Transcripts For CSPAN3 Attorney 20240703

Thank you, mr. Chairman. Sir, is it the policy of your office for u. S. Attorneys to use prosecutorial quotas . I will get right on top of this, is it the policy of your office for u. S. Attorneys to use prosecutorial quotas, do you have any quotas systems in place . No. That is a method to your office, it is not policy . Correct, we do not have quotas. Would it be consistent with that when you have a prosecutors say 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. Im just asking you, would that be consistent with your offices policy if somebody says we are going to get up to 2000 people on a particular crime, is that consistent with your policy . I think that was referring to a prediction for how many more cases would still be brought because the court asked how many more people have we were looking at upwards of 2000, we have 1200 more that we think we are going to get, so you dont do that for anything else, right . You are not saying we are going to have so many people we want to get for tax fraud, for federal firearms applications. The court asks us what the likely workload will be based on prosecutions and investigations that are pending, the u. S. Attorney is obligated to respond. Providing any reference to the number of people you thought you would prosecute who were involved in the 2020 summer riots of the burning of the courthouse, while they were people still inside, you didnt file anything with the court saying we thought there were going to be 300 or 400 or whatever it might be. Im sorry, im not following. Im sure youre not. Let me ask you this question lets switch topics. Maybe this will be easier to follow i suppose, is it the policy of the doj to provide advanced notice to subjects before conducting a search for evidence . It totally depends on the circumstance. If the circumstance where that you had a guesthouse where the u. S. Attorney deputy u. S. Attorney said we know, we suspect theres a lot of evidence but we are not going to really follow that up, we are going to enclose the attorney from the other side saying we are going to do search warrant. Would that be consistent with your policy . I know this is no hypothetical and i dont know the facts of this case and i dont know what happened and i believe the events you are talking about as reported in the press occurred under the previous administration. No, no, no, that event didnt happen on the previous administration, lets talk about it, you keep saying this happened in the previous administration, lets talk about this for a moment. You keep saying i dont know what happened but im going to opine when it happened, do you see the fallacy of that, the inconsistencies . I dont know what happened, because im not involved but it happened under the previous administration. That is so logically fallacious. Im sorry, im not following yeah, i know youre not following. The question is, youve got one of your deputy u. S. Attorneys calling this attorney on this side and saying look, we are going to go to these two places, probably go in the next couple of days and of course and ultimately the search warrant is called off. Is that, i just want to know, is it consistent to call up people who you know theyve got boxes of information, or you suspect, thats why youve got the warrant and thats why you are going to look and you give them a heads up so they can move those boxes of information, would that be consistent with doj policy . You are asking me to comment on allegations about a particular case no, im not, is that consistent with your overall policy . Forget delaware and what they did, lets just talk about generic policy. I thought you were talking about maralago. Is your policy acceptable when you suspect there are movable items to call up and say we are going to be there to look . Theres no policy on this question, there is strategy and tactics to be used to preserve evidence that is left up to the investigators and the office on the ground. Sometimes it can be a serious mistake to call up, and sometimes and once again, you dont know what happened in the hunterbiden case, but you can be sure of the timing of when this took place. That is one of the biggest oddities of your testimony today, i yield back to the gentleman from colorado. The gentlemans time has expired, the chair recognizes the gentleman from pennsylvania. Thank you mr. Attorney general, thank you for your decades of faithful service to our country, to our constitution and the rule of law, thank you for putting up with us today. The American People are watching. They know what is going on here. This is a gross misuse of your time, your teams time and our time. It is a shameful circus. It has a goal, to spew lies and disinformation ultimately to tear away at the confidence of our independent institutions in your case today, very Important Department of justice. That is the exact ammo of a former president. Tear away at the confidence of our independent institutions, whether it is the electoral system, the department of justice, the judiciary, and independent news media. The American People are watching this sham, but its not just a circus, it is dangerous and you know that and you have mentioned that. I believe that these fictions and fantasies are dangerous, dangerous for you and the 115,000 Public Servants with whom you work. Dangerous