Transcripts For CSPAN3 FBI 20240705

Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of the government has used its power to silence the opposition. Opposition covid19 vaccine, opposite to the Lab Leak Theory of covid19. Opposition to the validity of the 2020 election. President bidens policies that the hunter biden laptop was true. And opposition to policies of the government officials in power. All were suppressed. It was quite telling that each example of category of suppress speech was conservative in nature. The court for the rights the United States government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian Ministry of truth. Specific to the fbi, the court said this. The fbis failure to alert social Media Companies that the biden laptop story was real, and not russian disinformation is particularly troubling. The fbi had the laptop in the possession since 2019, and had warned social Media Companies repeatedly for hack and dump operations from rugs from the russians. Even after facebook, specifically asked whether the laptop story was russia disinformation, the fbi refused to comment. Resulting in social Media Company suppression of the story, and as a result, millions, millions of our federal, fellow citizens did not hear the story prior to the november 3rd 2020 election. Additionally the fbi was included industry meetings, bilateral meetings, received and forwarded alleged misinformation from social Media Companies, and actually misled companies in regard to the laptop story. When the court says the fbi misled, that is a nice way of saying they lied. They lied, and as a result, in porn information was kept from we the people, days before the most important election we have, the election of president of the United States. Election of the commander in chief. The survey last fall, florida five americans said they believe theres a two tiered system of justice in america today. They said that because there is. They said that because of what theyve witnessed. Think about what americans have seen, National School Board Association, leftwing political group, writes the white house and awesome to treat parents as, at School Board Meetings as terrorists. And the Garland Justice Department does just that. They put together a memo, they set up a dedicated line of threat communication, a snitch line on parents as a result, parents have been investigated by our fbi get a threat tag associated with their name. 25 of them. Whistleblowers came and told us were investigated by the federal bureau of investigation. Americans have seen the Fbis Richmond field office put together a memorandum saying prolife catholics are extremists. Theyve seen 20 fbi agents, swat team members show up at homes of mark hulk, and invest him in front of, arrest him in front of his wife and seven children. Even though hed indicated hed be happy to turn himself in. What was he arrested for . Kevins 12yearold son were praying outside of an abortion facility. Some guys started screaming and his sons face, and he did what frankly any dad would do, he defended his child. Whats interesting is the National School School Board Association apologized for the letter, but the attorney general refuses to rescind his directive. The fbi did rescind, thank goodness, to Richmond Catholic. They refused to Tell Congress who wrote it, and who approved it. And mr. Houck, mr. Houck, when he got his day in court, he was acquitted by a jury of his peers. American speeches censored, catholics are called radicals, and i havent even talked about the spying that took place on the president ial campaign, the rating of a former president s home. Maybe whats more frightening is what happens if you come forward and Tell Congress. Your whistleblower, come tell the legislature, come tell the congress whats going on. And look out. You will be retaliated against. Ask erin oboyle. He told congress about these issues, he took his clearance, they took his pay. They took his kids nate close. Ask gary shabbily, 14 year veteran at the irs, handled some of the Biggest International tax fraud cases at the agency. He comes forward, and the Justice Department kicks him off of the case. Heres whats truly unbelievable, heres whats amazing, with all that history, with all that, the Justice Department, the fbi, they want the taxpayers they sense, the parents a label, the prolife catholics they call radical, they want them to pay for a new fbi headquarters. And they want pfizer reauthorization of the 702 program and its current form. Its in the directors Opening Statement. You cant make the stuff up. There are 204,000 reasons why republicans will oppose pfizer reauthorization its current form. 204,000 times the fbi improperly searched the 702 database. Unlike the fbi censorship, and the courts opinion, that was focused on conservatives, the fbis illegal scrutiny wasnt just limited to conservatives. Blm supporters were illegally scrutinized by the fbi as well. And i hope our Democrat Friends will join us in opposing reauthorization of section 702 the way its currently done. And i think they will. And i hope, and i hope they will work with us in the appropriations process to stop the weaponization of the government against the American People, and end this double standard that exist now in our Justice System. That i yield to the gentleman from new york for Opening Statement. Mister chairman, not that long ago, and oversight hearing of the fbi and this committee would have been a relatively bipartisan exercise. My colleagues on both sides of the aisle wouldve asked legitimate questions about the functioning and mission of the bureau. Some of the questions may have been tough. They may have gotten a little heated when we discuss important topics, like privacy and discrimination. But our questioning would have been grounded in advancing overseeing the fbis dual missions of enforcing federal laws, and countering National Security threats on american soil. In short, despite its despite disagreements, we wouldve done our duty as members of the judiciary community. Today, unfortunately House Republicans will fall short of that mark. For them, this hearing is a little more than performance art. It is an elaborate show designed with only two purposes in mind. To protect donald trump from the consequences of his actions, and to return him to the white house in the next election. Dont take my word for it, chairman jordan announced this plan last august. Days after the fbi search of maralago, he told an audience at cpac, the conservative Political Action conference, that was designed to quote, help frame up the 2024 race. And i hope that President Trump is going to run again. In short, we need to make sure that he wins. Let me repeat that. We need to make sure that he winds. In pursuit of this goal, chairman jordan and Committee Republicans have claimed four months that the fbi is corrupt, rotten, politicized, and their favorite word, weaponize against American People. Chairman jordan has launched an array of baseless investigations into the fbi. Most promise on absurd conspiracy theorists. Some so absurd that the chairman cannot possibly believe them to be true. This is where the extreme lack of leadership of congress has brought us today. Today House Republicans will attack the fbi for having had the audacity to treat donald trump like any other citizen. The strategy is simple really, when in doubt, chairman jordan investigates the investigators. The fbi dared to hold trump accountable, so republicans must discredit the fbi at all costs. You will hear claims today that the fbis decision to investigate donald trump was somehow unfair. You will hear, you will hear republicans attack the indictment, former President Trump on 37 counts related to his gross mishandling of National Security information. Including information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries. United states nuclear programs, potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies of military attack, and plans to possible retaliation in response to foreign attack. The fact is made clear in the indictment. He had authorized disclosure of these classified documents, and they are put at risk at the National Security of the United States foreign relations, the safety of our military, and the human sourcesing collection close quote. Indeed, the diamond goes on to describe how the former president made such unauthorized disclosures. With him boasting about, and showing his classified documents to numerous individuals, without proper security clearance. You hear claims today that this indictment against trump was unfair. Maybe even that it was unlawful. That the fbi shouldve just asked the trump trump a little more nicely, one more time, to hand over the documents. You will hear the case was a political investigation from the start. Orchestrated by a liberal loving fbi, that would ensure trump would be wrongfully vilified at every turn. These claims of course are completely untethered from evidence. Even if you believe as chairman jordan claims, that President Trump has committed no crime, surely we can agree that it is dangerous, and profoundly irresponsible to have taken these documents from the white house and left them unsecured in maralago. Again, dont take just my word for it. Trumps secretary defense, mark esper, said that the former president s handling of this information risk u. S. Service lives and put our National Security at risk. Trump handpicked attorney general, bill barr, with whom i agree very little, hit the nail on the head when he described the former president s legal troubles as quote, entirely of his own making. He had no right to those documents. The government tried for over a year quietly, with respect to get them back. And he jerked them around. When he faced a subpoena, he didnt raise any legal arguments, he engaged in the course of deceitful conduct. There was a clear crime. The former president could have, at any time, for months, simply return the documents, and avoid prosecution. The House Republicans did not want to talk about any of that. They seem incapable of assigning any agency or responsibility to donald trump for problems that are trumps, and trump alone. You may hear today about a man named stephen dantuono, former agent responsible for the Washington Field office. Last month, Committee Republicans brought him in for an interview, shortly after that. Chairman jordan released the letter reporting to describe mr. Dantuono testimony. In fact, the summary of mr. Dantuono words are a vast mischaracterization of what he actually said. Heres just one example. Chairman jordan has claimed that mr. Dantuono said he had quote, no idea, unquote, why the maralago investigation was run out of the faas Washington Field office, instead of the miami field office. What the chairman hides is that seconds later, mr. Dantuono explain that quote, then he was here, in washington d. C. , for the classified documents. That it was quote. Not out of the ordinary for washington to be League Office running the investigation. They said that Washington Heights quote, the most experienced and knowledge and working public corruption cases, and are, quote the experts in classified document investigations. Mr. Jordan did not share the full record with the American Public. Because it does not fit his chosen narrative. My staff has worked of a minimally redacted version of mr. Dantuonos full testimony release. We urge you to read the words for yourself in their entirety. When you compare his actual words to mr. Jordans characterization, youll understand why feeling this hearing room has become a theater. Frankly, that goes for many things that we will hear from republicans today. You can expect to hear that the fbi is retaliating against its conservative employees, and has a deepseated conspiracy to support liberal candidates and ideology. These claims are based on the words of several individuals. People republicans are somewhat laughably calling, whistleblowers. In fact, evidence shows that these individuals were suspended for violating serious fbi policies. One provided an unauthorized interview to russian state owned media. Another leak information about an Ongoing Investigation, placing fbi agents and witnesses at risk. And another said that he wanted to use a senior fbi official as quote, target practice. Chairman jordan invites some of these socalled whistleblowers to testify before the weaponization subcommittee in may. As it turns out, two of the witnesses were ultimately pay 250,000 each for their testimony. Money raised in part by former trump aide patel, paid via truck a check whose memo line reads, holding the line. And yet, republicans today will try and claim it was the fbi, and not these witnesses who are somehow corrupt. Republicans today will mostly attack President Biden, starting with the irs investigation into hunter biden. They will ignore the fact that u. S. Attorney david weiss had the authority to bring charges in any district he saw fit, it was able to operate fully free of interference. They did not want to acknowledge that despite years of investigations, President Biden has not been found to engage in any wrongdoing. Instead of trying him into that hunter biden would have been charged with far more serious crimes had it not been for u. S. Attorney weiss being blocked by the biden political machine. Once again, when they do not like the outcome, they investigate the investigators, and work to discredit the outcome. Republicans will make false claims about the fbis Foreign Influence Task force. Claiming that it is somehow censoring conservative. In fact, the task force plays a key role in making sure russia, iran, and other foreign entities do not again interfere in our elections. According to Committee Republicans, task forces efforts to track and prevent foreign influence operations mounts to a tax and conservative speech. A nonsensical claim considering the Foreign Influence Task force has nothing to do with censoring American Free speech, and in fact helps ensure american voices are heard by stopping russian troll farms. Make no mistake, making these claims, republicans of all but thrown out the red carpet, and begged russia to once again interfere in our elections. Because they believe that doing so will get trump reelected in 2024. That is the goal of republicans today. Republican claims that the fbi has been weaponized, their personal attacks on director wray, theyre repeated funds to defund the fbi. They are calling Anti Government extremists, and that call is heard. Last year director wray faced multiple death threats. Fbi employees faced more threats in the months after the maralago search than they had in the year before. The problem has gotten so bad the fbi has had to stand up an entire new unit dedicated to combatting threats to fbi agents and staff. It is far past time that republicans realized the consequences of their actions. Republicans may want to downplay trumps behavior, and blame the fbi for his downfall. But no matter what they say, trump wrist the safety and security of the United States to remove those documents from the white house. And he lied to the government instead of returning them. Donald trump must be held accountable, and attempts to shield over the consequences of his own actions are both transparent, and despicable. Ultimately, no matter how many times republicans attack director wray or the fbi, or the investigation at maralago, i trust in the rule of law. Mr. Trump will have his day in court, i believe the system will hold him accountable. And i thank the men and women of the fbi who helped bring classified information to safety, and protected National Security of our nation. Thank you for being here today director wray i hope your agents will not be disheartened by what they hear today, and they will continue this kind of work essential to the safety of our nation. We think that chairman, i yield back. Gentleman yields back. For the current record, the pronunciation of the Washington Field office is dantuono, something the Ranking Member might have known if hed actually showed up at the deposition like i did. With that we, without objection, all Opening Statements will be included in the record. We will now introduce todays witnesses. The honorable Christopher Wray has been the director of the fbi since 2017. He previously served as the assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division of the department of justice, the Principal Association and associate deputy general, an assistant u. S. Attorney for the Northern District of jerne georgia. Director wray has also worked in private practice, we welcome our witness, and we thank him for appearing today. We will begin by swearing you in, director, would you print leaves rise, raise your right hand. You have done this before. Do you swear that the testimony youre about to give is true, correct, to the best of your knowledge and information, and beliefs, so help you god . I do. Let the record show the witness answered in the affirmative. Please know they are written testimony will be entered into the record in its entirety. We ask you to summarize your testimony in five minutes. Well give you a few extra minutes if youd like. You know how this works, theres five minutes of questioning. My guess is that every member will have questions for you. Again, thank you for being here director. You are recognized for your Opening Statement. Thank you, good morning, chairman jordan, ranking men lawyer member nadler. In the time that i have before we get to your questions, i want to talk about the sheer breadth and impact of the work the fbis 38,000 employees are doing every day. Because the work, the men and women of the fbi do to protect the American People goes way beyond the one or two investigations that seem to capture all the headlines. Take violent crime. Last year alone, working shoulder to shoulder with our partners at state and local Law Enforcement, the fbi arrested more than 20,000 violent criminals and child predators. Thats an average of almost 60 bad guys taken off the streets per day,. Every day. Or our work going after the cartels, who are exploiting our southwest border to traffic fentanyl, and other dangerous drugs into communities nationwide. The fbis is running well over 300 investigations targeting the leadership of those cartels. And were working with our partners. We have already seized hundreds of kilograms of federal this year alone. This has stopped deadly drugs from reaching their intended destinations in states all over the country, and saving countless american lives. Or the thousands of active investigations we now have into the Chinese Governments efforts to steal our most priceless secrets. To rob our businesses of their ideas and innovation, and suppress freedom of speech right here in the United States. And that is just scratching the surface. The men and women of the fbi worked