Transcripts For CSPAN3 Attorney 20240703

The committee will come to order. The chair recognizes the gentleman from arizona. Thank you. Is it the policy of your office to use . Im sorry, im having difficulty hearing. I will get right on top of this thing. Is that the policy of your office for u. S. Attorneys to use prosecutorial quotas . Do you have a quota system and play . No. That would be to your office. It is not a policy. Correct, we do not have quotas. Would it be consistent with that when you have a prosecutor who said he wants to prosecute at least 2000 people who are alleged to have committed a certain type of crime. I think you are referring to the january 6 question. I am just asking, is that consistent with your Office Policy if someone said we will get up to 2000 people on a particular crime. Is that consistent with the policy . I think what that person was referring to was how many cases would be brought because the court had asked how many more people he filed a letter with the court saying we are looking at upwards of 2000, we have 1200 more we think we will get. You do not do that for anything else for like tax fraud, you are not saying we will have so many people we want to get for tax fraud or the court asks us what the likely workload will be based on investigations that are pending. The u. S. Attorney is obligated to respond do you provide reference to the number people who you thought you would prosecute in the riots of the portland courthouse while there were people inside those courthouses. Did you file with the court saying we will have another 300 or 400, whatever it may be . You did not file those charges, did you . Im not following. I believe the number youre asking let me ask you this lets switch topics. Maybe this one will be easier to follow. Is it the policy of the doj to provide advance notice to subjects before conducting a search for evidence . It totally depends on the circumstances. If the circumstance were that you had a guesthouse where the u. S. Attorney, deputy u. S. Attorney is saying we suspect there is a lot of evidence, but we are not going to follow that up. We are going to do a search warrant per it would that be consistent with your policy . I know this is hypothetical and i do not know the facts of the case and i dont know what happened. I believe the events youre talking about that was reported in the press occurred with the previous administration. No. That event did not happen in the previous administration. You keep saying this happened in the previous administration, lets talk about this for just a moment you keep saying i dont know what happened. I am going to opine when it happened. Do you see the fallacy . The inconsistency . I dont know what happened because im not involved. It happened under the previous administration. That is so logically fallacious. Im not following periods i know youre not following. The question is you have a deputy u. S. Attorney calling the attorney on the side saying, we are going to go to these two places, probably in the next couple of days. Of course ultimately the search warrant is called off. I just want to know, is it consistent to call up people, who you know have boxes of information, thats why you got the warrant and why you are going to go look, you give them a heads up so they can move those. Is that consistent with doj policy . You are asking me to comment on allegations from a particular case no, i am not im asking is that consistent with your overall policy. Forget delaware and what they did. Lets just talk about generic policy periods i thought you were talking about maralago. When we are talking about this, your general policy, is it your policy, is that acceptable, when you expect movable items to call up and say we will be there to look . There is no policy on this question or strategy or tactics used to preserve evidence are left up to the investigators and office on the ground. Sometimes it is a serious mistake to call up. Here, once again, you dont know what happened in the hunter biden case because that is somebody else but you can be sure of the timing of when all of this took place that is one of the biggest oddities of your testimony today. I yield back to the gentleman from colorado. Gentlemens time has expired. The chair recognizes the gentle lady from sylvania. Thank you for your decades of faithful service to your our country, to the constitution and the rule of law. Thank you for putting up with us today. The American People are watching, they know whats going on. This is a gross misuse of your time, your teams time and our time. It is a shameful circus. It has a goal, the goal is to spew lies and misinformation and ultimately to tear away the confidence of our independent institutions. In your case, the Important Department of justice. That is the exact ammo of the former president , tear away the confidence of our independent institutions whether it is the, the department of justice, judiciary, independent news media. The American People are watching this sham. It is not just a circus, it is dangerous. You know that and you mentioned that. I believe that these fictions and fantasies are dangerous. Dangerous for you and dangerous for the 115,000 surface with whom you work. Dangerous for