Okay, very good. Director ray, your testimony march the fourth time you have appeared before this committee. January 2021 permitting. Thank you for the work that you and 35,000 fbi employees do to protect america. Uphold the constitution. Untroubled that the fbi is facing faceless claims that you have been weaponizing these purposes, and have dangerous causes from these agencies. This irresponsible charge has real consequences. This man from tennessee pled guilty to a 2022 december plot to attack the fbi . Will and nox offices. We were looking at his Co Defendants participation in this plan. They played a Critical Role from the fbi, to the committees. I urge my colleagues to be responsible and respectful. I urge my colleagues as well, not to engage in bullying or conduct from this committee. One of the central concerns that i would like to raise, is the troubling increase of hate crimes in america. This includes the islamophobic attacks. This is in the wake of this contract. The fbi continues to respond quickly to these threats. In illinois, we are looking at the murder of a sixyearold palestinian. This is a violent attack on his mother. This is simply because of his national origin. We send out the support at all times. They are recovering from their injuries in vermont. These three, young, palestinian boys, were shot. When they were attacked, two of them were wearing a traditional palestinian headdress. The Jewish Community has also experienced historic threats, vandalism, and attacks. For example, this man was recently indicted for making threatening calls to a Jewish Center of worship. I strongly urge the fbi to combat all of these threats. There is a need for continued improvement. Especially as more hate crimes have been reported towards Law Enforcement. At the same time, the fbi addresses domestic actions, as well as national actors. They started from the indian national, accuses assassinating americans on american soil. As i have said many times in this committee, medical, and political forms of violence, are not acceptable. Race, gender, sexuality, religion, is not consistent with the values of america. Every community deserves to feel safe. The threat of violent extremism is highlighted by the proliferation of guns in america. It is the reenactment of the Bipartisan Community Safety act, the community has looked at more than 1000 enhanced projects for gun purchases under 21. Keeping firearms out of the hands of prohibited people. There is more to be done. I want to thank you for hosting the fbi headquarters for menstruation from the fbis use. Section 702 with pfizer. There is no question that it is a critical tool for collecting foreign intelligence, and protecting america. I appreciate the reforms that you put in place. Youre trying to address with the court is calling specific filing issues within the 102 rules. Im still protecting communications of innocent americans from the surveillance. I look forward to continue to work with you, to reauthorize 702 with a significant forms of privacy protecting within americans. I now turn to the ranking member. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, director. We really appreciate you coming. Right now, is the time to have an honest talk about the committee and the dangers that we face. This is what the fbi is doing everyday. We can make you stronger in the face of a lot of threats. Youll be asked about the fbis role in the monitor is asian of many religious organizations. This was caused by another hurricane. We have concerns within the world. We are going to move forward. You will be asked some tough questions. I appreciate you being here today. Mr. Chairman, one thing that i will be talking about, among the list of threats, is a broken board. Since president joe biden, has taken off this week , six point million counters are here for the illegal aliens at the southern border. That is larger than 33 states. We are on pace the last seven days, averaging about 9500 a day. Play that out. We are looking at 3. 4 million this year. This is at that rate. That puts us at 10 million. That doesnt count the guideways. We are negotiating how to help you correct. Count me in for helping ukraine as well. A robust package to help our allies. It makes sense to me. Upping the ability of taiwan to defend itself, it makes sense to me. Helping israel, makes all the sense in the world. Border security is the fourth plank of this supplemental action. We are widely apart. I appreciate the efforts. We made great progress on the side. The Democratic Party seems to be unwilling to address the problem. Parole. The statute is pretty clear. The secretary has the ability to call an individual. Supposed to be an individual. Based on a casebycase basis for urgent reasons. This includes significant public benefits. People have used that provision to your parole to over 240,000 people from four countries alone. Cuba, haiti, nicaragua, venezuela. It is not to be used in that fashion. Why are we at an impasse . President joe biden demonstration refuses to follow the law as written. They refuse to give up this concept of humanitarian parole, because it is their way of managing the border. Why are so many people doing this compared to before . The belief is, mr. Chairman, if you get to america, you have a good chance of never leaving. Catch and release is the policy. If you apply for asylum, this is way too low. You have been released in the United States. Your parole to the United States. You are running out of bed space. Democratic governors, and large blue cities, or complaining. You are not going to get a deal from the republican party. 9500 a day on average. There risking their lives. That is what we are trying to do. Clearly, as a party, you do not want to change the policies. This is attracting so many people. It is inhumane. We are luring people through this journey. It is exceedingly dangerous to have lost control of the border. Are they incompetent . Are they born this way . President joe biden demonstration is here. A lot of people wanted this way. We want to be able to have the ability to be using parole, humanitarian parole. As a tool, they are controlling the flow. They are not interested in turning the flow. On the side, there are some republicans that wont vote for ukraine. They are an instinct style minority. It is at least evenly divided. If we had another order security proposal as part of the supplemental, we are addressing the on National Security leads. Understand why we should help israel. We had to understand that we are not going to accept it. This is a National Security problem in the making. Governor abbott, has been on the tip of the spear. Now, moving to arizona, to make it real to senators who seemed to have checked make the policy changes. A lot of emigrants comes step right through right here. This is pretty much them being immune from the problem. Hundreds of thousands of people, or coming across. This is on the past border times. Fentanyl is at an alltime high in the country. A broken southern border, was made in china for the most part. We are never going to stop the flow of fentanyl until we regain control of our border. To those who have fallen within these negotiations, let me tell you where they are at. They are stuck. They are not Going Forward in a productive fashion until president joe bidens administration, is willing to change the policies that they are leading the last two days. In the last two days, these are the ones that we know about. These are the last seven days. Almost 9500 on average. 3. 6 million. There will be no deal. You can change the policies that lead to this problem. Im sorry. You shouldnt be too far for america. This is where we have lost control. s this is the division on ukraine. I think they would hit the Border Security. Some of the threats that the director would talk about. We are negotiating the border. There will be no deal, until the policy changes. These would lead to people not coming. This is inactive. That is where we are at. They are making small changes to a big problem. Its like selling guns to ukraine without any bullets. Come with it. We are playing another game. Doing the least amount possible. Trying to pick 10 or 12 of us off. I have been involved in this issue for 20 years. This is not about immigration reform. This is about securing a broken border. Is that a time where the threats to our nation are at an alltime high. It started with afghanistan. The world is on fire. Multiple fronts have been getting worse every day. There will be no assistance to other nations who are deserving until we assess our own nation. We are trying to pick 10 or 12 of them off. It is not going to work. We are divided on ukraine. Two thirds of our confidence is going to be with real Border Security. I know Border Security looks like. You are making a choice. This is going to be devastating to the world. Im trying to swear in the director. He has five minutes to declare an opening statement. Each will have seven minutes. Peas please stay within your five minutes. Do you