tirelessly every day to protect the American People from what is really a staggering array of threats. And we dont do that work alone. The fbi now leads more than 750 task forces nationwide. Made up of more than 6000 state and local task force officers, or t foes as we call them, for more than 1800 different state and local agencies. Each of those tsos represents an officer, a deputy, or an investigator that a local police chief, sheriff, or state superintendent was willing to spend send our way. Certainly not because they didnt have enough work to do in their own department, but because they saw the tremendous value that our fbi led task forces bring. And we are honored, and humbled by their trust in us. And were grateful for their partnership. But the numbers dont tell the whole story. To truly appreciate the impact the fbi and our partners are having, you have to look at the cases. Just last month for instance, the fbi charged 31 members of two Drug Trafficking organizations responsible for distributing dangerous drugs like fentanyl, cocaine, and methamphetamine throughout the area around marion, ohio. And that one investigation, run out of the fbis two offices in mansfield, we worked with partners from multiple local Police Departments and sheriffs offices to take kilos of fentanyl off of the street. Enough lethal doses i should add to kill the entire population of columbus, cleveland, and cincinnati combined. Its a great example of how even a small office, with a small personnel footprint, the fbi is working big cases hand in hand with local and state partners to have an impact in our communities. The fbi has thousands of employees working scores of investigations like that all over the country, to protect the American People. Those men and women, who choose to dedicate their careers, their lives really, to this kind of work, and fulfilling the fbi mission, their inspiring. At a time that so many other Law Enforcement agencies have had a difficult time with recruiting, and retention, the bureau continues to attract applicants in near record numbers. In fact, after the first couple years of my tenure, the number of americans applying to be special agents tripled the pace from when i started. Reaching the highest levels in about a decade. At the same time, inside the fbi are special agent attrition has remained in low, single digits, and it would be the envy of almost any employer. Even with these bigger numbers, the folks who are continuing to add, they continue to be topnotch. The percentage of both veterans and special agent hires with prior Law Enforcement experience has remained a study as ever, 25 and 30 . Add to that in a job market where applicants have a whole lot of other opportunities, the percentage of those new agent trainees that also have advanced degrees is up. It now approaches about 50 of every class at quantico. But the thing that unites them all is a commitment to public service. A willingness to put others above themselves. And that is true from the bottom of the organization to the top. Since becoming director, i have worked hard to assemble in cultivate a Leadership Team that embodies those values and characteristics. Its a team that i purposefully chose because they walk the walk out in the field. Just taking our top eight leaders as an example, they all came to the bureau as line agents. Theyve worked in 21 different field offices, and have a combined 130 years of field experience. They include a west point grad, veterans of the army, air force, and marines. As well as a former police officer, state trooper. And not a single one is a political appointee. Not one. Todays fbi leaders reflect the best of our organization. An organization that is made up of 38,000 men and women who are patriots, professionals, and dedicated Public Servants. And that is the real fbi. I have now visited every single one of our 56 field offices twice. Some of them more than twice. I speak constantly with local chiefs and sheriffs from all 50 states who work closely with us every day. With judges, coast to coast, who see and hear our work up close. With Business Leaders who turn to us for help with cyberattacks, and chinese economic espionage. With victims and their families people who we protect from gangs, and predators. And the fbi they tell me about consistently, almost resoundingly, is the same fbi that i see. An fbi that is respected, appreciated, trusted, and that is there for them when they need us the most. That is the fbi that inspires me, and that i am proud to be here today to represent. We thank you, will not proceed the five minute rule with questions. The chair recognizes the man from louisiana, mr. Johnson. Director wray, this is no time to mince words. The American People have lost faith in the fbi. All of our constituents are demanding that we get the situation under control. We have to do that. Its our responsibility. This is not a Political Party issue sir. This is about whether the very system of justice in our country can be trusted anymore. Without that, no republican survive. The American People that we represent are losing count of the scandals that are mounting. The fbi has been involved, theyve seen evidence that is being used as a Political Tool by the Biden Administration. Theyve seen counterterrorism resources being used against school parents, the homes of political appointments being rated. Theyve seen conservative states being targeted and prolife citizens characterized as violent extremists. Just last month, as you know, special former, former special counsel john durham sat in that seat and testified that the Justice Department and the fbi should never have launched the bogus trump russian investigation. His lengthy report reluctantly concluded that the fbi quote, failed to uphold its mission of strict fidelity to the law. Just last week, nbc had a poll, only 35 now view the fbi positively. 35 had a negative view. In 2015, 52 had a positive view of the fbi. There is a serious decline of peoples faith, its on your watch sir. And then, july 4th, we had this explosive, explosive, hundred and 55page opinion from a federal court in my home state of louisiana. It directly says that the fbi has been directly involved in what the court says is a arguably, the most massive attack in American Free speech. Among others to immediately cease colluding with, and coercing social Media Companies to suppress american speech. Of course, conservative speech in particular. Director wray, i find stunning, youve made no mention of this Court Opinion either in your Opening Statement today, or in this lengthy 14 page report that youd prepared on july 12th, eight days after the court ruling. Have you read the rulings are . I am familiar with the ruling, and ive reviewed it with our officer general counsel. Are you deeply disturbed by what they told you about the rolling if you havent read it yourself . Obviously were going to comply with the court order, the courts preliminary injunction. We set out guidance to field and headquarters about how to do that. Needless to say, the injunction itself is the subject of ongoing litigation. I will declined to comment further on that. Let me tell you what the court concluded, it should be the first thing you think about every morning, in the last thing you think about at night. They said that quote, the court found apparently the fbi engaged in a massive effort to suppress just favorable conservative speech, and lately ignore the first known right of free speech. It shows that the fbi threatened that they did not comply with its censorship request. The court found that quote, this seemingly unrelenting pressure by the fbi had the intended result of suppressing millions of protected free speech postings by american citizens. As a result, the court states for example, millions of citizens did not hear about the hunter biden laptop story prior to the november 3rd 2020 election. Page four of the court ruling with some of the important subjects of the Biden Administration and fbi, forcing social media platforms to. The evidence shows you, your agents, the people that directly report to you, suppressed conservativeleaning free speech about topics like laptops, the Lab Leak Theory of covid19s origin, the effectiveness of masks, covid19 lockdowns, in security of voting by mail, even parity about the president himself. A negative post about the economy. The fbi made the social media platforms pull that information off the internet if it came from conservative sources. They did this under the guise that it was disinformation. Can you define what disinformation is . When i can tell you is that our focus is not on disinformation broadly speaking. Well wait a minute, yes it is. Can i answer the question . You can animate. Your star witness said in litigation, elvis chan, whos in charge of this, said they do it on the basis of disinformation. We need a definition of what that is. Our focus is on foreign disinformation. That is foreign hostile actors who engage in covert who use our social media platforms that is something you not seriously in dispute i have to stop you for time. Thats not accurate. You need to read the Court Opinion because youre in charge of enforcing it. The court has found that, elvis chan testified under oath in regard to this. He said 50 , he had a 50 success rate and having an alleged election misinformation taking down or censored. That wasnt just foreign adversary sir, that was american citizens. How do you answer for that . First off, im not sure it comes right of the opinion, you should read it. His testimony but what it will, say the fbi is on the business of monitoring content, or causing any social Media Company to suppress or sensor. That is not what the court has found. What i will also say is among the things that you listed off, i find it ironic the reference to the Lab Leak Theory. The idea that the fbi would somehow be involved in suppressing references to a loudly theory is somewhat absurd when you consider the fact that the fbi was the only, the only agency in the entire Intelligence Community to reach the assessment that it was more likely than not that that was the explanation. Of the pandemic. But your agents your ages pulled off the interview sir. Thats what the evidence in the court has found. Times of the gentleman has expired. Gentleman from new york. Director right. House republicans have attacked the execution of the search warrant of maralago last august as a quote, unprecedented rate. Would you consider the execution of the search warrant at maralago a raid . I would not call it a raid. I would call it the execution of a lawful search. Can you describe how the search was executed . Well, we had the case team follow its standard procedure. It has sometimes been described as the swat operation, it was, not there was no swat involvement. But beyond that, i think i want to be really careful with getting too far into the details, now that this case is not only in the hands of the special counsel, but more importantly, in my view, in front of the court. I learned a long time ago as a line prosecutor, and defense lawyer to respect the court process. We are particular steps taken to ensure the execution of a search warrant did not draw undue attention . I think there were steps along those lines, yes or. Can you name a couple of them . Among other things, we did not have people coming in so called, raid jackets, which is often something you would see. In other words the fbi agents wore plainclothes as to not attract undue attention. The fbi waited until trump had left maralago to execute the search. Is that correct . Yes. And chairman jordan has attacked the doj and the fbi, not attempting to get the documents back from trump consensually before turning to a search warrant. I want to walk through all of the opportunities trump had to produce these documents, and have a series of yesterday questions. The National Archives, also known as nehra, asked trump to return all documents them in may 2021. Correct . I dont remember the date, but i remember there was a request by the National Archives. And then throughout 2021, they made repeated followup requests, but still trump denied to comply, correct . Yes, i would refer you to the pleadings that laid out better details and i can give. In fact, it was not until january 2022, after they warn trump that failing to return documents could violate the president ial records act that trump finally produced 15 boxes of documents to it, correct . Again, i would just refer to our Court Filings, which go into great detail about all this. Even these 15 boxes did not return all the documents trump was required to return . Thats my route collection, but again ill refer and may 2022, a grand jury had to subpoena trump for the missing documents, correct . Same answer. And trump assad present on june 3rd, when his attorneys handed over another folder of documents, it is certification that all classified material had been returned, correct . Again, i just want to stick with whats in the Court Filings. That sounds right to me, but i really want to be careful to stay within the corners. The certification was false, right . Even then trump had not returned all classified material, correct . And thats part of the indictment. He had additional documents hiding in his bathroom and storage units, et cetera, yes . Again, i think is part of the indictment. Finally the fbi were required to obtain a search warrant to obtain classified documents and had not been retained, correct . Same answer. The documents retrieved during that search included 69 marked confidential, 98 secret, and 30 top secret, is that correct . Same answer. So to sum up, President Trump, had many, many chances to voluntarily comply with the fbi dojs request. It said he made the choice to keep these highly classified defense and National Security documents. Apparently because he wanted a souvenir. I find myself in the strange position of agree with former attachable, former attorney general bill barrs statement, that trump brought on himself. And i would add that its absurd House Republicans are attacking the fbi and doj for doing their job, ensuring that no person is above the law. I yield back. The gentleman yields back, the gentleman from kentucky is recognized for five minutes. I think the chairman. Director wray, in light of information provided to us about the fbis investigation of the january six pipe bomb, it interview with assistant director stephen dantuono, senator jordan i sent you a letter a month ago. Some of the information that we found in that interview was that phone data that could have helped to identify the pipe bomber was corrupted. It was unusable. He also wasnt sure who found, or how the second bomb was found at the dnc. Do you know how the second bomb was found at the dnc . And when do you plan on answering our letter . As to the letter, all worked with the department to make sure we can figure out what information we can provide. As you know, this is a very active, Ongoing Investigation, there are some restrictions on that. Yes, we can handle classified information. We find your department, so you need to provide that. Its not, respectfully, is not an issue of classification. Its an issue of commenting on ongoing criminal investigations, which is something that by Longstanding Department policy, we are restricted in doing. In fact the last administration actually strengthen those policies, partly thats not our policy though. And we find. You so lets move on. Do you know how the second pipe bomb can you tell us how the second pipe bomb was found at the dnc . Again, im not getting into that here. 900 days ago is when this happened. You said you had total confidence wed apprehend a subject. Weve found video that looks like somebody, a passerby, miraculously found this pipe bomb at the dnc, and then notified the police. Miraculously i say because it was in specifically the same, the precise time to cause a maximum distraction from the events going on at the capitol. Can you show this video that we have plays . I would like to know if the director has seen this. This is somebody with a mask on, wearing a hat. Youre walking in front of the dnc, which is out of you on the righthand side. We see him come into view. He goes to one police car, another police car. Hes holding a backpack, he has a mask on, hes talking to the police, and within a minute they start scrambling. You see the care return to the pipe bomb at the location of the pie bomb. By the way, i believe thats a Metro Police Officer not getting out of the car, and thats Vice President elect detail in the black suv park 30 feet from the pipe bomb, eating lunch. Okay now we go over to the location of the pipe bomb. Cameras are scrambling. It appears to be thats not a coincidence. A person with a backpack who walked by the bench and went to police and detail didnt do that accidentally. He had a purpose in mind, and what transpired after that was a result of information that persecuted him. If that person found the pie bomb, they beat a suspect . Again, i dont to speculate about specific individuals. Ill tell you weve done thousands of interviews, if you had Something Like 40,000 video files, of which this is one, weve assessed 500 something taps. Have you interviewed that person . We have conducted all logical investigative steps, and interviewed all logical individuals at this point. Then you need to tell us what you found. Because were finding stuff that you havent released to the public. And in my remaining minute, i want to return to another issue. George hill, former fbi supervisor and Intelligence Analyst in the Boston Field Office told us that the bank of america, with no Legal Process gave to the fbi gun purchase records with no geographical boundaries, for anybody that was the bank of america customer. Is that true . Well, when i do know is that the, a number of Business Community partners, all the time, including financial institutions, share information with us about possible criminal activity. My understanding is that fully lawful. Did you video in this specific incident that youre asking about, my understanding is that that information was shared with field offices for information only. But then recalled to avoid even the appearance of any kind of overreach. But my understanding is that is a fully lawful process. Was there worn involved . Again, my understanding is that the institution in question shared information with us, as happens all the time did you request the information . I cant speak to the specifics. Okay, we have an email where it says the fbi did give search quarries to the bank of america. And make of america responded to the fbi, and gave over this information without a search warrant. Do you believe theres any limitation on your ability to obtain gun purchase data, or purchase information for people who arent suspects from banks without a warrant . One out