for national security. Dangerous for communities 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 , so they had this hearing which was supposed to be oversight and use it as a big distraction because they are failing to govern. Imagine if we are going into shutdown, what does that say to your members of your department . What does it say to our servicemembers, u. S. Troops who would be training, fighting without pay . And without confidence in this countrys governing ability. It is a great distraction. So, let me today to something i care about and i know you and your department cares about. It is recovery month and for families like mine with a member in recovery, every month is recovery month, so thank you for what you are doing on the sentinel crisis, the overdose crisis, that has claimed 110,000 lives in a single 12 month period. Souls that have died while we were in this hearing every day. What is the department doing to combat the trafficking, to combat the amount of sentinel on the ground as dea has said theres enough sentinel on the ground right now to kill this entire population multiple times over. Tell us about your important work in fentanyl. Well, congresswoman, let me begin by saying i share your personal concern and grief over this, i have met with the families of children, teenagers, elderly people who have become addicted to fentanyl and who have died from sentinel. I know everything you are saying is correct. And it is a catastrophe for the country. As a consequence, the Justice Department has poured its resources particularly from dea with fbi assistance as well, and with fugitive arrests by the Marshall Service and with fundraising by the atf, into the entire process by which fentanyl reaches the United States. So, we have sanctioned the precursor companies in china. We have indicted some of them for their violations, we have arrested some as far off as in fiji and brought them back to the United States. We have traced the precursors to mexico, where they are made into the fentanyl pills, sentinel cost about 10 cents to make, you can see what the enormous profit motive is here, so we must stop the cartel themselves, and as i have said, i have traveled to mexico twice in order to work with our counterparts in military and Law Enforcement. Thank you for that, i want to pit it wants and i want to do anything i can to partner with you on this issue. So that we stop losing people. I traveled recently with the Foreign Affairs committee, met with the extraordinary folks, the top prosecutor and his team. They were very complementary of the department of justice and your work. Can you tell us about your Important Role or americas Important Role in war crimes, especially in light of your powerful history . Yes, im happy to. So, i have traveled to ukraine twice, to meet with the prosecutor general there. And im going to meet with him again this week here, he has met with me several times here. The Justice Department is pursuing the war crimes from russias unlawful and unjust invasion of ukraine, to help investigate war crimes over which we have jurisdiction, to help the prosecutor general in ukraine and investigate those prosecutions. I believe the first cabinet member ever to visit the International Criminal court of justice to meet with the chief prosecutor to talk about our cooperation in respect to the investigations that they are doing. I have assigned a Justice Department prosecutor to the investigatory body that has been set up in the hague for the crime of aggression, which she is there now working with the icc, and with an assigned prosecutor to the embassy in kyiv to work with our ambassador and to work with Prosecutor Generals Office there. Thank you for allowing that answer to go on because it is critically important. America is indispensable in your work is indispensable. The gentleman from wisconsin is recognized. Mr. Attorney general, do you support that this Consent Decree that i believe was put in place in the city of minneapolis . Do you support the Consent Decree that was put in place with the Police Department of minneapolis . The one that was put in place by the federal government, yes. You support fewer cops on the street . No, i dont support fewer cops on the streets. 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. Do you support more crime . No, i dont. They had a hearing in a suburb of minneapolis, just this last week where they were just beside themselves with the amount of crime that continues in minneapolis, since the riots of 2020. And i would point out to you that i had an officer in my district, i live right across the border in wisconsin, that is where my district begins. A Police Officer was shot to death as a result of a week on crime prosecutor on st. Paul and minneapolis, minnesota. The guy served only four years for a violent crime. Do you think that is a problem . The officer was shot to death, that is certainly not an appropriate sentence, that is outrageous. Let me be clear, we are doing everything we can to assist minneapolis, we have a very aggressive u. S. Attorney, he has brought another of cases. I have a very short time here, in regards to disrupting drug networks, why do you think there is so much fentanyl coming into the country . Because it cost 10 cents to make and it can be sold for 30. Under oath, he said the reason there