affirm the testimony you are about to give to this committee might be true and of its true self . I do. Let the record reflect. Director has answered affirmative. I will not recognize it. In morning, chairman, and ranking members of the committee. They have the threats and the bureaus 38,000 men and women that the tackle everyday. We are continuing to work relentlessly to say ahead. This is for example. We have disrupted over 40 more cyber operations, and arrested over 60 more cyber criminals than the year before. They have 270 million people. That is about 80 of all americans. We are focused on other threats that have come through with the border. This is here at the same time. This calls for tax from the territory organizations. We are working around the clock. This is from hamas, including the horrific terrorist attacks in israel. We have seen an increase in hate crime investigations, including a particularly big chunk with the threats to the Jewish Community. We have been focused on this before october 7th. It has only gotten worse in the month since. I could go on about the important work that the fbi, and the dedicated professionals have done across the entire spectrum of threats each and every day to read protecting their fellow americans. This is indispensable to our efforts to combat threats proposed by foreign adversaries. One of these is going to inspire them in a few short weeks. We are making it outside of the United States. This is posing a threat to the National Security. Is the expiration of the 700 to authorities. We have the americans right here from those threats. Let me explain just a bit by what i mean by that. This is the overseas cyber criminal. This is in transportation of a public utility. We have even a Childrens Hospital. This is often little that we used defined victims, and get them what they need to get their systems back up and running. It helps us identify the next targets. They can defend themselves. We have recent cyber cases. Along the fbi to alert for the victims. We are trying to make this part here. Is coming to the foreign adversaries. These actions are across a whole host of threats. They are trying to seek to assassinate highlevel officials. They have side effects here in the United States. Peoples republic of china, poses in my review, a generational threat to our economic and National Security. Stripping the fbi at 700 to authorities. They have lateral discernment. They take the elevated threat of international terrorism. 700 to his key to our ability to detect a foreign adversary. A director operator to carry out an attack in our own backyard. It will allow us to identify the intended target. They are building out these things, so that they can start to get them. We have good stewards of our authority. We are trying to address unacceptable compliances. This is within our own lives and demonstrations from our systems from the fbi headquarters. We have no Accountability Measures. We have internal auditing. These are from the pfizer compliance. Most of the declassified performance are right here. They are involving compliance efforts. We are trying to look at this report. This is showing a 90 compliance rate. They are having another effect. There shall be a greater than 98 compliance rate. We are proud of the progress we have made so far. We are by no means done. We recognize that this is an ongoing effort, and are determined to work with congress to get it right. As we enter this critical phase of the renewal process, it is imperative that we do not undercut the effectiveness of this essential tool, with a warrant requirement, or some other restriction that would paralyze us and our ability to tackle fastmoving threats like the ones i just described. It is crucial to our ability to use this information to actually protect the americans. We are trying to look at this efficiently. To be clear, no court has ever held that a warrant is required for the fbi to query 702 data already lawfully in our holdings. Considered 702 in their reform. This is trying to be constitutional. Restricting the fbis ability to collect under 702, or review what is already in our collection, that would be a legislative policy choice. If that is the path that is chosen, what are we going to say to the family whose loved ones care and sabotaging the hospital was taken offline by a foreign adversary . The fbi was not able to stop that cyber attack. What is the justification for not using every lawful tool to stop china from stealing our technology, and undermining our freedoms . I can assure you, theyre not holding back. They are not tying their own hands behind her back. What if there was a terrorist attack that we had a shot to prevent, but couldnt take it because the fbi was deprived of its ability under 702, to actually look at Key Information already sitting in our Holding Cells . I was in fbi headquarters 22 years ago on 9 11. Over the years, i have spoken with families of victims of that horrific attack. Before that attack, well intentioned policymakers have made the choice to build a wall to prevent access to National Security information, sitting in our partners holdings. I bring that up, because allowing 700 to two amended in a way that undermines it and its effectiveness, would be akin to laying bricks, to rebuild another pre9 11 style walk. What could anybody possibly say to the victims families if there was another attack that we could have prevented, if we had given away the ability to effectively use a tool that courts have consistently deemed constitutional . Thats not for ourselves. That is what is at stake with the reauthorization of 702. As the threats from foreign necessaries, to our homeland, continue to evolve, the agility and effectiveness of 702 will be essential to the fbis ability, and the mandate from the American People to keep them safe for years to come. We owe it to them, to make sure we have the tools that we need to do that. Thank you for having me. I look forward to your questions. Thank you very much, director. I will start the question. Thank you for the visit yesterday to your headquarters, and the demonstration of true advancements, in terms of 702, to avert any concerns about constitutional issues. I still have some of those concerns, as you might expect. We are profiting an alternative to the current system. We think it is reasonable. We have an emergency exception, as it should. We have issues of grave National Security that cant wait even for the process to continue. When it came to victimization, we allow consent by the victim to go forward with collection of information. This is within those situations, as it should be. It since the enactment, the fbi has been required to obtain a court order for u. S. Person searches, in a narrow subset of cases, involving predicated, criminal investigations, unrelated to National Security. Has the fbi ever obtained a court order to perform u. S. Searches of 702 data in this context . To the best of my knowledge, we have not. Partly because that is not the way that we use 702. That is correct. The answer is zero. The director of National Intelligence, statistical transparency report for 2020, revealed that this requirement has been triggered approximately 100 times. Is that true . That, i cannot speak to that number. I think the report question may involve instances that it all record reported during these reforms. I appreciate your answer for the record. Let me take to another topic that has been discussed before this committee, and voted on in several different occasions. Child sexual abuse materials. Recently, the national association, is turning letters to congress and lawmakers, to discover the methods for intelligence. This includes ai. Being used to exploit children through a generation of child sexual abuse material. They described how ai can be used to create new images of children and sexual positions, otherwise overlaying photos of unvictimized photos on photos of abused children, to created read to put this in simple terms, i dont know of any parent or grandparent who is knowledgeable in this area who hasnt warned their children, grandchildren, to please be careful what you communicate with on the internet. You have highlighted the fuse work to prioritize everything. We know that the proliferation is here on the darknet. Can you elaborate what the fbi is doing to disrupt technologies . Is this used to exploit children . What obstacles are you facing related to this work . There is no mission set or threat that fbis minimum and tackled, that is more righteous and more at the heart of why we do what we do. I know that last year, we rested Something Like 3000 child predators. We have 2000 kids, from exploitation. This is what is happening heavily online. Often, it leads to what is even worse. This is the actual handson abuse. As you noted, certainly, technologies have continued to advance in a way that makes that threat even more actions. We ask about challenges. We have technology companies. That is what it means to everybody listening at home. Mrs. No matter