Good afternoon. Thank you for coming out this afternoon. Senator warner and i thought it was time for our first public update of the Senate Investigation into russian involvement in the elections. Mr. Burr and let me just say that we cant say enough what the mission of the Senate Committee is. Which is to look at all activities that russia might have taken to alter or influence the 2016 elections in the United States. In addition to that, the mission of the committee is to look at any Campaign Contacts from either committee with russian government or russian government officials that might have influenced in any way, shape or form the election process. We take that very seriously. Its not something that can be done quickly. And when you look at our committee, it is in fact the oversight role that we function in every single day. This is just on a little larger scale. For those that might think or have suggested that this is outside of our expertise, let me remind you, the last public investigation that we did was the Senate Investigation into benghazi. We devoted three professional staff to that investigation. It took one year. And in comparison to the public hearings that happened in the house, our report and findings were out much quicker than what they were. And i think are consistent with in fact what the house process looked like at the end. So, let me share with you what weve accomplished to date. We have devoted seven professional staff positions to this investigation. These are staffers who already had the clearance and already had the knowledge of the materials that they were going to look at that started on day one. Now, what was day one . Day one was the first public hearing that the Committee Held with director clapper, director comey, admiral rogers, and director brennan. When they came to the United States senate to testify on the completion of the i. C. A. The report of the last administration on russias involvement in the elections. The full committee had an opportunity to ask every one of the four i. C. Members initial questions. Things that we knew to ask as of that time. Let me assure you that as this investigation continues, we will certainly give those individuals at least once, if not more, opportunities to come back either in official capacity or in a retired capacity, to come back and share with us answers to questions we might have. The staff has been provided an unprecedented amount of documents. Those documents include documents that up to this point have only been shared with the green bay packer of gang of eight and staff directors on the house and senate side. Its safe to say that our staff currently is working through thousands of raw intelligence and analytic products to, one, determine whether the process that the reviewers went through to compile their report were in agreement with were in agreement with. And to see if our confidence levels on their ratings of low, medium or high confidence in fact match. To date, as i said, theyve been provided thousands of pages of documents and have reviewed to date majority of those documents. Were within weeks of completing the review of those documents. I might say that were in constant negotiations with the Intelligence Community about access to additional documents, to where we access those documents, to how our staff notes are kept, and whether in fact we have the capabilities within the Intelligence Community spaces to use computers. This is not abnormal. Its been involved in every investigation ive seen in the 17 years ive been in the house or Senate Committee. So i dont find this to be unusual, but it is challenging to say the least. It does not yet include the additional documents that the committee has requested and others that we will request, to enable us ultimately to come to some finality, findings and conclusions of the mission of this investigation. This week we begin to schedule our first interviews. To date we have made 20 requests for individuals to be interviewed by the committee. As we stand here today, five are already scheduled on the books. And probably within the next 10 days, the remaining 15 will have a scheduled date for those individuals to be interviewed by our staff. We anticipate inviting additional individuals to come and be interviewed. And ultimately some of those interviewed individuals may turn into private and public hearings by the committee. But yet to be determined. There have been a number of individuals who have volunteered to be interviewed. Let me assure you that they will be processed as the committee determines were ready to conduct those interviews. Or if theyre even pertinent to the issues that we need to look into. The only individual who publicly has been identified to date is Jared Kushner. And the committee will conduct an interview with mr. Kushner when the committee decides that its time for us to set a date because we know exactly the scope of what needs to be asked of mr. Kushner. Toms hearing, which will be the first public hearing that weve held, is to examine ussian capabilities, their capabilities to influence elections globally, what russia has done in the past, which is important for us to bring to light for the American People. What theyre doing today both here and throughout the world. And, more importantly, what we should expect for fought toture. Weve got for the future. Weve got two panels, two hours in the morning, two hours in the afternoon. To look at specifically the olicies that we think russia is implementing and to look at the