Transcripts For CSPAN2 FBI Director Christopher Wray Testifies On National Security Threats 20240712

Security and Global Threats with fbi director christopher ray, at National Counterterrorism director chris miller, the talk included Election Security, cyber campaigns from russia, iran and china, extremist or threatened domestic threats. This is 2 hours and 40 minutes. This hearing will come to order, thank our witnesses, the honorable christopher wray, director of the federal bureau of investigation, the honorable chris miller, director of the National Counterterrorism center and the honorable Ken Cuccinelli, senior official performing duties of the deputy secretary. This is the annual threat hearing. When you look at the threats, and interesting how many hearings you held on so many of these things. I want to ask for my Opening Statement to be entered into the record. If you consider these threats, down the list, cyberattacks, ransom, intellectual property theft, something we are concerned about if you try to develop a vaccine, hundreds of millions of dollars of Economic Loss due to intellectual property theft. Cyber attacks and threats against our Critical Infrastructure. Drug trafficking and the overdose crisis, gains like ms 13, emp and gmp threats to our electrical grid. Drones, human trafficking, Election Security, school and other Mass Shootings was these are threats this committee not only held hearings on but past significant pieces of legislation. When hearing talking about School Shootings or we had the parents of luke choir coming in from parkland, florida to describe what could be some Common Sense Solutions to help prevent or minimize the destruction from some of these Mass Shootings. As we consider these things and consider these things i want to raise the troubling aspect of what is happening in the streets of america. As serious as these threats are, i have a growing fear that what is happening on the streets of america actually represent a greater threat to longterm democracy. As senator peters pointed out yesterday and again today the Mass Shootings, the last couple years certainly, instead of being perpetrated by islamic terror, a greater percentage, the majority by White Supremacists. As acting secretary said yesterday what happened in terms of Mass Shootings the last couple years is completely different versus what happened in the last four months. I want to cite a study published by us crisis project, a joint effort, Armed Conflict location and data project at princeton university. Lets take a look what is happening in the streets, they analyzed data on the last 3 months of demonstrations and what they found is more than 10,600 total and they went back and joined 2019 and set on average at least for july there were 1400 demonstrations in 2019. You can extrapolate and say a normal level of demonstrations every month is 3 months, 4200. This year we had 10,600, access number of 6400. They also analyzed who is protesting, who are these demonstrators, 7750 of those protests have been linked to black lives matter in all 50 states and dc. What they found is 10,600, but 95 were peaceful. 5 turn violent, turned in some kind of riot. They were peaceful in 2440 locations but the 5 returned violent and ended up being a riot where there is property destruction or loss of life occurred in 220 locations. It is only 5 but turn violent. Represents almost 570 riot that occurred in this nation the last few months they studied, almost 570 and we have seen destruction of property. My own state of wisconsin in kenosha the protests turned into property destruction. Dozens of businesses burned down, the downtown all boarded up and final night of those riots, two people lost their lives as well. Weve seen in louisville last night where two Police Officers were shot. Our thoughts and prayers go to them and their families for speedy and full recovery. Why were those people protesting, why did that turn into a riot . They were protesting because they dont agree with our system of justice, where a grand jury looked at the evidence and brought forward an indictment but it wasnt the indictment or enough indictments they wanted so rather than accepting a judicial system to serve this nation well for as long as weve been a nation these individuals turned to rioting and disruption so what i would like to do and ask the senate recording to show a video of supposedly peaceful protest following Donald Trumps acceptance speech at the white house. [crowd shouting] fortunately senator paul, his wife kelly and their guests were unharmed but they were scared unbelievably and had every right to be frightened by how they were are costed. That is not a peaceful protest. The fact of the matter is when you look at these statistics from the center of the study found there were no riots in seattles capitol hill, i am not sure the statistics but once again 570 peaceful protests turned into rioting, turned into property destruction and loss of life and by the way i can see the point that Mass Shootings, majority of those come from White Supremacists but those people and i denounce White Supremacists, im not defending them in any way, shape or form but those 700,750 demonstrations, 570 turned into riot and property destruction and loss of life those are not being perpetrated by White Supremacists. Those are being perpetrated by people with leftist ideology, perpetrating the rioting and anarchy that we cannot allow to continue in this country. The other thing i want to point out is even peaceful protests continue to linger day after day after day as is happening in kenosha even if it doesnt result in direct property loss, loss of life, fact of the matter is these protests turn into sieges that deny other americans their constitutional right to operate a business or be employed in a business, for themselves and their families. We cant just walk it off, so many members of the Mainstream Media slot off like wisely peaceful protests, and those are the facts, this current one gives me the greatest cause for concern. All the threats, i want to highlight how serious the threat happening in our streets today, what happened in louisville last night, what a serious threat that poses and what side of the political spectrum those protests spring from, senator peters. Thank you to each of our witnesses, the shortage of serious and consequential issues to tackle the annual threats, one of the most important opportunities we have to discuss how to safeguard the nation. They held this hearing and that list has continued to grow. Foreign and domestic terrorism Cyber Attacks with foreign governments to so chaos in the country we are dealing with a onceinalifetime pandemic that has taken the lives of 200,000 americans. This disaster has exposed significant security risks embedded in the tools we use every day to connect us with the world. We as we move our daily lives online because of coronavirus, those attack the platforms, adversaries working to infiltrate private companies and government agencies, to find a vaccine. They seized on misinformation and disinformation chipping away at the fabric of our democracy sowing discord and mistrust to the institutions to keep us safe. The scourge of white the premises to violence is a longstanding issue but is now again one of the worst terrorist threats to American Safety and security. Im alarmed this administration downplays this threat and root causes driving the violent ideologies. We cannot be shortsighted when it comes to protecting our National Security. These threats continue to develop and our National Security agencies are willing to adapt. The National Counterterrorism center and the fbi to Work Together to provide a unified effort to defend the homeland. As we discussed at yesterdays hearing on concern the dhs suffered because of lack of qualified and consistent, stable leadership at the agency, while i am disappointed the department does not believe the acting secretary can testify alongside his counterparts from the fbi during our National Counter Terrorism Center during this important confirmation process, testimony from all of the officials here today. Many americans will never know the names of the thousands of personnel who worked tirelessly behindthescenes at each of your agencies to keep the country safe. We are counting on you and your teams with no threats to our safety. The unknown dangers, the months, years and decades. I am grateful for each of you. Look forward to hearing about the threats, each of these threats and how this committee and agency will continue to Work Together to protect our National Security. Our witnesses will hear that. The service and sacrifice of each department and agency. If you will stand and raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear the testimony will give before this, he will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god . Thank you, please be seated. Christopher Ray Christopher wray, director of the federal bureau of investigation, he was sworn in as the eighth fbi director who previously served as attorney general for the department of justice, director ray. Good morning, chairman johnson, Ranking Member peters, i am honored to be here on behalf of the fbi, the nations top threats for the fbi perspective and what we are doing to counter those threats. I know we share a lot of the same concerns about topics from International Domestic terrorism to Cyber Security to the violence in our streets and particularly the threat of foreign influence in our elections to name a few. I look forward to updating you on these and other important topics. I would like to begin by covering a few items that have been particularly on top of the line over the past few weeks. Terrorism remains the top priority though the nature of that threat has evolved since 9 11, we want to prevent attacks by International Terrorist groups like al qaeda and isis. Those groups pose a threat not just to americans overseas but also at home most notably by those we call homegrown violent extremists, loan actors inspired by foreign terrorists, self radicalized typically online, motivated to attack soft targets with readily available weapons. Domestic terrorists inspired by one or more extremist ideologies to commit violent acts. In recent years we have been laser focused on threats posed by racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists. They are radicalized online and mobilize quickly to explain their plans. People like richard holder arrested on hate crime charges late last year when planning to blow up a synagogue in colorado. As with any terrorism case we are focused on disruption while making arrests before the criminal connect. This year alone through the hard work and dedication of was men and women at the fbi and across our Partner Agencies we successfully forded terrorist attacks in kansas city, tampa, cleveland, oklahoma city, boston, phoenix and other locations. We witness protests around the country and many members of congress raised a variety of questions about those protests and although the majority of protesters have been peaceful we have opened investigations, some of whom, violent extremist agenda is designed to so discord and upheaval. Let me be clear, we do not investigate groups or individuals with ideology and exercise of First Amendment activity alone, when the ideology leads someone, the fbi will not hesitate to take appropriate actions. That is why im working with federal state, local partners, the safety of all those trying to exercise their First Amendment rights. We in Law Enforcement must keep our communities safe and secure while safeguarding our citizens Constitutional Rights and civil liberties. As i said before, one need not and must not come at the expense of the other. We remain focused on other threats. In less than two month americans will exercise one of the most cherished rights, to vote in a free and fair election. Americans must have confidence in our Voting System and our election infrastructure. That is why the security of our elections is and will continue to be one of the highest priorities. We will not tolerate foreign interference in our elections and are working closely with federal and state and local partners and the private sector to their information, bolster security and identify and disrupt any threats. We shared threat indicators with facebook and twitter that allow them to take down fake accounts created as part of a Russian Disinformation Campaign before those accounts develop a broader following. Turning to the cyber, we are focused on an increasingly diverse a way of threats from statesponsored chinese intrusions to intrusions by russia, iran, north korea, sophisticated cyber criminals seeking to exploit technical vulnerabilities primarily for personal profit. Last week i announced the fbis new Cyber Strategy utilizing expertise and authorities to impose risks and consequences on cyber adversaries. We have been focusing on results and impact, to enable our partners operations as well as our own. The fbi and nsa recently joined to expose highly sophisticated Russian Military intelligence malware, and other government partners, indicators to disrupt that tool. Just last week our investigations and able to coordinated mix of disruption actions, 3 of which work for the iranian government. Will charges by doj, treasury opec sanctions and fbi alerts enabling potential victims to protect themselves. We also face the increasingly blended threat of statesponsored is the economic espionage by cyber intrusions. In july based on the fbi investigative work doj indicted two chinese hackers working with the ministry of state security for carrying out a Global Computer Intrusion Campaign targeting hundreds of victims including Companies Developing covid19 vaccines, Testing Technology and treatments. With that kind of behavior china continues to undercut claims of being a trusted and affected partner in the community. And and sees or hundreds of accounts, i touched on a handful of important threats. Many significant others. Default, impact complexity and agility were relying on a deep well of expertise and partnerships. Im committed to ensuring the bureau does great work while adhering to our core tenets of fidelity, bravery and fidelity. In these challenging times i remind my folks we have to keep calm, remaining faithful to core values while making sure we are always doing the right thing in the right way. I will be happy to take your questions. Our next witness is Christopher Miller who was sworn in as the director of the National Counterterrorism center in august of 2020. Prior to his confirmation he served as Deputy Assistant secretary of defense for special operations combating terrorism. Mister miller previously served as special assistant to the president and senior director for counterterror threats at the National Debate council. Mister miller served with interagency and joint special operations. Chairman johnson, Ranking Member peters, distinguished members of the committee, deep humility that i appear before you today to present my views about the war against islamic jihadist terrorist groups and other extremists that mean us harm. I recommend represent a talented group that is on duty 24 7 365 to protect our citizens from terrorist attack. I want to publicly thank the department of justice for their tireless pursuit to bring the beatles to justice in partnership with our friends in the united kingdom. The beatles were isis leaders in the brutal killing of americans. Americans can never replace their loved ones, we are hopeful the families receive some degree of closure. This is a reminder to our enemies that we never forget to pursue justice to the end of the earth. 