youre asking a legal question, which i would prefer to defer to lawyers, since im not practicing as one right now. Including the department. But what i will tell you is that my understanding is that the process by which we receive information from Business Community partners, across a wide variety of industries, including financial institutions, sharing information with us about possible criminal activity, its something that is fully lawful under current federal law. Maybe lawful, but its not constitutional. I yield back. Gentleman yields back. Gentlelady from california is recognized for five minutes. Thank you mister chairman, thank you director wray for being here. I think its actually sad at the majority is engaging in conspiracy theories, and efforts to try and discredit one of the premier Law Enforcement agencies in the United States. In the effort to try and without any evidence make the case that the fbi is somehow opposed to conservative views. In my view actually im concerned that the fbi has been reluctant to do its job when it comes to the former president. I would like to ask unanimous consent to put in the record an article from the washington post. Fbi resisted opening probe into trumps role in january six for more than a year. Without objection. Director wray, would you disagree with the premise of this article, that the fbi delayed looking at mr. Trump himself, with the january Six Committee, and i was the number, we did find that the ex president was the senator the center of a wide ranging conspiracy to overturn the election. To the fbi start looking after january six at the ex president . Im sorry loss last part of your question. Did the fbi start looking at the ex president s role in january six starting january 7th, were closely to that time . Well let me start with, im not in the business of kind of commenting, or engaging on the truth, or falsity of newspaper articles. And in this particular instance, as im sure you can appreciate, there is an ongoing, very important ongoing special counsel investigation thats now in court. And so not only do i not want to talk about an Ongoing Investigation i respect internal investigations regarding twitter more sensitive. I respect you cant comment on Ongoing Investigation. Let me turn to another item. Theres been criticism of the Ranking Member, that they went through the scenario leading up to the warrant for the documents at maralago. I would like to ask the unanimous consent to put an article from the washington post. Fbi agents and prosecutors argued over trump. Objection. Its pretty clear from this article that there was a resistance on the part of the fbi to actually look at the president , or pursue that case vigorously. Although you cant comment on it, the article does suggest that fbi agents wanted to close the case. Because the ex president made in assertion that a search have been made. Now we had mr. Dantuono in as a witness. He testified four times that the maralago search had adequate probable cause. Do you agree with that statement . The search had probable cause . Cracked. Yes. Thank. You. So you dont have any dispute that there was probable cause for this warrant. You know, i just want to say, before going to my next question, that over and over again, the fbi delayed, and showed unprecedented caution before investigating the ex president. Even when there was a potential threat to National Security. That is, thats my view. Its very far from the assertion that there was unfair targeting. On that point, if i may, while i cant discuss any specific investigations, my expectation for all of our investigations, repeatedly communicated to all of our people, and this is especially important in sensitive investigations, is that our folks take great pains to be rigorous, professional, objective, following all our policies and procedures, and do our work in the right way. And sometimes thats frustrating to others. My time is almost up. I wanted to ask you another question. In the senate hearing, in response to senator roy question about whether the fbi is currently purchasing u. S. Location data, you said it was limited to data derived from internet advertising. It has since been reported that the fbi has admitted it bought u. S. Location data. As the fbi purchasing location data from commercial sources without a warrant . This is an area that requires a little more precision in context for me to be able to answer that fully. Ill have my staff followed back up with you so i make sure that i dont leave something important out. Ill disclose with the fbi, add 3. 4 million backdoor searches in the database without a warrant in 2021. And can you say whether the fbis continuing the search defies a database without a warrant without americans . If youre asking about our use of 702 queries i am. Those are, there is no warrant requirement under the Fourth Amendment for those queries. Its fairly well settled. The 3. 4 million figure that youre talking about, i guess i would say couple things. One, its not 3. 4 million people. Its 3. 4 million search terms. Second thats not a, those are not queries in violation of rules. Those are just queries my time has expired. But the committee will get to the warrant requirement later. You sure will. The gentleman from florida is recognized. American people need to understand what just happened. My democrat colleague just asked the director of the fbi whether or not they are buying information about our fellow americans. And the answer is, well just have to get back to you on that. It sounds really complicated. But i have other questions. Im sitting here with my father, i will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows, and my ability to forever hold a grudge, that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here, waiting for the call with my father. Sounds like a shake down, doesnt it director . Im not gonna get into commenting. You seem deeply uncurious about, it dont you . Almost suspiciously uncurious. Are you protecting the bidens . Absolutely not. The fbi but you want to answer hold on you one answer the question about whether that is a shake down. Everyone knows why you wont answer it. Because to the millions of people who will see this, they know it is. And your inability to acknowledge that is deeply revealing about you. But lets go from the uncurious, to the downright nosy. How many illegal pfizer queries have occurred under your leadership of the fbi. There are reports that have come out with different numbers about compliance incident. More than 1 million illegal ones . Thats what the Inspector General said. The Inspector General said that in the 3. 4 million of these queries, more than 1 million were in air. Do you have the basis to disagree with what . Im not sure actually thats a correct characterization of the Inspector General finding on that. The internet will remind you of that in moments. But lets now go to what the court said. The court said it was over 200,000 that occurred on your watch. You have any basis to disagree with that assessment . Again, i dont have the numbers right now. Seems like a number you should know. How many times the fbi has broken the law under your watch. Especially if its over 1 million, to not know that number, im worried about your voracity on the subject as well. Play the video. [silence] i dont believe pfizer is remotely implicated in our investigation. So there senator lee is asking you whether or not pfizer was in any way involved in your january six investigation, you say no. It was not truthful . I said i did not believe it was. Okay lets now pull up what the court said, which is something a little different from what you said. So here now, thats not the right one. Here we go, it says the government has reported significant violation of the queer standard, including several related to the january saves 2021 breach of the capital. I guess the question director wray is did you not know when you are answering these questions that the fbi was engaging in these illegal searches . Where did you perjury yourself to senator lee . I certainly didnt perjure myself. At the time that i testified in front of the Senate Judiciary committee i didnt have that piece of information. That was a court order. You dont have that piece of information, because the court had not render to judgment. Did you not know when you gave the untruthful answer before senator lee that this was going on . It was a truthful answer. I did not believe pfizer had been involved in january six. But it was, so the answer is, the fbi has broken so bad, that people can go and engage in queries, that when you come before the congress to answer questions, youre like blissfully ignorant. Youre been blissfully ignorant as to the unlawful queries, your blissfully ignorant as to the biden shakedown regime. And it just seems like it gets to a creepy plays as well. Well go to our next image on what the court said. Just for the American People realize, the court has smacked you down, ruling fbi personnel apparently conduct conducted queries for improper personal reasons. People were looking themselves a. They were looking their ex lovers up. Who has been held accountable or fired as a consequence of the fbi using the pfizer process as theyre like, creepy personal snoop machine. There have been instances in which individuals have had disciplinary action. Theyre no longer with i cant get into it here, but we can follow back up. Dont you see, dont you see that thats kind of the thing. That you preside over the fbi, it has the lowest level of trust in the fbis history. People trusted the fbi more when J Edgar Hoover was running the place and when you are. The reason is because you dont give straight answers. You give answers that later the court teams arent true. And then at the end of the day, you wont criticize an obvious shakedown one is directly in front of us, and it appears as though your whitewashing the conduct of corrupt respectfully congressman, in your home state of florida, the number of people applying to come work for us and develop their lives working for us is over, of over 100 percent. We are deeply proud of them, and they deserve better than you. Time of the gentleman has expired, the gentleman from tennessee is recognized for five minutes. Thank, you mister chair, and director wray. And thank you for continuing to serve with all of these attempts to sell your name. Youve done an excellent job us ex fbi director. I dont agree with everything youve done. But mostly i. Do i agree with our Law Enforcement agency, and i support Law Enforcement. To attack the fbi is to attach Law Enforcement in general. A few days after maralago, some individual went after the cincinnati headquarters of the fbi. Can you tell us about that and how you think that came about . Well, the incident that you are asking about was obviously deeply disturbing. We had individual wearing a tactical vest, armed with an arstyle rifle and a nail gun and who attempted to forcibly enter and attack our Cincinnati Field Office a subsequent view of the subjects devices and online postings identified a striking fbi anti federal Law Enforcement hostility. He was calling on others to kill federal Law Enforcement, claiming he felt he was fighting, in his, words a civil war. It is unfortunately part of a broader phenomenon that we have seen, not just against the fbi, and this is important to add, but against Law Enforcement all across the country. Not just against Law Enforcement professionals, themselves, which is appalling enough, but calling for attacks against their families, which is truly despicable. That man was captured and eliminated, was he not . Yes. A few days later was the arizona Fbi Department subject of armed violence not violence but armed protesters. I know that our Phoenix Field Office has had a number of concerning instances where people attempted to attack or breach the facility. I cant remember the dates when that happened. But all of this has happened kind of in the same sphere. It has been put out on social media and by members of the Congress Questioning the fbi, questioning Law Enforcement in general, its had an effect on the safety of fbi officials and others. There was a story the other day about people involved in the prosecution of former president and threats to them. The doj as well as personnel and fbi, is that something thats going on for is their efforts to have a unit at the fbi to protect it or Law Enforcement personnel threatened with violence . We stepped up the whole dedicated unit to focus on threats to and pei and Division Rules and facilities. Because of the uptick that we saw over the time period. The january 6th it was beyond of weaponization of government, it was a nuclearization of government against the government. But i believe i heard that you said that you didnt have any prior notice or reason to believe there would be such an event on january 6th. Is that correct . We did, not to my, knowledge have prior knowledge of an attempted violent overthrow or bleak breach of the capital building, we were certainly concerned about a number of products, intelligence products to partners and others warning a potential for violence more generally on that date. So there had been Tucker Carlson and some of the colleagues on the other side of the aisle that sent there was a secret Government Agency helping encourage this crime as to make the president look bad. Do you have any knowledge of this being a secret government agent . No i will say this notion that somehow the violence of the capitol on january 6th is part of operation orchestrated by fbi agents is ludicrous, it is a disservice to our brave hardworking dedicated men and women. Director, i agree with you, i think the fbi has some of the most talented Law Enforcement people in our nation in the world. They are concerned about safety, they tend to, as i understand it, lean republican. But they do their job down the line. That is what they are supposed to do. Im happy we have the fbi operating in memphis and other places to work with our Police Departments in joint units to protect our citizens. And i thank you for your service to United States. I yield back. Gentleman yields back, gentleman from california is recognized. Thank, you i will follow up on my colleague from memphis, how many individuals were either fbi employees or people that the fbi had made contact with in january 6th entry of the capital and surrounding area . I need to be careful here talking about where we have or have not used confidential human sources. Was there one or more individuals that would fit that description on january six that were in or around the capital . I believe there is a filing in one of the january 6th cases that can provide a little bit more information on. This im happy to see if we can follow back up. I just want to answer. Was there one or more . He would know if there was at least one individual who worked for the fbi who entered the capitol on that day . Again, i cant speak to that here. But im happy to get the court filing. It has been two years. And you come before us, the gentleman asked these questions, makes all kinds of simulations, and do not her head yes, and then i ask you simply was there one or more . And you wont answer that. Im going to make the assumption that there was more than one, more than five, more than ten, and that you are ducking the question because you dont want to answer for the fact that you had at least one, and somehow missed understanding that some of the individuals were very dangerous and that there were others inciting individuals to enter the capital after others broke windows. Im going to just move on because i think its time to move on past january 6th. I think the other side. Wont you are a cabinet level individual, you enjoy a term and senate confirmation. Do you feel comfortable speaking to other members, cabinet level, or other when appropriate to resolve problems within the government . Absolutely. And so, when the fbi censored the United States government, you would not have to take it down just by calling meta or google, would you . Im sorry, im not sure im following. Are you familiar with the official verified russian language account department of state that was taken down at your agencies request . That does not ring a bell as i said here right now. Okay, well now you have something to take back and look at it. Because in fact, in this bundle, it was constantly submitting to various agencies, it was a russian language statement of government. Literally you took down the free speech of the department of state. So you mentioned espy, you im not sure well talk about the same thing. But i will endeavor to provide a little more context at least two espy you. So i believe what you may be referring to, but im not sure were talking about the same thing, is that when russia invaded ukraine, the Security Service of ukraine, espy, which is longstanding good partner of the fbi asked us for help on a whole range of things. One of those things was to contact u. S. Companies on their behalf because the russians, the invasion had cut off ukraines communication. We did pass through information from the espy you to social media. Are you familiar with the fact that president zelenskyy had to clean house at the espy you . I know there have been a number of personnel changes. Okay, we will follow up with this in more detail. The question i have for you is, you are the premiere Law Enforcement operation. You are former department of justice, highranking executive at all levels. So would you agree that the job at the fbis criminal investigation . It is criminal investigation, and protect the country from National Security threats. Those two things. So the idea that you take information and you have it taken down, you use your authority and the leverage you have to have, medical, facebook, facebook being, meta or twitter takedown peoples information on things like where covid came from, where do you find the National Security interest in that . Where do you find the interest in free speech of american citizens being taken down . And i repeat, free speech of american citizens. Where do you have that authority . We dont ask social Media Companies to censor information or suppress information. When it comes to National Security threats or anything like that. What we do do is alert them when some other Intelligence Agency gives us information about a Foreign Intelligence Service being behind some account. We will call social Media Companies attention to that. At the end of the day, we are very clear, it is up to the social Media Companies to decide whether to do something about it or not. The suggestion of the most powerful Law Enforcement operation, is not a suggestion, it is effectively an order. I yield. Back gentlemen from georgia is recognized. Thank you, mister chairman, were here today because maga republicans will do anything to