technologies that display their capabilities. I would conclude with this, then ill turn it over to mark. Well always say to you this investigation scope will go wherever the intelligence leads it. So, it is absolutely crucial that every day we spend trying to separate fact from fiction, and to find some intelligence thread that sends us to the factual side of all the names and all the places that you in this room have written about. Just the fact that you say it doesnt mean the fact. Its incumbent on our staff and on our members to in fact connect that intelligence thread to that, for us to make some determination as to the relevance of it in our investigation. So, mark and i work hand in hand on this. And contrary to maybe popular belief, were partners to see that this is completed and that weve got a product at the end of the day that we can have bipartisanship in supporting. Mr. Warner thank you, richard. Im going to repeat many of the things that chairman said. But i think the important you hear it from both of us its important you hear it from both of us. Obviously theres a lot of drama out there about the stories that all of you are running down. And i think echoing what the chairman has said, its important for us at least, and i think all of us here, to remember to not lose sight about what this investigation is about. An outside foreign adversary effectively sought to hijack our most critical democratic process, the election of a president. And in that process, decided to favor one candidate over another. I can assure you, they didnt do it because it was in the best interest of the American People. Russias goal, Vladimir Putins goal, is a weaker United States , weaker economically, weaker globally. And that should be a concern to all americans, rarledless of party aphysical yailings regardless of party affiliation. Were here to assure you, and more importantly the American People who are watching and listening, that we will get to the bottom of this. Rich and i have known each other for a long time. The chairman and i both have a serious concern about what the russians have done and continue to do around the world. Ill come back to this in a moment when we talk about tomorrows hearings. Some of the techniques that russia used in this election, as we find more and more, i think would send a chill down anyone who believes in a democratic process in this country or around the world. And echoing what the chairman has said, the committee will follow the intelligence wherever it leads. We need to get this right. And sometimes that means, especially for somebody like me, who wants things done yesterday, that its not going to happen as quickly as i would like, or many members of our committee would like. Were getting it but getting it right is more important than getting it done quickly. I want to echo again something the chairman said. What ive been remarkably proud of is that the committee on both sides of the aisle, every member, the level of seriousness that they put into this work, the attention that theyve given, and the commitment as well to follow the intel wherever it leads. Over the last month, weve seen some progress. Our staffs have been out reviewing these thousand of pages of documents. Trying to look back at the source materials. We also, as the chairman has mentioned, are starting to talk to some of those analysts who helped put together this report. And in many ways we want to find out what was potentially left on the cutting room floor that might not have met the full levels of confidence, but still might be worthy of further looking. And as the chairman mentioned, a number of those interviews are scheduled. The Intelligence Community for the most part, in terms of access to people, have been very cooperative. On some of the documents, with some parts of the Intelligence Community, we still have a challenge. But we cannot do this job, we cannot tell the American People our conclusions unless we have access to all the pertinent information. And one of the things i really appreciate is that the chairman and i are committed to getting that. I know that the pate rots that work patriot that work in the Intelligence Community patriots that work in the Intelligence Community want us as well to go wherever the facts lead. As has been mentioned, the only person weve announced is Jared Kushner. And we will schedule that when we have the facts, so we can ask the appropriate questions. Theres a lot of names. The chairman has mentioned names. There will be appropriate time. But its got to be done in a timely way. So that any individual, those and others, there will be others, we have the right questions to ask. Tomorrows hearing, as the chairman mentioned, will be the first in a series. I think it will be interesting because some of the techniques which the russians used in this past election, really go to the heart of how our democratic process works. I was a technology guy before i was in politics. The very technology that has made our lives simpler can also be misused in ways to put false information for folks who potentially only get their news off of twitter feed or a Facebook News feed. And that raises serious questions, even beyond this investigation. So with that i again want to thank the chairman for the cooperation weve had. And i think i speak on behalf of all the Committee Members. Most important thing we want to let you know is, were going to get this right and were going to follow all the intelligence. Happy to take your questions. Mr. Burr well take