national security. Dangerous or community security. Dangerous for the rule of law and our constitution. All at the same time of a looming shutdown. The other side of the aisle cannot govern. They are having this hearing, which was supposed to be oversight, and use it as a big distraction because they are failing to govern. Imagine if we go into a shutdown , what does that say to the members of your department . What does that say to servicemembers . U. S. Troops who would be training, fighting without pay and without confidence in this countrys governing ability. It is a great distraction. Let me pivot the something i care about and i know that you and your Department Care about. It is recovery month. For families like mine with someone in recovery, every month is recovery month. I think you for what youre doing on the fentanyl crisis, the overdose crisis that has claimed 110,000 lives in a single. 300 souls a day every day, souls who have died while we are in this hearing, every day. What is the department doing to combat the trafficking, to combat the amount of fentanyl on the ground. As dea said theres enough fentanyl on the ground to kill the entire population multiple times over to tell us about your important work. Congresswoman, let me begin by saying i share your personal concern and grief over this. I met with the families of children, teenagers, elderly people who have become addicted to fentanyl and who have died from fentanyl. Everything you are saying is correct. It is a catastrophe for the country. As a consequence, the Justice Department has poured resources, particularly from dea with fbi assistance and with fugitive arrests by the Marshall Service and with gun tracing by the atf and the entire process by which fentanyl reaches the United States. We have sinks sanctioned precursor companies and china. We have indicted some of them for their violations. We have arrested some, as far off as fiji brought them back to the United States. We have traced this to mixico where they are made into fentanyl pills, that no cost about . 10 to make it can be sold on the streets of the United States between 10 and 30 you can see what the profit motive is. We must stop the cartels themselves. As i said, i have traveled to mixico twice in order to work with our counterparts in the military and Law Enforcement. I thank you for that. I want to pivot ones i want to do anything i can to partner with you on this issue. I traveled recently with the Foreign Affairs committee two, met with extraordinary folks, the top prosecutor and his team. They were complementary of the department of justice and your work. Tell us about your Important Role or americas Important Role in war crimes, especially in light of your powerful history. I am happy to. I have traveled to ukraine twice to meet with the prosecutor general there. I will meet with him again this week here. He has met with me several times. The Justice Department is pursuing the war crimes from russia unlawful and unjust invasion of ukraine. To help investigate war crimes which we have jurisdiction, to help the prosecutor general investigate those prosecutions. I believe the first cabinet member ever to visit the International Criminal court of justice, to meet with, who is the chief prosecutor, to talk about our cooperation with respect to the investigations that they are doing. I assigned a Justice Department prosecutor to the investigatory body that has been set up for the crime of aggression. She is now working with the icc and i have assigned a prosecutor to our embassy in kyiv to work with our ambassador there and work with the Prosecutor Generals Office periods that is critically important. America is indispensable and your work is indispensable. Time has expired. Gentlemen from wisconsin is recognized. Do you support the consent that i believe was put in place in the city of minneapolis . Do i support the . Do you support the dissent decree that was put in place with the Police Department minneapolis periods the one that was put in place by the federal government . Yes periods you support fewer cops on the street . Do i support . Fewer cops on the street. No i dont. That is what is happening as a result. I dont think that is a consequence of the consent decree. They have been losing Police Officers for many years periods do i support more crime . No i dont. There was a hearing in minnetonka minnesota, a suburb of minneapolis, just this last week where they are beside themselves with the amount of crime that continues in minneapolis since the riots of 2020. I would point out to you, i had an officer in my district, i live right across the border in wisconsin, thats for my district begins. A Police Officer was shot to death as a result of a week on crime prosecutor in st. Paul, minnesota. Do you think that is a problem . The officer was shot to death . That certainly is not an appropriate sentence, that is outrageous. Let me be clear, we are doing all that we can to assist minneapolis. We have a very aggressive u. S. Attorney that has brought a number of cases and has been excellent and successful. I have a short. Of time. In regards to disrupting drug networks, why is there so much fentanyl coming in . Because it cost . 