protect donald trump, their savior. No matter how unfounded or dangerous it may be to do so. Welcome to the legislative arm of the trump reelection campaign. A grand jury found probable cause that among other crimes, trump illegally kept highly sensitive National Security documents, which could put our country and others in our sources in danger if they got out. In which photographs show trump kept those records in bathrooms, showers, closets, and maralago all rooms. Mega republicans are afraid that the Justice System might hold trump accountable for his actions, so to protect him, republicans are trying to intimidate fbi officials. And in case that does not work, republicans are trying their hardest to discredit the fbi in the eyes of the American Public. When trump launched in 2020, they tried to make americans distrust their elections systems. And now that the fbi and the Justice Department have sought to hold trump to the same standard any other american citizen is held to, maga republicans are telling americans not to trust the fbi. To protect trump, republicans are trying to distract us from the real work that the fbi does every day, which is fighting violent criminals, job predators, and fighting domestic terrorists and extremists. So as to protect our democracy. And our National Security. Even worse, maga republicans are stirring up threats that pose a danger to the safety of fbi employees. It is past time that republicans realize the consequences of their words and put the good that this country over politics, now director wray, i want to thank you for your service. During a time of unprecedented true bail. Director wray, you were a partner on an International Law form before you took a drastic pay cut to accept the job of fbi director. Is that not correct . Yes, that is something my wife reminds me of from time to time. But let me ask you this, sir, and you took this office after trump fired the former fbi director, jimmy comey. Correct . Yes sir. Did you contact the Trump Administration to offer yourself for this job . Or did the administration recruit you for the job . They contacted me and asked me if i would be willing to consider taking on the role . So trump hand picked you to be the fbi director . Yes. And he expected you to do what he wanted you to do, correct . Well, that i cant speak to. I can tell you the same thing i told him. Im gonna do this job he is unhappy with the, now is empty . I will let him speak for himself. I think a lot of his accolades here reflect his intent at this particular time. Director wray, are you aware that maga republicans have repeatedly called for the fbi to be defended . I have heard some of that language. In fact, some republicans on this very committee have said that your institution should be dismantled. Is that not correct . Well, i think certain members have. One member even tweeted, quote, defund and dismantle the fbi and quote, another told fox news that, quote, republicans should defund the bureaucracy, and quote. A third told the press that he thinks the fbi needs to be split up, and moved out into pieces, and quote. Those are direct quotes and only a small sample of what is out there, can you briefly describe for us what the effect would be on our National Security and on our domestic tranquility if the fbi were to be defunded or dismantled . Certainly it would be disastrous for 38,000 hardworking career Law Enforcement professionals and their families. But more importantly, in many, ways it would hurt our great state law local Law Enforcement partners that depend on us every day to work with them on a whole slew of challenging threats. It would hurt American People, neighborhoods and communities all across this country. The people we are protecting from cartels, violent criminals, gang members, predators, foreign and domestic terrorists, cyberattacks, i could go on and. On the people it would help would be those same violent gangs and cartels, foreign terrorists, chinese spies, hackers, so forth. The time of the gentleman has expired. We now recognize the gentleman from colorado for five minutes. I think the chairman, director, wray thank you. Thank you for your work with the fbi, and thank you for your history of work and Law Enforcement. You started out as in a usa. Im getting this information from wikipedia, the great knowledge of digital, age im assuming you it is true, we started as an asa, you are nominated by republican president , bush, to be the assistant department of justice and you were confirmed by Republican Senate, if i am correct in that. Yes, by unanimous vote. You wear than nominated by republican president , donald trump, to be the fbi director. , again confirmed by the Republican Senate for that position. Yes, there were only five votes against me and they were all from democrats. According to wikipedia, you are still a registered republican and i hope you dont change or Party Affiliation after this hearing is over. But i want to thank you. I want to thank you for leading an agency, as you mentioned, in your Opening Statement, that protect americans from foreign terrorists. An agency that protects americans from spies from china and russia. And cyber crime and public corruption in organized crime, and drug cartels, and human traffickers, and white collar criminals. I want to thank you and the fbi for protecting law abiding americans from the evil that exist all around us. Director, right you know, this but it is worth, mentioning again, the fbi does not protect america because this is a beautiful country, it doesnt protect america just because of the citizens who live in this country. You and the fbi protects america because of the values that we hold, because of our constitutional republic, because this is a special place. The rest of the world knows just how special this place is. Director wray, im concerned about fisa. Im not concerned about fisa in a partisan way, frankly, im not in favor of defunding the fbi, nor am i in favor of slipping up the fbi. Nor might in favor of losing the role for fbi director. Im concerned about fisa, because im concerned about what makes this big special and the threats to us. And i would love to work with the fbi on how we can protect americans at the same time, protecting the Civil Liberties of americans. And that area of fisa is what really concerns me. I know you have gone to Great Lengths to try to work with fbi agents on how they access information under 702. And i know that in times it has been successful and in times it has been unsuccessful. The spirit of fisa, the spirit of our constitutional republic, really demands with the fbi Culture Shift and it shift to a place where fbi agents understand that protecting american Civil Liberties, that protecting the privacy that we all enjoy in this country, even though we screw up, we still you a question in the last few seconds. How can you work on the culture in the fbi and help us reach that sweet spot on fisa. We , well thank you for that. We starting with first principles, starting to drive home every day so that are protecting our can people and hold constitution. We have, on the issue of fisa, clearly had issues in the past, ive been plain about. That weve implemented a series of reforms and if you look at the reports that have started to come up now from the fisa court, from odni, the Justice Department, others that have looked at the effects of our reforms, over and over again they are showing significant improvement in compliance. We are talking about the most recent fisa Court Opinion finding 98 compliance. Commanding us for moving in the right direction, doj report found 99 compliance. Our internal audit found 14 jump up to 96 . These are all separate reports looking at the impact of our reforms. A lot of the public commentary about our failures, and lets be clear, we have had problems. Those problems are unacceptable. And im determined with my Leadership Team to fix them. Those problems almost entirely predate those reforms, even though some of them have just come out recently. So i think were going to keep working at this. Its not a one and done from my perspective, i recognize that we need to work with congress on this issue. But this isnt incredibly important tool. As you, know from our own public service, as a prosecutor, this is incredibly important tool to protect American People from very serious foreign threats. The gentlemans time has expired. Gentleman from california is recognized. Thank, you mister director, i want to pick up where mr. I thank you for your service. I have thank you for your service to the country. Youre being attacked and vilified by some of the members of this committee and others outside this committee because the Justice Department and fbi has had the audacity to investigate serious allegations of criminal conduct by a former president. And i just want a chance to recap how we got to where we are. During the last administration, and for four, years the Justice Department took the position, not unprecedented for the department, that a former president could a current president could not be indicted. That is a flawed matter, as a constitutional principle, but nonetheless, that was the view of the council and the Justice Department during the trump years. That the president of the United States cannot be indicted. My republican colleagues seem to believe the former president , similarly, cannot be indicted. That would effectively make a president above the law. Beyond the reach of the law. And in my view, there is only one thing the founders would find more politically precarious and dangerous to our constitution than the indictment of a president or former president , and that is the failure to indict a president or former president when they have engaged in criminal conduct. The Justice Department i believe, as a representative fellow member of the january Six Committee asserted, took a very long time to begin the investigation of donald trump and his involvement in january six. I believe it began with urgency when it came to the footsoldiers who broke into the capitol, and assaulted Police Officers that day. But at least what i can tell from the public, record the activities of the president himself, some of which were a matter of public record, such as his tape recorded conversation with the secretary of state in georgia, which he badgered the secretary to, quote, find 11,780 votes that dont exist. That was the subject of the investigation by local District Attorney in fulton county, it did not appear to be stoked for more than a year by the Justice Department. To me, that is an inexplicable. This was never the kind of case where you could roll up the foot soldiers on the higher ups because there were multiple lines of effort in this plot to overturn the election. I do think the employment of the special counsel has accelerated the investigation of the former president s misconduct. I think that is a positive step for the department in for the country. We can get resolution to this. Likewise, with maralago, the protest of my colleagues, they were repeated request by the archives to get those documents back from the former president. When those were unsuccessful, there was a grand jury subpoena that was administered when that was, unsuccessful and only one that was unsuccessful, there was evidence that the foreign former president was Still Holding climate classified that was more than a year and a half after those initial requests. This was anything but a rush to judgment in the maralago case. So i believe that if anything, too much cotton has been exercised on the january Six Commission in their work and oversight to proceed against a former president when there is serious and credible allegations of criminal conduct. But i want to thank you for your stewardship during this incredibly difficult time. I dont think theres been a more difficult time for an fbi director. And notwithstanding concerns ive expressed, none of them go to your integrity or your commitment to the country. I want to thank you for that. Let me ask you about the different topics, although related to january six as well, let me ask you broadly about domestic extremism. This committee was voted down by the republicans that we should oversee the increasingly dire threat of domestic violent extremism. One of your recent reports underscored the rise of this prevalent threat. And i would ask you if he would address it today. So the rise of domestic violent extremism is something that i and we have been identifying for quite some time. Goes back well before january 6th. A lot of people dont know this but the joint Terrorism Task force that weve heard about at the fbi is largely created in response to domestic terrorism, not foreign terrorism. In my first few years as director, we were identifying this issue more and more. And thats why we elevated in the summer of 2019 racially motivated violent extremism to the National Priority level. We saw 40 increase in the number of domestic extremism, all before anything to do with january 6th. Since then it has continued. Domestic violent extremism cuts across the spectrum from the racially motivated extremism to anarchist violent extremism, environmental violent extremism. Recently we have had violent extremism attacks against pro life facilities, we are investigating those. It covers a wide spectrum. What they have in common is three things. Violence, threats of violence, motivated by some ideology, and it varies. That is the violent extremism that i talk about when i identify this phenomenon. Two letters from david weiss, the trump u. S. Attorney in delaware. A budding allegations concerning partiality and the hunter biden case. I thank you, director. Without objection, director, what is the difference between a traditional catholic in a radical traditional catholic . Im not an expert on the catholic orders. Well, your fbi wrote a member talking about radical catholics, im wondering if you can define it for us. What i can tell you is your few into the richmond product, which is a single product by a single field office, which is soon as i found out about it i was aghast and ordered it withdrawn and removed from fbi systems. You were aghast . Why didnt you let us talk to people who get together. Were working on finishing an internal review into what happened here. We, the congress, and the American People, have to wait until you do an internal review . Its not a criminal review. Before we can talk to the people who wrote this . When we finished our internal review, which will be very, soon we will come back before the committee and fat provide a briefing on what we found. We want to talk to the people who wrote. At any idea how many catholics there are in america, director . No, sir. There is a lot. Over 60 million. What percentage of those are radical traditional catholics according to the Richmond Field Office of the fbi . Again, that product is not something that i will defend or excuse. It is something that i thought was appalling and removed it. Thats read from the product. Page four of that product. By the way, the copy you gave us, when can we get a copy . It has all these redactions. When can we actually see what the american taxpayers were paying for to see their rights, their First Amendment religious liberty rights attacked. Let me just read from page four. Provide new opportunities to mitigate extremist threat through outreach to traditional catholic parishes and the development of sources with the placement and access to report on places of worship. Thats pretty fancy language for, they are trying to put informants in the parish in the church. That is what this memorandum said, director, from one of your field offices. You will let us talk to the people who did it. What is your response to . That i was waiting for the question. Do you think priest should be informants inside the church . We did not recruit open or operate confidential human sources to infiltrate, target, report thats not what this said, it sounds like you are trying to do it in richmond, virginia. No sir. No sir. This didnt happen, you can assure assistant happen . That product did not, to the best as we can, tell result than any investigative action as a result. None. Now with the motivation for this . Was why what they think about doing this . You know the motivation was . Again, i think thats what our internal review will find. Id rather wait until i hear what the results of that internal view are. I can read the document. I dont either internal review. I assume you can do the same. It says right here on the same page. Richmond assesses extreme radical traditional catholics likely to increase over the next 12 to 24 months in the run up to the next general election. Same paragraph. Events in which extremist and radical extremist catholics might have common cause including legislation, judicial decisions in such areas as abortion rights, immigration, affirmative action and lgbtq protections. It is politics. That is the motivation. The run up to the next election, they talk about the border, affirmative action, and abortion rights . Its total politics. It is interesting that affirmative action, we just got a bunch of decision relative to affirmative action. Politics was the motivation here. That is what is scary. That is what is so frightening. And why we how this happens, i dont know. Five people signed off on this. Five people, including the chief Division Counsel at the Richmond Field Office. I would like to talk to this lawyer. A lot of people in this room went to law school. Robert a course on the constitution talks about the First Amendment. I find that really scary. Again, when do you think we are going to have a chance . How soon are you going to complete the internal investigation so we can talk to these folks who put this together . I expect us to be able to brief the committee on our internal review later this summer. Will that briefing include the names of the individuals who put this document together attacking americans First Amendment liberties . Im not sure yet what it will conclude, its not done. Yet but when it does we will provide you with the briefing. What do you do to fix it so it wont happen again . We put in place a number of fixes and they will be further informed by the review. More fixes, more training, more, reviewed us the same thing you told us on fisa, why you still have improvement, you have 200,000 illegally search. One of the training and procedures are putting in place . Well, we put the fisa step to the side youve told us the same thing. You fix something, you i dont believe the number that you just invoked on the fisa side is the fixes, as you call them can we get it unredacted they posted the number that you are referring to. Can you get an unredacted copy . Well youre still doing the investigation . I will find out if theres more document that can be shared with you. Weve tried to be careful and