is such a drastic increase in fentanyl coming into the country is because on january 20th of 2021, open borders policies were announced by President Biden. Have you expressed concern about those open borders policies that have led to this rapid increase in the amount of sentinel coming into the country . I cant associate myself with the conclusion reached by the sheriff, although i can certainly commiserate with so, the sheriff is incorrect . The cartels in mexico are causing this drug to be transmitted into the United States and we are doing everything we can to eliminate that incentive. You are not going to do it, by doing that. Just so we are clear, this is the same answer we received from the secretary a couple months ago when he was in denial about a sheriff who lives at one of the most reputable sitting down on the southern border, he sees it every day, he saw it working in 2020, and now he says it is not working and it started january 20th of 2021, you can pretend youre dealing with fentanyl, you are not. Because the borders are wide open. Im going to shift to combating gun violence. Do you believe that a prohibitive person acquires a gun illegally and disposes it in a dumpster where a criminal or an innocent child can gain access to it should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law . This is no longer a hypothetical question, you are referring to a specific case which is now in judicial determination before the court of law, it is not appropriate for me to comment in that case. So for the record, lets understand that 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 esther chairman . Absolutely. I will close real quickly with this. There is a bike ride in madison, wisconsin just a couple 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, to pedaling around madison, wisconsin naked. Do you think that is a problem . And why did you not answer our letter from two months ago . Im sorry, i will have to ask the office of legislative affairs to get back to you on this. Does it typically take two months to be able to answer questions about this . It sounds like you are asking questions about state and local Law Enforcement, we get hundreds and hundreds of letters, i will ask where the letter is. State law and local Law Enforcement would not act, i was hoping you would, it is obvious you are not, i yield. Thank you mr. Chairman and thank you again mr. Attorney general for joining us and for your patience with this questioning. Im honored to represent a Diverse Community in North Carolina. Wake county has worked to welcome people of all backgrounds, ethnicities, and religions. 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 my 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 our 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 National groups grew 55 from 2017 and 2019. Noting that the rise in hate based attacks coincides with the growth of the White Nationalist movement. And the Antidefamation League 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 in 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. And i wanted to know if you are familiar with these activities and what your department is doing to counteract them. Im not familiar with the specifics of those clubs and i will certainly look into what the department is doing in that respect. Very soon after i came into the department, i saw the spike in hate crime threats that were being made and the acts of violence. I directed the department to develop a strategy for responding to that 30 days later that was pretty much coexisting with the passage of the covid no hate act, and we have now fulfilled i think all the applications under that act. We have taskforces set up to investigate and prosecute a hate crime, and where they satisfy the requirements as domestic violent extremism or domestic terrorism. We have brought dozens of cases against people who have made these threats as well as in particular those who have attempted to carry them out. And as you know, we have prosecution pending in buffalo with respect to the horrendous killing of black americans in the tops grocery store. Thank you very much and thank you for your efforts in this regard. On a different subject, for my last 45 seconds, North Carolina also saw the impact of cybercrimes with the colonial pipeline. And i would like to know how your office is counteracting any Cyber Attacks and dealing with people who perpetrate them. Yes, so we are vigilant to the risk of these Cyber Attacks, in that case, these were criminal gangs affiliated in russia. Fortunately we had available intelligence from section 702 which we were discussing a little bit earlier today, i have to say that is one of the principal sources of our ability to fight these kinds of Cyber Attacks, whether they are criminal or whether they are launched by nationstates, whether they are attempting to get ransomware, whether they are simply trying to filtrate our information or 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 Ransomware Task force, and we are recently working on cryptocurrency in exactly the same way. The time has expired, we are trying to move quickly because we have votes and we have the majority conference, the gentleman from colorado is recognized. Welcome, and my friend and colleague from colorado outline your biography, i thought very well. But he left