how rock solid they are. You need them to protect those kids. Take down those monsters. The companies themselves are putting themselves through, to abuse the tablet on their own platforms. This is what we really need. The Companies Need to work with congress. And work with the executive branch and Law Enforcement, to design their encryption in a way that makes sure that they are looking to maintain the ability to respond to rock solid legal process. Why arent they cooperating with us . Why are these companies resistant with the effort to engage them in the problem . I cant speak for them in terms of their motivations. They are getting into the balances of privacy and security. That is a longstanding situation. What is the Privacy Concern right here . You got me. I will tell you, we are going to get from some of these companies, millions of tips that we have had historically. We are going into a model where those tipsters evaporate. The kids out here are still getting abuse. The predators are still out there. The only thing that has changed is our ability to do anything about it. This is how they are designing their encryption. This is a way for them to essentially do it again. I cant speak to their motivation. They are essentially blinding themselves to what is happening on the platforms, and indirectly, looking at us to put abilities of kids to go after the preferences. We are going to be bringing members of this community together. Next month, i hope that we can ask these questions directly. This is all about unanimously. When you at the different bills related to this issue. I thought that was going to be an avenue to get them to the floor. We are trying to pursue this issue. Despite the overall actions. Theres very little evidence of that. Pick up on that really quickly. Do you believe the social Media Systems are presenting dangers from the American Events . Sure. I dont know where to begin, looking at now being a good time to fund inflation. Just say no. No grade i was about to say no. If you want to. Leading the witness . That was dumb, giving what you told us. How long have you been associated with the fbi . Ive been working with the fbi my whole career. And we look at the matrix against America Today from your point of view . What is unique about the environment. s this could have been higher youre there, compared to where we have it going right now. So many of the threats are all elevated at the same time. They have local Law Enforcement and other partners every day. They make it even more important, not less. 9 11, the lights were blinking red. All of us missed it. Would you say that there have been multiple blinking red light . Okay. Couldnt say it any better than that. Who is driving all these problems . Of course, the worlds biggest state sponsor. Just in the last couple of years, if you want to bring it home, here to the homeland, they are trying to formally assassinate ambassadors on u. S. Soil. They have tried to kidnap and kill american journalists and human rights activists, right in the middle of new york city. Cyber attack on a Childrens Hospital in new england. For extra credit, as we announced in the fall 2020, tried to interfere in the last president ial election. That is just a start. Other than that, they have been pretty good. We found in the federal to kill 80 of American People. That is just in the last two years. Do you think we miss him . Absolutely. What role does china play in the federal problems that america has . I would start with china supplying most of the precursors to the cartels in mexico. This leads to the fennel that comes here. That has been talked about a fair amount. It is a huge problem. In addition to that, china is also responsible for an awful lot of prices, and the manufacturing. This is what they are also using. She in addition to that, we know china is also responsible for a lot of precursors for the method that has been manufactured south of the border as well. Unconscionable aggression in ukraine has russia with one of the most advanced, and widespreads offensive cyber programs in the world. They have used in different ways against us and our allies. They have Intelligence Officers here in the United States. Too many. There looking as safe havens to the cyber criminals, whether theyre working for the russian government or not. She there conducting Cyber Attacks against us and our allies over the world. We are looking at the International Terrorist organizations. These are one of my concerns. We are looking at threats to the homeland. s they have a heightened threat environment from foreign terrorist museums. They look at another ability to exploit another point of entry. These numbers are important. Let us not forget that it didnt take a big number. 9 11, killing 3000 people. Numbers dont tell the whole story. This is the last five years. This is from this topic. Right now, it is a much larger threat that we face in the nation. s this is from International Terrorist organizations. It was elevated before october 7th. You have seen another gallery. October the seventh was devastating. This was since october. It has all government. They have gone to a whole other level since october 7th. s okay, folks, you are on notice. What are we going to do about it . What should we be doing differently with all these bad actors . Do you have any idea quickly of what we can be doing different . Deterrence requires consequences. Consequences need to be imposed on bad actors. Theyre making sure that they are trying to disrupt without deterrence. This is often our time together, to go over old business. Is what we are doing today. Fbi agent, was looking at the two respects. This is from 200,000, from a foreign national. We are looking at sentencing from the crimes to which he pled coming up in february. Were looking at the new York Counterintelligence Division during a time that it was widely reported that new york fbi agents, and former new york u. S. Attorney, rudy giuliani, was pressuring the director, and the Hillary Clinton campaign. They were doing it damage. We know that they did that with press conferences that violated these rules and procedures. My experience, when somebody is in the presentencing mode of a criminal plea, this is a very good time to add cooperation from them. I dont know what happened in the new York Field Office during that period, but there is a very good chance that they do. I will put into the record, three letters. One is to the attorney merrier mayor general. Office of affairs of doj, back to me. Giving something of an answer to this. The third is a letter off of their website, reflecting the plea agreement between the Southern District of new york, and the attorneys for charles mcgonagle. At this point, what i asked in the letter, was somewhat independent from the fbi . Are they taking a look to see if there were fbi shenanigans during that period in that office . I have received no confirmation that anything is going on. The plea agreement reflects no signal or sign of cooperation. This is often a feature in plea agreements and sentencings. There is no assignment that they are looking to do, outside of the plea. I have been unable to determine whether or not the Inspector General is eyeballing this, to see if somebody independent from the fbi, someone in the department, should take a look. What you know about the status of this . Would it make sense . Would it not make sense . Let me put it that way, to have a look at what they know, to have a Placement Office at that time. This is while he is in this helpful position. Being subject to certain positioning. Counterintelligence division, looking at the people who identified mcgonagles wrongdoing, and pursued and arrested him. They are very focused on trying to determine in all the ways that you would imagine, if anything, we might have impacted through this misconduct. Thats one of them. I think the district of columbia as well, two cases. These include presentencing. His cooperation, if you will, could potentially be relevant. I can tell you that we are pretty careful about how we go about this. We have involved the Inspector General as well. The doj Inspector General, is looking at it. Lets go back to 702, for the moment. I understand they were originally designed for these intensive purposes. It has also been deployed against the international vent fentanyl tracking apparatus. They were trying to combat the international fentanyl tracking apparatus. This has been important. This is the fight against the scourge of fentanyl. More so, i would say, by our Intelligence Community partners. I would say for example, they are going to Work Overseas to pursue some of the foreign dimensions from the fentanyl crisis. Of course, then, has massive ramifications for them all over the United States. That is the success of 702 . It is. You also mentioned the role of 700 to reaching out to victims of crime, and potential foreign intelligence operations. Could you elaborate in our last minute together, more on the role of 700 to and supporting the governments role in letting americans and american companies, find out that they are the victims, or have been the victims of criminal intelligence attacks . Are they helping them work through these consequences as victims . In the short time that we have, i would say that 702, especially the ability to run queries on ip addresses, even with things like that, is statistically right now, the biggest place in which it is used. These are Cyber Attacks. They are overwhelming victims for the russian and ukrainian people. Including chinese and other Cyber Attacks. 