10 to make and it can be sold for 30. So the sheriff from arizona set where you are a few months ago and he said the reason why there is a drastic increase of fentanyl coming into the country is because on january 20 of 2021, open border policy was announced by President Biden. Have you expressed concern about the open border policy that has led to this rapid increase in the amount of fentanyl coming into the country . I cannot associate myself with the conclusion reached by the sheriff. Although i can commiserate. The sheriff is incorrect . That cartels in mixico are causing this drug to be transmitted in the United States we are doing what we can to eliminate it. You are not doing that. Mr. Chairman, this is the same answer we received from secretary mayorkass a couple of months ago when he was in denial about a sheriff, one of the most reparable sheriff that you will find in the United States of america, sitting down there on the southern border, he sees this every day, he saw it working at 2020 because he told me when i was there. He said it is not working is started january 20, 2021. You can pretend youre dealing with fentanyl, you are not. The borders are wide open. Im going to shift to combating gun violence. Do you believe a prohibited person that required acquires a gun illegally and disposes it in a dumpster where a criminal or innocent child can gain access to it should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law . This is no longer hypothetical question youre referring to a case which is now in judicial determination before a court of law. It is inappropriate for me to comment. For the record, lets understand, the same prosecuting attorney, who is now the special counsel gave a sweetheart deal to that person, and yes, you are correct, we are referring to the president s son. He got a sweetheart deal and the judge was smart enough to smell a rat when she saw it and she said you guys go back to the drawing board. That same special counsel is in charge of this investigation, isnt that correct . Absolutely. I will close real quickly with this. There is a world Naked Bike Ride in Madison Wisconsin a couple of months ago and i sent you a letter two months ago asking if you had a problem with that because it exposed a 10yearold girl, by the race organizer, the bike organizers to paddling pedaling around Madison Wisconsin naked. You think that is a problem . Why did you not answer our letter from two months ago . I am sorry, i will have to ask the office of legislative affairs to get back to you periods does it take two months to get back on answers about this . It sounds like youre asking a question about state and local Law Enforcement. We get hundreds and hundreds of letters. I will ask legislative affairs where that letter is. State and local Law Enforcement would not act we were hoping you would. Of is you will not periods the gentleman from North Carolinas recognized. Thank you attorney general for joining us and for your patience. I am honored to represent a Diverse Community in North Carolina. Wake county has worked to welcome people of all backgrounds, ethnicity and religion. The growth and success of my district in the Research Triangle park depends on our commitment to celebrating the many cultures that contribute to our community. Unfortunately, over the past few years, these very communities that have contributed so much to my state and district have found themselves under attack. Jewish leaders in my district have received threats to themselves and their synagogues as recently as last month. Hbcus across the state have locked down in response to bomb threats. Asian americans in North Carolina, and throughout the country have found themselves facing slurs and threats spurred in large part by the racialized language about the covid19 pandemic. The Southern Poverty Law Center reported in late 2020 that the number of White Nationalist grew 55 between 2017 and 2019. Noting that the rise in hate based attacks coincide with the growth of the White Nationalist movement. The antidefamation leak relatedly found that white supremacist propaganda incidents occurred over 14 times per day on average in 2020 with a total of 5125 reported cases. Nearly twice the number of cases reported in 2019 and the highest number the adl has ever recorded. This dangerous trend has continued the last few years and has recently included as active clubs have been increasing in their number and prominence. These active clubs started popping up in late 2020 and are a network of White Nationalist groups that see themselves as fighters in training for an ongoing war against a system they claim is deliberately plotting against the white race. As attorney general, i am deeply interested and concerned about the rise of these clubs, threats of violence and actual violence. I wanted to know if you are familiar with these activities, and what your department is doing to counteract them. I am not familiar with the specifics of those clubs. I will certainly look into what the department is doing. Very soon after i came to the department i saw a spike in hate crime threats that were being made and acts of violence. I directed the department to develop a strategy for responding to that. 30 days later that was pretty much with congresses passage of the covid