19 years ago after the shock of al qaedas devastating attacks, our nation set out to accomplish three objectives, one, harden our borders, 2, go overseas to destroy the safe havens and centuries of al qaeda and its associated groups, and 3, addressed the drivers of instability that created al qaeda by supporting likeminded partners in their efforts to combat islamist extremism. Due to the enormous dedication, service and sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of americans, likeminded foreign partners, we have been remarkably successful in accomplishing the first two objectives. I sense we are on the verge, if providence is kind, of transitioning from a usled partner enables campaign to and era for local and regional partners to take the lead and we provide niche support to fill gaps in their security, intelligence, information, and legal architecture. I must be clear and not histrionic. Our enemies will successfully attack us again as their adaptation and innovation is driven by profound hatred for what we represent. This is our terrorist dilemma and their strategic advantage. They only need to be successful once while our defense is successful all the time from preventing cataclysmic attack. Our enemies have profoundly underestimated the resilience of the American People time and again. I wonder if the 9 11 Al Qaeda Leaders regretted the decision to attack us. I am confident the survivors must. They fought us soft and spoiled and morally unanchored. They are now either dead, imprisoned or in hiding awaiting death or capture. Their ideology, the overwhelming majority of the islamic world. No one today misjudged are resolved, commitment to protect the security of our citizens using all available instruments of national power. As we experienced in the past purveyors of extremism will periodically amass three sources required to attack us. My principal concern is potential acquisition and use of weapons of mass destruction. If history is a guide, weapons developed are ultimately used. The American People can withstand anything they throw at us was the use of wmd by a terrorist group would make successful pursues of the 9 11 attackers pale in comparison. They estimate the fortitude, great resolve in the american public. Any such attack would guarantee their elimination. Isis which originally formed as al qaeda in iraq is the crisis. The caliphate is destroyed and if ideology is exposed, a brutal, perverse, horrifying abomination. The world recognizes a positive and magnificent faith was hijacked by a handful of corrupt, selfish opportunists. Isiss territorial defeat in syria and iraq forced the group to return to its insurgent roots and increase its reliance on its global branches and networks to project a narrative of strength. With superb partners from the 86 Member Coalition that defeated isis in the middle east, to continue our effort, to render isis permanently impotent. As we continue to come back these traditional enemies face new ones including increasingly aggressive groups, like iran into mystic violent extremists motivated by a variety of ideologies. In a year or two, we would be successful in destroying the remnants of al qaedas leadership, guaranteeing this does not become a multi generational war. For the past 19 years i have been involved in the struggle at all levels, from the moonscape of southern afghanistan in 2001 to baghdad in 2003 to senior policy and strategic leadership in washington dc and internationally, the ct strategists policymaker. The only sacrosanct lesson i have learned is that we must maintain pressure on these groups to preclude them from establishing safe haven where we can rest, train, plot and project combat forces. We must continue to be chastened by our relaxing of this constant pressure in 2011 which allows creation of the largest, most successful terrorist insurgency in modern history in iraq and syria . It is a testament to the sacrifice of a generation that we are now in a place where terrorism isnt the primary National Security priority, but rather another issue of concern but we must not over correct or disinvest before we solidify our gain and make them enduring. The war has been long and we are tired, we face new crises and challenges, victory requires continued focus. This is what we owe the next generation. We saw it through and we ended is on our terms. Thank you for this bodys uncompromising support and partnership. I rest easier knowing your support will continue as we maintain pressure on isis in these final battles. I look forward to your questions. Thank you. Our final witness is the honorable Ken Cuccinelli, senior official performing the duties for the secretary of homeland 30, previously served as acting director of us citizenship and Immigration Services and as attorney general of the commonwealth of virginia where he led the states fight against human trafficking. Ken cuccinelli. Ranking member peters, disinvest members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. I am here to discuss the myriad of threats facing the American People in our homeland. In 2020 the men and women of the department of Homeland Security carried out there mission with professional excellence as our nation faces unprecedented and dynamic challenges. From the pandemic to riots to National Disasters the Trump Administration has ensured that our personal have the vital support and resources they need to address the evolving threats while continuing to fulfill our enduring no fail missions. Dhs has a mandate from donald trump at all times and all decisions and all dangers to keep the safety and prosperity of the American People as our first priority. Today i will briefly comment on three National Threats that deserve specific attention, civil unrest, domestic terrorism, and Transnational Criminal Organizations. When we talk about domestic terrorism we talk about threats through acts of violence carried out against people for Critical Infrastructure in the us to advance an ideological agenda or coerce policy or social change. These are generally conducted by americans and not linked to Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Americans have the right to believe whatever they want but there is no right to carry out acts of violence to further those beliefs. That is when we move from protected speech to domestic terrorism. When this dragged on, local leadership refused to cooperate with Law Enforcement the department of Homeland Security defend the federal courthouse without hesitation in partnership with the us marshals, despite being pelted with ieds, molotov cocktails, fireworks, metal pipes, hammers and more, federal officers were resolute, sustaining more than 300, lawlessness has festered into many of their communities from chicago to seattle, minneapolis to new york, even lancaster, pennsylvania, to kenosha, wisconsin. The government will uphold the right to peacefully protest but there is no constitutional right to lose, to burn or to assault others. Donald trump has made it clear that we cannot and will not allow acts of violence, intimidation or chaos to prevail in american streets and we are proud to participate in such policies. The transnational, organization front, beyond illegal immigration, we are contending with the most deadly organizations in the western hemisphere, mexican drug cartels. To put it in context the power of these Transnational Criminal Organizations is so great that it is a destabilizing force too many governments in our hemisphere, their attempt at drug smuggling and human trafficking, not to mention brutal and violent tactics must be addressed. Last year we lost 71,000 americans to drug overdoses. They happened in every one of your states and communities. I know all of you are familiar and touched by those tragedies. Consistently the majority of these deadly drugs and opioids are produced and smuggled by common organizations across our southern border, to decrease the flow of illegal drugs, seized 4 Million Pounds of hard drugs, on track to seize drugs to make twice the rate of the previous eight years, we sees as many drugs as an been seized in the previous aid, talking about fentanyl, meth, that level of drug seizures. Transnational criminal organizations, profiting off the profiting applies to the drug trade, they are destroying lives through human trafficking. 330 miles of border wall and highimpact sectors push human traffickers and drug smugglers to locations where we are best equipped to catch them, ports of entry. It makes their transnational efforts much harder and make america safer. Another reason this administrations delivery on a promise to build that wall and the system that goes with it so important. And i addressed written Election Security in my written testimony, i reiterate the fundamental goal is to ensure American Voters decide american elections as we sit here in september of 2020, seems an important point worth reiterating. Finally we do need legislation in congress, and the two i like to highlight. We need Greater Authority to designate transnational organized crime at a level below a Foreign Terrorist Organization but giving us authorities above the level of mere criminal law. We will not prosecute our way out of the tco problem. We also need the authority to address a drone threat in an appropriate manner. We can study the problem forever. We must have some authorities provided by congress but we need to be able to bring them down, have the money, the appropriations to purchase equipment to allow that. The problem is well studied. The danger is understood and we are frankly behind the curve in being equipped to address it. I would note especially in my view at airports, the borders and sensitive sites. The threats facing our homeland are vast and varied but i can promise the men and women of dhs are committed to the evolving threats of tomorrow, embracing their duty to safeguard the American People. I am happy to answer the questions. Thank you, Ken Cuccinelli. Unfortunately democrat leader schumer is obstructing the workings of the senate so we are bound by some Arcane Senate will that because of his lack of consent come his obstruction our hearing has to have a hard stop two hours after the convening senate for business. Im going to have to limit the amount of time of questioning to five minute rounds to make sure every senator gets a chance to ask a question and i will keep people closely to that 5 minutes. Running over 5 minutes, assist the witnesses, rambling on past the 5minute time. For the time being i will do for my questioning, toward the tale end of the hearing, i will call the First Senate Leaders right now. Thank you to each of our witnesses today. I will start with you about Election Integrity which you raised in your opening comments. It is important to put this in perspective, we know people are voting, you go to your clerk and vote and have well over 2 million ballots being mailed out starting today for absentee voters. You said last week at the house hearing that, quote, the steady drumbeat of information is your number one concern for the election. The threat can lead to a lack of confidence in the American Voters and citizens and the validity of their vote. Given the covid19 pandemic we are seeing many more people vote by mail, unprecedented members of absentee ballots have been asked for the state of michigan. Let me spell the drumbeat of misinformation we are hearing, is voting by mail secure. During we take all election related threat seriously whether it is voter fraud, voter suppression, in person, by mail and we will investigate the threat actors. We have not seen historically any coordinated National Voter fraud effort in a major election whether it is by mail or otherwise. We have seen voter fraud at the local level from time to time and my comment should in no way be construed as minimizing how seriously we take our impact of those things at the local level. It is on our radar, to change a federal election outcome by mounting that kind of fraud would be a major challenge for an adversary. People should make no mistake, we are vigilant. As to the threat and watching it carefully we are in uncharted territory and as far as risk assessments of any states processes i would defer to Ken Cuccinelli, that is more in their lane. Your answer is clear, youve not seen widespread fraud, something the fbi watches continuously to make sure that is not happening. Something we investigate seriously. The next question, effective interagency coordination will be important. You mentioned Ken Cuccinelli with dhs to make sure our votes are counted in a free and fair election. What does that look like, who is in charge . Is at the white house, the fbi, cyber, another entity, who is in charge . I will start and maybe Ken Cuccinelli will chime in. We all Work Together and have lead in different aspects of the problem, we have command posts, people from each others agencies stationed on that to ensure the glue that connects the tissue is there. As far as foreign influence, malign foreign influence domestically, investigating that is the fbis lead as well as investigating cyber intrusions into election infrastructure, dhs takes the lead in protecting infrastructure and mitigation in response to that. You mentioned cyber, offensive cyber. There is not one into the in charge. You have different liens to running, you cooperate but not one person as is true with counterterrorism. We lead on different parts. In the limited time i have a final question, you mentioned misinformation. Give us some advice. How can American Voters represent an attempt to influence their opinion . It is important you are working, we get all the different agencies working. How do we let the American Voter now this is a Disinformation Campaign perpetrated by a foreign government. How do they recognize that . As your question alludes to. When it comes to information about their vote itself, where to vote, when to vote, information about the results, and something that might be on social media. As far as getting their news which might shift or influence their views more broadly, i would encourage people