some questions. Let me set ground rules real quick. Well answer anything about the Senate Intelligence committees investigation. We will not take questions on the house intelligence committee. We would refer those to the ouse intelligence committee. Reporter the white house has continually said that any discussion about coordination between the Trump Campaign and russian officials is a hoax. Anybody whos seen any information about this knows that theres nothing there. So from what you have seen so far, can you definitively rule out that there was no coordination whatsoever between Trump Officials and russian officials during the election . Mr. Burr we would be crazy to try to draw conclusions from where we are in the investigation. I think mark and i have committed to let this process go through before we form any opinions. And i would hope that thats what you would like us to do. As much as wed like to share minute by minute, even the snapshots we get as a team going through it are not always accurate whether we find the next piece of intelligence. So, let us get a little deeper into this before you ask us to write the conclusions. Thats clearly something we intend to do down the road. Reporter [inaudible] sent a letter to both you and senator warner urging the committee to look closer at the financial ties between Trump Associates and russia. Is there a sense that the committee is not already investigating the financial aspects of this closely enough . Mr. Burr the committees looking anywhere intelligence suggests that there might have relationship of or effort to influence u. S. Elections. Mr. Warner i just simply add that i for a long time before we even started the investigation have believed that this president , like all prior president ial candidates of both parties, should have in the best interests of the American People released their tax returns. Reporter is [inaudible] the 20 youve identify. If necessary, does your committee have the reach and resources to interview persons outside the United States if you deem that . Mr. Burr were not going to get into names that are on our list. I can assure you that the lengthy. Mark and i have both agreed that were willing to issue subpoenas. Its tough you to make a subpoena go outside of the United States. So we understand the limitations. But i only say this. He and i are tapping into everything that we can to understand how we increase our reach in the ability to investigate and to get intelligence that would be pertinent to the investigation. Reporter you have personally coordinated with the white house at all on the scope of this investigation . And how do you prevent it from going off track . Mr. Burr no, sir, i have not. Its the relationship and the trust we have. Mr. Warner let me also add to that. There have been all the members of the committee, ive been constantly impressed. We know its challenging. Some folks want this to go away. Some folks want this to be done and us reaching conclusions tomorrow. Or yesterday. But so Many Committee members on both sides of the aisle have constantly stepped up. I think its not only our relationship, but its the fact that the committee i think has got our back and they want to see it through. Reporter without naming another committee, could you speak to the level of satisfaction on both sides of the aisle within your committee about the integrity of the committee, how its working, its functions and so on . Mr. Burr the first assessment i would make is not only for the first time have our members had access to gang of eight information. Seven of our professional staff slots have access to gang of eight information. That is unprecedented in the history of the committee. So i think it starts with the trust that the Intelligence Community has with the staff, the professional staff, and with the membership at large. It would be extremely easy for them to deny us, to have access to some of the countrys most sensitive things that deal with sources and methods. They have not. I think thats what gives us high hopes that we can reach a conclusion that has bipartisan support and that we feel confident explored every crevice that we can find. Mr. Warner we are going to need to make sure we get all that information. Part of this is the normal course. I think of the Intelligence Community having concerns. I think weve earned their trust. But it continues. Reporter twopart question. One is that, Paul Manafort has written to the committee and i understand [inaudible] talking to your staff to try to set up an interview. Can you tell us whether that has happened already . Secondly, just from a logistical standpoint, the hearing that people on your committee go and read some of hes documents, of these documents at the c. I. A. , for instance, a bewildering amount of information. They dont even know where to begin, where it ends. Is there something being done to try to help you get through this volume of large volume of information . Mr. Burr im not sure who youre hearing it from. Its not the professional staff thats doing it. Is it a lot of information . Absolutely. Is it clear to know where to go . Yes. Its in three binders. You open the front cover and you start reading until you get to the back one and you work on the second and the third. In benghazi, our professional staff had to go out and figure out what intelligence they needed to ask for. Didnt have access to gang of eight. Had to figure out who to interview. And so im not going to tell you this ones easier. This ones one of the