702, allows us to figure out which company is being targeted. Maybe this is what the entry point is. This is where the bad guys are going. We are armed with that information. Rush out to these companies. They can take steps to mitigate it, before it is potentially worse. We can find that there are a lot of instances where companies who didnt even know that they have been breached yet, were that we did not have 702. They and we would have been unwieldy. If you could share with us some actual instances, like this question for the record, this includes us doing some scrubbing, to make sure that everyone is comfortable with this information being released. The more that we can know about actual ways in which individuals can be monetized, and they would be helped, they would receive these factual circumstances. That would be useful. Thanks, chairman. White house senator, tender grass . You said the richmond field office, and the catholic mammal, was part of the product being pulled by one field office. You testified before the house to the engagement committee. This was quote a single product with a single field office invoice. They say two other field offices with the fbi were involved. That information had been redacted. This was provided to the congress. Why did the fbi redact that critical information . Second, did you review the unredacted version before giving your previous decimal . Senator, the notion that other field offices were involved, is a garble. Let me explain what i mean by saying that. The only involvement of the two other field offices, included the richmond offers. This included two sentences, referencing each of these other offices in these cases. Those were the sentences about the other offices, and the cases to them. Did we describe your case correctly . These are all of the offices. It was a single field office product. Im standing by that. Did you review the unredacted memo before giving your previous testimony . I have reviewed it. Exactly when i reviewed it, i can sit here right now. In july of this year, this is now known as president joe bidens family 2023 fbi document. Ive also written several letters out the same. Most recently, october 2024. That letter that said the confidential human source was in president joe bidens family , and that it was not known for the sources of information, we had confidential human sources. They were also reportedly high paid, longterm, longrunning fbi source. This is what the fbi had huge investigating matters. This is according to former attorney generals. 1023, was deemed sufficiently credible for further investigation. May 31st of this year, the chairman had a call with you. President joe bidens 2023, is related to an ongoing investigative matter. Im very clear, we are looking at these points that are indicators of credibility. The question for you. This was serialized on june 30th, 2020. 20 years ago. This is when you are first made aware. , that i can give you the exact date. s i can tell you that i learned that the 1023 have this going much more recently. That is for sure. They were looking at this committee. This is what they knew about. Dont give us that information. I guess we go on. Do we have additional fbi generated 1023 documents that referenced another scheme . What are their dates . We are trying to look at the special councils. Respectfully, we are discussing everything related to that. This is audio action. s we have some sort of scheme. These are discrete documents that can be obtained from a highpaying, long use, federal confidential source. We have three different types of records that exist. Business involving an actual thing. We have different policies. If not, why not . I would expect people to do appropriate followup. Everyone says this is very fact specific. Did the fbi see the records in this matter . They have a few different things. This is from a special place. This is the assessment. We are looking at the field office from pittsburgh. The u. S. Field attorney as well, they have selected the attorney general, to look at all this. This is from what we are talking about. My understanding, that there was this agreement among the team. They were looking at that assessment. They are using the third party to do so about anything else related. They are looking at president joe bidens family. I want to go to the Sexual Misconduct. This is what we said at the bottom. We are looking at life spread, Sexual Misconduct. This is the data that also shows that we are looking at the fbi personnel. Avoid discipline. We are reducing the punishment, if any at all, the fbi told the associated press, that we intended to respond to all of this first. We are providing Sexual Misconduct to the press at that time. We are looking at the other misconduct. Women in the workplace have been here seriously. This is them trying to produce everything. This is the aggression that they were going to. We dont take it seriously. I can tell you, i take Sexual Misconduct against our own employees, extremely seriously. She this is still in the place of all procedures and policies, to do with that, and communicate no uncertain terms. We know how strongly i feel about that. In the responses to your letter, let me follow my team, and find out where that stands. Thank you, senator. Thank you very much. I want to start out with hate crimes. You and i have talked about them before. You and your agents, i thank you for your work in solving what was a clear hate crime. This is from the Islamic Center in my home state back in 2017. We know that since that time, we have seen increases in hate crimes. Reports show that 216 increases since october 7, have looked at requests for help from other incidents against muslims. We have other reports. Showing 380 rises in these antisomatic incidences, since this time last year. We know these facts. We know what happened in front of that restaurant in philadelphia. We know within illinois, a six yearold muslim boy was targeted and fatally stabbed for being palestinian american. In los angeles, a criminal broke into the home of a jewish family, threaten them, and screamed about killing them. Brown university, a students parents had to stay in the u. S. Rather than returning home for safety reasons. He shot two of his friends. In new york, a woman was assaulted at Grand Central terminal. When confronted, the assailant said because you are jewish. In brooklyn, a father and his 18yearold son, were allegedly assaulted another parent for palestinian. Three suspects have been arrested for ministry timelines on jewish new yorkers. This is concerning for everyone. Democrat, republican, jewish muslim, christian, anyone in this country. I know that you care about this very much. This is what your agents have done with in minnesota. I want to get more details on what the fbi is doing. The Justice Department is doing this. We are trying to deter and investigate these crimes. This is also the effect of social media. I have some strong views on this. Because of the attacks that occurred in your home state. We have seen an increase in hate crimes. There are different numbers out there, but i will just give two for this purpose. One was in 2022 we saw the highest increase of hate crimes reported since we have seen since maybe, 2008. We do not have full data for 2023 yet, but we expected to go up. Second data point, close to october 7th, just this october 7th, we have the 60 more hate crimes investigations compared to preoctober 7th, that is on top of that escalating increase. As i testified in my opening statement, the biggest chunk of those are threats against the Jewish Community. There are others as well. What are we doing about it . A few different things. We have elevated civil rights and hate crimes to a threat priority. That brings with it more investigative resources in all shapes and sizes. Second, we are trying to do a lot to engage in outreach with both Law Enforcement and the communities. One thing we know about hate crime is that they are chronically underreported. There are a lot of reasons for that. Trying to get better data this allows us to track the trend better and also assures that we are finding cases that need to be pursued. Even when a federal hate crime charge is not available, the fbi does not just walk away, we provide forensic reports, sometimes testimony and other things in state prosecutions. Those are a few of the things. In our outreach efforts i would say that we have also tried to do things that are targeted to specific