out two points i would like to mention, one is not only did you lead the prosecution of the Oklahoma City bombing case, but in that case, the Death Penalty was asked for and actually received and Timothy Mcveigh was executed, not exactly a democrat priority to seek the Death Penalty but you did so because of the rule of law, you did so because the facts and the law demanded that you did so and you followed the facts and the law in that situation. The other issue i wanted to point out is my understanding that in your conference room, you have a portrait of elliott richerson and the reason you have a portrait its 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 that 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 to the world that you wanted to be known in the same way that others that had come before you were known. And frankly, one of the reasons i respect the attorney general so much is because after january 6, he made the very difficult decision to walk into the president s office and tell the president the election was not stolen. And for that reason, he resigned before january 20th when power was turned over. But, mr. Attorney general, you are unable to answer some questions but i will answer them for you, do you know what people would have said if you asked for u. S. Attorney weisss resignation when you became attorney general . They would have said that you were obstructing the hunter biden investigation and you were firing an appointee so you could 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 that the prosecution wasnt moving fast enough, they would have again said that you were interviewing with the prosecution. If u. S. Attorney weiss asked to become special counsel, if you made the decision to appoint somebody else to special counsel, people would have criticized you because you would have been taking somebody out of the investigation that knew the facts and could lead the investigation and put someone in who would have had to come up to speed on the investigation and would have allowed major decisions to be made until they came up to speed. So, three different opportunities where you could have acted, you would have been criticized either way whether you acted or did not in that situation. Far from slow walking, really wants the Trump Administration decided that was the person leading the investigation, your hands were tied. You didnt have the opportunity to make a decision on the leadership of that investigation. But, speaking of slow walking, i appreciate your reference in your opening remarks to the department of justice, strongly supporting effort by congress to promote competition in Digital Markets passing legislation to prohibit certain anticompetitive practices by dominant online platforms. You cant say who they are but i can, apple, amazon, facebook and google are monopolies and they have been harming this country and harming competition in that particular market for years and congress for five years has been investigating and offering bills on that subject. They spent 250 million according to reports in the last congress to defeat those bills. And now we do nothing in this congress to try to deal with that very serious issue. In fact, there are efforts, im told over in the senate, and i use those words very carefully in the same sentence, but there are efforts in the senate, to take 50 million in funding for the department of justice and i trust this division, and it would be an 18 cut and to move that money to the General Department of justice Operations Fund to try to further cripple the efforts that are going on in court. The state attorney generals and the antitrust division and federal trade commission are doing a great job jointly and trying to combat the scourge of these monopolies. My question to you 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 in this area . Yes, i absolutely will and one of the first things i did was to ask for more money for the antitrust division than i had ever been given in quite a long time. And ask for the fees that are paid for purposes of merger analysis be given to the antitrust division directly rather than to go into the general fund. I will point out for the record that attorney general barr left the Trump Administration december 3rd, 2020, not between january 6 and january 20th, 2021. Im sorry, since he mentioned monopoly, can i also enter into the record this article about the mastercard visa duopoly by proactive and their target of a bipartisan bill to reform this monopoly. Yes, that is accepted, and the lady from missouri is recognized. Thank you for being here, attorney general garland. We are here 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. But i have concerns about whether the department under your leadership is doing the absolute most it possibly can to advance these goals. In the limited time i have, i want to share my concerns about specific issues with you directly and to make clear the steps that i believe that the Department Needs to take. First off, as this hearing has shown, a small number of the departments cases get an outside level of attention and politics, but the reality is, you preside over most of the federal system of mass incarceration. And in courtrooms around the country, prosecutors who report to you are continuing to disproportionately prosecute them, and on your watch, it 