no hate act. We have now fulfilled, i think, all of the obligations under that act. We have taskforces set up to investigate and prosecute hate crimes. Where they satisfy their requirements as Domestic Violence extremism or domestic terrorism. We have brought dozens of cases against people who have made these threats as well as those who have attempted to carry them out. As you know, we have a prosecution pending in buffalo with respect to the horrendous killing of black americans in the tops Grocery Store by a valid white supremacist. Thank you very much for your thank you for your efforts in this regard. On a different subject with my last 45 seconds, North Carolina also saw the impact of cyber crimes with the colonial pipeline. I would like to know how your office is counteracting any Cyber Attacks and dealing with people who perpetrate them. We are vigilant to the risk of these kinds of Cyber Attacks. These were criminal gangs affiliated in russia. Unfortunately we had intelligence from section 702, which we discussed earlier today. I have to say that is one of the principal sources is our ability to fight these kind of attacks. Whether they are criminal or whether they are launched by nationstates. Whether they are attempting to get around somewhere, whether they are simply trying to infiltrate our information, whether they are trying to prevent our computers from working at all, the Justice Department has established a Cyber Task Force for this purpose, a ransom where task force and we are working on crypto currency in the same way. Time has expired. We want to try to move quickly. We have a majority conference. The gentleman from colorado is recognized. I think my friend and colleague from colorado outline your biography very well and he left out two points i would like to mention. One is, not only did you leave the prosecution of the Oklahoma City bombing case, in that case, the Death Penalty was asked for and received and Timothy Mcveigh was executed. Not exactly a priority to seek the Death Penalty but he did so because of the rule of law you did so because of the facts and the law of demand that you do so and you follow the facts and the law in that situation. The other issue, or example in your bio is it is my understanding that in your Conference Room you have a portrait of Elliott Richardson. The reason you have a portrait of Elliott Richardson is because he demanded that the department of justice stay independent from the nixon administration. He had the backbone to stand up to the president of the United States and make sure the department of justice would not become the governments lawyer. You put that portrait there soon after he became attorney general because it was a signal. It was a signal to the world that you wanted to be known in the same way that others who have come before you were known. Frankly, one of the reasons i respect attorney general bar so much is after january 6, he made the difficult decision to walk in the president s office and tell him the election was not stolen, we have looked at this. For that reason he resigned before january 20 when power was turned over. Mr. Attorney general you are unable to answer some questions but i will ask them for you. You know what people would have said if you asked for u. S. Attorney weisss resignation when you became attorney general . Im sorry u. S. Attorney they would have said that you were obstructing the hunter biden investigation and you were firing a republican appointee so that you can appoint a democrat to slow walk this investigation and lose the leadership of that investigation. If you had made the same decision a year later because you are frustrated the prosecution was not moving fast enough they would have said you were interfering with the prosecution. If when u. S. Attorney weiss asked to be special counsel if you made the decision then to appoint someone else as special counsel people would have criticized you because you how would have been taking someone out of investigation that knew the facts and could lead the investigation and put someone in who would have had to have come up to speed on the investigation and would not have allowed major decisions until they came up to speed. In three different opportunities where you could have acted, he would have been criticized either way whether you acted or did not act in that situation. Far from slow walking, really, once the Trump Administration decided that was the person leading the investigation, your hands were tied. You did not have the opportunity to make a decision on the leadership. Speaking of slow walking, i appreciate your reference in your opening remarks, your written opening remarks to the department of justice, supporting efforts by congress to promote competition in Digital Markets by passing legislation to prohibit certain practices by dominant online platforms. You cannot say who they are but i cant, apple, amazon, facebook and google are monopolies and they have been harming this country and competition in that market for years. Congress, for five years, has been investigating and offering bills on the subject. They spit 250 million, according to reports, in the last congress to defeat those bills. Now we do nothing in this congress to try to