by gender or Sexual Orientation. And so if you look at the 2017 ucr, more specifically, race and ethnicity represented 58 , religion 22 , and gender Sexual Orientation 16 . But breaking within the specific groups, the most affected group with race and ethnicity was African Americans representing 49 , and from religion, antijewish sentiment was top at 58 . Then when then when looking gender and Sexual Orientation, mail and i gave bias represented 58 . Antigay. Thank you for having me here. It is an honor and pleasure to beer to discuss this very important topic which also happens to be one of great personal interest to me. My husband and my three children are jewish, and my fatherinlaw was actually born in vienna in 1934 and fled to the United States with his family because of the nazi occupation of austria. We just celebrated a bar mitzvah. It was a little touch and go up until the very end, but we got it all straightened out. So again it really is great to be here and to be talking about this critical topic. Eric and common focus in large part on the enforcement of federal hate crime statute, so i thought i would touch on two slightly different a couple of entry tools for his time deterrence, construction and prosecution. Her son could say a few words about the use of nonfederal statues to prosecute hate crimes and then consider a few words about the use of statutes, federal statutes, other than the federal hate crimes statutes to prevent and to stop potential patrons. So when we start with a brief discussion about the use of nonfederal, in other words, state or local statute to prosecute hate crimes. Some of you may know that my u. S. Attorneys office here in washington, d. C. Is unique among the 94 u. S. Attorneys offices in the country because we investigate and prosecute not only violations of the United States code in Federal District court, but also the local statute, the district of columbia code in d. C. Superior court. Indeed, most of our prosecutions occur in d. C. Superior court. D. C. Has a relatively expansive and whats called a bias related crime statute or it prohibits criminal acts that demonstrate an individual prejudice based on quote, the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, personal appearance, Sexual Orientation, gender identity or expression, family responsibility, homelessness, physical disability, matriculation, or political affiliation of the victim of the act in question. So this is a broader than the federal hate crimes statute in a number of ways. It does address a number of additional protected classes. It also applies not only that violent conduct like assault and attends to cause bodily injury, but also to crimes like injury to property, theft, unlawful entry, burglaries, robberies and arson. And finally it doesnt require an interstate nexus as some of the federal hate crime statute do pixel in many ways it is broader. D. C. Also has an act of terrorism statute which is, referred to as a domestic terrorism statute, and that applies to criminal acts taken with intent to intuitive or coerce a significant severe violation of the dish of columbia and the United States. I raise these examples just to point out that there may well be state or local statutes and jurisdiction all across the country that also would apply to hate incidents or hate crimes, and that is important to think about, sort of the broad range of ways that we as a country can tackle this problem. Second, my office has in many instances used federal criminal statutes that are not the federal hate crime statutes to address conduct that involve the violence or risk of violence based on hate directed at a particular group. Late last year, for example, we charge the defendant under federal firearms statute for being an illegal use of a controlled substance and possession of a firearm, but that particular defendant had come to the attention of authorities because of certain public statements he had made supporting White Nationalism and indicate he fantasized about race and religious based violence. We had another case in which an individual called and bomb in bb threats to some Jewish Community centers here in the district and to the israeli embassy, and we prosecuted that person under the interstate threats and bomb hoaxes statute. Same principle applies with respect to local statutes, i know there are in d. C. Statutes that may apply to conduct of what can be used in addition to or instead of the federal hate crime statutes pixel if theres an instance, we take and all tools approach. Start off by asking one question to all three panelists. And the statistics of hate crimes and antisemitic hate crimes and all hate crimes according to the fbis hate Crime Statistics increase antisemitic hate crimes the most common religious hate crimes is welldocumented. What i would like to hear from you guys, why is that . Why we are seeing in 2017 and new numbers are not out, higher levels of hate crimes, and lets start with the assistant secretary. I messed up twice. I cant read the minds of hateful people, and antisemitism and racism and other forms of bigotry. And what they say is this, if they commit a federal hate crime involving antisemitism, racial bigotry and other protected categories, we can prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law and no one should be fooled by this, especially anyone who contemplates this