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 entire approach to prosecution but let me also say thank you for what you are doing with the insurrections. And i urge you to take specific steps towards ending mandatory minimums and prosecutorial misconduct waivers and actively supporting alternatives to incarceration, funding federal public defenders, use of clemency power and reporting on disparities in federal prosecutions. Im also deeply concerned about the bureau of prisons. Director peters is not doing enough to address the rampant issues of abuse and mismanagement, which affects correctional staff and people in custody, it is shameful that solitary confinement has increased in the prisons 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. And you should implement the president s commitment to end the torturous practice of solitary confinement once and for all. Im also incredibly disheartened that the department has continued to pursue the Death Penalty despite the president pledge to end it. I urge the department to reverse course including by dismantling the federal Death Chamber in indiana and advocating for the sentences of everyone on federal death row. Im also still waiting to see any meaningful progress on the commitments that is of the associate attorney general around the enforcement of title six and the safe streets act. Im taking my time, i also would 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 Administrations office of Legal Counsel concerning the equal rights amendment, that deeply flawed memo is preventing the United States from publishing the equal rights amendment as the 28th amendment. I know that llc issued a short clarification after you took office but the wording was not clear, i urge you to fully withdraw the trump memo which is baseless and obstructing constitutional gender equality for all. Finally, i cannot overstate how shocked i am by the targeting of protesters who oppose the constructions of the Atlanta Public Safety Center and i urge the department to investigate these obvious violations of civil rights. These may seem like unrelated issues but to me and my constituents and to the people who are most impacted, they are interconnected and they all speak to whether the department will advance justice or simply Pay Lip Service to it. Given the limited time that we have, i dont expect you to comment on all of these issues but, i have a question, will you commit to working with me at my office on these issues including having your staff promptly, by writing your position and sending that to us, reaching out to us about all of the issues that we just spoke about . I would be happy to have the office of legislative affairs work with your staff, and i want to say 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, when i came to the justice im going to stop you, im not disagreeing with that, i just want you to understand where im coming from and the things i want to see. Finally, i want to remind everyone yet again that this is what the good faith oversight looks like, not the republican playbook. Thank you and i yield back. The gentleman from texas is recognized. Thank you. On october 21st, 2021, i asked about mr. Scott smith, the father in Loudoun County virginia who was arrested at a School Board Meeting where he questioned the rape of his daughter. Are you familiar with it now . I sent a memo to address violence and threats of violence in connection with school personnel. Directed at School Boards . Directed at school personnel, administrators that followed a letter on september 29th, 2029, for the National School Board Association to President Biden and emails from the National Director to the white house in which the white house asked for specific threats. One of the examples was scott smith. Subsequent to our hearing two years ago, 26 states left the national School Boards association and resigned on november 23rd of 2021, last week mr. Smith was pardoned by governor youngkin. You have an opinion on whether the governor was correct . I dont know the facts of the case. Have you resend the memo that you issued in 2021, yes or no . What we are discussing here is the memo still going, yes or no . The memo is intended to have meetings within 30 days. When the 30 days have finished, nothing has happened in more than a year and a half. It has not been resend it. Despite evidence that has come out from the National School Board Association Commission Report that white house officials discussed this with doj more than a week before the letter was sent, have you apologized, yes or no . I have testified seven times since that original this is the first time you are back here since we talked about it. Have you apologized for putting up memo out that implicated scott smith as a domestic terrorist, something the governor of virginia has now pardoned him from these accusations . The memo said nothing about him, nothing about the parents being terrorist, nothing about attending the schools the memo hasnt been resend it and you have an apologized for it. In a memo that is built on the back of that, but now we have this complement driven to the Civil Rights Division, lets talk about a father in pennsylvania that was arrested for heavily armed local Law Enforcement in front of his wife and children. His lawyers said he would appear voluntarily, local authorities