to be critical thinkers and get their news from a variety of sources and make up their own mind and be skeptical, discerning and electorate, the best offense against malign foreign influence. Out of time, thank you. Thank you very much for the work, thank the folks that work around you that we dont get a chance to meet in this private setting, they do a lot of work behind the scenes. I want to ask about the violence happening across the country in the last several months. We have had hundreds and hundreds of peaceful protests on racial injustice, we have that option to have peaceful protests, people allowed to speak out and. 2 issues but some of the testimony in the house, trending for some groups. Groups or entities behind the scenes organizing nationally, violence in some of these eventss are you seeing spontaneous events, small groups that are unconnected with others . Appreciate the question to be as clear as i can, this is an important topic. The first thing, as the chairman referenced in his opening comments when you look across the country you have three broad categories, peaceful protesters, the biggest number of people, the second category i would describe as criminal opportunists, looting, lowlevel vandalism etc. But then a third group, might numerically be the smallest far and away the most dangerous and most serious, the one we have to go after the most aggressively which is people who are clearly violating federal law, ieds, molotov cocktails, targeting of Law Enforcement, arson of government facilities and businesses etc. Who those people are is our priority, our focus varies, drives them from daytoday. A number of anarchist extremists participating in that mix. Ive gotten a lot of questions from a lot of people about antifa so let me be as clear as i can about that. Antifa is a real thing, not a fiction. Weve seen organized tactical activity at the local and regional level. Weve seen antifa adherents working together in what i would describe as small groups and nodes. All of this i said last week but more clearly conveyed than others. We have a number of predicated, and they operate through these nodes and subscribe or self identify with anarchist extremism including antifa and we will not hesitate to investigate that activity, we have been looking at their funding, their tactics, logistics, supply chains, and we will pursue all available charges. In addition, and plenty of investigation as well. Putting a lot of these things into nice neat clean buckets, one of the things we see more and more. With some sort of mishmash and ideologies. The salad bar of ideologies, a little bit of this and a little bit of that we are not going to stand. Nor should you. The American People are engaged in peaceful protests, encouraged and allowed, violence is not. We have spoken several times about oklahoma specific issues last year and a significant change for the fbi and oklahoma, i have been able to ask for your engagement in oklahoma as we deal with the dynamics of the decision, what that means and grateful for that. Only a few seconds, i apologize for that. The issue of china, director obrien made the comment of a rise in china to engage in our election this year and identified that is one of our greatest threats. Briefly comment on that and what you are seeing, is it influence or actual cyberattacks . Not really familiar with can anybody comment briefly . Each of the two areas you mentioned, they are a rising power and they have every intention of trying to arrival and surpass us as a nation. Based on our intellect will property at a rate that is very applicable, the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of the world, the chinese stealing chemical property from americans and for the strategic purposes we also face them trying to exercise via money and Media Enterprises more overtly than most countries are able to and last not least is a massive trade with us which can be positive of course for both sides, also used as a lever of influence. Thank you. We were just informed senator schumer invoked the welcome we dont have hard stop. Given a minute and 15 seconds, tech under the 2 minute now to do that later but you can continue. We will have 7 minute rounds. Appreciate that. The last minute and 15 seconds, and in 2016, we were all aware how they were trying to engage in the election but his comment seemed to be china is being even more aggressive and russia was. We also know that iran, any clarity you could bring to that, any other comments about that. I would note the way china acts in that arena is different, russia and iran in part so they have so many more levers. They dont have a trade china has, that they dont have the connections to our economy and so forth. They dont have the levers china has available to them. We have seen through this year covid19 was an excellent example as we roll into this election season where they have ambassadors in other countries, there foreign minister, they are taking on false narratives aimed at the United States very overtly and spreading them through their Media Outlets in ways that other opponents dont have available. It is unique. Thank you. Senator peters, would you like to take your two minutes . I am in quarantine so i wont be voting. I will be for my question but you want to go or should we a quick two minutes and quick question to continue with director christopher wray. Online extremist conspiracy theories jumped out of secure web forms and now are prominently featured on traditional social media and even more concerning are manifesting themselves in realworld incidents of violence. My question to you, is there a risk that foreign actors will try to leverage some americans believe in some of these conspiracy theories that are floating around quite widely and will use that to engineer violent confrontations . How concerned should we be about that . There are two strands you are alluding to, one is the sheer impact of social media, terrorism today moving at the speed of social media. It is facilitated by social media where foreign adversaries identify trends, divisive issues, conspiracy theories, amplify and push to suit their policy goals and propaganda against a range of adversaries, russia of course but also china, also iran. It is a real concern. Whether the second trend will manifest itself in terms of violence hard to say, but do so upheaval and discord and as weve seen around the country, very aggressively. That is what we are focused on . Yes. Thank you. Senator hassan . Thank you, mister chair and Ranking Member peters for this hearing, thank you to our witnesses, thank all the women and men user for excellent were keeping us safe. This hearing is about threats to the homeland. Before we begin we must acknowledge a new and dangerous threat to our country and our constitution. The president of the United States refusal to promise a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the election. We have all sworn an oath to uphold the constitution including fellow senators to condemn the president s remarks is recommit to ensuring is peaceful transfer of power, whatever the outcome of this election. The members of this committee from both parties have already done so and i appreciate their words. I hope the rest of the committee will speak out as well. To director christopher wray, at last years threats to the lady we discussed the threat of ransom where tax. Past six months, there has been a further uptick on Ransomware Attacks on hospitals, schools amid the pandemic. Just this month, a Ransomware Attack on a german hospital led to the death of a patient. There has been a spate of Ransomware Attacks on our schools as districts have migrated to online learning. Our communities do not have the resources to effectively counter a wide range of Cyber Threats on their own, including ransomware. I appreciated so director wray i appreciate any opening comments your discussion on cyberng threats. Could you drill down a bit more on what the fbi is doing to help protect state and local governments and other nonfederal partners from ongoing Cyber Attacks and to deter malicious cyber adversary . I appreciate the question and i do recall of exchange from last year. Ransomware is a particularly concerning part of the cyber threat that we face, at the threat of ransomware against state and local government is particularly high. There are a variety of reasons white ransomware actors target municipalities, hospitals, police forces, et cetera. One of the things we have done recently is through our National Cyber investigator joint task force, we have brought together a whole of government effort to focus across multiple agencies, Intelligence Community and Law Enforcement on the most damaging ransomware variants. Some of that is too investigative activity disruptions. Gh some of that is through outreach and engagement when we work closely with dhs to help educate those entities on how to better harden and protect their infrastructure because certainly having good cyber hygiene backups et cetera is one of the best defenses against ransomware. Wens are seeing what a something that concerns me in particular of growing trend to see ransomware actors essentially sharing ransomware across different organized criminal activity. So that basically means that some of the most sophisticated forms of ransomware are now potentially available for less sophisticated actors come sort of a a version of cybercrime aa service which is deeply troubling and increases the risk. Risk. We are also seeing a greater trend of ransomware actors essentially piecemeal, pushing out the information rather than just locking it up and encrypting it anden holding it r ransom. They are releasing the limits of time into the public to me as a way of increasing the pressure. Thank you. I appreciate that very much and i look forward toh continuing to work with youin on that. Director wray, i also wanted to touch on another issue. I was pleased to see tuesdaysra announcement about operation disruptor, an effort to stop Drug Trafficking on the dark web. This operation resulted in the siege of hundreds of kilograms of illicit drugs, including fentanyl and dozens of firearmsl as well as the rest of 179 people. Needless to say this was a significant operation. I appreciate the work of all of the federal agents who carried it out. Last week i wrote a letter to you in the attorney general asking for more information about efforts to combat Drug Trafficking on the dark web. Senators cornyn and feinstein of the Judiciary Committee joined the letter as well. We requested a reply by october 15. Can you commit to a written response by that date which is still three weeks away . I will get your response about this possible. Not having had a a chance to rd the letter get i dont know how involved a response with mean but certainly we appreciate your focus on the issue and the operation we have stood up that spins off these things Like Operation disruptor is i think a really exciting effective tool, a coordinateded interagency too. Its not just the fbi, tono disrupt and dismantle darknet marketplaces which is a particularly important part of the opioid problem we are all basic. Absolutely. I thinky. You and i would look forward to further conversation about what Additional Resources doctors could provide to bolster those efforts. Im going to move onto one last question now if thats all right. Director miller and director wray, last december a member of the saudi military in the United States on a Training Mission killed three people and injured eight at a Naval Air Station in pensacola, florida. Alqaeda is give many affiliate claimed credit for the attack working the tears groups First Successful attack in the United States in several years. Director miller and director wray, do you feel confident with the adequacy of screening done by the use of Foreign Military trainees entering our country, and how would you assess the vulnerabilities of this Exchange Program . Thank you, senator. Obviously its of a great concg thanks for the question. Adaptive, innovative enemy that means is greativ harm, they foud a loophole. The loophole has been close. Im confident now in efforts to recognize that protocols and scrutiny to work but they found a loophole and they exploited it. Thank you, and director wray. I do think the department of defense has taken important strides to address the vulnerabilities that was there. Theres an affordable for the saudi government to play coopere at different times on this issue. But they are an incredibly important partner if we are going to be able to prevent Something Like what happened in pensacola again. Sen. Hassan i appreciate all of your work very much. Lastly, director miller, as a New Hampshire senator, i thank you for everything you have done to bring the killers of james foley to justice. Chairman johnson senator romney . Sen. Romney thank you for the work that you do. Deeply appreciate the work of the men and women who work in your respective organizations, who are working every day to keep us safe. Director wray, with regards to foreign Cyber Threats and theft, i think we can agree that the best defense is a good offense. China, iran, russia are only in a to stop attacking cyber way if they are hurt more than we are. Do you believe that our offensive Cyber Efforts are as effective as they should be . If not, what should we be adding . Certainly i agree with you that an important part of fighting back against our foreign adversaries in the cyber realm is offense as well as defense. That is a big part of this new strategy, fbi strategy, which is in myea that i referenced Opening Statement about focusing on results and maximizing impact. Sometimes the way to maximize impact is through Law Enforcement action that we would take. Sometimes it is through sanctions. But sometimes it is through offensive cyber operations. And we are very focused on making sure that intelligence and information that we develop throughout our investigative work is shared with our partners to enable their operations offensively. Our National Cyber Investigative Joint Task force, we are much more effective in partnering with the relevant i. T. And dod agencies on that. I think it is a growing area and we are getting more sophisticated all the time, and you will never find an fbi director who would not welcome more tools, but i do think we are moving in the right direction. And i think you are right to raise the issue. Sen. Romney sen. Romney thank you, sir. Director miller, i appreciate your unvarnished update of where we are. With regards to weapons of mass destruction, do other nationstates recognize just how it would be for a weapon of mass destruction to fall in the hands of a nonstate actor to be used against us or anyone else for that matter . Do they recognize that, and are they taking sufficient actions to secure their Nuclear Capabilities . Dir. Miller thanks, senator, for