communities. For example, in new york we tried to reach out to parts of the Jewish Community in new york with outreach both in yiddish and hebrew and not just english, for example. That is just a flavor. Thank you. I wanted to turn to fat no. We all know that there is so much work that has to be done at the border and so much work that has to be done at the ports of entry. We also know that one third of all drug cases have social media. We have a kid in minnesota who died after taking retinol laced pills that he thought was percocet to help his migraine, it was purchased on snap chat. The judiciary chitty committee voted with a bipartisan bill to require social Media Companies to report that no and other dangerous drug sales on the platforms. It is called the super data act. Can you talk about how this can be helpful in taking on these cases. I think what you put your finger on is the degree to which Online Activity is inexplicably intertwined with the fat no epidemic. That is a variety of ways. I know there are a number of initiatives focused on this as well. Certainly, on the fbi and, we are focused on dark net market places. We have a whole that is focused on dark net market places of fentanyl and other dangerous narcotics. Thank you. One other issue, you noted the importance of protecting kids. You noted that the fbi recently reported a massive increase in torsion cases where kids and teens are being forced into sending explicit photos and videos only to be blackmailed or threatened or financial gain in 22 alone these resulted in at least 20 victims committing suicide my bill, the shields act provides a broad provision and other things that will update and modernize our law when it comes to revenge and sextortion cases involving kids while we are advancing this bill. It has been opposed by some members of this committee i find it incredibly frustrating because they will not meet with me to make any changes and im trying to change that. What threat do young people how do you think we can make the tools that we have two take this on better. I am just going to go to the floor and take this on i know senator corbin has been helpful but it is ridiculous when you look at these numbers. I cannot speak to specific legislative proposals. I can tell you that it is a rapidly escalating threat. There have been way too many teenagers victimized and they do not know where to turn. Having this discussion in a form like this with people like you and the senator raising awareness that is helpful. I will come back to the answer that i gave earlier to chairman durbin about the threat of the proliferation of warrant proof encryption. If companies are going to take responsibility for what happens on the platforms and part of making responsibility includes the ability to when presented with a warrant, following all the due process that it entails, they will provide the information for Law Enforcement, not just fbi but other agencies to take action to rescue kids and takedown predators periods thank you. I will hold my remaining questions on carjacking. Thank you for your work. We cannot let it last. Senator cornyn. Director wray let me start with basic concepts. If you walk into the Supreme Court of the United States over the arches in the entryway are the words equal justice under law. I think there is a perception, unfortunately, that we are not living up to that ideal in a number of respects. Senator whitehouse mentioned the shameful treatment of Hillary Clinton. Somebody who i do not support from a political standpoint but was subjected to the release of derogatory information of an investigation that the director conducted involving her. The fact that he usurped the authority of the attorney general when it comes to charging decisions and made the statement he did i also think there is a perception that President Trump was not treated fairly during his time in office , particularly because of the opposition research, things like the steel dossier, the investigation, all of which ended up in basically amounting to no charges being filed. I want to just say, personally i appreciate your willingness to take on important tasks of restoring and rebuilding the reputation of the fbi. I believe the fbi is an indispensable institution in our government. It is also a big unwieldy institution. I think you have about 35,000 people who work at the fbi Something Like that periods closer to 38,000. 38,000. I am personally convinced that overwhelmingly these are good, patriotic, hardworking people who sacrifice and put themselves in harms way in order to protect the rest of america. Like any other Large Organization there are going to be bad apples. People who abuse trust and misbehave. Can you just take a minute and describe what steps you have undertaken at the fbi to try to restore the fbi reputation as an institution that the American People can trust to pursue equal justice under the law. I appreciate the question. Let me start with the statement of principle that i hold near and dear and then explain what it means. My message from day one and i have set every day since being in the job is that we need to make sure we are doing the right thing in the right way in everything we do. That means the importance of process and following the rules. That does not mean, sometimes this is frustrating to people of all shapes and stripes, that does not mean we can guarantee the result or the outcome that somebody would like in a case. How do i implement that principle . I have directed all sorts of changes in relation to the hurricane matter. In that one matter alone i directed over 40 corrective measures and went above and beyond anything that the Inspector General recommended and there have been dozens of changes since then. You mentioned the Hillary Clinton email matter. There as well i recommended all the recommendations by the Inspector General and then went above and beyond. In terms of personnel i have installed a new Leadership Team from when i started. As far as accountability, which is a topic important to a lot of people, within the pools that we have available to us, i have taken action. What can i do . I can in the right circumstances remove someone from the chain of command and i have. And i can, when circumstances support it, have someone security clearance revoked. I have. I can, when circumstances warrant refer someone to the Inspector General or the office of special counsel. I have. What i cant do is prosecute people. That gets to the heart is what you referenced at the beginning in terms of my predecessors handling of the Hillary Clinton matter. I am very sensitive to the fact that part of the reason i am in this job is because of the distinction between the fbi director role and the prosecutor role. A lot of the criticism that the fbi has endured over the last few years, if you look closely it evolves around frustration on whether this person was prosecuted or not, and what they were prosecuted for. That is not the fbi director or fbis choice. If i can ask you about 702. I referred to 702 as perhaps one of the most important laws that the American People have never heard of. I know we have talked a lot about it. There is concern that the tools including surveillance act 702 can be abused. And it can be used to target u. S. Citizens. Let me just ask directly, is it possible to lawfully target american citizens under section 702 . I think the socalled reverse targeting, targeting americans through the end run of 702 is prohibited. That is my understanding of the law as well. As a matter of fact, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is that, it targets foreigners outside of the United States. If a wouldbe terrorist calls an american citizen in the United States, you necessarily would know who is on both ends of the conversation, correct . Even if it is just electronic communication, which is more often we see it periods it can be an email or a text correct. If you want to investigate that american citizen, isnt it true that you have to go to be foreign Intelligence Surveillance court and demonstrate probable cause to conduct a further investigation of that american citizen . Yes. At that point that is the route that we would pursue which is part of why your comment at the beginning about how Little People have heard of 702, unlike the warren stage when you are pursuing someone for prosecution, 702 is most used and most useful at the stage when youre at the very beginning try to figure out what we have. What direction does this need to go, is it something we need to pursue. That is why people, including prosecutors do not hear about it much. It is most useful to protect american threats. You call it the crown jewel, or words to that effect. How would you describe the importance of 702 and what would be the consequences of willfully binding ourselves to the threats of foreign actors . I think blinding ourselves through either allowing 7022 labs or and bending it amending it would be reckless and dangerous at worst. The reality is the whole reason we have 702, focused