is a hate crime and watching this on cspan right now. I direct your attention to an event that occurred a few weeks ago in charlottesville, virginia. And individual pleaded guilty and the judge sentenced him to multiple life sentences and in charlottesville, virginia, drove his car into a group of peaceful protesters, we alleged he was motivated by racial hatred and antisemitic hatred and other forms of bigotry and he will spend the rest of his life in prison. All i can say is the attorney general made hate crimes a priority for the Civil Rights Division and the department of justice generally and we will continue to prosecute anyone who sees crimes anywhere in the United States. Let me press you a little bit further. If you dont have an idea why hate crimes numbers are increasing how can you adjust your prevention policies to account for that . As calvin said, and i agree we work with United States Attorneys Offices throughout the United States and state and local governments, religious leaders and other organizations to raise awareness of these issues, we live in a country of 300 Million People and it remains a challenge given the limited resources. To raise awareness of the problem and target enforcement efforts and deter people through aggressive enforcement of the law. I will echo erics comments to pick a definitive reason why there has been an increase in statistics, from the fbi perspective to universal crime, and one of the things we noted is a number of agencies, does that equate to more agencies reporting, more hate crimes, we do not have a diminutive answer to that but we treat each hate crime on its own merits, to address all hate crime investigations, number one priority in the Civil Rights Program. And it is a Community Effort and Community Issue with Law Enforcement not just in federal perspective but state and local partners play a Critical Role like in most incidents the First Responder to an incident will be state and local Police Officer so they plan important role. The fbi, one of the things we set out to do, not only to provide training partners but Law Enforcement partners and what we have seen in the last year to two years, it has gone up and we hope through continued outreach and continued coordination and collaboration we will get more agencies to report on hate crimes. Just to be clear are you arguing, part of a hate Crime Statistics, to increase hate crimes . I want to point out the fact that more agencies, ucr reporting a number of agencies that could report that have chosen not to. If we can get more agencies to report, what the hate crime threat actually is. I the hate crimes going up . We have all had the same statistics in front of us with respect to a number of reported hate crimes and level of reporting. Reasons behind the numbers, as eric and calvin said, we cant necessarily know what is in the head of one actor much less people generally who commit these acts. What i will say is in my office when we have a potential crime that comes in we look at all the tools available to us to address the alleged crime. It could be a federal hate crime statute, a local hate crime statutes, it could be one of the statute or when i havent mentioned that is not a, quote, hate crime statute but is very effective holding a criminal actor accountable and that is what we are focused on, addressing the action. If we charge a hate crime we charge a hate crime. If we believe we can make all the elements beyond a reasonable doubt which is also always our lodestar we will certainly do that. There may be cases it is a better way to address it or the smarter case we have is using one of the other statutes but we certainly wont shy away from trying to figure out the best way to address the conduct in front of us. Thank you. Let me turn back to Eric Dreiband, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division. You mentioned the charlottesville prosecution. As you know, many of the administereds critics believe the president s rhetoric and policies, build a wall, muslim travel ban, telling members of congress to go back to the countries worsens the climate of hate and creates more of an environment where these hate crimes are perpetrated, tolerated. What is your response to those critics . What i am focused on and the department of justice is focused on his preventing hate crimes and prosecuting them when they occur. With respect to preventing them i will give one example. We had a case in which an individual cooperated with Law Enforcement and we learned a conspiracy to blow up an Apartment Building and a mosque. They had not acted yes on that but we were able to rest and charge and prosecute and ultimately convict the individuals for committing conspiracy to commit a hate crime and that is something we do throughout reach, raising Public Awareness of these kinds of acts and before the violence occurs when there is some kind of conspiracy to commit a hate crime including hate crimes, we access properly as we can. As i said earlier we prosecute to the hate crimes and do it aggressively and those are the direct orders of the attorney general of the United States. Attorney general sessions and attorney general william barr prioritized the hate crimes, that will continue. That is what we are focused on, prosecutors and investigators with jesse and calvin and others on doing. As a followup question, nine governmental