found no case. He was arrested by the fbi for face act violations. The jury met for an hour, he was acquitted. When i was in federal court, i dont remember that being my result very often. I dont remember it happening at all. We took it to the jury and it was acquitted after one hour. Did you investigate this or question the United States attorney for why they resisted resources and can you explain whether that was a good use of the department of justices authority . The Justice Department respects the jurys verdict, and the decision was made by agents and prosecutors on the ground. We are asking information to be able to track down the information of such prosecutions but 126 times against prolifers versus four times for people who dare to question the issue of life. So i will leave that out there just to say, that is the Civil Rights Division at play, meanwhile we got the very liberal progressive groups being targeted as well. The senator sent a letter to you asking about information about the prolife meeting and yet, we didnt get any response from you. I would ask if you would respond to our letter that we sent in march asking about the fbi infiltrating such a meeting. I dont know what you are referring to but i will ask the office of legislative affairs to look into this letter. Our fact cases require approval, no matter what district, yes or no . It depends on the circumstances and the example generally speaking, yes. The main justice runs the tax division, yes or no . In the hunter biden case, i assured mr. Weiss thats not what im asking about, i have not mentioned his name. I asked a very simple question, do tax cases require approval by main justice, as a general matter . Most of the time but not when the attorney general has granted authority to the u. S. Attorney to do what he thinks is best. Mr. Chairman, point of order. The gentlemans time has expired. The chair recognizes the lady from texas. Thank you mr. Chairman and attorney general garland, thank you first and foremost for your Public Service and your dedication to justice. Im delighted to see you here today, thank you for appearing before us. I represent el paso, texas, a community on the u. S. Mexico border, we have been witnessing firsthand the abuses at the hands of Governor Greg Abbott through operation lone star which began in 2021. Governor abbott has deployed state resources and Texas National guards members to the states border with mexico and operation lone star has created order management challenges, it has resulted in countless humanitarian and due process violations for migrants. It has harmed guardsmen assigned to the mission, 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 sent you a letter from july about greg abbotts floating barriers. I know that case is going through appeal. But, we have also learned that the National Guards shot at a Mexican National across the rio grande and in september, on september 1st, i sent you a letter asking that the doj investigated 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 cbp, has even ordered that they push people back into mexico. Mr. Chairman, i would like your unanimous consent to enter into 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 abbett separating fathers from their children and their families, its just egregious what is happening on the border the operation lone star. Attorney general garland, are you able to speak to any responses the department has had to governor abbotts blatant undermining of federal Immigration Authority . I can speak on the question, when we brought suit on the rivers and harbors act with the interference of navigable waters, that case is still under adjudication in the district court. I understand that, there are other issues and i want to make sure i flagged them for you today at this hearing, but would also like for your folks to take a close look at the investigation i have requested, and i will be sending a follow up letter of what we have learned just this week from the El Paso Times. Switching gears, i do want to offer you an opportunity for some rebuttal. Because what we have seen is their pension performance for twitter and other news programs. We have heard from u. S. Attorneys offices, not partnering with mr. Weiss and hypotheticals about what that means. Can you clean please explain the difference between partnering with the u. S. Attorneys office and acting as a special attorney or special counsel . I can talk about it in the stack abstract of the theoretical. As a case that has significance in another to speak with the u. S. Attorney and the other district, to find out the policies of the district to find out what the practices are, to see how judges and the district react to different kinds of charges. Sometimes a decision is made to partner together in those investigations. Myself for this purpose. It is just a mechanical question of what courts require in order to make an appearance. Thank you so much, mr. Garland, appreciate your Public Service to the American People. Mr. Chairman, i yelled back. Thank you, mr. Garland, for being here today. Every time i am in my district, constituents are concerned about the weaponization of government because they happen to be conservatives command i think on your watch now, the doj actually is a mid30s percent approval rate print and every time the doj goes after