that question. I can say definitively with our partners that they take it seriously. I cannot dispute the fact that some rogue regime might not find Strategic Value in providing such weapons. Wasously, if a nationstate too unsophisticated to do Something Like that, i feel strongly it would probably result in catastrophic effects on them. Ist we are seeing really they recognize, our terrorist enemies recognize that that is the one thing they have not been able to use against us. Again andrgeted again, and will continue to prioritize, any terrorist groups who are trying to acquire those types of weapons systems. Sen. Romney thank you. Director wray and mr. Cuccinelli, i think we have watched with dismay as what has begun as peaceful protests turned violent. Apparently organized individuals come in and do destruction, and in some cases cause death. It seems in many respects that we are not as effective as we would like to be in preventing or stopping people from that nature. Sometimes we wonder, do we need more police on the front lines . Do we need National Guard . Do we need heavier equipment . That will only encourage a violent to occur. The question is this. Given your experience so far, what are we doing wrong . What should we be doing better to prevent what began as peaceful protests from being kidnapped by the small groups of whether it is antifa or other violent groups of anarchists . How can we shut them down as violence begins to occur in a way that we are not doing now . Dir. Wray i will start. At a big picture level, if you look across the country, the places that have been most effective in countering the kind of violence and dangerous criminal activity you are describing and preventing those bad actors from hijacking otherwise peaceful protests has been quick, prompt, robust partnerships between federal, state, and local Law Enforcement. And where all the partners have worked together quickly, all on the same page, all with the same mission, all aligned, it has usually been nipped in the bud, which has allowed both peaceful protests to continue, but also prevented dangerous violence from forema fomenting. Dep. Sec. Cuccinelli first of all, i would double down on the directors comments about the necessity of state, local, and federal cooperation. Smootho you see ready, cooperation at the professional level we are not talking about mayors and city councils, we are talking about when they do not interfere with their polices ability to interact with those of us at doj and dhs, that is where you see success. I would say in terms of tactics, it is a peace through strength approach. It is not that we want to engage in the battles, it is that we want to deter them and allow the peaceful protesting to go on peacefully in a way that has succeeded around the country isr the last several months, where there is deficient, responsible Law Enforcement in place, violence is deterred and peaceful protesting can continue. I would just note, this is overwhelmingly or largely in the hands of state and local authorities. We have limitations on our federal jurisdictional authority, more so at dhs than doj, but we all respect our legal boundaries of authority. That leads many people sometimes to be frustrated about why we may not be doing more. Take portland we have federal facilities take portland. We have federal facilities, but there is no jurisdiction on the part of Homeland Security to Police Portland the way their police do, even though their police wont cooperate with our officers and the result is greater violence. Sen. Romney thank you. Chairman johnson mr. Coach nelly, you mr. Cuccinelli, you sent me a conference with the police chief of chicago. If you could describe that, this would be a good time to have you do that. Dep. Sec. Cuccinelli the video the chairman is referring to is the press conference by superintendent brown, who is the police chief in chicago. You will recall when he had 49 whaters injured during amounted to an attack on a Christopher Columbus statue in that city. That press conference, the first 14 minutes, it is in my view the simpleear and description, and he shows it to you. He does not just tell you, he shows you the video footage of the transformation of what clearly starts off as what looks like any other peaceful protest down theudy, marching street, Police Protection in front and in back, then it makes a left turn into the park. They use drone footage, they show you people changing into the clothing, they show you people dropping bags worth of weapons to be used against the police, they show you the transformation of the pvc pipes used to hold the banner and pulling those apart and using those as weapons, the use of umbrellas. The clearestne of examples and best explained that i have seen anywhere since these protests turned violent have happened this summer. It is the july 20 press conference by superintendent brent of chicago superintendent brown of chicago. I would urge anyone to watch it. Chairman johnson it certainly shows that in this case it was not spontaneous violence. This was wellorganized. Preplanned. And it was violent. Senator rosen. You, mr. N thank chairman. Thank you to the Ranking Member, and thank you for being here today for the important work you and your teams do and the analysis you are all engaging in. Learned fromcans the threat assessment that supremacy that White Supremacists represent the biggest threat. [indiscernible] it is the most lethal threat. A later draft of the report softens the language on the white supremacist threat. Mr. Cuccinelli, i was alarmed to youthe dhs alleging that personally ordered him to modify the section on White Supremacy in a matter that made the threat appear less severe, to ensure they matched up with the Public Comments by President Trump. , do you agree with the fbi director [indiscernible] dep. Sec. Cuccinelli i certainly think the lethality analysis that you cited is correct. It has been the position of the department of Homeland Security for quite some time. It has not been changed despite the implications of your question. I continue to believe that is true, and it is not a belief, it is just looking at the data. When White Supremacists act as terrorists, more people per incident are killed. That is a higher lethality. That is what we are referring to. Sen. Rosen then why the change between the earlier and updated draft where you softened the language if you believe that is true . Dep. Sec. Cuccinelli we have not softened the language, and you will see when the final report is out that what you are describing is still in our homeland threat assessment. Your concerns in that regard i can put to rest. You order why did mr. Murphy to downplay the threat . Dep. Sec. Cuccinelli i absolutely did not do that. That did not happen. Sen. Rosen you dont have the metrics you used to assess the lethality . You would say they are good or bad, how you assessed the threat to make sure we are not downplaying it . Dep. Sec. Cuccinelli the metric used with respect to the subject you and i were just talking about is the number of deaths. It is a ratio, deaths per incident. And because that ratio is highest among Domestic Violence extremists among white supremacist terrorists as opposed to the other types that we faced, that leads to the conclusion mathematically that they have the highest lethality. At least in recent years. Sen. Rosen i look forward to working with you and your team to work on stopping threats and eliminate those threats and keep our communities safer. But i do have another question for you while i have you here. I am disturbed by the allegations we have all heard hysterectomies happening in ice facilities in georgia. There must be accountability. Have you gone down to visit the facility in georgia, and if so, who was with you . Dep. Sec. Cuccinelli i agree with you that those are shocking allegations, and as a result i immediately dispatched a team from outside of ice, including a doctor from the coast guard, attorney, and one member of my staff, who is a retired army nurse to review the records in that facility. I am happy to report at this thee that the internin documentation indicates that over four years there were two hysterectomies performed on two women, and that was confirmed by the nearby medical procedure where those procedures take place. They came to the same numerical conclusion that we did. But as i said, the Inspector General is continuing to investigate that. I should also add that one of the lawyers that filed the complaint last friday was reported by the ap as indicating they hadnt actually talked to anyone who had had a hysterectomy, but they wanted the department to investigate the subject, which is not a legitimate basis to bring a complaint. But that was learned after the fact. Sen. Rosen thank you, i appreciate that, but you didnt answer the question. Did you go down to georgia yourself . Dep. Sec. Cuccinelli no, i did not go with that team. I dispatched that team to go literally within a day or two of the allegations. Sen. Rosen [indiscernible] that is all im asking. Dep. Sec. Cuccinelli i have not been to that facility. Sen. Rosen thank you. I would like to move on to director miller, to talk about iran quickly. In your testimony, you noted that your own has the ability to deploy and support terrorism within the United States. Hezbollahstified that has expanded as recently as 2018. Two iranians were arrested in for passing information back to iran. Can you please outline for us the threat to the homeland from iran . Thank you for that great question. As we all know, iran is the greatest state sponsor of terror in the world and continues to plot against america all the time, almost as if it is part of andr strategic calculus, greatly concerned by their continued ambition, as well as aggressiveness. It is something that all three of us at this table look at probably several times a day and our men and women are on point on this. But at this point, a lot of times the iranian bark is louder than the bite, and we want to keep it that way. But it is still obviously one of our principal threats. Sen. Rosen thank you. I look forward to working with you to find out what commerce can do to improve interagency collaboration to keep [indiscernible] particularly when it comes to Homeland Security. Chairman johnson thank you, senator rosen. Senator scott . Chairman, thank you, for hosting this today. I want to thank each of our witnesses here today. I want to thank director wray for his comments after parkland. I had a trip with a Wonderful Group of people who are making sure that with a lot of tips how to figure out how to make sure things get directed to the right person. I also want to thank director wray for his efforts after the pensacola shooting to keep us informed and figure out how Something Like that doesnt happen again. I want to thank the individuals working at the fbi for all their hard work. It is disgusting what has been going on with our Law Enforcement, how lawenforcement has been treated, and the insults they are taking. The things that are thrown at them, it is disgusting. It reminds me of what happened to people that were coming back from vietnam and they were treated disgustingly, and they are not the ones who chose to go. They chose to defend the freedom of this country and they follow the orders they were given. I did a resolution on the senate floor supporting the men and women of Law Enforcement, and it shocked me but members of the democrat decided to block it. That acant imagine simple resolution to support members of Law Enforcement would not get supported by everybody in this country, especially in the u. S. Senate. What are you all doing how has it impacted the morale of Law Enforcement people when you see how badly lawenforcement is treated, and what are you all doing to ensure the members of Law Enforcement you work with and others are safe . Of. Wray i appreciate both your comments about the fbi, and even more your concern about the men and women of Law Enforcement across this country. I will say that this is personal for me and personal for us at the fbi. All of the state and local Law Enforcement departments we are talking about have members on our task forces, and we work with them every day. I will tell you that the rate of violence, including lethal violence against Law Enforcement, is up significantly this year from last year. And when i say it is personal, i mean that in a different sense as well, which is one of the things i started doing when i became director. I decided i was going to call every time an officer was killed in the line of duty, shot and killed or killed. I was going to call the sheriff myself. My staff gives me a picture of the dead officer and a description of his family, and i called the chief or the sheriff and we have a conversation and i express my condolences. I will tell you that i have had to make too many of those calls. In fact, in late august, Early September of this year, in about one 15day period, i had to make seven of those calls. That is one every other day. Each one of those officers was a son or daughter or a mother or a father, a beloved family member, community members, and all they do is get out and try to serve the public. And sometimes i scratch my head at why more people cant appreciate how special it is for someone to be willing to get up every morning and put his life on the line or her life on the line for a complete stranger. To do it once is extraordinary, but to get up and do it for a living day after day, and when you pack on top of that the impact of covid on Law Enforcement, i think they are there are close to 90 lawenforcement officers in this country who die as a result of covid. Partly because they are out there protecting the public so they are more risk. It breaks my heart. Director miller . How does it make you feel when you see how badly Law Enforcement is being treated now, and what are you doing to make sure people are safe . Father was amy career Law Enforcement officer. I am focused on international terrorism, but as a citizen and as a son of a father who dedicated his career, i am also incredibly humbled by the commitment and the Selfless Service of our Law Enforcement men and women. Dep. Sec. Cuccinelli senator, dhs has more Law Enforcement officers they in any other entity in the country, so we take your question very seriously. It is certainly something that we talk about in leadership, maintaining that morale. They are doing something, as the director describes, that no one else in america is asked to do. There is no one else we ask every morning to put on a gun with the possibility of them using it to stand between us and people. There is no real sign that evil is going to go away. I think back to George Washingtons description of veterans. Your ability to recruit your next round of troops is going to be heavily dependent on how they see your treatment of the last round of