on foreign threats overseas is to protect america from those threats. It is not to admire foreign threats from afar and study them and think about them. It is to know what they are in nature they do not hurt americans here, american victims targeted for assassination or terrorist attack. That is why we have it we are the only Intelligence Agency with the authority to operate domestically. Where the rubber meets the road , even though the percentage is quite narrow, that in some ways is the most important slice. That is what protects people here is all of us are sworn to protect. Thank you senator. Thank you. I look forward to continuing that conversation on section 702 , a topic which i have not made up my mind. I just want to start by thinking the men and women of the fbi for your service and protecting the rule of law and thinking the fbi for your work. In my committee you have worked with state and local prosecutors on civil Rights Violations, on bribery cyber stalking, kidnapping cases. As someone who had a decade responsible for local Law Enforcement before coming here, i greatly respect and appreciate the role that the fbi plays, the academy and the resources that you provide in wilmington, delaware and our whole country. Let me go to that 702 conversation. The proposal put forward by senators warren and rubio would prohibit the running of u. S. Inquiries designed to find evidence of crime without first obtaining a court order. It would still perform warrantless searches reasonably likely to retrieve foreign intelligence information. What you think of that . With it head off the negative consequences that you laid out if we fail to reauthorize section 702 . I think the bill put forward by senators warner and rubio provide a path that we can Work Together on. The reality is, having 702 information for evidence of a crime, or evidence of crime only is extremely rare. That is not the main purpose for which we use it. Many of the instances, the very few instances in which it has been implicated are instances where it was used to find information to turn over to the defense. It is the path that i think merits further exploration. I am aware of specific examples in my Home Community where fbi agents came and visited a company that was unaware that they had been hacked and they were able to take action because of that and i am familiar with the unique ways in which you complement some of the ability that we need to defend against foreign threats. You also highlighted in your testimony that there are significant appliance violations that you have dedicated to take action to lane house. Talk to me what about holding personal accountable for past misuse of data and how that has unfolded. In addition to a whole host of other reports we have put in place, we rolled out new Accountability Measures designed to make sure that we are capturing not just intentional or reckless compliance violations, of which there have been very you and none since 2018, but even, which has been the vast majority of the complaints we have had, even negligence or careless error. We want to make sure that we have accountability for that. Its a different kind of accountability because the state of mind of the employee is different or that of someone who is punctual. We have procedures for much more good faith noncompliance, they temporarily lose access and there are a whole host of training that goes with it and there are escalating consequences if they do not learn their lesson it builds from there. That is a short interval over simplification but that gives you an idea. The question that i have is the future administration or director might still be able to miss use authority. I have not previously voted to extend the authorization. The reforms proposed in this legislation and the actions have me waiting. What, if any extremes can you provide that this will hold if we were to authorize it, even if the bureau happen to be led by an appointee who does not share your commitment to reform . We have put in place a number of things that would be extremely challenging to unwind. I created a whole new office of auditing and brought in a former agent who had gone on to be a partner who wants to work with another firm to help us build what i expect to be a worldclass internal auditing program. In addition, there are external looks and oversights. Most of the problems that have been identified over the years have been identified by things like the department of justice reviews. Of course an inspection general review. That is part of why i understand why people might say, g, director, you talk a good game but we have had problems in the past and why should it be different this time . What i would say is dont take my word for it. Look at the court, the same court that has said in the past. That court, the same judge is the one that found 98 compliant and all sorts of language and opinion about the reforms having the impact we are looking for. Why is this time different . Because the court, the department and others are looking at this and they have not been shy about studying problems in the past and they found that. To other issues i will raise briefly. First, the urgency of the Nonprofit Program your testimony highlights anti semitic and antimuslim hate crimes have risen sharply in the United States following the hamas october 7th the tax. I think it is urgent we add several Million Dollars to the nonprofit security grant. I am hoping that my colleagues, many of them are part of the transform accountability act will recognize the huge way that globally circulated social media in the wake of october 7th and deserves a look at whether the algorithms on social media platforms promoted the content and whether it was targeted to certain groups. The last point i will make is your written testimony says that economic espionage and foreign intelligence gathering presents, and i think im quoting the greatest longterm threat to our nation in economic security. I could not agree more. I think it is critical that our response be coordinated. I am glad to run the fbi leading investigation for the doj and strikeforce and collaboration. I am urging our caucus leader to pick up and confirm the nominee for the enforcement coordinator. That position has been vacant for far too long. Director, thank you for being here. Thank you, senator. Thank you chairman sherman and thank you director for being here. A report was declassified in august 2021 that the directive National Intelligence did appoint fbi personnel and conducted multiple inquiries of an individual that has the same last name as the fbi personnel. On further investigation what they have learned was that this query was made after this at the fbi had a conversation with his own mother and his mother expressed concern about his father having an affair and cheating on her and having an affair with another woman. They looked into it and this particular analyst admitted that he ran the queries because of a tip from his mother that his dad was having an affair. I would appreciate if you give me a yes or no answer. Was that analyst im not sure i can recall the specific incident you are talking about so i would have to look at that. Do you know if the security clearance was revoked . Again, same answer, let me check into that. Let me ask it this way, yes or no. Would abuse of 702 by the fbi employee, would that be something that would warrant revocation of security clearance . Certainly. We would have to know what the circumstance is. Sometimes people use terms like abuse in this discussion and is something other than what i call abuse. That is why we have the accountability procedures. September 2023 report disclosed two intentional incidents intentional wrong searches from 2022, one from 2022 in which two analyst conducted queries speaking information about a person who is a potential tenant of a rental property owned by the analyst. And another from 2022 in which a and is a analyst conducted inquiries on two occasions picking up information about two individuals who the analyst met the rent Online Dating service. Were the fbi employees who conducted those illegal searches terminated . You lost me there. You referred to a and is a analyst . Yes. And is a analyst. Do know if anyone at the nsa was disciplined for that . And if they were at the fbi would they be subject for discipline . I do not want to get into hypotheticals, as for the nsa analyst that is a question for them. Was the fbi involved in that . If they had been with their security clearance been terminated . I do not want to get into hypotheticals. We have a disciplinary process which is separate from the security clearance process and somebody who engages in compliance violation of 702 it could be relevant to both. I would hope the answer would be yes they would be subject to having their authority stripped. In april of, the court noticed searches of american medication, 19,000 donors other particular Congressional Campaign there worse civil unrest and protest in the summer of 2020 and americans