deal with that very serious issue. In fact, there are efforts, i am told over and the senate, i use the word effort and senate very carefully, there are efforts in the senate, as 2321 to take 50 million in funding from the department of justice antitrust division, it would be a 18 cut and move that money to the General Department of justice Operations Fund to try to further cripple the efforts going on in court. The state attorney generals and antitrust division and federal trade commission are doing a great job jointly in trying to combat the scourge of these monopolies. My question is, will you make sure that the antitrust division is properly funded so it can continue this very serious effort at stopping these monopolies from harming our children, from harming competition and from further strengthening chinas position . Yes i will. One of the first things i did in the first budget opportunity we had was to ask for more money for the antitrust division. I had not been given that and quite a long time. And to ask for the fees that are paid for purposes of merger analysis be given to the antitrust division directly rather than go to a general fund. Thank you. I just went on the record attorney general bar left the Trump Administration on december 23rd, 2020. The chair recognizes the gentle lady. Since he mentioned the monopoly, can i enter into the record this article about the mastercard visa duopoly by proactive and the bipartisan bill break can i insert that into the record . Accepted. Gentle lady from missouri is recognized. Thank you mr. Chairman. Thank you for being here attorney general garland. We are here today to make clear what it means to promote equal justice for every person in this country. Attorney general garland, you often speak about your commitment to supporting civil rights and the rule of law. I have concerns about whether the department under your leadership is doing what it can to advance these goals. In the limited time i have, i want to share my concerns about specific issues with you directly and make clear the steps that i believe the Department Needs to take. First off, as his hearing has shown, a small number of the department cases get a outside level of attention and politics. The reality is you preside over most of the federal system of mass incarceration. Every day in courtrooms around the country, including st. Louis , prosecutors who ultimately report to you are continually disproportionately prosecute disproportionate black and brown people from disproportionate low level immigration, narcotics and firearm offenses. Under your watch the federal incarceration rate has increased for the first time in nearly a decade. Meanwhile, corporate crime enforcement is lower than it was during the Trump Administration. The Department Needs to rethink its approach to prosecution. But let me say i thank you for what you are doing with the insurrections. I urge you to take specific steps towards ending mandatory minimums and prosecutorial misconduct waivers and actively support alternatives to incarceration, funding public defenders, use of clemency power and reporting on disparities and federal prosecution. Im also concerned about the bureau of prisons. Director peters is not doing enough to address the rampant issues of abuse and mismanagement at the bureau which affects both correctional staff and those in custody. It is shameful that solitary confinement has increased during the Biden Administration despite the president claiming he supports ending it. We need to see more from the department across the board on bureau of prisons oversight. You should implement the president s commitment to end the torturous practice of solitary confinement once and for all. I am also incredibly disheartened that the department has continued to pursue the Death Penalty despite the president s pledge to end it. I urge the department to reverse course including dismantling the federal Death Chamber in indiana and advocating for the computation of the senses of everyone on death row. Im waiting to see any meaningful progress on commitments that the associate attorney general announced around the enforcement of title vi and the safe streets act. I would also like, im going on and on, but im taking my time. I would also like an update on when the department will respond to the Oversight Committee democrats letter from june 2021 about the memo issued by the Trump Administration office of Legal Counsel concerning the equal rights amendment. That memo is preventing the argument of the nine essays from publishing the equal rights amendment as a 20th amendment. I know there was a short clarification issued after you took office him up at the wording was not clear repudiation of the trump memo. I urge you to fully withdraw the trump memo which is baselessly obstructing constitutional gender equality for all periods finally, i cannot overstate how shocked i am by the targeting of protesters who oppose the construction of the atlanta Public Safety training center. I urge the department to investigate these violations of civil rights. These may seem like unrelated issues, to me, to my constituents, advocates, those who are directly impacted, they are interconnected and they all speak to whether the department under