what we redact, theres always a basis for it. So let me go back and see if theres more that we can provide. But i know my instructions are to be as disappearing as possible in the redactions that we provide. Gentleman from california is recognized. Director, i think its rich that the guy who has accused view of lawlessness and weaponization is 400 days in the violation of his own congressional subpoena over january 6th. Quite rich to me that you are hearing all of these allegations from somebody who wont even respond to a lawful subpoena. I want to talk more about your workforce. That is where you started. A couple weeks ago, at the bureau, you had family day. Can you tell us what family day is . Family day is an opportunity for employees from all over the fbi, it tends to be primarily from the nearby geographies, because of the trip they have to make, employees bring their families into fbi headquarters so they can see a little bit about the place their loved ones work and why mom or dad is spending so much time away from home. You see any little kids and family . Day many. It is an opportunity for us to say thank you to the families, who we talk a lot in Law Enforcement about sacrifice. The reality is that Law Enforcement officers as, professionals, sacrifice them to do what they love for families are sacrificing because of who they love. What would you say in your experience is the number one worry of a little kid about a mom or dad who is a special agent in the field . Obviously they are where their mom or dad wont come home at night because theyve been killed. And that in, fact has happened, unfortunately in fort lauderdale, a couple years, ago is that . Right Laura Schwartz amber grandin. Elephant whoever agents killed in a connection with a Child Exploitation case down there. It was the single darkest day ive had at this job. I want to turn your attention to an Organization Called marco polo. Its run by a former trump aide named garrett ziegler, over the past couple of weeks, he has had doxxed the addresses of a formal special agent connected to the hunter biden case, he has put up the dates of birth, only about an hour and a half in, the use of the word laptop about 20 times. In fact, the chairmans Opening Statement, he said that hes americans see a private citizens non consensual nudes . Is that what were saying here . That you lost the election not because of your ideas but because a private citizens laptop wasnt out there . That is bananas. You should be a party of ideas not a party of non consensual news to help you win an election. Will you yield . That is what the objection is here today. We should be talking about the Mass Shootings that occurred over the last ten days. This hearing has turned into absolute chaos. I yield. Back time of the gentlemans expired, we bring up fisa because it is up for reauthorization. If the gentleman did, know at the end of this, year and it was in our witnesses Opening Statement, i did bring up the laptops. Whos time are you speaking to . Point of order . Whos time are speaking . Two point of order . This time youre speaking . Of speaking on not a part of order, i recognize the gentleman from arizona. Thank, you mister chairman. Director, thank you for being here. Who is Matthew Graves . Who is Matthew Graves . Matthew graves is i believe the u. S. Attorney, the chief of home be a. Thats the person im thinking up to. Are you aware that hes promised 100 individuals will be indicted related to january 6th . I havent heard that he said. That it seems arbitrary and these reports that are a quasiquota system that are put together for january 6th prosecutions. Do you approve of targets, goals, quotas or prosecuting alleged criminal conduct . Certainly not quotas. That doesnt make any sense. Goals is a little bit more of an ambiguous term. Not quotas . Not quotas. Do you know if any of your personnel, fbi is involved in the investigations promised that will lead to indictments by the january six quotas established by u. S. Attorney . Grace that does not sound familiar to me. In june 24, as usual this committee but a small group of people on the u. S. Capitol on january six had, quote, all sorts of weapons. Do you remember being there for that committee and testifying that . Weigh in general, yes. Its been reported that more than 40 fbi personnel were in the crowd on january 6th. Is that never accurate . I dont know if that number is accurate. Former Capitol Police chief, steven sun, reported asserted that the protest crowd was filled with federal agents,. Are you aware of his assertion . I am not. Would you agree with him that it was filled with federal agents . On january 6th . I would have to see more closely exactly what he said, get the full context to be able to evaluate it. How many agents were agents or Human Resources were president at the capitol on january 6th . Again, its going to get confusing because it depends on when we deployed and responded to the breach. Obviously there were how many federal agents you and i both know, we are talking Different Things here, and please dont distract here because were focusing on those who were there in an undercover capacity ungenerous icks. How many . Again, im not sure i can give you that number. As i said. Here im not sure that we are undercover agents on scene. I find that a remarkable statement, director, at this point you dont know whether there were undercover federal agents, fbi agents, in the crowd or in the capital on january 6th . I say that because i want to be careful, there have been a number of Court Filings related to these topics. I want to make sure that i stick within i understand that. But i thought i heard you say you didnt know whether there were fbi agents or informants, or human sources in the capital or in the vicinity on january six. Did i misunderstand . Two adults we said. I referred specifically to undercover agents. So are you acknowledging then that their undercover agents . As i sit here, i do not believe there were undercover agents on scene. To do have any assets present that day . In the crowd . When it comes to what youre calling assets, but what we call confidential human sources, that is a place where, again, i want to be careful as much as i said in response to your earlier question, there are Court Filings that i think speak to, this im happy to make sure you get them assuming theyre not under seal, and that can better answer the question that i cant as a city right now. In the same june 26th committee hearing. You told us that the fisa court, quote, approved fbi procedures, minimization procedures, collection procedures, clearing procedures. You did not find misconduct. That is what you said. Specifically you said they found no misconduct. Yet, three months later, the Inspector General found widespread problems in fbis fisa applications, raising serious questions about the fbi review process of applications, including hundreds of examples of noncompliance with woods procedures, for example. We know that from december 2021, the fbi conducted three point u. S. Data under fisa. 3. 4 million. Triple the amount of the previous. Year it got worse as you were telling us there was nothing to worry about. But now, your reforms have produced about 119, 000, over 200,000 total, hundred 19,000 americans. It just doesnt seem like youve accomplished much there if you have 119,000 illegal searches inquiries under fisa. I yield back. Gentleman yields, backed gentleman from just to get facts out to the American People about our system of justice. Trump adviser, roger, stone was convicted in a federal court, correct . That is my recollection. Trump donor, elliott, brady was convicted in a federal court, correct . Also my recollection. Attorney general at the time for those two convictions was bill barr, which president nominated bill barr for attorney general . President trump. Trumps former lawyer, michael cohen, was convicted on two separate occasions under federal court, correct . Yes, i believe thats. Correct attorney general at the time for cohens second conviction was Matthew Whitaker, which president appointed Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general . President trump. Trumps former campaign chairman, paul manafort, was convicted in federal court, correct . Yes. Trumps former Deputy Campaign manager, mr. , gates was convicted in federal court, correct . Thats my recollection. Trumps Campaign Foreign policy adviser, george papadopoulos, was convicted in federal court, correct . Yes, he pled guilty. The attorney general at the time of those three cases with jeff sessions. Which president dominated jeff doesnt for attorney general . President trump. You are at the fbi director for all of those cases at the time, which president nominated you . President trump. With these facts show is that we dont have a two tier system of justice. We have one department of justice that goes after criminals regardless of party ideology. All of these folks were convicted under the administrations of three separate Republican Attorney generals. It is not the fault of the fbi and donald trump surrounded himself with criminals. Donald trump brought that hip on himself. Thank you to the fbi for exposing the cesspool of corruption of these trump associates, now, i would like to talk about efforts by maga republicans to defund the fbi. I think it would be useful for the fbi to explain to the American People what your missions are and how critical they are. So again, a series of basic questions. The fbis mission includes counterterrorism, correct . Yes. That means the fbi works to stop terrorist attacks on american soil, right . Yes. The fbis mission also includes counter intelligence, correct . Yes. That means the fbi works to stop espionage of American Companies and organizations, is that . Right. Yes the fbis mission include stopping cybercrime, correct . Yes. It includes public work corruption right . Yes. It includes stopping weapons of massive destruction to be detonated on american soil . Yes, we work with others, on it but. Yes its going after organized crime, right . Yes. Violent crime . Yes . White collar crime . Yes. Child sex trafficking . Yes. Republican members of the caucus, including members on this committee, have asked to defund fbi. One member of this committee from arizona wrote that the fbi, quote, should be defunded in dismantled. What would happen if the fbi was defunded in dismantled . We would have hundreds more violent criminals out on the street, dozens more violent gangs, terrorizing communities. Hundreds more child predators on the loose, hundreds more kids left at those predators mercy instead of being rescued. Scores of threats from the Chinese Communist party being left unaddressed. Hundreds of ransomware attacks. Left fentanyl. So you would have significantly greater threat from the southwest border, from the cartels. Those are just a few things that would happen. Ultimately, people most hurt by some illconceived effort to defund our agency, the people most hurt or the American People that live in every district represented on this committee. Thank you director. A gentleman from california, mr. Kiley, is recognized. Good morning, i would like to take you back to 2021, in many parts of the country, schools remain closed, month after month, for no good reason. Once schools did nominally open, many instituted draconian testing regime such as one student is possibly exposed to covid, everyone goes home for the week. Children as young as toddlers were subjected to harmful mask mandates that defied international norms. The way some students were treated truly shocks the conscience. Consider a few examples from my own state of california. A School District in davis sent an email to parents announcing that their parents will be required to eat outside in the rain to reduce exposure to covid. A school in Sonoma County made Young Children to do with their masks on, explaining this was to minimize the time spent unmasked. Some schools in los angeles eliminateds students to one bathroom break per day, and barred them from Drinking Water outside of the lunch period. A school in this valley made students eat lunch on the ground. In october of that year, the American Academy of pediatrics declared a National State of emergency on childrens mental, Health Setting the magic Mental Health emergencies including suspected suicide attempts. In the face of this, director, the Biden Administration decided to take action. It mobilized the sweeping powers of federal Law Enforcement. But it was not to spare kids from such cruelty, rather it was to target the parents who are speaking out against it. The administration coordinated with the National School Board Association on a letter that began with the alarming claim, americas Public Schools and its education leaders are under an immediate threat. The letter cited a handful of new stories, almost all of which involved purely expressive activity by parents that School Board Meetings, and called such activity a form of domestic terrorism. The letter called for the counterterrorism and Law Enforcement powers at the federal government, including authority under the patriot act, to be mobilized to investigate, intercept, and prevent such activity. The Biden Administration was ready to take this letter and run with it the moment it was received, after, all the Administration Officials have participated in its drafting. Within five days of perceiving, it attorney general, merrick garland, fired off his infamous memo directing federal action in response to a, quote, disturbing spike in harassment and intimidation and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers and staff. In response, the fbi opened 25 assessments against parents and even created a new threat tag. Director wray, did the attorney general, merrick garland, consult with you and the fbi before issuing the memorandum . I cant get into discussions that did or maybe more importantly, did not happen between the fbi and department in advanced why do you say more importantly did . Not because i will say to you the same thing that i said to all 56 of our field offices, as soon as i read the memo. Which is that the fbi is not in the business of investigating or Police Speech at School Board Meetings or anywhere else, for that matter. Were not gonna start now. Violence, threats of violence, that is a different matter. Were gonna work with our stakeholders thats what the memo is predicated. On what im asking you is there every evidence that you provided to attorney general garland that supported that credit, thats premise that there was an increase in harassment and threats of violence . Im not aware of any such evidence, but i know that weve had a number of our folks who have been up here for a transcribed interviews, so unless some of them shared it, im not aware of it. What they shared with us points to just the opposite, that you had, for example, a letter from christopher dunham, acting assistant director in march of this, year the fbi acknowledged that it has not observed an uptick of threats against school officials. Does that sound accurate . Yes sir. Is it also true that according to the fbi, itself none of the school board related investigations have resulted in federal arrest for charges . I think that is correct. I think of the 25, for context, that is 25 tips. Im sorry, i have limited, times that is correct, i like to move. On this committees investigation concluded that the Justice Departments own documents demonstrated it was no compelling on forsman justification for the attorney generals directive. Do you have any reason to dispute that conclusion . No. So we had an investigation of parents, we had a sweeping mobilization of federal power against the most protected core First Amendment activity, the right of citizens to speak and petition their government on the most important issues, the education of their children. And you are telling me that the entire basis for that, there was no evidence to support it . Well, i want to be clear, we, the fbi, as i said, were not and did not investigate people for exercising their First Amendment rights. Attorney general garland recent that memo . Should they . Thats a question for the attorney general. Thats a question for the attorney general. Do you believe that the attorney general should apologize to parents for the subject of that memo . Im not gonna speak to. That do you apologize for the fbis role . I think the fbi conducted itself the way it should here. Which is that weve considered and continue to follow longstanding rules that have not changed anything in response to that memo. Time of the gentleman has expired. The chair recognizes the gentlelady from washington. Thank, you mr. , chairman director wray, thank you for being with us. Thank you for your service to the country. I do want to focus on some areas of concern around american Civil Liberties that i have had longstanding concerns about. In testimony to Senate Intelligence in march, you stated that the fbi had previously purchased commercial database information that includes location data derived from internet advertising. To your knowledge, the fbi does not currently purchased data. Just last month, the odni classified a report declassified it, they do purchase significantly amount of about americans from data brokers. The report notes that commercially available information, quote, has increasingly important risks and implications for u. S. Privacy and Civil Liberties, as commercially available information can reveal sensitive and intimate information about individuals. It is Public Information that the fbi uses, and has all these companies provide data for purchase. How does the fbi use that data . Respectfully, this is a topic that gets very involved. What i would prefer to do is have our subject Matter Experts come back up and review. They can answer your questions in detail about it. Because theres a lot of confusion that can be unintentionally caused about this topic. But does the fbi purchased data . My testimony referred to before remains the same. The story about the doesnt change. That theres a lot of precision in technical dimensions to this. I appreciate, that but im looking at a report that is from the office of the director of national intelligence, saying that the fbi purchases data. Mister chairman, i ask unanimous consent to enter this into the record. Do you know if the contracts with data brokers like the ones i described provide location data . My testimony about purchasing commercial database information that includes location data derived from internet advertising remains the same. We currently do not do that. But the information that you have that has already been purchased, does it contain location again, im not trying to be obtuse or difficult here, i just know from experience that the more that you drill into this whole issue of commercial data, geolocation