who were in the vicinity of the capital, not necessarily inside the capital but in the vicinity on january 6th, 2021. The dmi assessment on section 702 using only the name of the u. S. Congressman. The court disclosed two egregious searches on 2022 in june of 2022 and alice conducted four queries using the information and last names of the u. S. Senator and a statement without further limitation. On october 25th, 2022 the staff Operations Specialist ran a query using a Social Security number of a state judge who had quote, complained to fbi about alleged civil Rights Violations perpetrated by the Municipal Police of chief. The fbi employees who conducted those illegal searches or did they have their security stripped . I cannot speak to those specific instances, but what i can tell you and what is important is that all of the instances that you listed all involves conduct that occurred before the reforms before the reforms were in place, reforms we do not have access to. I have been on this committee for 13 years. During the entirety i have expressed concerns to fbi director appointed by both Political Parties and three different president ial administrations, everyone has said the same thing, dont worry about it we have it taken care of we have new procedures it will be different and its never different. You keep referring to these procedures. We have not seen that and we are not even allowed to have access to it and we have no reason to trust you because you have not behaved in a manner that is trustworthy. You cannot even tell me people intentionally knowingly deliberately violated the civil rights of american citizens and if they were fired or if they had their security clearance stripped. It was 2022, the fbi and other agencies searched American Communications over 200,000 times, 16 of which were evidence of the crime that returned information. Could you give a yes or no answer to these questions . With these inquiries consisting over 23,000 separate worries relating to the events of january 6th, were those evidence of the crime only queries ask yes or no . I do not know the answer. The answer is no. With 121 queries for the activists arrested in connection with the george floyd protest here in washington, d. C. Evidence of the crime only query create those were noncompliant queries and they all predate the reforms that we put in place. Of the reforms that the fbi directors have told me about every year. What about the query or the sitting member of congress . What about the query involving which for all we know could be any one of us the answer is no. What does that tell me . What i am hearing and what these point to is that a requirement for prohibition relating to evidence of a crime only query would not have been something that would have prevented the most egregious examples of the abuse that we have seen under section 702. The fbi is already required to obtain a court order in some circumstances in the context of 702. They are required for that. In 2018, how many times does that requirement triggered . Do you know . Are you talking about the so called ef2 yes. How is it triggered . Yes. I think there are two instances. Hundred three times. Out of those 103 identify times the fbi should have obtained a court order. How many times did the fbi obtain one . I do not know that answer. Zero. The fbi completely ignored the requirement. You have the audacity to come here and you told us that adding a warrant requirement to 702 even four queries involving u. S. Persons on u. S. Soil that it would amount to some sort of unilateral disarmament. You have a lot of gall. It is disgraceful. The Fourth Amendment requires more than that and you know it. I know every single time, for a century even prior to the founding of this country into the laws of the United Kingdom before we became a country even them then the government was making the argument you are today which is its too hard. Thats why we have a constitution and you must comply. Mr. Chairman, may i respond briefly . When you ask why are things different this time i would point you to the findings of the court and the department both of which have not been shy of identifying the same instances that was cited in the colloquy. They themselves have observed the effectiveness of the reform. That is why the preversus post data reform becomes very significant. That is number one. Second. As to your claims about constitutionality. I would point to the fact of what the caselaw shows which is no court has found 702 in the current form to be unconstitutional. And every court that looked at it has found it constitutional. How lucky for you no one knows when they are being surveilled. That is not an argument, sir. Last point, mr. Chairman, is that in some of the instances, you went through a number, and some of those instances that i know about, those are instances where the queries were run in order to get to a public official to warn them about foreign influences targeting them. We call those consent searches. Consent searches do not require a warrant, sir. You know that. There is nothing that you have done that is not entirely within the fbi control. You are asking me to believe something that is not believable because your agency has made it unbelievable and i refuse to accept it. Thank you, mr. Chairman. It is good to be here today. Thank you to you and thousands of fbi agents who are out there trying to keep us safe. I think we often fail to express our gratitude to Law Enforcement and i know how dedicated and hardworking they are. That is something that should go without saying. Mr. Director , i want to focus on the election interference which, in my view, is one of the most pressing important threats to our micro city. That buttons particularly the president ial election of 2024. There is a lot of talk about the dire effect, potentially of the outcome in 2024 and countries of china, russia, other foreign adversaries. I am not talking about hamas or terrorist organization, a state interfering in our election process to pick winners that are more favorable. There is no secret here, no mystery about who would be more favorable to vladimir putin, or to xi or ukraine or taiwan. I want to know if you view these as a potential threat in the coming president ial election. We are keenly focused on the risk that foreign adversaries, whether it is russia, china, iran or others would seek to interfere. You have set all threats are elevated. This one seems to be much more elevated than we have seen in any recent election. Am i right . I think it is fair to say they are elevated from where they were before. Obviously we saw and is not disputed that the russians try to interfere in the 2016 election and then continued. What we have seen since then is other adversaries attempting to take a page out of the russian playbook. That is why i point to the press conference that director radcliff and i did in the fall of 2020 about the iranian efforts to interfere in that election. More recently we had an indictment involving the Chinese Government attempting a very aggressive way to interfere on a particular congressional candidacy. First trying to dig up dirt on the candidate and when they could not find it they made up dirt. When they could not do that they were openly talking about how to inflict physical violence on the candidate that is a stark form of election interference. You are focusing on this problem as a urgent one for the United States of america, correct . Yes, sir. What can we do in congress to support this effort . What is our duty . Do you need more resources . It seems like our democracy is on the line. All of the speechmaking and all of the rhetoric goes to not if we lose our democracy because china, russia, iran, these nations hate and want to interfere with our elections. On the money side in terms of appropriations we are not in an environment where any threat are going backwards. They are all elevated and increasing. Now is not a time to go backwards in terms of funding of the fbi across Cyber Intelligence and a whole host of issues. We talked about 702. It is of course focused on foreign adversaries many of these are Intelligence Services and their ability to engage in malicious operations. That is why reauthorizing 702 in a form that can be used among a whole host of other foreign threats. There are now fifth circuit decisions, courts are making decisions that it would create additional obstacles to your enforcement. Are you concerned about the fact that you cannot communicate with social media to alert some . This is the subject of ongoing litigation. The findings of the lower court and that litigation are things that are hotly contested through the departments filings and as you know the department has asked the Supreme Court to not only say that injunction but serve and it has done both. I think this is important for people to know. It is not seriously disputed that are foreign adversaries have tried and are continuing to try to interfere in our election. It is not disputed that those foreign adversaries