your leadership will advance justice or Pay Lip Service to its. Given the limited time we have i do not expect you to comment on these issues, i do have a question, do you commit to working with me in my office on these issues . Including having your staff promptly write your position and send it to us, reaching out to us about all of the issues that we just spoke about . I would be happy to have legislative affairs work with your staff. I could not be prouder of the civil rights record of this department. It is the fundamental basis for why the Justice Department was founded. We have a history of also being involved in the 1960s im going to stop you, i am not disagreeing with any of that, i just want you to understand where im coming from and the things i would like to see you i dont need to cut you off but i need to reclaim my time. Finally, this is what good faith oversight looks like, not the republican playbook of running interference for twice impeached, four times indicted, white supremacist demigod who would rather overthrow our democracy than admit he lost the election. Thank you. The gentleman from texas recognizes. On october 21st 2021 before this committee i asked you about mr. Scott smith, the father and Loudoun County virginia who was arrested at a School Board Meeting where he questioned the of his daughter. You said at the time you are unfamiliar with the case. Are you now . Yes or no . Only familiar to the extent i read about it in the press. You said in october for 2021 you directed the Attorneys Office to address school harassment. I sent a memo to directed at school board spirit directed at School Boards, school personnel, School Administrators brought the country it is a priority. That followed with a letter on september 29, 2021 from the National School Board Association to President Biden and emails from the National School Board Association to the white house at which the white house asked for specific threats and one example was scott smith. Subsequent to our hearing two years ago, 26 states left the National School Board Association and resigned on november 3rd, 2021. Last week mr. Smith was pardoned. Do you think the governor was correct . Yes or no . Pardon authority belongs to the governor. You dont have an opinion on if the governor was correct x i do not know the case. Have you rescinded the memo that you issued in 2021 . Yes are no . What we are discussing have you resend it . Yes or no. Does the memo exist . Is is still going . The memo was intended to have meetings within 30 days has it been resend it . The 30 days have finished Nothing Happened in more than a year and half. That has not been resend it brees nothing to resend. Despite evidence that has come out from the National School Board Association, Commission Report that white house officials discuss this with the doj more than a week before the letter was sent. Have you apologized . Yes or no i have testified seven times since that original it is the first time your back your since we talked about it. Sorry . It is the first time youre back in front of us. Have you apologized for putting out that memo that implicated scott smith as a domestic terrorist something that the governor pardoned him from . The memo said nothing about him nothing about parents being terrorist, nothing about attending School Boards the answer is it has not been resend it and you have not apologize for it. Labeling an american citizen a domestic terrorist in a memo and referring to it in a memo built on the back of that. Now we have competence being driven to the civil rights division, lets talk about pennsylvania. A father was arrested with heavily armed local Law Enforcement in front of his children. He said he would appear voluntarily. Local authorities investigated and found no case. He was arrested by the fbi for phase act violations. The jury met for an hour. He was acquitted. When i was in federal court, i do not remember that being the result very often. In fact, i do not remember it happening at all. We took it surgery and it was acquitted after an hour. Did you investigate or question United States attorney why they wasted resources for an obvious result . Can you explain, yes or no, that it was a good use of the department of justice authority. The Justice Department respects the jurys verdict. The decisions were made by agents and prosecutors on the ground. Are you concerned that the enforcement of the phase act over antilife protesters 126 to four by our count. We are asking information to be able to track down the information of such prosecution. 126 times against prolife versus four times for people who dare to question the issue of life. I will just leave that out there to say that is a civil rights at play. Meanwhile we have very liberal progressive groups being targeted as well. Senator cruise and i sent a letter to you asking for information. How the fbi informant had gone to prolife meeting and we did not get any response from you. I would ask if you would respond to our letter that we sent back in march asking about fbi infiltrating a meeting. In march as referring to but i will ask the office of legislative affairs n to look into this letter. Rr finally, our tax cases require approval no matter what district, yes or no . Do they require approval by p maine justice, yes or no. S it depends on the circumstances. Generally speaking, yes. Maine justice runs tax division, yes or no . The hunter biden case, i assured do tax cases require approval as a general matter . Most of the time but not ve when the attorney general has x granted authority to a u. S. Attorney to do what he thinks is best. I recall my colleague having a minute and a half of additional time. Time has expired. The chernow recognizes the ma gentle lady from texas. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, first and foremost for your Public Service and your dedication to justice. I am delighted to see you here today. Thank you yofor appearing befor us. I represent el paso, texas, a to community right on the u. S. Mexico border. We have been witnessing firsthand the abuses at the y hands of Governor Greg Abbott through operation lone star which began in 2021. Governor abbott has deployed state resources and Texas National guard members to the states border with mexico and operation lone star has created Border Management challenges. It has resulted in countless humanitarian and due process s violations for migrants. Guardsmen assigned to the mission. Ed it has cost the state billions of dollars and it has completely undermined the federal Governments Authority over immigration. I sent you a letter my colleagues and i from texas send you a letter in july about abbotts floating barriers. I know that that case is going to appeal. We have also learned that the National Guard a guardsmen shot at a Mexican National across the rio grande. On september 1, i sent you a letter asking that the doj investigate that. We also know that Governor Abbott we have learned from whistleblowers that he has ordered National Guardsmen to prevent migrants from turning themselves in to cep and has even ordered that they push bo people back into mexico. Mr. Th chairman, i would like unanimous consent to enter intoi the record an El Paso Times article from earlier this week. Texas National Guard orders hundreds of asylumseekers on u. S. Territory back into mexico. This, in addition to Governor Abbott separating fathers from their children and their families, it is just egregious what is happening on the border via operation lone star. Attorney thgeneral garland, are you able to speak to any responses the department has had to Governor Abbotts blatant undermining of the Immigration Authority . I. Can obviously speak on t question was brought to suit under the rivers and harbors act. That case is still under k adjudication in the district court. There are other issues and i want to make sure i flagged them for you at this hearing but i would also like for your folks to take a close look at the investigation i have requested and i will be sending a followup letter after what we have learned this week from the El Paso Times. Switching gears, i do want to offer you an opportunity for some rebuttal. What we have seen from s,some o my colleagues on the other side of the aisle is their penchant for performance, for twitter bu and other news programs. Mr. Attorney general, we have heard a lot of accusations regarding some u. S. Attorneys office is not partnering with nc mr. Weiss and hypotheticals ws about what that means. Can you please explain the difference between partnering with a u. S. Attorneys office and acting as a special attorney or special counsel . I can talk about it in the ce abstract and the theoretical. It is a normal process of the department, if prosecutors from one area of the country has a case that has significance in another to speak with the u. S. Attorney in another district, find out what the policies of the district are, find out what the practices are, see how judges in the district react to different kinds of charges. At sometimes a decision is made to partner together in those investigations and sometimes the decision is made for the u. S. Attorney from the other district to have his or her own people bring those cases. I have personally been involved in three of those cases during o a period when i was an assistant attorney. Over my entire career, i have been given that authority twice myself for this purpose. It is just a mechanical ic question of what courts require in order to make an appearance. Thank you so much. Again, appreciate your Public Service to the American People. I yield back. The lady yields back. The gentleman from alabama is recognized. Every time i am in my district, constituents are concerned about the ri weaponization of government symbians because they happen to be conservatives. On your watch now, the doj actually is a mid30 approval rating. Every time the doj goes after trump, he goes up in the polls. The American People are in starting to wake up to what is going on. The first question i athave is, thanks to an fbi whistleblower,r did the fbi receive information on americans from bank of america, specifically bank of america sent the fbi a list of customers that may transactionsu on or around january 6, 2021. Did the department of justice acquire any geolocation data from january 1, 2020 through december 21, 2021 . Yes or no . Ge vocational data . Geo locational data. Everything that was done with regards to geo locational