data, et cetera that it gets very involved, and in some cases involves pilot projects that are passed. In some cases, it involves National Security information, et cetera professor wray i do understand we want to make sure you get the information you need. Thats great, i will take that, but i do want to say that this is an extremely important issue for the American People to understand how their data is being used. That is location data. That is biometric information. It is medical and Mental Health information. It is information relayed to individuals communications. Its information about peoples internet activity, and while i understand that that is complicated. That is the reason that you come before us so that the American People can hear this. Let me ask you this. Does the fbi have a written policy outlining how it can purchase in use commercially available information . There are a number of policies that they are on this topic. Again, that could be part of the same briefing that we are happy to provide. I dont dispute at all that this is a important topic, but im simply saying that precisely because it is such a important topic that a minute and 12 seconds countdown is not the best way to do it. I understand that, but im asking whether there is a policy. Its not like there is a policy. When was that policy last updated . That i cant, as i sit here, i dont have the answer for you on that, but again, there are a number of policies that are relevant to this, and so that may and you will commit to providing those to us so that we can exploring them . I will commit to provide hopefully very helpful information to help you understand better this whole what about a written policy governing how commercially available information can be used in criminal investigations. I think it is all wrapped up in the same answer i just gave. The reason that this is so important is because the question is whether the fbi uses that data to generate leads for investigations only or further along in the investigative process. Theres public reporting on dojs contracts with the same data brokers that i mentioned earlier totaling millions of taxpayer dollars, and as you know, in the 2018 Supreme Court decision and carpenter versus United States, the court held that it is a violation of the Fourth Amendment for the government to access historical location data without a warrant. Does the fbi have a written policy interpreting the Supreme Courts decision and carpenter . If i recall correctly, there was guidance. I cant remember if it is for policy or what they came out of the carpenter decision, but again, i think that will be accomplished in the briefing. Im going to follow up with. You i want to thank you again for your service. This is a critically important issue for the American People to understand. We have bipartisan support around pfizer reauthorization and the concerns we have around pfizer reauthorization, and unless we really understand what measures the fbi is taking to ensure that peoples privacy is protected, i think it is going to be a very difficult reauthorization process, im sure you know that. Thank you director wray, i yield back. I yield back, and what said. I appreciate your work with a bipartisan approach in this area, and you have friends over here who want help you on that. Now go to the gentleman from, actually if we can go with just a couple more, well take a little break if that works for the director. A couple more on the east side, we can take a break. All right, we will go, i think its mr. Moore whos up. Thank you director wray for being here today. In 2022, you stated quote i condemn in the strongest possible terms any prospect of retaliation against whistleblowers, unquote. Do you still agree with that statement . Yes. Do you feel that your actions as the fbi leadership during your tenure live up that sentiment . Yes. Director wray, a few months ago, we heard, are you familiar with a special agent Garrett Oboyle . I am familiar with him. Astrazeneca or oboyle came to congress his clearance was unsurprisingly suspended. That surprise you. Do you find a suspicious . I cant discuss a specific security clearance matter, partly because the security clearance determinations are made by the security clearance manager, which is not the fbi director, and i dont want to insert myself into the process what appeals are pending, for example. Well as a leader, i think its important that we need to have the opportunity, and you know by law, to have the opportunity to talk to congress and inform us on issues, and i think to restore trust in the fbi, it is imperative on you to allow whistleblowers to come forward and for us to have the oversight that we need to have to make sure were seeing the polling numbers. The fbi is changing, and its under your watch, sir and it is a concern for the American People. When im in the district, the number one concern, and i come from a fairly rural district, is weaponization of the fbi and the doj coming after conservative american citizens who just simply want to have a voice in the process. And so i would encourage you, mister oboyle, understand that he has been suspended since september of 23, almost ten months now, 2022, he was suspended in 2022. Almost a year, now the man is trying to go can you make it ten months without a paycheck, mr. Wray . I prefer not have to. You talk about your wife not being real happy taking a pay cut, but can you imagine ten months later and you are still going through a process just for a whistleblower coming to congress and trying to inform us on issues feces within the fbi. I think we can help you in the process if you would allow us, and in some ways, we have to look at this whistleblower and other whistleblowers and encourage them to come forward and be truthful with the American People. To real quick questions. Why would the fbi offer christopher still 1 Million Dollars to verify a dossier about trump russia collusion, and then the same fbi offered 3 million to twitter to squash the story on the hunter biden laptop. Do you have any idea why . A Law Enforcement agency would be playing into elections. You raise a number of different issues there. So first, as to the steele dossier, that of course is subject treated at great length and the Durham Report, which we, again, predates my time as director. I understand that, but its the same agency paid 1 Million Dollars to push one story out and try to collaborate one story and 3 million to try to quiet another story for political opponents. And then after the second part relating to twitter, i would disagree with your characterization, respectfully. When there are payments to social Media Companies, that is by longstanding federal law giving going back for decades where we have to Pay Companies for their costs in responding to Legal Process, and its not just social Media Companies. Its other kinds of businesses as well. But when the stories get, out and you understand, certainly the dossier story, and i know that wasnt on your watch, but also the hunter biden laptop story, that to me looks political, but the American People it looks political, and im just an everyday guy, im not an attorney, mr. Wray, but to me it looks extremely political and that is why youre having trouble keeping the fbis reputation afloat. And so with that, mister chairman i will yield the balance of my time, but i want inter one thing to the record. Can you do that, yielding will do it after. Director wray, did the fbi ask financial to shunts to turn over their customers . Youre the time to me. Did the fbi have the institution to turn over their debit and credit card Purchase History in the washington d. C. Area for january 5th and six 2021 . I dont know the answer to that as our city right now. What we do, because make of america gave this email from the fbi to bank of america. I am aware the bank of america provided information to the fbi, but what communications occurred between the fbi and bank of america about it lets read it to recap our morning call. We are prepared to action the following threshold. Customers transaction debit card, washington d. C. Purposes between one 5 21 and one 6 21. That is scary enough. But then the next bullet point is even more scary. Any, all capitals, in the historical purchase of a firearm. You guys asked bank of america, we think more did you guys ask them . Again, i dont have the full sequence, it looks like you have one email that ive not seen before here, and so i dont know that i have the full exchange that but does this email trouble you as much as it does members of the Judiciary Committee that the fbi is asking for every single we had members of congress here that week, first time theyre getting sworn in as a new member of congress, their family and town, and they may be a Customer Bank of america, and you are sweeping up every debit and credit card purchase of their family who were in town that week because their husband or their dad or their mom is getting sworn in as a new member of congress, and theyre also saying, overlaying that information with did this person buy a firearm . And the question is . Im just nervous about that. Are you nervous about that . As i think ive testified before, my understanding is that our engagement with bank of america was fully lawful, but that we recalled the leads that were cut. If its lawful, thats my next point, if its lawful, why did you say that were not going to use these leads . Thats what mr. Johnson testified to when we deposed him, director of the Terrorism Unit at the fbi. That is what he testified to. Why did you not use the leads if it was awful to get the information. There are plenty of one in 18 seconds overtime. Sir, there are plenty of times where that we lawfully can do, but that we decide is better than we not do, and i think that is what happened. The idea that mr. Massie said earlier, its lawful that you can ask this is scary. That something us will have to change. With that, i would yield to the gentlelady and recognize the gentlelady for we have a unanimous consent request for mr. Moore. Chairman, yes, the wall street journal article into the record says new fbi headquarters in alabama. Without objection, the chair now recognizes the gentleman from texas for five minutes and we will take a break, director. Good afternoon, thank you very much director wray for your presence here. Thank you to the men and women and the fbi in particular for the work that youve done on gun violence and as well the work that youve done and keeping the americans safe. Let me just very quickly move on some issues that have been made a chief part of the work of our friends on the other side of the aisle. Republican members of this committee have spent much time this congress claiming that various aspects of the u. S. Government have been weaponized against the American People. Director wray, or you or your staff or exonerees weaponizing the fbi against the American People. Absolutely not. Thank you very much and we thank you as well for your civil rights work and emphasize that, and addition, there have been representations that the fbi exaggerates domestic terrorism reports or data. Certainly, january six had its many different storytellers, but that was an act of domestic terrorism. I dont know how you couldve exaggerated that as evidenced by the special Congressional Committee that we had. But lets just think of domestic terrorism as it relates to the men and women of our Law Enforcement. Take, for example, in february 2020 in texas where a white supremacist was engaged in conspiracy involving swatting, harassment tactic and all of the Emergency Services showed up over an over again. Does domestic terrorism impact negatively and dangerously on americas Law Enforcement First Responders . Absolutely. Sometimes, Law Enforcement are themselves the intended victims were of Domestic Violence extremism. That you have good, committed individuals, those the critique is legitimate. Thats our job. But the constant condemnation impact of fbi personnel or those trying to join the fbi. Well, look. Our people are human beings and nobody likes to see the organization they have dedicated their careers, really their lives to unfairly criticize, but i will tell you, as i said in my Opening Statement, that the good news is that our people are also tough and resilient. Our attrition is in the low single digits, and we would be the envy of almost any employer, and our recruiting, unlike whats happening on fourth and more generally, is actually up very significantly. Thank you, and i look forward to being diverse. And let me start with a whistleblower journey here. Are you familiar with fbi special agents kyle syrup and. I am familiar with the name. Is that yes . Im familiar with the name. The Committee Held testimony that he was suspended after he mishandled his Service Weapon in and said he wanted to use two female fbi executives as shooting targets. That was testimony of jennifer more, hr under Human Resources under oath from the fbi. Mr. Sharp indiscretions off as a congressional whistleblower, but Committee Republicans will not tell us whether hes been in contact with them. Are you familiar with former fbi agents Garrett Oboyle and marcus allen. Again, i am firmly with the names. A boil was suspended for accessing information about ongoing case and that leaking to the press and then allen was suspended for interfering in the investigation of january six suspect. Both Eleanor Boyle testified before the Weaponization Committee in may. Were you aware of that . Yes maam. I think theyre clearly there all friends and family to see, and i assumed that they wanted to be seen. Do you know who cash patel is, if you know . Yes, i know. He is an aide to President Trump, isnt he . Or was in a . It is eight . To President Trump. He was an individual who served in a number of different roles, both up here on the hill and in the executive branch. Thank, you thank you. He is not a picture. It is the checks that syrup and sent to both oboyle and allen. Each check was for 255, 000, 194. Let me say that again. These men were paid 255,194 after they testified as socalled whistleblowers, and it should be noted that it says here, as it says, for holding the line. Directly at the time where sara pin and appellate gabe oboyle and marcus allen these checks, do you have in the know if they were still employees of the fbi . I cant speak to that, i dont know the answer. If they were, five c f r 20 265, i would appreciate if we get an answer after writing after you go back, whether they were or not, prohibits fbi employees from accepting cash gifts, doesnt it . Whether or whole number of rules that we apply to this. Again, i dont to weigh in on specific person on. That but if they were, that group applies about cash gifts . Im not aware of a situation in which they could appropriately except cash gifts. Just generally, if that applies to fbi agents about not taking cash gifts, is that correct . There are definitely rules that apply to special agents when it comes to cash gifts. Let me just finish this. Can you explain why fbi agents should not receive cash . Let me move to one that i think is extremely important, mister chairman, mister chairman, just a moment. And here is what i think is most interesting piece of this whole puzzle. Oboyle and allen are represented by an outfit called empower oversight times x power. It is run by former republican staffer. Do you know who else empower oversight might represent . I dont. Mister chairman, ive unanimous consent request. Let me just gentleladys time has expired. Thank you so very much. Thank you. This are called irs whistleblowers who jim jordan had relied upon, but does anyone need any further proof that these allegations are corrupt political stunts advance by those who dont want to see has followed the law . Finally, mister chairman, whos another person who want to join you on the 702, but the fbi has begun major reforms and i think we should recognize that you have been very kind. I yield back my time. Gentlelady yields back. I was going to point out that my guest is a, they got the money they want the money because they were trying to feed their family. They actually have not received the money, unanimous risk consent request mister chairman of a tweet, Matthew Foley put out here during this hearing. Right off the back, jerry nadler lies about whistleblower getting to hundred 50, 000, he says here, marcus allen has not received 250,000. He is not receive or cash the check that carl serafin posted online. You can add to that into the record. The committee will take a five minute recess, five minutes, five minutes, and then we will come back. A brief recess. When Committee Members returned, we will continue testimony from fbi director Christopher Wray. Stay with cspan three for live coverage. A days ago, it is ago in the Western District of louisiana, the court found that the federal government suppressed americans First Amendment free speech rights. In his conclusion, on page 1 50, for the court said this. The judge said this. Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits and establishing that the government has used its power to silence the opposition. Opposition to covid19 vaccines, opposition to covid19 lockdowns. Opposition to the Lab Leak Theory of covid19. Opposition to the validity of the 2020 election, President Bidens policies, and statement that the hunter biden laptop was true and opposition to the government officials in power. All were suppressed. It is quite telling that each example or category to present the speech was conservative in nature. The court for the rights that the United States government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian Ministry of truth. Specific to the fbi, the fbi said this. The fbis failure to alert social Media Companies that the laptop story was real and not russian disinformation, is particularly troubling. The fbi had a laptop in their possession since december 2019, and warn social Media Companies repeatedly to look out for quote hack and dump operation by the russians prior to the 2020 election. Even after facebook specifically asked whether the laptop story was russian disinformation, the fbi refused to comment, resulting in social Media Companies suppression of the story, and as a result, millions millions of our fellow citizens did not hear the story prior to the november 3rd 2020 election. Additionally, the fbi fbi was included in industry meetings, bilateral meetings received and forwarded allege social Media Companies and actually misled companies with regard to the laptop story. When the court says that the fbi misled, that is a nice way of saying that they lied. They lied, and as a result, important formation was kept from we the people days before the most important election that we have. The election of the president of United States, election of the commanderinchief. In a survey last fall, four out of five americans said that they believe that there is a two tiered system of justice in america today. They said that because there is. They said that because of what they have witnessed. Think about what americans have seen, National School Board Association, leftwing political group, writes the white house and awesome to treat parents as, at School Board Meetings as terrorists. And the Garland Justice Department does just that. They put together a memo, they set up a dedicated line of threat communication, a snitch line on parents as a result, parents have been investigated by our fbi get a threat tag associated with their name. 25 of them. Whistleblowers came and told us were investigated by the federal bureau of investigation. Americans have seen the Fbis Richmond field office put together a memorandum saying prolife catholics are extremists. Theyve seen 20 fbi agents, swat team members show up at homes of mark hulk, and invest him in front of, arrest him in front of his wife and seven children. Even though hed indicated hed be happy to turn himself in. What was he arrested for . Kevins 12yearold son were praying outside of an abortion facility. Some guys started screaming and his sons face, and he did what frankly any dad would do, he defended his child. Whats interesting is the National School School Board Association apologized for the letter, but the attorney general refuses to rescind his directive. The fbi did rescind, thank goodness, to Richmond Catholic memorandum, but they refused to Tell Congress who wrote it, and who approved it. And mr. Houck, mr. Houck, when he got his day in court, he was acquitted by a jury of his peers. American speeches censored, catholics are called radicals, and i havent even talked about the spying that took place on the president ial campaign, the rating of a former president s home. Maybe whats more frightening is what happens if you come forward and Tell Congress. Your whistleblower, come tell the legislature, come tell the congress whats going on. And look out. You will be retaliated against. Ask erin oboyle. He told congress about these issues, he took his clearance, they took his pay. They took his kids nate close. Ask gary shabbily, 14 year veteran at the irs, handled some of the Biggest International tax fraud cases at the agency. He comes forward, and the Justice Department kicks him off of the case. Heres whats truly unbelievable, heres whats amazing, with all that history, with all that, the Justice Department, the fbi, they want the taxpayers they censored, the parents they labeled, the prolife catholics they call radical, they want them to pay for a new fbi headquarters. And they want pfizer reauthorization of the 702 program in its current form. Its in the directors Opening Statement. I mean, you cant make the stuff up. There are 204,000 reasons why republicans will oppose pfizer reauthorization in its current form. 204,000 times the fbi improperly searched the 702 database. Unlike the fbi censorship, in the courts opinion, that was focused on conservatives, the fbis illegal scrutiny wasnt just limited to conservatives. Blm supporters were illegally scrutinized by the fbi as well. And i hope our Democrat Friends will join us in opposing reauthorization of section 702 the way its currently done. And i think they will. And i hope, and i hope they will work with us in the appropriations process to stop the weaponization of the government against the American People, and end this double standard that exists now in our Justice System. That i yield to the gentleman from new york for an Opening Statement. Mister chairman, not that long ago, an oversight hearing of the fbi and this committee would have been a relatively bipartisan exercise. My colleagues on both sides of the aisle wouldve asked legitimate questions about the functioning and mission of the bureau. Some of the questions may have been tough. They may have gotten a little heated when we discuss important topics, like privacy and discrimination. But our questioning would have been grounded in advancing overseeing the fbis dual missions of enforcing federal laws, and countering National Security threats on american soil. In short, despite its despite disagreements, we wouldve done our duty as members of the judiciary community. Today, unfortunately House Republicans will fall short of that mark. For them, this hearing is a little more than performance art. It is an elaborate show designed with only two purposes in mind. To protect donald trump from the consequences of his actions, and to return him to the white house in the next election. Dont take my word for it, chairman jordan announced this plan last august. Days after the fbi search of maralago, he told an audience at cpac, the conservative Political Action conference, that was designed to quote, help frame up the 2024 race. And i hope that President Trump is going to run again. In short, we need to make sure that he wins. Let me repeat that. We need to make sure that he winds. Let me repeat that, we need to make sure that he wins. In pursuit of this goal, chairman jordan and Committee Republicans have claimed four months that the fbi is corrupt, rotten, politicized, and their favorite word, weaponize against American People. Chairman jordan has launched an array of baseless investigations into the fbi. Most promise on absurd conspiracy theorists. Some so absurd that the chairman cannot possibly believe them to be true. This is where the extreme lack of leadership of congress has brought us today. Today House Republicans will attack the fbi for having had the audacity to treat donald trump like any other citizen. The strategy is simple really, when in doubt, chairman jordan investigates the investigators. The fbi dared to hold trump accountable, so republicans must discredit the fbi at all costs. You will hear claims today that the fbis decision to investigate donald trump was somehow unfair. You will hear, you will hear republicans attack the indictment, former President Trump on 37 counts related to his gross mishandling of National Security information. Including information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries. United states nuclear programs, potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies of military attack, and plans to possible retaliation in response to foreign attack. The fact is made clear in the indictment. He had authorized disclosure of these classified documents, and they are put at risk at the National Security of the United States foreign relations, the safety of our military, and the human sourcesing collection close quote. Indeed, the diamond goes on to describe how the former president made such unauthorized disclosures. With him boasting about, and showing his classified documents to numerous individuals, without proper security clearance. You hear claims today that this indictment against trump was unfair. Maybe even that it was unlawful. That the fbi shouldve just asked the trump trump a little more nicely, one more time, to hand over the documents. You will hear the case was a political investigation from the start. Orchestrated by a liberal loving fbi, that would ensure trump would be wrongfully vilified at every turn. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from virginia, mr. Cline. Thank you mister chairman, director wray, thank you for being here. Since we last spoke on april 27th, special counsel john durham delivered his report detailing intelligence activities investigations arriving out of the 2016 president ial campaign. When mr. Durham president here at the committee i asked of these questions, and he was able to answer me, and i would ask you the same. But the fbi had an adequate basis on which to launch crossfire hurricane . My understanding is that mr. Durham found that it did not have a proper basis to elevate it to a full investigation, but that he thought it was a assessment or a preliminary inquiry was appropriate. The fbi failed to and investigate all exculpatory evidence . Did you say to examine it . Certainly i think there were failures significant failures with respect to exculpatory information. The fbi interview aki witnesses and this . I think mr. Durham i think found that they did not. The did the fbi abuses authority under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act . Certainly there are violations are totally unacceptable, in my view, cannot be allowed to happen again. As noted in the report, crossfire hurricane investigators have hope that the returns on the fisa application would quote self corroborate. Do fbi or doj guidelines permit investigators to submit uncorroborated allegations in a fisa application and hopes that the returns will selfcorroborate . Ive never heard of that concept. His crossfire hurricane dilley time the fbi has violated procedures for the fisa profit process. Well, there are a lot of different procedures, but certainly not the only compliance incidents that weve had with respect to pfizer. And director, as i expressed to you upstairs, the American People are outraged, in just this week i had a town hall where constituents were expressing outrage about the actions of those within your agency who have damaged the fbis reputation and undermined the work, the good work, of the vast majority of hardworking men and women within your agency, but going down the list, you have the biden family investigation, the anti catholic memo. By the way, you mentioned five individuals who contributed to the anti catholic memo in the Richmond Field Office. Are they still employed by the fbi . I dont think i mentioned any specific individuals. I did say that this was a product by a single field office that we took action on immediately. We have a inspection that is underway right now that is looking at how this happened and how we make sure it doesnt happen again. So it is still possible that individuals will be fired as a result of your review . I dont want to predetermine or forecast where the review will go. We will look at everything from exactly how it happened and what went wrong, and the appropriate steps to be taken. We will take whatever the appropriate steps are. You know the violence against pro life claims. You have the investigation appearance peaking at School Board Meetings and inclusion with big tech. The fisa abuse its section 72 and where one focus right now. As you know, in section 702 authorizes war lister valence. Its posed to be targeted towards foreigners abroad, but the surveillance sweeps in a large amount of americans communications, and the fbi routinely runs searches of section 702 data looking for phone calls, emails, Text Messages of americans with socalled backdoor searches. Depending on the year, the fbi has conducted anywhere from 3. 4 million in 20 21 to 200,000 in 2022. Given this fact, do you honestly think it is fair to continue describing section 702 as a authority targeted only at foreigners abroad . I do. It looks like a framework that enables the fbi to sky spy and countless americans. Would you agree with that assessment . I cant speak to what it looks like to certain people. I can tell you that it is a authority focused on foreigners overseas when it comes to National Security investigations. I would add to that the fbis piece of that, the fbi only everything were talking about fbi related only got about 3 of the entire seven to collection, and then within that 3 , this is important now. Its important people understand this, the fbi ends up only accessing content in like one and a half percent of that, and so little context is appropriate. Well if youre conducting hundreds of thousands or even hundreds of warrantless searches for section 702 data, its currently a domestic surveillance tool, and i would argue that i believe it does pose a real problem within the fbis conduct towards americans and i speak for many when i say that i think it poses a real problem for the reauthorization of fayes authority for your organization, and so with that, i yield back. Thank you mister chairman, and thank you director wray for being here. Im troubled by many of the statements and questions we have heard today that embrace conspiracy theories and disinformation, and with these comments, it appears that some of my colleagues are trying to sow division and score political points rather than conduct legitimate oversight from the actual actions and actions of the policy and fbi, and i like Many Americans would rather focus on congress to the peoples business and ensure that the fbi is ready to do his job and do it well within the bounds of our constitution and laws. Now one of the most serious issues facing American Communities is drug abuse. Particularly opioids and fentanyl and in your opening remarks, you mentioned the arrest of 31 u. S. Citizens in northeast ohio just a couple of weeks ago, most hailing from marion, for Drug Trafficking. Can you just take a minute because i have some other questions to describe what the fbi is doing to end the scourge of fentanyl and what additional tools you might need from congress . So, the fbi is attacking the scourge of fentanyl coming from the southwest border in particular, in a variety of ways. One, we are using our organized crime forces to target the supply, cartels in particular. To, were using our safe Streets Task Force is to go after the gangs that are principally responsible, violent gangs, for distributing this hall over our streets. Third, or targeting provider abuse, prescription, hill mills and things like that through our Health Care Fraud authorities. Fourth, we have something called j code, which focuses on trafficking of fentanyl on the dark web, which is a real problem. Weve had a number of very significant takedowns there. Were also doing things like engaging in outreach, raising awareness, we put out a video called chasing the dragon with dea that has been shown in a lot of schools around the country. We are trying to work with the health community. So, theres a lot of things were doing, but this is an epidemic. I dont think this is an overstatement, and its something that requires all hands on deck. Okay, and if there are things you think congress can help with, please submit that to us afterwards. Another major threat to our nations domestic terrorism, and that is something you have spoken about repeatedly. Like Many Americans, i find it unpatriotic and dangerous for members of congress to embrace dangerous conspiracy theories to undermine our federal Law Enforcement and ultimately, our democracy. I find it disingenuous for members of congress to harangue the head of the fbi about people losing faith and the fbi, when those same members have been trumpeting lies and conspiracy theories about the agency for months. Words matter. They have consequences. And when leaders lie or embrace disinformation, thats dangerous. In recent years, weve seen increasing threats and violence levied against Public Servants at all levels, including journalists, elected officials, election workers, doctors, nurses, school officials, teachers, librarians, and more. And what these Public Servants have in common, is they became targets for threats and violence when they had the guts to stand up to lies and conspiracy theories propagated by the former president and his allies. Weve seen maga extremists, fox news pundits, Russian Internet trolls, and elected officials parrot conspiracy theories and use heated language to convince the American Public, without facts, that dedicated Public Servants are dangerous enemies who should be feared. Most americans understand this is not legitimate political discourse. And this kind of overheated and fact free rhetoric can, in fact, encourage political violence. Its not normal, and it should not be part of American Public life. So, director wray, youve repeatedly testified about the serious threat that Domestic Violence extremists present to americans. These are people who convene violent and criminal acts in furtherance of social or political goals, whether racial and ethnic motivation or Anti Government. Motivation. Can you talk about the role that mistrust in government and disinformation and conspiracy theories play in the radicalization and recruitment of extremists . Well, certainly, there is a whole host of misconceptions that are out there. I think a number of institutions, whether its Law Enforcement, whether its the Supreme Court, whether its any number of our institutions, that in the environment that we are in, where there are people who increasingly channel their range and violence, that causes a problem. You know, there is a right way under the First Amendment to express what you are angry about and who you are angry with, and we take that very seriously, and you as part as our mission, not to protect the American People, but to uphold the constitution. But when those views are then turned into violence, and threats of violence, weve got a problem. I think the fbi has to act. Thank you. I see my time has expired, but i would seek unanimous consent to introduce into the record a press release from the u. S. Attorneys office from the north of district of ohio involved, 31 officials tied in a Drug Trafficking organization in Marion County indicted. Without objection. The chair recommends the gentleman from california. Thank you, mister director, we abandoned afghanistan, we released about 5000 terrorists from the the tension facility. One of those terrorist showed up ten days later and killed 2 13 u. S. Marines. Where the other 5000 . I dont know if i could tell you were all five thousands. Our for simply, have you encountered any here in the United States . We have quite a few Ongoing Investigations into foreign terrorist related subjects, whether theyre alqaeda related or isisk related, we are conducting, as you and i are having this conversation, and certainly so have you encountered any in the United States . Specifically, im not sure i could say. Let me follow up and make sure if theres anything more i can provide on that. Meanwhile, weve had about one and a half million gotaways cross the border as this crisis unfolded. And any estimate of how many, among the 5000, among one and a half million, no one gotaways . Maybe terrorists . I know that we have seen and uptick, which is obviously concerning to me. I can tell from your question, concerning to you in kstps, as we call them, known or suspected terrorists coming across the southwest border. And our folks are working very hard to try to do our part, to try to keep tabs on those individuals. Speaking of upticks, weve seen an uptick in criminal cartel or cartel related Gang Activity in the United States over the last several years. Yes , the cartels working in kind of an unholy alliance with dangerous, violent gangs here in the u. S. , are responsible not just for the abominable distribution of fentanyl over the country, but also, an awful lot of the violence. Across our