troops. The veterans for him coming out of the revolutionary war. And the same is true of our Police Officers. They deserve our respect in a way that very few other people in our society do. Is that whileound the public discussion can be very rough and tumble, they respond very positively when they see leadership in their Department Going out and affirmatively defending them and taking the position you just described. I know they appreciated when they see you doing it. I know they appreciate it when they see us doing it, because they tell us that. It matters a lot that you all in this body pay them the respect they are due. I am sorry the resolution played out the way it did. I am as shocked as you are based on the subject matter, but it is very important that you will use your leadership to encourage Law Enforcement across the country. Sen. Scott thank you for reaching out. We had 51 memos of Law Enforcement who died in the line of duty in my years as governor, and i went to all of their funerals. You get to meet their families. Almost all of them seem to have young kids and your heart goes out to them. Let anybody you come in contact with let them know how much we appreciate them. Chairman johnson senator paul . Sen. Paul i would like to begin by wishing a speedy recovery to the two Police Officers in louisville who were shot yesterday in the line of duty. I joined senator scott and others in saying we have to appreciate our police more generally. They are protecting us from the vandals, the marauders, the arsonists in our cities. It is not just the democrat proposition of defunding the police that threatens us, it is also the idea that if we dont appreciate our police we wont have more volunteering to become policeman. It is imperative that we show our appreciation for these people who are risking their lives to keep us safe. My wife and i know about this personally, as you saw from the video going into this. We were attacked by a mob in d. C. A few weeks ago. For those of you who doubt the mob had violent intent, immediately after we were safely into the hotel, one of the Police Officers was assaulted and received stitches in his face. What bothered me is i commend them for their heroism. I believe they saved our lives. But the person who assaulted the policeman was from out of state, then he was released on his own recognizance. Snarkily,out somewhat if youre looking for him, you might as well look in kenosha. But i think we do have to investigate these people and we have to put more blame where blame is. We have to find out who is financing them. If you are from out of date and you attack somebody in d. C. , i would think the fbi or federal authorities should investigate. How did he get there . I cant tell you that black lives matter is supporting these folks and we should not shy away from attributing blame where blame goes. When we were attacked, the head of black lives matter had this to say. She said, we can see the fear in their faces and that is how we want them to live. Their goal is terrorism, they are admitting it. When you look at their exchanges online, they are saying their goal is to terrorize Public Officials and really anybody. Many of the people in the restaurants are being terrorized are not Public Officials, but their goal is tear. Whether or not that equates to something you can legally investigate, i dont know, but should know that and should let Corporate America know that. Corporate america is giving millions of dollars to something they perceive as an antiracist group. In reality, it is a group that is funding terror and funding terrorists to go from city to city. I dont think anybody can comment directly on the Police Officer that was assaulted that was protecting my wife and i, but in general, director wray, is a Police Officer being attacked from someone out of state, do you think that can fall under the purview that the fbi investigating cases like this were people from out of something . Ing you would think it would be a local crime to be investigated, but if they are from out of state, is there a federal angle to me must geisha . Dir. Wray first, let me say i appreciate your sympathy and appreciation to that officer, and we are pleased that the offender was charged. The release is concerning. I would say that when it concerns to interstate travel, there are federal charges we can bring. There are federal writing charges that have an interstate nexus that we have started trying to use around the country when we can, and there are a variety of interstate commerce type folks that we can look to. We are aggressively looking for the same kinds of things that youre pointing to, funding, supply chains, networks, communications with others in different parts of the country, and certainly the interstate travelers are some of the most serious offenders. I know that in portland, for example, there were a couple individuals that i can think of off the top my head who were coming from a different state who were in one case threatening to blow up a building and in another case attempting to attack a building and charges were brought in both of those instances. Wherever we can find a tool or a legal weapon to go after those people, we are going to use it. While there are certainly a large number, even a majority, of people out there who are protesting peacefully, it doesnt take very many, as you experienced in the really shocking video that was played, i doesnt take very many people to suddenly cause harm. Sen. Paul the frustration is there is one guy on the internet who is saying he has been arrested 26 times. There has got to be some cumulative nature to that many crimes that we have to be at some point able to hold him. I think ray arresting is a good idea. If i were in portland, i would arrest them all again. It is not life in prison, but you should get 24 hours in a cell and a hearing the next day and be booked. But we have got to do did you something. The people who attacked us, within 20 minutes, people are isolating their faces and saying here is a picture of him in louisville. Here is a picture of him in portland. It costs money to travel places. There were dozens staying in hotels near the white house. It is important that we look at eight. I sympathize with some of the reforms. I had an act called the Breonna Taylor act to get made of no knock raids. They may not be necessary. But at the same time, if the trail leads to black, there is an Important Service to corporations who think that they are giving money to a peaceful protest. They need to be aware if they are being flown around. A call to not having more money flood in to a group. Ofshould not be afraid allegations that this is a peaceful group, so we cannot touch them. We do need to trace the money, and if it is coming from an organization with purposes. They do not have a right to fund may him. Feel free to respond to that or not. One of the things that we are doing in portland and other places is to work with local state partners to essentially identify who is going in and out of the local system. To prioritize those individuals to see if there is some federal charge because that can oftentimes result in detention and more strict sentences. It is something that we are looking at, including it goes a little bit here last point including where someone might be rep misrepresenting what they are fundraising for. Certain crowdsourcing activities, where somebody contributes, thinking they are giving towards a First Amendment activity, but it is being used for something else, something more pernicious. One final comment. The people hurt the worst people who are saying i want to help people in the poor sections of d. C. Need to realize that when you burn down the last pharmacy, the last mcdonalds or walmart, it hurts the people who lived there. Many of these businesses not get back. You are hurting the people you are trying to help. Thank you. I appreciate your comments. Im sorry you guys had to endure that kind of abuse. Senator portman . Have seen today, our annual discussion about the threats to the homeland is full of threat. I want to start by thanking the men and women who work for you. I hope you will pass along our respect. Safe. P us all at the state and local level, but also who you represent here today, we have a lot of threats. They are foreign actors trying to intervene and our election again. I have repeated many times that i support peoples rights to protest peacefully. Earlier thatsed some things have been locked around here. We had a bill that was very common sense. Blocked by consideration by the other side. I think that is cynical. We should have passed something, including some i guess that senator paul talked about. The riots, particularly the damage to our communities, the arson, looting, desiccation of property when i say our communities, often these are communities of color. Nothing upsets me more than to see an entrepreneur in one of these communities, like the africanamerican guy in ohio or the hispanic woman i have seen in other news broadcasts who said, i spent my life tilting this business and now it has been destroyed. Of course, the harm to individuals, to citizens. Violencerly the against federal, state, and local officers. It is a good way to put it. These people were doing their job. They get paid very little compared to what people are being paid around this place, or frankly some of the demonstrators assaulting them, taking out their frustrations on these guys, it is not fair. It is unacceptable. I want to express my condolences for dave underwood. He was one of yours, a protective service officer, who was killed while trying to protect the courthouse in oakland, california. Been300 injuries have sustained in portland. We wish them a speedy recovery, including getting their sight and hearing back. That twost discussed officers were shot last night. Alle two officers we wish them a speedy recovery, but to their families talk about trying to recruit people into this business. I wonder what their families think about that. I was of the day family in at ad, ohio i visitation. He was one of your guys. He was working with the fbi and local and state Law Enforcement. On a Violent Crime task force. He was gunned down in his car by three teenagers. Unprovoked. Just gunned down in his car. His family was incredible. They were soak create they were so courageous and so committed to the notion that jimmy died in service to his country, which is exactly what he wanted to do in his life. God bless him. It is like talking to the families of our military. This violence must stop. Terroristay groups continue on the attack. That is a threat. Cannot forget. We cannot take our eye off the ball. Cyber attacks are on the rise. This committee has focused on that a lot. As you know, the Deborah Terry deputy secretary, i am concerned that they are just not doing it. They are not protecting themselves, which means they are not protecting the taxpayers or the government. Put the firewalls in place. Is thest of which transnational terror groups that are shipping poison into our communities. They keep doing it. That 3 Million Pounds of hard drugs have apprehended. Crystal meth, heroin, cocaine etc. I believe the ultimate issue answer to this issue lies on the demand side. Additional money on prevention, treatment, services, longerterm recovery, and we have to keep that up. We see a reversal during the covid period in Overdose Deaths come after finally getting to the point where we were making progress on that. After three decades of increases. Now we are going the other way. We have to deal with the supplyside. When it flows into this country, it is cheaper, more accessible. I want to focus on fentanyl. It mostly comes by the mail. Us stop act, you worked with and we got it passed. It is supposed to keep the stuff from coming in from china. How do you think this is working . We have a lot of experience with stop act. How is it working from an fbi point of view . They have started aggressively pursuing small package inspections at a level we have not done before our adversaries adjust before. Our adversaries adjust. We will keep up the pressure in that space. It is like my comments earlier. Opportunitynimize points, we can focus our efforts , all of us together on avenues of approach that we know that they are using. This body help from to continue that effort. I know you have been strong. Lets get the stop act in place. Is coming over land the stop act will help their too. I know i am getting close to over my time. Can i have a chance to ask about the other threats . We will get back to you. One is safeguarding our research. I love what you said about the greatest transfer of wealth in the world. Other countries systematically targeted our research and it is a threat to the homeland. With this new legislation that came out, it has gone to the floor of the senses has a proposal by senator mcconnell. Would that help you to do your job . You say you have opened up every 10 hours a china related investigation. This provides a new terminal fraud charge. Gain the help you tools to protect the homeland from this threat . We do think it will help. Of theto underscore some points that you made. From our perspective, i have said this repeatedly that there is no adversary that presents a broader and more comprehensive threat to our democratic ideas, Economic Security then the country of china. 1300 in terms of espionage investigations. 