biggest investigations that the hill has seen in my tenure here. Mr. Warner just add, the challenges, the times, you go to a footnote, you have to go back and get a document that supports that footnote. We want to do mentioned one individual, any of those individuals that are out in the public assess whether its appropriate to see them. You might think it will be appropriate. Weve got to get our we have to know what the right questions are to ask. To do that you have to have the underlying documents. Mr. Burr not scheduled. Reporter in your remarks you mentioned there are still challenge getting information from the i. C. Are there particular agencies in particular mr. Warner i knew you were going to ask that. Im going to not say. But i want to make sure the Intelligence Community knows some have been very responsive. Some less so. To do our job, we have to have this information. Mr. Burr let me answer on behalf of the agencies. Not every document that an agency holds is the product of that agency. So, it is impossible from a legal standpoint for one agency to provide us another agencys documents. So the faster we can work through who has ownership rights, the quicker we can ask the appropriate agency for a specific document. Reporter as part of your investigation, are you asking the house chairman to share his sources with you . And will you seek to review the white houses visitor log . Mr. Burr were not asking the house to play any role in our investigation. We dont plan to play any role in their investigation. Reporter for senator warner, are you confident that the white house has not interfered in the integrity of this investigation . For both of you, is the ultimate aim to write a report at the end of this investigation . Mr. Warner let me start with the second part of your question. Absolutely in terms of bipartisan. If we dont come to some joint conclusion with the manipulation that took place in the election and with the spirit of kind of the American People saying, whats going on here, i think we would not fulfill our duty. On the first question, ive seen no evidence, i think one of the things that mr. Kushner volunteering to testify was a good sign. But ive said repeatedly and i think the chairman agrees, you know, this is the right venue. But if we see any attempt to stifle us with information, or cut off the intelligence professionals giving us the access we need, youll hear from us. Reporter can i ask [inaudible] looking at the potential rewards russia [inaudible] questions of changes to the Republican Party platform, convention or the way the president [inaudible] criticized vladimir putin. Is that part of what youre looking at . Mr. Burr thats not in the scope of the investigation. Ill leave that up to you guys to report. Reporter has the white house or the d. O. J. Or any part of the Trump Administration blocked sali yates from giving you guys information or [inaudible] warren id like to see ms. Mr. Warner id like to see ms. Yates at one point. I saw comments yesterday that the White House Press secretary said hed be happy to have her testify. Thats something we have to schedule. Reporter do they block her from giving enabling her to come up before your committee or to talk to you . Burr no. Mr. Burr no. Reporter i think a lot of americans want to know if the president himself had anything to do with it. We have a government with a trust issue right now. A lot of americans. Is there anything youve seen, either of you or your staff, that would raise any direct links to the president himself about what happened last year . Mr. Burr we wont take a snapshot in time and make any observations on it. But we know that our challenge is to answer that question for the American People. In our conclusions to this investigation. Reporter any circumstance in which you wouldnt share with mr. Warner one of your sources of intelligence on this investigation . Mr. Burr he usually knows my sources before i do. Mr. Warner ive also got his cell phone. Which means he hears from me more than he sometimes likes. Reporter the white house and supporters of the president complain at times that the Intelligence Community has leaked intelligence or communications scooped up members of the Transition Team improperly. Does the scope of your investigation include any of that . Mr. Burr the normal course of business for the intelligence ommittee is about leaks. So thats an ongoing process that we look at. We will try to assess leaks if they take place during the investigation in the same way. And if we find them, we will refer them to the appropriate Law Enforcement agency by requesting a crimes report. Reporter you have seen anything yet that would suggest the Intelligence Community did anything improper with information that it collected . That had to do with mr. Burr my answer would probably be no. Were so early in the investigation. Im not sure that weve triaged every piece thats out there. Mr. Warner i think we want one of the things were both very concerned leaks can sometimes be extraordinarily damaging to our capacity and to the men and women who serve our country in the i. C. I do think that editorial comment here, that if the administration has said they did nothing, then i would hope they would continue theres nothing to leak. The more cooperation we can get, the sooner we can move forward and get to the end when we move this cloud. Reporter the fact that the f. B. I. Has an active counterintelligence investigation, has that caused you to change your investigation at all in terms