are using social media including u. S. Social media platforms as a part of that effort. Historically our work in this space has enjoyed widespread bipartisan support. President trump himself, rightly in 2018 or 19 issued an executive order on this subject calling it a national emergency. The Intelligence Committee and overwhelmingly bipartisan basis identified the same and called for more engagement with social Media Companies. The key is making sure it is done in the right way and thats what we are committed to do is focusing on the hidden hand of the foreign actor not on the content itself. Just so everyone is aware. Facebook announced, and i am quoting the brett of the federal government in the u. S. Has been and still live. That is a profoundly troubling change that threatens our National Security. The fbi and other Law Enforcement and intelligence agencies are in effect handicapped. They are straitjacket by this ruling and on that score and on so many other areas where election interference, it is not just imminent it is ongoing. It is real clear present ongoing threat to our democracy. I hope that my colleagues will heed your warning as expressed and understated terms. I think it is a profoundly important warning to the committee and to the country. Let me ask in the brief time that i have left the reising incident. I am equally disturbed, as are many of my colleagues, about freespeech has a place on campus. Intimidation of physical threats and violence do not. Do you think the leadership of the colleges and universities are doing enough to stop this violence . It is hard to paint with a broad brush. We are working more closely than ever with leadership universities to try to increase their awareness and their resolve on this subject. We now have campus liaison responsibilities assigned to a specific agent in every field office as a part of that effort. Certainly we have seen transnational repression from it occurring on campuses. Have you seen hamas . I would have to think about that. Thank you. Senator cruz. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Director wray welcome. As you know i am deeply concerned about the conduct of the department of justice and the fbi, circulate the last three years during the by the ministry. I think the department of justice has been politicized under attorney general merrick garland. I think the fbi has as well. Unfortunately i think you have been under willing to stand up to senior officials in the fbi who has allowed the fbi to be politicized. I regularly speak with fbi agents across the country who are unhappy about the integrity of the institution being weakened because doj is being treated as a political weapon. I want to talk in particular about the investigation and multiple allegations of corruption concerning hunter biden and joe biden. The department of justice has come i think from the outset, tried at every step to stop investigations of corruption from joe biden. As you are aware, a whats up text message was sent to a senior chinese, economists from hunter biden that reads as follows. Im sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why this has not been fulfilled. Tell the director i would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand. Now means tonight and if i get a call or text from anyone other than you, or the chairman i will make certain that the man sitting next to me and every person that he knows and my ability to hold a grudge that he will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father. Democrats and those in the media trying to defend the white house repeatedly say there is no direct evidence of joe bidens involvement in his sons corruption. This is a text that is direct evidence. It is stating it is his father who will retaliate. And irs whistleblower testified before the house of representatives that the natural step that he wanted to follow was to determine whether joe biden was sitting next to his father when this threat was made to extort millions of dollars. What the irs whistleblower testified is that when he tried to find out whether joe biden was sitting next to hunter, that the doj blocked getting the data on joe biden. Did the fbi try to ascertain where hunter biden was and where joe biden was . I think the questions that youre asking go to the Ongoing Investigation being led by special counsel weiss. I cannot discuss what is or isnt in the scope. There is testimony under oath from the irs whistleblower that you did not seek and you are right, david weiss the special prosecutor is in charge of it. It is david weiss and his underlings, according to the irs whistleblowers have alleged that they are the ones trying to stop the investigation. It allows the statue limitations to run on serious violations. Not only that, irs whistleblower testified on september 3rd assistant u. S. Attorney leslie wolf told investigators that despite having problems there is no way a search warrant would be approved when the evidence in question was located inside of Vice President bidens guesthouse. Is stated that it prevented such a search does the fbi make a routine practice of allowing partisan political optics to prevent investigating corruption . My instructions to my people on this and every other investigation is that we are to follow the facts where they lead no matter who likes it and no matter what political influence why did you on where hunter and joe biden were. With respect thats why it is not respect. Anytime youre asked the answer is its an Ongoing Investigation but of course it is ongoing you are not doing the work. Whistleblowers are pointing out youre not doing the work and youre hiding behind the perks of the attorney general. The whistleblower also testified that the attorney general when it came before congress go to the next chart came before congress and lied under oath to this attorney. I had pledged not to interfere with the hunter biden investigation and i carry through with that pledge. The irs whistleblower alleged the attorney general lied under oath. Was the attorney general telling the truth when he said this . Do we have the chart . Was the attorney general telling the truth when he pledged not to interfere . Again, i cannot speak to the attorney generals testimony. I can only tell you what my instructions have been. Has there been political interference in the investigation of hunter biden and joe biden. Not that i have experienced were the investigators allowed to investigate whether joe brian joe biden was complicit . There is an Ongoing Investigation i am asking about the corruption from doj . Were they allowed to investigate joe biden or is the whistleblower telling the truth that the doj said joe biden is off limits no questions about the big guy . As to what is in scope are not in scope with the Ongoing Investigation i would refer you to special counsel weiss. That is not me hiding behind anything that is a long standing policy you have a responsibility to the fbi. Not to allow it to be a partisan school and a partisan weapon. By the way the fbi has done nothing. I have not and i will not. Have you open an investigation as to whether the attorney general lied under oath . I am not going to go down that road. I know youre not. No one thinks that you have opened an investigation because you are not willing to. The amazing thing is you are simply sitting blindly by while allow it to be weaponized. You are damaging the fbi and you are damaging the department of justice. Let me ask you also, the whistleblower testified that investigators wanted to execute a search warrant on a storage unit used by hunter biden and instead they tipped off Hunter Bidens lawyer before the search warrant was carried out. Is it fbi practice to tip off the subject of the search warrant before the search warrant so they can remove evidence . What is difficult is when you are does the protective detail guard the storage unit . I cannot speak to that specifically why with the fbi tip off the subject of a search warrant about the storage unit that is going to be searched beforehand . Does that not undermine the essence of an investigation that the doj is reporting to undertake . Again, i cannot speak to the specific steps. Who is . Nobody answers these questions and thats why people are furious great if you do not believe the fbi is accountable to congress or the people brees your time is up. Director wray has requested a five minute recess. Five minutes. If my i might quickly respond and then go to break. Thank you. I understand why this is frustrating. I do. It is also the case that these policies that i am referring to about my inability to discuss Ongoing Investigations and certainly internal deliberations related to Ongoing Investigations are policies that have not only been in place for many years multiple administrations and both parties, but, in fact, these policies were strengthened under the last administration and that my predecessor was faulted in a fairly scathing Inspector Generals report for not following. You have an obligation to call it out