2000 plus active investigations tied to the government of china, by far the greatest chunk of our portfolio. As engaged inelf a war. U. S. Ave a pipeline of technology back to china, for their nationalistic purposes, taxpayerriating u. S. Dollars in the process. I appreciate the leadership you have shown through legislation on this topic. A itrying to tackle through investigations. It covers almost every region of the country. We are very concerned about chinas fusion policy, where they overtly focus on channeling what appeared to be civilian research to advance their military aims. ,s one illustration of that certain members of this committee may know that we have started discovering pla researchers in the country that were concealing their ties. That is a real concern as well. And it ismajor issue our highest counterintelligence priority for a reason because it will shape what this country is like and 25 to 30 years. My time has expired. I appreciate your indulgence. Your personal commitment to this is very much appreciated. It was not always so at the fbi. Learnedhocking, what we. The fbi testified and said we have been asleep at the switch on this. We need to increase what we are doing in terms of prosecutions, and boy they have. Absolutelyly, it is necessary. Followup with you in writing about that. We appreciate the additional funding. We have some good experience back home with groups getting funding and expertise. They are getting the professional help to protect againstes, pushing back thankic terrorism so we you for your support of that program. We know you have a new program. Muchthat, thank you very and thank you, chairman figure indulgence. Lex thank you very much. I want to say that while the senator is still in the room, the legislation he referred to is bipartisan legislation. The good worknd the fbi is doing in support of our efforts. This is legislation that should be before the senate. We should have the opportunity to see this signed into law. Will send. Q. Want to look at my questioning. Our witnesses,o thank you for being here. Thatery much for the work you do for us every single day. Thank you very much for the work that you do for us every single day. Winchester,ves in kentucky. This is personal for our family. No one has been charged in connection with Breonna Taylors death and we need to know why. Breonna taylors family needs to know why. We need to remember the words of Breonna Taylors mother from earlier this summer. Bigger than her, but we cannot get justice with violence. Does not help her. It does not help us. She goes on to say it does not help the world that we live in. You cannot fight violence with violence. Of words, just yesterday former Vice President joe biden. He said, violence is never and can never be the answer. We seek the whole truth and the death of Breonna Taylor, we must not sully her memory by perpetrating the same violence that took her. Pray for the two Police Officers that were shot in louisville, as we pray for Breonna Taylors family. Turn to the domestic terrorism, if i can. This will be a question for director ray. Director wray. We need to address the root cause of the problems. With the secretary to ensure that the department had the needed resources to address the root causes. , two questions, if you will. I releasing such a rise in racially and ethnically motivated extremism and violence in this country, in recent years . Why . I appreciate your concerns and i share many of those concerns. I would say that the why is something that we struggle to get our arms around. One important part of that phenomenon, which i have referred to earlier is the role of social media. As i said, terrorism moves at the speed of social media. What you have is a phenomenon where disaffected, angry, hateful people, who are may be separated geographically, they are largely lone actors, they are able to spin each other up by being virtually connected, in a way that they could not before. More of that that occurs through encrypted messaging platforms, the more that we can expect to see, unfortunately and tragically. The angry person who wants to lash out, living at in moms basement was all by himself. Now he is talking to similarly situated people across the country and the world and is more likely to get encouraged and galvanized to take hateful ideas and turn them into dangerous and lethal violence. And i grew up i remember taking a school trip with my whole seventh grade class to richmond. We had the opportunity to meet the governor. It was an amazing experience. , there was as ago demonstration. There was violence in richmond, virginia. , folks frome there the ku klux klan, those instigating racial violence. Our president was asked to comment. He said there are good people on both sides. I would suggest that words like that from our president encouraged racial extremists to act out. That is something that needs to stop. How is the fbi working to ensure you come before this committee next year, the threat is reduced. How can congress be helpful in that regard . I think a few things. I asked all of our joint forces, essentially 4500 investigators around the country, to ask they are focusing on mystic terrorism, in addition to international terrorism. They were already doing that, but one of the things that we did recently was to elevate racially motivated violent extremism to the same National Threat priority as isis and homegrown extremists, inspired by Foreign Terrorist Organizations. I created a hate crimes fusion cell, which brings together the expertise of domestic terrorism with our hate crimes investigators and analysts. That is designed to make sure that we are getting the thats designed to make sure were getting the synergies that are necessary and weve made significant progress, first time i can think of where we were able to proactively disrupt an attack using a hate crime charge involving the attempt to attack a synagogue in colorado that i referenced earlier. Certainly we need agents, analysts, data analytic tools, and would ultimately are going to need a solution to the end to end encryption problem which plagues Law Enforcement on an increasingly, increasingly constant basis. There are a b number of things e would potentially turn to congress for help with. Mr. Chairman, i have one less question. Can you indulge me for two more minutes . Okay. Thanks very much. Nu mr. Wray, can you give us examples of what russia, china adarand has been doing to spread disinformation and misinformation ahead of the election . How does the bureau were to proactively combat this misinformation . Well, i would refer you to the odnis Public Statement that is the unclassified version of what the Intelligence Community assesses from our foreign adversaries with respect to election interference, eddie goes through a description of china, russia and iran. Un all three countries are highly sophisticated actors with different capabilities pursuing different means. In the case of the russians in the iranians, have use of online tools, for example. Youve heard about the use of social media. We are seeing online journals, fake placement of stories, things like that, use of proxies by the russians, for example. On the chinese, as i mentioned before, in many ways its our greatest counterintelligence threat to this country and their efforts are different from the russians, but much broader and wider in terms of the reach to not just federal officials but state and local officials. And the use economic levers very heavily. We are mostly concerned about subversive undeclared course of or criminal needs. Theres all kinds of overt law that occurs by these countries but those are the means were much concerned about. The three countries, which poses the biggest threat to the upcoming election versus the longerterm . Which of the three countries, russia, china and iran, which poses the biggest threat to the sanctity of this upcoming election . Are ones that we are very concerned about in different ways. It is not really an apple to apple comparison. As i said before, the russians are engaging. On behalf of the Intelligence Community, they are occasional range of measures. But the chinese have recently been expanding their efforts which is part of the reason why after the midterm elections, the task force that i created early in my tenure, we broadened and significantly added resources to that task force to add not just to russia, but to add to china and iran as well. Because those countries are very much looking for different ways to take a page out of the foreign influence playbook theyve seen elsewhere. Our thanks to all the of the witnesses. Mr. Chairman, thank you for your generosity with an extra three minutes and 39 seconds. Thank you. Thank you mr. Chairman, and thank you for the director and the witnesses being here. Let me pick up on something you testified to earlier, director wray. You talked about organized tactical activity by some groups as part of the recent rioting and violence, looting that weve seen across the country, in louisville, of course, last night, we saw egregious acts of violence, two Police Officers shot. Ive seen this in my own state, weve had nine Police Officers, nine, shot in st. Louis. In that city alone since june, just since the month of june. There appears to be some footage thats circulating on the internet from louisville last night that shows that a parked uhaul waiting for a crowd in which it looks like containeded signs that say things like abolish the police, along with shields and perhaps, other paraphernalia that can be used for violence. I understand the fbi is going to insist on investigating the shootings that happened in louisville, but i want to ask you, to what extent are you investigating coordination between extremist elements and the violence that weve seen across the country . Senator, i appreciate the question. As you anticipate, in it, were very focused on what we would call the most dangerous actors, which tend to be the ones who are most coordinated and therefore, potentially able to cause the most harm and most damage. So, we are looking in a number of places without reference to any specific investigation. We are aggressively investigating funding streams, tactics, logistics, travel, networks, that kind of thing. What were finding is a lot of the activity is organized at what i would call more of a tactical level than a strategic level, and organized more locally and regionally in small groups or nodes than in a more structured hierarchical way across the country. But that in no way diminishes how serious and dangerous it is. We dont view how nationally organized something is as a proxy for how dangerous it is. So were aggressively investigating all the kinds of things that you would expect us to be investigating in pretty much every state in the country right now. And these local and regional nodes are, safe to say, using social media as a means to communicate with each other as theyve planned their activities . They are, but let me just add a finer point on that. We see a lot of communication on social media in what i would call sort of more benign ways, but a lot of the communication with each other thats the more tell tale or revealing is happening locally sometimes through encrypted channels that they think will cause them to be able to hide from Law Enforcement and in some cases they are able to hide from Law Enforcement, which is a real frustration, but were taking steps to try to make sure that we can break through some of those barriers and try to uncover some of the stronger evidence of what were seeing reports of around the country. Well, thank you for your attention to this. And i certainly hope that you continue to devote every resource that you can to these investigations, to the potential coordination here and especially for violence that is being directed against Law Enforcement, whether its in louisville, whether its in st. Louis, whether its in seattle, portland, wherever, doesnt matter, Law Enforcement when theyre under attack in what appears in some instances a coordinated fashion, particularly across the state lines and coordinated across state lines, that i think it deserves your attention and im glad that youre giving attention to that. Let me switch gears and have you about chinese espionage and covid. You in may of this year, you released a public warning to organizations researching covid19 with an eye towards the vaccine, and you believed the warning about possible chinese espionage activity related to the pharmaceutical research, Health Research and ultimately vaccine development. Can you give us a sense here, are chinese hackers still trying to steal Research Related to a covid19 vaccine . Whats the latest that you know . Well, certainly, as you reference, we are seeing very aggressive activity by the chinese and in some cases by others to target our covid related research, whether its vaccines, treatments, Testing Technology, et cetera. And sometimes you can almost, without being too dedescriptive in an open setting, we can almost see a track, like a news report from some company or Research Institution thats its announcing and revealing some progress because of course, a lot of this is getting discussed in the media, and then almost within days, we will see cyber targeting that tries back to chinese actors focusing on those institutions. And so thats why we working with dhs thought it was so important to put out information and were engaging, as the fbi does all the time, directly with targeted organizations, victims, institutional victims to help them better protect themselves, but the chinese cyber threat is a major, major concern and something that were prioritizing through our National Cyber Investigative Joint Task force which brings together Intelligence Community and Law Enforcement assets together to try to take a whole of government response to this. Give me your sense of what youre seeing in terms of the hacking activity and the espionage activity. Is it directed toward endproduct is your sense . Or do you get any sense that the being had a hackers are 0 other agents of china are trying to interfere with the development of either the collection of data or of a vaccine . Trying to think of the best way to summarize what were seeing. I guess what i would say is, its clearly targeting the former, that is targeting information about progress in much the same way, the same play book that were seeing from chinese hackers across other kinds of industries and in research and innovation. Rather than innovate themselves, theyre trying to essentially jump to the front of the line by stealing information from others. Well, thank you for, again, for your work on this and your continued attention to what is obviously a vital National Security interest of this nation. Final question here, just as i go, what about connection to the chinese government. Weve talked about chinese hackers and espionage. How much connection to the beijing government itself in these efforts . Well, of course, what youre raising there is the very important question of attribution. And the standards that the Intelligence Committee uses for attribution, is different than, say, private sector might use. As i sometimes say, nothing says attribution like an indictment, and as you know, weve brought some significant indictments against chinese hackers that do tie back to the mss specifically on a number of occasions. And these are targeting not just american companies, american Research Institutions, but also similar institutions amongst some of our closest allies. And targeting pii, personal identifiable information of americans. Chinese hackers have essentially stolen the pii of about half the adult population. United states. Thats a shocking number. Well, thank you for your work on this. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Senator hawley, i believe that senator sinema is. Thats right. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Im glad this witness has joined us. As a border state i know its critical that we tackle threats against the homeland as the nations borders. Im committed to working every day in bipartisan fashion to secure arizonas border. Keep arizona safe and make sure that migrants are treated fairly. And the nations ports of entry. My first question is for mrmr. Mr. Cuccinelli, and critical rules in arizona and the nations economy. Employees work every day to facilitate the flow of travel, but our nation struggles with a significant amount of illicit drugs into our nation. With a month yet to go in fiscal year 2020, theyve seized more marijuana, methamphetamines and fentanyl at ports of entry than they did in 2019 so i strongly believe that technology is part of the answer here, which is why i worked with senator cornyn to introduce the southwest Border Technology improvement act, to improve dhs technology planning, but i want to get your take on this challenge. What actions does dhs need to take now at our ports of entry to better respond the flow of drugs represents . Thank you, senator and zeroing in on your question and the ports of entry, the most Important Program running is the nonintrusive inspection effort, as i mentioned earlier, one of the advantages of the expanded security along the border, including the building of the border wall, is that were funneling more traffic from between parts of entry into ports of entry and that means that were able to confront these threats on our terms and on our turf. It doesnt mean that theyre not dangerous. It doesnt mean that there arent a lot of them, but as we have had Great Success in the last four years in seizing hard drugs, the ones that do the most harm and in the most communities in your state and in every state, of course, weve seen Great Success in that area, as i said in my opening remarks, but we will do better still as we expand the availability of nonintrusive inspection ability. And you mentioned how busy the ports in arizona are. Youre absolutely correct. One of the beauties of this particular technology, and i know its part of why you support adding technology to the suite of problem soming tools, is that it increases the efficiency of the port itself. It operates in such a way that doesnt require as much manpower or time to accomplish the same security goals, that is the very definition of increasing efficiency. So, were also using nearby, not in arizona yet, but hopefully to come soon, more autonomous surveillance around ports of entry to provide greater Situational Awareness and security to the not just our employees, but everybody coming through the ports of entry as well. I look forward to expanding the efforts in the future and your help and cooperation and support of that is much appreciated. Thank you. For my next question, id like to ask mr. Cuccinelli and mr. Wray to weigh in. The entities behind these are Transnational Criminal Organizations. After the tcos prove the contraband to our part, they have the profit and reports show that theyve been using major Banking Institutions for Money Laundering purposes. What do they need to do to cut off the access to Money Laundering . Senator, ill start and then turn it over to director wray. As i mentioned upfront, one of the areas we believe that you all in congress can be most helpful to us in this particular battle with these most evil people in the western hemisphere is to provide us tools designation somewhere below a Foreign Terrorist Organization because of the sweeping capture of much of society because of how these organizations are interconnected with the Mexican Society so thoroughly. But above the level of near prosecution, one person at a time, that allow us to attacks the organizations at a strategic level and bring them down to help mexico regain more control of its own country, and protect ours at the same time. So, thats an area we would be very happy to partner with you on. Its definitely an area where theres potential for improvement, and one of the key areas you touch on is money. You know, mr. Miller talked about isis and al qaeda in particular. They were out, they believe, on some holy war. And the folks in the tcos, they are not out there for what they think of as god or maybe they do, but its for money. And if we can get at the money, and start to cut off their ability to gain the benefits of their evil produce in the case of drugs and trafficking and in the case of humans, were going to really be able to start to put a major dent in their operations and in their threat to both mexico and to the United States. I would agree with what mr. Cuccinelli just said. I would just add that weve found over 112 years at the fbi, whatever kind of enterprise were talking about, in this case, the Transnational Criminal Organizations, if you really want to dismantle the enterprise you have to go after the money as well. Because in effect, the money becomes their infrastructure. And so, you know, the value of global crime ranges between one and two trillion annually, but about 300 billion dollars are attributed to u. S. Based tcos, transnational criminal organize networks, so figuring out a way to cut off their access to money is ultimately going to be one. Most critical parts of making sure that the strategy is not just effective, but enduring. Thank you, director wray. And thank you, mr. Cuccinelli, mr. Chair, i do have further questions but in the interest of my time expiring, ill submit that for mr. Cuccinelli and mr. Wray and ill yield back the balance of my time, mr. Chairman. I appreciate that, senator sinema. Let me begin first by saying of all the listed threats that i began the hearing with, i dont think i mentioned border security. Weve probably done a pretty good job of covering most, but i didnt put a stop watch on this. I think its also true, it kind of confirms what i ended up with, talking about what i believe is our current greatest threat to our democracy and that litter will i is the democracy, the rioting, the a add adherence to the rule of law. And i wanted to ask mr. Cuccinelli, as a former attorney general, one of the things im concerned about, the lack of rule of law, the rejection of it as we saw in the protests in louisville yesterday because people didnt agree with what happened in a grand jury. One thing that scares me is the Movement Toward antibail watch. The fact that we actually have people donating to organizations that will pay bail so we in fact, at the border catch and release. Now we have catch and release in our cities. And senator paul talked about the officer who protected him, the person who assaulted him was charged and released and dont know if hell be prosecuted because i dont know that hell ever be found. Mr. Cuccinelli would you talk to my concern about the move toward antibail laws, individuals are paying to bail people out and they can get out on the street and patriot and protest the next night . And not necessarily on d. C. Where he congress does have a say. Senator paul touched on this earlier. And we see this almost recycling of criminals because they walk out in so many jurisdictions, whether its new york, portland. The notion that antibail legislation is somehow a reform, that improves the criminal justice system, it honestly escapes me and mind you, thats coming from someone who has been a 25year advocate for criminal justice reform, including what was passed by the congress and President Trump less than two years ago. You know, so thats the perspective that i come to this from, including my time as an attorney general. This was not an issue we faced in virginia because we didnt have localities, nor did we have at the state level this sort of treatment of bail as a punishment, as opposed to a safety mechanism on the part of the justice process, which is what were seeing in other parts of the country. And i would just note, also, senator portman made comments that i wanted to dovetail off that are similar to yours, mr. Chairman. One of the most disturbing aspects of this summer of violence has been the overt encouragement of many who are in governmental positions of leadership. Whether its the speaker of the house, attacking Law Enforcement, using phrases like stormtroopers to describe federal Law Enforcement doing their job properly. There wasnt even any question on her part about them not doing the job right. And these are people doing the job she, as a member of congress, has cast for them. Or if its mayor wheeler in portland, who is encouraging violence and we see this rife across large swaths of our political arena. I appreciate senator carpers comments in referencing Breonna Taylors mothers comments, i think theyre extremely appropriate and helpful and we appreciate hearing them from leadership in this country. But its so much of the Political Leadership in the country has encouraged this violence, its been a shocking aspect to the last four months that i find, as a former attorney general in my current role as department of Homeland Security just shocking and is really contrary to the ideals and values of this country. Well, its a surprise, no one when we put forward this greater leniency, thats what antibail laws are. It certainly happens when people contribute to organizations that bail people out and put them back on the street, that is greater leniency, thats leading to greater lawlessness. It should come as no surprise. Senator carper asked, are there things we need to do . Do we need to strengthen penalties and new crimes . Ill ask director wray. I know attorney general barr has spoken about, whether he mused about, whether hes serious about charging people with sedition. What can we do to gain control over our cities . Again, almost 570 of these peaceful protests turned to riots, violence and death. This is completely unacceptable. We need to give control to the situation. What do we need to do to get control of the situation . Certainly, mr. Chairman, you touched on one issue and its hard to make sure that men, women of Law Enforcement can do what they need to do to arrest the people the first time without having to go back out and rearrest the same person over and over again, and senator paul touched on that a little in his comments as well. As ive said, i think in response to one of your colleagues questions, when federal, state and local Law Enforcement all Work Together, which we do all the time around this country, and do it promptly, thats when were able to see the best results, and everybody trying to look for what they can best contribute to the phenomenon. In your home state while there was significant damage in a short period of time, comparatively quickly, i say compared to other parts of the country, different parts of Law Enforcement all banded together, worked hand in hand and managed to bring law and order much more quickly by comparison. While there was significant and tragic damage there and of course, some fatalities and injuries, it could have been a heck of a lot worse. That illustrates how Important Partnership is in dealing with this particular problem. Thank you, director wray. Senator portman, i know youve stayed behind as a backup, i appreciate that with me being remote. Do you have a couple more questions . Ive got a few more myself. Let me just if i could follow up a little bit on one. Thank you, mr. Chairman, i told the chairman earlier i thought i was the last speaker when i questioned last time so i went a little long because i was the only one in the room. But in this new virtual world, we had others so i apologize to my colleagues taking mar time. The third thread i did want to talk about was this domestic terrorism threat and sometimes its white supremists, antisemitic, for example, hateful attacks or sometimes its islamic extremists, but this is something again, that the department has begun to focus on more. Mr. Cuccinelli, i understand that dhs recently released the Implementation Plan for targeting violence and strategic frame work. And this is particularly part of the response, the nonsecurity Grant Programs. Its basically a fema Grant Program that goes out, usually to a faithbased organization, say a synagogue, a church or a mosque, but all nonprofits are eligible. And its for security enhancements and now can be used thanks to dhs even for armed security, but a lot of it is just about getting the expertise, you know, being sure that these organizations know where do you place the cameras. How do you ensure that i think so this are locked and you can help them by just doing a walkthrough often. 32 organizations in ohio have received a combined title 3. 2 in grants. And fiscal year 2020, using it well in my view. Ive had a chance to visit with them. One thing we did last year that i felt was quite effective, we had conference in ohio, in columbus, ohio and we had the fbi there, director wray, they did a great job and we also had dhs there, secretary cuccinelli and they did a great job of explaining what the threat was and kind of starting down the process the what do you do to process it. And the folks in the room, this was the sikh community, the Muslim Community, the jewish community, the christian community, everybody was there. People really appreciated it and i think thats one thing to think about is the possibility of doing more of these around the country, where you have an it conference and whats going on in the real world out there in terms of this threat and its not a, you know, its not a classified environment, but able to provide very good information and second, what do you do about it. So thats my question to you, what more can we do . I know you have a new Grant Program, id like to hear about that, but if the two of you the three of you could speak about the issue, that would be great. Just this month, the first tranches, the grants 10 million went out to 29 recipients and that is, as so much of the dhs responsibility in the domestic arena is prevention. It goes hand in hand withstanding up to tvtp, the office for targeted violence. And some people are familiar with the u. K. Model. They have a huge group of people that works for their federal government and tries to interdict, not in a Law Enforcement fashion, but more like an intervention before violence occurs. That is a very different model than we are taking. We have just started building out. Weve got our first 12 fulltime employees for Regional Directors to expand partnerships, so that we get a whole of america, including working with exactly those nonprofits youre talking about, senator, to integrate them into our preventive efforts. Both planning for resistance to potential for assaults, but also for their partnership in intervening when they see people going down a path that may lead them to violence. And so, thats the approach that were taking in that office. Its one of the areas of greatest expansion that youll see over the course of the next year at the department of Homeland Security, as we grow that effort out in the communities across the country. And certainly, you describe one way that those contacts can be made more deeply and quickly and were very open to repeating that sort of performance. Well, thank you. I appreciate the commitment to it. I think it does make sense. In a sense, youre leveraging the federal dollars significant will i by getting this cooperation. As director miller knows in columbus, ohio, i think