organizations who follow, publicly critical, too much focus on prosecution and not enough focus on prevention and they point to some of the policy changes made at the Justice Department in the last two years. What would you say about the policy changes you have made, for example going back to the use of defense decrees and other steps as examples of an Administration Policy that focuses on hate crimes after committed for him. A couple things in response to that. It is terrific we live in a country where we have First Amendment to the constitution, various groups are free to criticize, and a resolution of civil cases. In the Civil Rights Division including and settled various civil rights cases civilly consent degrees had no impact and no role in criminal prosecutions at all and with respect to prosecutions we also focused on prevention and created a hate Crime Prevention initiative. Anyone can look at our website and see what you think. Critics can make suggestions, criticism particularly when constructed but we will continue aggressively to prosecute hate crimes and prevent them. Recent fbi testimony, violent extremists are using social media for it december is and and social Media Companies and social media platforms to address the problem of hate on their websites. I start by saying all our citizens have the right to exercise their First Amendment right. We in the fbi when you look at whether or not we monitor individuals, organizations, we usually theres a legal process, we adhere to that because we understand especially when you talk about individuals and groups theres the balance of First Amendment right to free speech so that is something we have to be careful of. I wont speak to the responsibility of social Media Companies. We look at the First Amendment issue where individuals have the right to exercise First Amendment right. Where we get concerned if we get into an investigation and it is used as a mechanism to communicate and prepare for some type of act, that is what we will get involved in. There was a Legal Service or process required that we must meet. You talked about nonviolent hate crimes, you have some unique tools to address. According to the specific those are the hate crimes on the rise more than any other, vandalism, bomb threats, what you have been doing, what do you think is the reason those types of hate crimes are expanding more than others and is that connected at all to the increased culture we are seeing online and in public discussion and in our media and politics . I have the same answer eric and calvin did when you asked the question earlier. I dont know the reason for the increase in hate crimes, generally, the numbers are accurate or particular kinds of hate crimes. We do have tools we can use to address Property Damage inspired by hate for a particular group or animus towards a protected class. That is a useful tool to have. What we found in my experience is Violent Crime is horrible but Property Damage, threats, any sort of that sort of crime is extremely upsetting to the victims too and needs to be addressed. I want to say a few words about hate Crime Prevention. That is something we think about a lot in my office and talk a bit about our partnership with federal and local Law Enforcement so because of the unique nature of dc we have a lot of protests, big groups of people with different opinions who come and protest or counterprotest or otherwise express their opinions and that can have the potential for violence and we have seen that in various places across the country so something we have become acutely focused on in a couple years i have been in this job is identifying those events and my office works closely with the fbi, the park police of their jurisdiction is implicated, police if we see theres some sort of activity of the capital as well as the metropolitan Police Department to really bring and all agency focus on maintaining Public Safety while ensuring that people are able to exercise their free speech rights so we have been very lucky and im not going to knock on wood but it is due in significant part to what our Law Enforcement partners are doing that we have had all sorts of First Amendment activity go on in the city in the last couple years and we have seen it has been relatively peaceful and we want to keep it that way. Thank you so much. Back to you, calvin shivers. Weve heard a lot in the media and in congress about this administrations program to engage communities regarding hate Crime Prevention and some of the changes, some of the rollbacks in some of those programs and im wondering if from your Law Enforcement perspective if you can talk about why those changes were made and how they have affected the work of fbi and other Law Enforcement officials who are seeking to build relationships with communities in the midst of an environment of smaller budgets and sometimes cuts in those programs . Im not in a position to speak to any rollbacks from the administration. My focus is on the fbi and our partnership with the department of justice and what we are doing going forward. What i can say is the fbi has not rolled back its Community Engagement, has not rolled back its training, its partnerships. I dont have the numbers in front of me but i would say we have not, i dont have specific numbers in front of me but in running the program i can say we have not rolled back