trump, he goes up in the polls. I think the American People are starting to wake up to what is going on, i think it is fairly obvious but the first question i have is we understand now, thanks to an fbi whistleblower, that the fbi received information on americans from bank of america, specifically bank of america sent the fbi a list of customers who made transactions in or around january 6th, 2020 10 the department of justice require any data around that time . Yes or no . Geo locational data. I believe everything that was done with respect to geo locational data was disclosed in the public filings in the january 6th cases, i dont have that at my fingertips. Lets do you remember any specific analyses that you may have done with that data . Any specific analyses, was there anything particular you were looking for, mr. Attorney general . The right to maybe buy a firearm. Thanks i understood the location data was to determine whether people claimed they went inside the capitol and actually wear inside the capitol. I guess the question is, to your knowledge, the geolocation data from other organizations, did you receive that from external sources or are you buying that data . I dont know the exact answer in general, but i believe with respect to january 6th, a subpoena issued to telephone companies. So, you subpoenaed the telephone companies. But this requires orders authorized by the court. Does it concern you that we talk about he said the fbis activities were somewhat sobering. Does that worry you on your watch that the activities of the fbi have been called sobering now . I didnt understand, will cause it sobering . John doran. I did read the report put all those events had to do with a crossfire hurricane investigation. Were you concerned when you said it was a sobering what the fbi was doing . I think mr. Drum, and i just want to make sure that he understands, mr. Durham, i promised him he would be able to go forward without interference, just as i promised mr. Weiss. I do not interfere with his report. His report had a lack of analytical and a number of other problems with respect to the investigation. I think both of the Inspector General made a similar comment, and director ray has made the same. I dont have a lot of time, i will yield a little bit to the chairman, but is it a crime in the u. S. To question an election . Is that a crime . Is it a crime for the u. S. Citizens to say we want to ask about this election, we want to actually look into this election . Is that a crime . I think you are asking not hypothetical, but something specific. I think that is just general. I dont think thats the specific predilections have been questioned for decades past. Is that now a crime in america . It is not a crime to question an election. No. And there are a lot of people in america that do, they question the weaponization of the government attacking american citizens. And so, if you, sir, i have an issue with trustworthiness of the American People and congress at this point mr. Garland, did you consider anyone else when david weiss requested special counsel designation on august 8th . Mr. Weiss asked if he made special counsel and i do not consider an alternative. I, of course, but in an alternative, was greatly disrupted in the investigation already. I want to be clear, he was the only one under consideration . There was either no special counsel or if there was, it was going to be the guy for the previous five years. I thought about what the consequences would be of both not appointing him and trying to find somebody else at that time. And you have no concern. I mean, the whistleblowers have brought forward all kinds of concerns. Earlier, when someone brought this up, they said those are allegations. They have been crossexamined for four hours by democrats in Oversight Committee. But there are two facts that can be questioned. Factor number one, they let the statue of limitations run, they let it expire. Factor number two, the plea deal fell apart. So, i just want to make clear that the guy who presided over all of that was the only guy under consideration for special counsel designation, is that right . Mr. Weiss is a person known for high integrity, for great experience in the prosecutorial realm, and he is appointed by the president. Thats fine. I have no doubts about his ability is. The only one under consideration . The question was whether to appoint someone and i thought, i will say what the consequences will be of trying to switch horses in midstream, but i do not consider any other. On july 10th, you said i have had discussions with officials, and i dont know if this was asked earlier, who did he talk with then . I am sorry, you are talking about the letter that you sent to senator graham . I am not going to get into internal deliberation. Mr. Weiss is now subject to the special counsel regulations, which required urgent reporting under certain circumstances, requiring him to consult with numerous places within the Justice Department. Thats fine, you follow the statute, god bless you. You said there was reporting, who did you report to . Is it you . Mr. Weiss does not have to report to anybody, he was a supervisor and decisionmaker in these matters. Okay. We have votes on the floor, we have to take another break. We will get back to this as soon as we can and we will start with the democrats