data was disclosed in the 6t public filings in the january 6 cases. I dont have that on my fingertips but this is a matter of public record. Do you remember specific ma analyses you may have done with that data . Was there anything particular you were looking for . Did they exercise their rights to maybe buy a firearm . I dont know anything about the second thing. As i understand, the location da data was for people who claim d they were not inside the d capital actually were. I guess the question is, to l your knowledge, the geolocation data from external sources and entities or organizations, did you receive that from external sources or are you buying that data . I dont know the exact answer in general but with i respect to january 6, the sp results of subpoenas issued to Telephone Companies. So you subpoenaed the Telephone Companies i got the data . This requires orders authorized by the court. By does it concern you that we talked about he said the fbis activities were somewhat sobering. Does not worry you on your th watch that the activities of the fbi are being called sobering . Who calls it sobering . John durham in his report. Who . John durham. Durham . Yes. I read ald his report. All of those have to do with a hurricane investigation. That was part of it, yes, sir. Were you concerned when he u sa it was sobering what the fbi was doing . I just want to make sure everybody understands, mr. Durham thanked me for not interfering with this investigation. I promised he would be able to b go forward without interference, just as i go promised mr. Weiss. I did not interfere with his report. His report reported a lack of rigor and a number of other problems with respect to the investigation. Both the Inspector General had a similar comment and a directo wray had made the same. I dont have a lot of time. I want to yield a little bit to the chairman but is it a crime in the u. S. To question an t election . Is that a crime . It is my fault i cant hear. To request a what . Is it a crime to question an election in the United States of america . Is it a a crime for the u. S. Citizens to say we want to ask about the selection and question the selection . Is that a crime when citizens question an election america now . Again, i think you are not asking a hypothetical but something specific. I dont think it pois specific. It has been questioned in decades past. Is a now crime in america . To ask questions about an election . To question the results . Cr it is not a crime to question the election. There are a lot of people in america who questioned the weaponization of government attacking american citizens. So, you have an issue with trustworthiness of the American People and with congress at this point. I am sorry. I will yield 36 seconds. I want to go back to this question. Did you consider anyone selse when david weiss requested special counsel designation on august 8 . Mr. Weiss asked to be made special counsel and i did not consider an alternative. Of course, to put in an gr alternative would have greatly disrupted the investigation which was n already ongoing. Ul he was the only one under investigation. It was either no special counsel or if it was, it was going to be that guy who presided over the investigation for the last five years . I thought about what the s consequences would be both of not appointing him and trying to find somebody else at that time. You had no idconcern whistleblowers have brought forward all kinds of concerns. Earlier when someone brought those up, you said those were allegations. I think they stand up well. They have been crossexamined well. There were two facts that can be questioned, two facts about the investigation and hunter biden. Limitations run, expire. Of i just wanted it to be made clear that the guy who presideds over all of that was the only guy under consideration for special counsel designation. Is that right . Mr. Weiss is isa person know for high integrity, with great r experience in the prosecutorial realm. He was appointed by the t. President. That is fine. You can say all that. I have no doubts about his abilities. He was the only one under consideration . The question was whether e t appoint someone. I will say what i thought the consequences would be of tryingi to switch horses in midstream but i did not consider any other on july 10, hero senator graham and seth i have had discussions with departmental officials. I dont know if this who did he talk with then . You are talking about the letter he sent . Again, i am not going to geto into internal deliberations. Is there one person who is the point person at the Justice Department for david weiss, functioning now is a special counsel in this investigation . Mr. Weiss is now subject to the special counsel regulations which require urgent reporting under certain circumstances, require him to consult with in l numerous places within the Justice Department. You said there is reporting. Who does he report to . I am not going to get into i am ultimately responsible. Mr. Weiss does not have to report to anybody. He was the wesupervisor, decisi maker in these matters. We have both smack on the floor. We have to take another break we but we will get back to this as quick as we can and we will start with the democrats