of trying not to step on their toes or to do anything that could undermine a potential criminal investigation . Mr. Burr ill leave it up to the f. B. I. To make any comments on c. I. Investigation if there is one. And the extent. But were always conscious of the fact that we may go down a road and find that were in conflict with a Law Enforcement process. At which time we will work with the appropriate people to try to remedy that. Mr. Warner there are historical precedence, obviously. Watergate had an investigation while there were d. O. J. Investigations going on. Were very sensitive to that. Reporter can you give us a sense of the scale of what the russian allegedly did in terms of the number of people and the didnt facets of the attack . Mr. Warner let me start off on that. I think we know about the hacking. And the selective leaking of information. But as a former tech guy, what really concerns me is at least some reports, and weve got to get to the bottom of this, that there were upwards of 1,000 paid internet trolls working out of a facility in russia in effect taking over a series of computers. They can then generate news, down to specific areas. Its been reported to merks we have to find this out, whether they were able to affect specific areas in wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania. Where you would not have been receiving off of your whoever your vendor might have been. Trump versus clinton. During the a winning days of the election. But instead, clinton is taking money from some source. Fake news. Weve also seen as well the fact that if you think about if you look just at, for example, if you googled election hacking, during the period leading up to the election and immediately afterwards, you wouldnt get fox or abc or New York Times or what youd get is four out of the first five news stories that popped up are russian propaganda. R. T. News. Spot knick, others. Im not here to relitigate the election. But the fact part of our responsibility as well is to put the American Public on a higher level of alert, that this time it was russia. It could be other foreign nations as well. Were in a whole new realm around cyber. That provides opportunities. Huge, huge threats for basic democracy. Were seeing it right now. Mr. Burr were on the brink of potentially having two European Countries where russia is the of their disrupter leadership. What we might assess as a very covert effort in 2016 in the United States is a very overt effort as well as covert in germany, france. Already been tried in monthing in row, netherlands. We feel part of our responsibility is to educate the rest of the world about whats going on. Its now into character assassination of candidates. Mr. Warner one of the things that we, as the committee working with the administration, how we really think proactively about what kind of even potentially offensive strategy you have to take, we cannot allow this to happen again. This last time it maybe favored one party. Russias going to act in its selfinterest. Not in americas interest. We have to be careful in 2018 and obviously in 2020. Reporter npr. Question for you, senator burr. I ask this with no disrespect, but because its a question mr. Burr he disrespects me all the time. Reporter having served as an advisor on the Trump Campaign, can you say hand over heart that you can oversee an impartial and Serious Investigation mr. Burr absolutely. Ill do something ive never done. Ill admit i voted for him. We always hide who we vote for. Thats part of the democratic process. But ive got a job in the United States senate. I take that job extremely serious. It override necessary personal beliefs that i have or loiments i might have loyalties i might have. Mark and i might look at politics differently. We dont look at the responsibilities we have on the committee differently. And thats to earn the trust and the respect of the Intelligence Community so they feel open and good about sharing information with us. Because that enables us to do our oversight job thatch better. Have confidence that we together with the members of our committee are going to get to the bottom of this. If you get nothing else from today take that statement to the bank. Reporter if you guys have been in conflict have you guys been in conflict with representative Michael Flynn . Also, can you go through the thought process between why would you have an interview behind closed doors or do it publicly . Likewise you would talk to Jared Kushner behind closed doors or would you do it publicly, why you would do that . Mr. Burr well i think its safe to say that we have had conversations with a lot of people. And you would think less of us if general flynn wasnt in that list. From a standpoint of the interview process, if you feel like youre being cheated, because theyre not being public, if theres relevance to them, theyll vebley be part of a public eventually be part of a public hearing. But any investigation of this kind will start with private interviews to determine the value of what a witness has to provide for the committee. We think one thing that were really conscious of is we werent give an free pass to do a witch hunt. We were asked to do a real investigation. Well see highprofile people and well see analysts from the intelligence demuent community. Or we may see a 28yearold that happened to answer the phone at the white house on the wrong day when an ambassador called him and when they went around and said, who talked to the ambassador, they raised their