any of our training. What we recognize and understand is the importance, i talk about partnerships and my partners here, eric and jessie liu have done that and engagement with the community, engagement with prosecutors on the federal level and state and local level are critical. I can only speak to what the fbi is doing and we have not regressed at all in our engagement, our partnership sent engagement with the community. We are focused on educating and collaborating and if theres an incident it cannot be the first time we interact with the community. It cannot be the first time. That is where the engagement is critical. Thank you so much. Let me ask about doj policy. In what we see in the public as a rise in White Nationalist groups, antimuslim groups, doj prioritizing investigations across those associated with those groups who act violently. We cant discuss publicly our investigations but we can talk about our prosecutions to the public and the answer is yes. Anyone who in the name of white supremacist ideology commits a hate crime where we can prove beyond reasonable doubt elements of federal and commit a crime statutes are satisfied will be prosecuted. Typically by prosecutors from the Civil Rights Divisions criminal section working with the United States Attorneys Office. As calvin said, we work with state and local Law Enforcement on these cases and there are times, when appropriate, when consulting with the local District Attorney or local state prosecutors, they may go first in their case and we may state our case and proceedings pending outcome in state courts but remains a priority. It has been a priority since Jeff Sessions with here and continues to be a priority under william barr. It occurs to me we are gathered here not just to learn what the government is doing on hate crimes but what we all can do. We might take this opportunity over the last round of questions, to ask officials and experts what can we in the community and the media look out for . What Practical Action steps can we take to help you do your job in preventing and prosecuting hate crimes but also to do our job, to defend our communities and values. Let me start with eric and go down the line. I will be very brief. To me the best thing you can do from where i sit at the Justice Department is be vigilant and alert and cooperate with the fbi, United States attorneys and Civil Rights Division prosecutors if you learn of any kind of potential hate crimes. With respect to certain statutes, conspiracy statutes in particular, where if we become aware of something or the fbi does or local police or Law Enforcement become aware of something that may be brewing in the community we can take action to prevent it before it happens. I encourage you and your communities to be vigilant in that respect. Let me reiterate that i appreciate the opportunity to be here. The summit is important and i appreciate the opportunity to talk about the fbis of all Rights Program and hate crimes. What i would say is just continued Community Engagement and the old adage if you see something Say Something is very important. Although i drew a distinction with a crimes and hate incidents, hate incidents are just as important. As jessie liu pointed out we are focused on federal law, federal prosecution but we work closely with our state and local partners and it is not whether we can prosecute a case federally or conduct an investigation federally, whether it is state and local partners. Our focus is not that this is federal violation of federal crime, we are solid partners in the community and so the dialogue and communication with state and local partners in the community as a whole is very important. I apologize for giving calvin more work here, i a the call of my fellow panelists who report specific incidents early. We had a case in which a defendant repeatedly called synagogues and he makes harassing phone calls. We decided after an investigation we will not charge a hate crime and we were very glad to get a report early and want to be captain the loop. We have Law Enforcement writ large, and something to prevent something happening, crimes committed to that point. I would also echo my colleagues call for continued engagement, a clergy ambassador program, spend a lot of time, an open invitation to talk to me, that dialogue between we as Law Enforcement in the communities we serve is critical. Thank you for inventing that dialogue. Lets give the panelists a round of applause. Donald trump says israel should not allow two u. S. Congress women into the country front upcoming trip. He tweeted it would show great weakness if israel allowed sit. They hate israel and all jewish people and there is nothing that can be said or done to change their minds. Minnesota and michigan will have a hard time putting them back in office. They are a disgrace. Israels Prime Minister and other top officials were meeting to reevaluate the decision to allow the two Democratic Congress women due to their support for the boycott against israel. When the Trump Administration agreed to sell weapons to saudi arabia declaring a state of emergency the assistant secretary of state for Political Military Affairs testified on the administrations decision before the Senate Foreign relations committee. The committee will come to order. Thank you for being here today. We are going to discuss the recent emergency