an indictment was made of an islamic terrorist who the fbi had worked with and through informant and we were able to stop a horrific act. What really happened was that the community, the Muslim Community in columbus, ohio was cooperating with local, state, federal Law Enforcement to be able to find that individual and to prevent what would have been a, you know, a terrible loss of life. So thats an example or just having those relationships made a big difference and it was at every level of government. I dont know if you have any thoughts on this director wray or director miller. I guess i would just add, i think that Community Engagement is something thats critical to dealing with the what we consider the biggest threat to the homeland, which is this combination of home grown violence extremists and Domestic Violence extremists are typically loan actors, attacking soft targets with welcomes. And because thats a challenge for Law Enforcement, one thing weve seen both with attacks weve thwarted and invented and unfortunately, what weve investigated after the attacks, almost every time if you look back, there was someone along the way, a friend, a family member, a coworker, classmate, what have you, who knew the person well enough to notice that the transformation from radicalization of whatever kind it was to mobilization, so youve often heard the saying, if you see something, say something, most of us when we hear that, we think the unattended backpack in the Greyhound Bus station and of course we want people to call when that happens. But were trying to push out to the field offices and ive been with communities and every single one, if you see something about somebody, we need you to say something, and ive been encouraged by the instances where sometimes having wrestled with great interpersonal demons a family member, a parent, you think how hard that is. My child, you know, my 18, 19yearold child is going off the rails and im concerned he might do something. And they call us. And its a heck of a lot better situation if we both for them and more importantly for the public if we can do something before that person acts. Thank you, mr. Director. Thank you. And again, thanks for sticking around and backing me up. Director, i feel had little bad you havent been fielding a whole lot of questions and providing a whole lot of answers, id like to think the important threats and the kind that senators and chairs have been known to address has been reduced. I know thats not the case. I think the main reason in my opening, the unrest, rioting, lawlessness and anarchy on the streets of american are posing a greater risk to our overall democracy. I do want to give you a quick detail here, is there anything else, you think is important that the American People understand about what youre trying to do to keep this nation safe. Chairman, im not offended in the least. I think its a testimonial or testament to the success weve had in the last 19 years, that its no longer the principal concern of this committee and others, and thats all right. Thats what we wanted. We said this was going to be a generational war. We didnt want it to be a multigenerational war, so i take great sal solace that were talking about something else. In closing, thank you for allowing me to make a few comments. We just need to finish this thing and maintain our focus and not to use a cliche take our foot off the gas too soon. And the support of this committee and congress rit large is so important to that and i really thank you for the opportunity to make a few comments. I appreciate the point you made about 2011 bugging out of iraq way too early way give rise to isis and the caliphate and all of that, the results from that. So we have to learn from that type of blunder. We have to learn those types of lessons. Finally, director wray, this is not on threats, but i have to take an opportunity to ask you questions about our investigation and the unfortunate fact that my frustration level got to the point where i had to the fbi now. And i appreciate the fact that weve had conversations and since that point in time the fbi has become more responsive, but the fact of the matter is were in our second extension. My staff continues to not obtain the materials. Theyre having to go into the reading room which is very inefficient and quite honestly, so much of the material theyre reviewing is not sensitive, its not overly classified. No reason we cant take possession of it. My first question to ask you to look into that and be a little more open with the information that i think Congress Certainly deserves and going out to the American People to know what happened. Can you make a commitment to look at that and prompt the people that work under you to make this kind of information readily available, directly to our committee, having in our possession. Yes, mr. Chairman, i will certainly drill into this further and have my staff look if there are ways to improve the process. The reeked the reading room concept, what we use for committees with this kind of information. Weve surged Additional Resources and brought staff from multiple divisions. Of course, were working with other information, or at least parts of the information that makes something classified your other agencys information, that makes it complicated, but well work as hard as we can in good faith. And i look forward to your forebearance. One piece of information that was not classified, statements of andrew mccabe. Would you make the commitment to deliver those to us in our possession . Ill be happy to look into it and get to someone as quickly as we can as to where that stands. Appreciate it. In the department of justice, Inspector General horowitzs report, former assistant director was quoted as saying the fbi did not have any indication whatsoever as of may, 2017, that the russians were running a Disinformation Campaign. Because my staff uncovered four classified footnotes and i think that points to why this is so important that we make this information available, but in those four classified footnotes we now know the fbi in early, october 16, the cross fire Hurricane Team actually did obtain information from a steele sub source that quote, he was suspected of being linked to Russian Intelligence Services and rumored to be former kgb officer. In january 2017 the fbi started interviewing those subsources and found out that steeles reporting was misstated exaggerated based on rumor and speculation that the subsource never expected steele to put the statements as fact. And that she had no support the statements from the sub source, it was talk, word of mouth hearsay, conversation you have with people over beer and statements made in jest. The fbi had also possible infiltration of the steele camp or steele organization by Russian Intelligence Services january 2017. So, that be an indication of a sub source possibly be a kgb officer in 2016. January 2017 they found confirmation of that and how grossly unreliable the steele dossier was and yet, the investigation continued and continued to the point where we set up the special counsel to take a look at this largely based on the steele dossier. So then my question to you on this, as the current fbi director, do you believe the crossfire hurricane investigation should have proceeded at all once the fbi knew that the kgb was or kgb might have been one of steeles subsources and that russian information was contained in the steele dossier. Mr. Chairman, first lets me try to answer, i think the dossier unacceptable, unrepresentative as who the fbi as an organization and cannot be allowed to repeated and ive implemented 40 corrective measures for those issues. Some of what youre touching on is relevant as well to the ongoing john durham investigation which which were cooperating even to the point were having agencies working with him on it. So i want to be careful how i weigh in on that. As you know, the Justice Department has concluded that the carter page fisa applications, at least after that date, should not haven about submitted and i believe, of course, all of this happened before i became fbi director, but i believe the doj officials around at the time have now said they would not have signed those applications, so i think to come extent, that speaks for itself. From my standpoint, its pretty obvious past january of 2017 there should have been no further investigation into the trump campaigns possible collusion with russia. The information backing that predicate to investigation crumbled and simply didnt support anything further. My final question, you said you werent fbi director back then, but you were in march of 2018 and in march of 2018, the fbi provided a briefing to the Senate Intelligence commit on intelligence in which they briefed that committee that the steele reporting was reliable. Now, again, we just talked about what the fbi knew and when they knew it, october of 2016 and certainly by january 2017 that the steele dossier was not reliable. So my question for you is, that happened on your watch. How could that happen . How could the fbi go in and brief the Intelligence Committee a year later when they knew it was not reliable and briefed the Senate Committee that it was . Well, mr. Chairman, the issue youre raising is one that ive been in close contact with chairman graham about. I will say this, the briefing in question, as i understand it, was a staff to staff briefing and it was happening at a time when we were largely in standdown mode because of the special counsel investigation. So obviously im concerned about what ive heard about that briefing, but i probably for right now should just leave it at that. Well, i just want to ask, are there members, employees of the fbi in the fbi that are still employed and any disciplinary action against those individuals in. And just fbi briefing to staff. Fbi briefing congress, a year after the fact that we knew the steele dossier was not reliable. First, let me say by describing it as a staff briefing, that is in no way to intended to suggest that thats not important. But second, as to disciplinary action, i believe the most senior officials involved in the investigation and including in that who participated in that briefing are all gone from the fbi. In some cases people have been fired. In other cases people have retired or resigned, all on my watch. As far as disciplinary action beyond that, every individual whos referenced in the Inspector Generals report at any level, even in passing, has been referred to our office of professional responsibility and our Inspection Division for possible disciplinary action. Now, these tend to be people who are more at a line level and as far as disciplinary action towards them, na has lit standstill in order to accommodate mr. Durham and his investigation at his request. Certain steps we have a wait on in order to let him complete his investigation, in which were fully cooperating as the attorney general has said quite publicly on a number of occasions. I appreciate your answer and listen, i think we share the same goal here, we have to restore the credibility to the fbi and the only way to do that is the fbis got to come clean. Have to clean house to a certain extent, but the American People need to understand what happened and they need to have assurance that the fbi will take corrective actions and hopefully put policies in place where this will never happen again. Again, look forward to working with you, really encourage full cooperation, expeditious cooperation, the American People have a right to know. They should have known quite honestly years ago. Again, i want to thank all the witnesses for your service, for your sacrifice, as was said by most members. Committee, please convey to the men and women that work with you our appreciation for their service and sacrifice and again, i need to underscore the point. I truly believe the vast majority of americans are so appreciative of what Law Enforcement does, it does every day day in and day out, trying to keep our cities, our states, this country safe, and i think its just an abomination, quite honestly, that theres this defund the police movement, that theres so many people attacking Law Enforcement. We need to protect Law Enforcement and members pointed out, how are we going to recruit the fine men and women that put their lives on the line to keep them safe if we keep denigrating them and attacking them. So i hope people hearing this hearing today understand that theres a great deal of support for Law Enforcement. I think thats by and large the vast majority of americans. God bless everybody in the department and agencies. With that the record will remain 15 days until october 12th, 5 p. M. For the submission of statements and questions for the record. This hearing is adjourned. [inaudible conversation [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] telling us not to worry that the virus will quote, disappear. That a quote, miracle is coming. Joe biden saying we need a plan, a national strategy, a president who is willing to lead, willing to be a role model for our nation. While joe biden said at their National Convention that no miracle is coming. We actually think we might just be a short time away from when america will produce the first safe and effective Coronavirus Vaccine and we will begin to deliver it to the American People the moment its approved. Watch the vicepresident ial debate between vicepresident mike pence and senator Kamala Harris live wednesday, october 7th at 9 p. M. Eastern from the university of utah in Salt Lake City and stay with cspan for the second president ial debate town hall with President Trump and former vicepresident joe biden taking audience questions. Live from the Adrienne Arts Center for the performing arts in miami. Live on cspan, listen ott cspan radio app. And go to cspan for the coverage. Theres a link to each debate question and answer and debate happens and reaction and watch our president ial debate video from the cspan video library. Book tv on cspan2 has top nonfiction books and authors. Saturday, p. J. Orourke talks about his essays. In his book, an a cry from the far middle. And author and Hoover Institution senior fellow. Watch book tv this weekend on cspan2. Cspan2. Confirmation hearings for amy coney barre Amy Coney Barrett President Trumps nominee to the supreme court, and spoke about the first president ial debate. Here is a look. This week the senators who are sitting down with judge Amy Coney Barrett are meeting an incredibly impressive jurist and highly qualified nominee. Theyre hearing from the professor whom former colleagues call quote, mind blowingly intelligent. One of the most humble people youre going to meet and the complete package. Theyre meeting a law school valedictorian, an Award Winning academic whom peers praise for her lucid elegant pros, piercing legal analysis and absolute dedication to the rule