hand. We dont want that person to have to get a lawyer to be interviewed. Wed like to bring them up and understand what role they played, if any, without any liability that extends to them. So were really conscious of trying to assess each individual person for what the need is. But we dont rule anything out for anybody relative to how public the information might be. Reporter [inaudible] mr. Burr im not going to tell you one way or the another or the other. Reporter [inaudible] scheduled five. [inaudible] mr. Burr i think they start as early as next monday. I would probably be the wrong one to verify that. Theyre media. They are media. Mr. Warner these are people who helped put together the report. Mr. Burr when you see a movie, its roughly two hours. When you see how much film went into a movie, its probably 50 hours. We dont want to just look at what was in the report. We want to look at what was cut and thrown on the floor. Either an analytic product or an intelligence. To figure out whether an analyst made the right determination with what we know today. What we know today is a lot more than what they knew in december when they went through this process. Time for a couple more. Reporter you said you were looking at communications infractions with people involved with the russian government. You are also looking at people involved in organized crime in russia and their contacts. Mr. Burr i dont think we said anything about organized crime. We said anybody that had connections to the russian government and contact with the campaign. Mr. Warner unfortunately many people in russia who are part of organized Crime Networks seem to have ties to the russian mr. Burr ill let that one be attributed to him. Reporter [inaudible] concern for an attack during the 2018 election. Does this investigation need to be completed before then so you can better prevent mr. Warner we sure hope so. Mr. Burr s tomorrows hearing is with that tomorrows hearing is with that in mind that. We provide more public this ess, not just in country, but throughout the world, as to what russias up to. I think its safe to say that u. S. Officials have pushed what we know, not we the committee, what we the government know, about russias capabilities and intent. We pushed it out to those countries that are most imminent to have elections. But ill remind you that were within 30 days of the first french election. Four candidates. It will go down to two candidates with the runoff in may. I think its safe by everybodys judgment that the russians are actively involved in the french elections. Last one. Reporter you mentioned earlier that [inaudible] thousands of pages of documents to go through. Are they having to do this by hand . [inaudible] shared drive or documents online . Mr. Burr im not going to be specific as to how were doing it. There is no shared drive this time around. That didnt have a happy ending. This gets back to what we said about every iteration is a new negotiation. And were not complaining about that. We think its really, really important that we have a clear understanding up front who has access, how do they treat the information that theyve got, where do they store the information, whos responsible for the security of that information . Because youve got to understand, were going to go through an investigation that will last x amount of time. After that, weve got to perform our oversight job, which means were going to be working with the same people, asking them for documents to do our normal oversight job, and if in fact we dont live up to the security that we promise them, then youre going to have an Oversight Committee that cant successfully do its job. Mr. Warner one of the things were doing, this is where part of the rub comes and i understand it, were basically trying to get access that even goes beyond what the gang of eight has had. And in a sense how we have all of that in terms of raw products and how we make sure that every Committee Member said theyve got to see or know some of this information before they can sign their name on a finished product. Theres some healthy tension there. Burr for any that have been at the confirmation hear mr. Burr for any that have been at the confirmation hearings. Something youve heard from every person who was nominated and eventually confirmed is, would you provide for the committee if asked raw Intelligence Data . There is rarely a time where a committee would ask for that. We are in a very rare time. And we will test some people to see if in fact their commitment is 100 correct. Let me end with how we ended the first part. And thats that the committee will go wherever the intelligence leads us. You can continue to ask us 30 different ways about a person. Trust me when we have them scheduled, we will tell you. You wont have to beat it out of us. We hope to make updates a periodic thing but were not going to do them unless we have something to share with you thats educational, that shows you a little bit of the road map were going down. Right now were not at a point where we can tell you thats every two weeks or three weeks or a month. We want to do it based upon the changing conditions of the investigation. Mr. Warner my last comment is simply a comment ive made before. When we started this, we saw the scope of what was involved. I said it was the most important thing id ever taken on in my public life. I believe that more firmly now than even when we started. Were going to get it right. Thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017]