southern border . That is a huge driver of it, certainly. Huge driver. As a reporter weve lost contact with the guardians more than 85,000 unaccompanied minors who have been brought here by the cartels through the southern border. How many of these children are still unaccounted for . That, im not sure. We have the answer to that, that may be a question for the ages. Whats the woods procedure . The woods procedure is a procedure for, it has nothing to do with 702. It has to do with traditional fisa, title i fisa, as we call it, and involves having files that have all the underlying documents to support each of the factual assertions is that important to the integrity of fisa applications . Yes, sir. It february of 2020, you are sure the committee you took these fisa abuses seriously, as you were working to address them. And here in half later, the office of the Inspector General reported you werent. They reported systemic noncompliance and essentially, some fbi field person took the woods procedure as a joke. If we cant trust your past reforms, how seriously should we take your promises a future reform . I appreciate the opportunity to address this one. That, oig finding, actually applies to number one, that applies to compliance problems that occurred before all the fixes i was testifying to you all about, even though the report came out later, it was covering a time period that predated all of the fixes and reforms your general counsel, assured mr. Durham, the abuses would not have happened because of the new procedures for review, yet you had some of the worst abuses in the crossfire hurricane were committed by supervisory agents. So, why should we have any great confidence its not going to happen again . A couple different sets of reforms here. So, the first is that reforms that we put in place in response to the Inspector Generals crossfire hurricane report but we cant trust the supervisors is the problem. The problem seems to be that this power exists at all, and human beings being what they are will tend to abuse them. Could you describe the term parallel construction, as it relates to evidence produced in fisas searches parallel construction . Im not sure ive used it. It doesnt refer to the fbi using forbidden information in the seventh to search using local and forsman to search for and produce the same material without using that it revealed from and on proper search . Im just not sure about the use of the term. Well, has the fbi ever employed that particular tactic in prosecuting american citizens . Not to my knowledge. Again, i cant look into that and get back to gear. What percentage of fights applications are rejected by the fisa court . I dont know that we have that number. There is usually a back and forth with the court. It is not unusual for the courts to its a fraction of a percentage, isnt it . A fraction of a percentage . I dont know if thats right, but its definitely a small number. I think that is partly because we are focused on an awful lot like a rubber stamp. I see my time is expired. The gentleman yields back. Gentleman from georgia, you are recognized. Thank you, chairman. Good afternoon, director wray. Thank you for coming before the Judiciary Committee this afternoon. I have read your testimony. I want to redirect this questioning for a moment, and i want to focus on the important work the fbis test with what it continues to do its work with gun violence prevention and keeping our community safe. As of today, there have been over 300 Mass Shootings. Thats more than the number of days we have had in this year. Statistics will continue to show us over and over again during this summer, these numbers continue to rise. Extremists protection orders played an Important Role in Law Enforcements response to preventing Mass Shootings from happening. And what are also known as red flag laws, or orders, the empower Law Enforcement, along with family members and household members, to petition a court to actually have the individual that appears to be in crisis, have those firearms, just temporarily taken away or removed from them with a court order, to be returns during expiration of that order. I have a few questions for you, so if you answer us directly as you can, i appreciate it. Family members and members of Law Enforcement can often identify individuals who would pose a risk to themselves or to others within the community when they actually possess a gun. As the head of the United States federal Law Enforcement agency, do you believe that these red flag laws and these programs enhanced Public Safety . I dont want to speak on behalf of any specific legislative proposal, but i will say that i know from experience a number of states have had a good experience with those laws. Thank you. In the past several years, several states have actually enacted those extremist protection orders, and in total, we have 21 states in the district of columbia have enacted their own forms of red flag laws. If a person who is subject to such an order tries to buy eight gun from a federal licensed firearm dealer with the fbi approve or deny the sale . , well, i believe if the order is required by state law, making a state prohibit her, and therefore is loaded into the next system, then when the background check is run, when the ethel, the firearms, federal firearms license and contacts next to proceed with the sale, that would pick up the socalled protective order you are talking about. And if thats a prohibitive, that would block the transaction, is my understanding. In the absence of an application or applicable state law, is there a way for the fbi agents to seek an order under federal law . Im not aware of any federal law to that effect. Exactly. If an fbi agent has information that someone has been violent many times in the past, but is not able to seek a criminal conviction, is there a way for the fbi to deny the sale of a gun to that person . We only deny sales for people who are prohibited by law from possessing firearms. My bill, the federal extreme Risk Protection border act which was passed by the house last congress would provide americans in all states access to these truly lifesaving measures. I have reintroduced this bill again, this term, and Congress Passed a bipartisan Safer Communities act among other critical gun violence provisions and that. Legislation against address the problem of gun trafficking. What steps has the fbi taken to implement or utilize this new law that actually helps to stop gun trafficking . Well we are of course working with the Justice Department as we address all of the problems with the law that relates to mix that has had the biggest impact on us. Is certainly on the additional text that now would be run for the 18 to 20 year olds, and we started implementing that last october. It was full in january and its a big change for us and for the state agencies that are on the receiving and for the request for information as well as for the f ls. But the big stories in the moms and pops. It is a big change in the system. I think we have done 100,000 or so checks of this 18 to 21 of the words you 21 group that we are talking about since the implementation of those are not all denials to be clear but most if not the vast majority were from sales that were appropriately proceeded, but there were some that were of course based on the statute. Okay, thank you so much, im out of time. The gentlelady from texas is recognized. And thank you director wray for appearing. Bryant was one of the fbi Intelligence Analysts who interviewed igor the principal source of the steele dossier in january of 2017, correct . I believe that is in the Durham Report. And he explained the dossier allegations are bs, yet the fbi did not reveal that to the pfizer court. Instead, the fbi continued to use those allegations into moores vice applications about President Trump and putin, correct . Well again, i want to let mr. Durhams report speaks for itself. But as director of the fbi, those are the facts. Fbi and here, watch the fbi sorry sir, it is important. Not under my watch. Those are the facts im getting to the part, im getting to the part under your watch. The fbi conducted a internal investigation of it and sought to expend him but appealed, correct . I cant discuss the specific pending personnel matter. But according to recent reports, those are the facts. Nevertheless, in 2020 after senator grassley in johnson highlighted evidence of potential financial crimes in corruption against the biden family, the fbi signed on to compile which was used to characterize the biden revelations as russian disinformation. The evidence grassley in johnson had collected were mostly financial records and could easily have been corroborated as authentic. By then, the fbi had the hunter laptop and its possession for over a year. Its what new the lucrative payments were authentic. How on earth did the fbi empire empowered agent under investigation for potentially corrupt performance and abuse of fisa in one politically fraught investigation, eight democratic operative held a case against President Trump to hold a key role and to undermine a second politically fraud investigation, a case against the bidens. How is that possible . How can you allow that to occur in the federal bureau of investigations. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle say that the elite Law Enforcement agencies of the United States, how does that occur . I cant, at the moment, discuss a pending personnel matter. I can tell you that every employee who in any way touched the crossfire hurricane matter has been referred to our office of professional responsibility. Are you concerned about this activity by the fbi and what was communicated to the fisa court . Does that concern you as the director of the fbi . I consider the conduct that was described in the Durham Report as totally unacceptable and and representative of what i see from the fbi every day and must never be allowed to happen again. And have there been consequences as a result . Is mr. Autumn has he had consequences . Well again, i cannot speak to pending personal matters. As he would perhaps remember from your own time and Law Enforcement, because we were speaking closely with mr. Durham and i signed agents to help him. At his request, we slowed down the administrative process to allow his investigation to complete itself. Now that it is complete, our personal processes are very much ongoing. I think it is more the troubling that under your watch we see this continue to occur. And you have often continued to be empowered after there was a investigation and an effort by the nba to give wrong information. The issue here has been wrapped up in a cloud of politics. But the fact is that the American People deserve to know how the fisa court is being abused and how it is being abused because the former president in against them. In light of the report that we saw with mr. Johnson from louisiana put forward that was in a court filing, in a court report. We will move on to another topic. On september 23rd, 2022, 20 heavily armed agents stormed the home of mark houck. Youre familiar with this . Im familiar with this case a little bit, yes. This was after mr. Houcks lawyer reached out and said he would appear voluntarily because the incident in question occurred almost a year earlier in october 2021. So a year earlier. The question here i have, local authorities investigated the incident but it concluded that there was no case. After the jury met for roughly an hour, houck was acquitted. How on earth did mark houck end up having the fbi sent several armed agents along with local authorities to arrest him at gunpoint . And do you approve it . Did you approve of that . Let me start where you ended. Decisions about the manner of a arrests are not something that the fbi director approves. I defer to and rely on the judgment of the experience career agents on the ground who have both the most intimate understanding of the facts and have the Training Experience to decide how best to effectuate a arrest. Do you know who did order it . On my understanding is that that arrest was conducted an hour philadelphia division. By courage and with a combined 40 years of do you approve of the raid now in retrospect . Do you think it was appropriate . Do you think it was appropriate for father to have armed fbi agents, local agents, go to his home, arrest him at gunpoint for alleged violation of the face act a year after the alleged incident after the father had said through his lawyer that he would appear voluntarily. Do you think that fbi agents should go to the home of a father in philadelphia suburbs . Im not going to second guess the judgment of the career agents on the ground who made the termination. But your job is to second dress a look at what they are doing. Your job is to review what they do. You jobs to protect the American People from a tyrannical fbi storming the home of the american family. I could not disagree more with your description of the fbi as tyrannical, and you dont believe its tyrannical that fbi agents were part of storming a fathers home in suburban philadelphia . Mr. Chairman the time of the gentleman has expired. The witness may respond, and then it will return. Sir, respectfully, they did not storms house. They came to his door, they knocked on his door and identified themself, they asked him to exit, he did without incident. [inaudible] not at gunpoint, but whatever agents do interest, our agents arent all the time, as you may remember from your own experience as a prosecutor. The gentleman yields back, the Ranking Member has unanimous consent request. I ask unanimous consent that this document be placed in the record. That is not too specific. I sent him to the full january 15th 2021 in offer between bag of america, the fbi as for an operation day instead of the edited version that was shown im happy, im happy to have that into the record. Without objection. We champion it. We are going to bring it up again here if we get a chance. The gentlelady from pennsylvania is recognized. Thank you mister chairman. Director wray, good to see you. I thank you for being here today and i just want to remind those who are watching at home and were here in the room that we were here as an oversight function. We are not here as a Political Tool to hammer you or your 38,000 Public Servants, Law Enforcement men and women and to try to use you politically. But it surely doesnt feel that way all the time during this. And so i thank you for your service. I think the men and women for their service. I have a first cousin, technically a first cousin and law who for a very long time in the philadelphia suburbs, served as a fbi agent with integrity and honor. And so i think of him, i think of jack today as i am doing this. I read your testimony often, over and over, the state the mission of fbi to protect the American People and uphold the constitution of the United States. Twofold. Protect the American People, uphold the constitution. Do it by the rule of law. That is what we should be asking about. Are we doing that to the best of our ability . I want to use a the maralago documents, because it has been used by the former president as a moment as though he has somehow been victimized, but none of that is normal. These are serious times, and your people have serious missions about the safety of the American People and doing it lawfully. Director wray, a ballroom, a bathroom, a bedroom. Are those appropriate places to store classified, confidential information . Well again, i dont want to be commenting on the pending case, but i will say that there are specific rules about where to store classified information and that those need to be stored in a secure compartmentalize information facility, and in my experience, ball, rooms bathrooms, and bedrooms are not scifs. Mine, too. And yet, thats where the former president chose to put Vital Information about our National Security. He exacerbated the wrist, as alleged of a damning 37 count indictment by evading Law Enforcement and allegedly showing some of these classified documents to others who were not either in a scif or up to having these informations sent to him. It was january 20th, having lost the election, 2021, when at noon, mr. Trump had to leave the white house. Of course, it is shown in the affidavits and in the indictment that he left with quite a few boxes. May of 2021, the National Archives email requesting the missing documents from mr. Trump, his lawyer said that he would provide them, and never did. January 18 of 2022, we are talking a full year later, mr. Trump finally turned over 15 boxes, 14 of them containing documents with classified markings, 30 documents top secret. June 2022, this is now a year and a half later. Doj and fbi recover an additional 38 classified documents from maralago. Your fbi. All right, our fbi. A lawyer for mr. Trump signed a statement at that point, to the best of her knowledge, she says all classified materials had been returned. But Surveillance Footage of course, show that was not the case. In august of 2020 to a federal judge approved a warrant to search for maralago. This was not a raid, as some on the other side would like to have a pity party for mr. Trump. This was not a raid, they retrieved another 102 documents with classified markings. 300 and some documents taken by the president , improperly stored, and tried to evade and obstruct justice as is alleged. Do you think that the fbi went over the top four was out of line in there, in your participation in retrieving these documents . Again, i dont want to discuss the specifics of a pending case. From everything ive seen, our folks in this case have proceeded honorably and then stricken plants with our policies, our rules, and our best practices. It seems from a overview we can do, we look here at the affidavit, the search warrants, to go on in. It was one of your special agents, signed from the Washington Field office. Obviously, we dont know who. But pointed out and made the case for probable cause to go in and to collect these documents. So lets take a look at the flipside. What is the harm . What is the danger to either human assets, your employees, National Security, for mr. Trump, holding on to moving around, showing top secret documents . Where is the harm . 18 months of this going on. Are again, respectfully, im not going to comment or weigh in on cases now pending in front of federal judges. But speaking more generally, the rules governing the handling of classified information are there for a reason, and people need to be very mindful of those rules. Unfortunately, the fbi has, as a steady part of its talking, a number of investigations involving mishandling. And the reason those rules are there is because classified information, if it gets into the wrong hands, cant put human sources in jeopardy. It can put other kinds of intelligence collection in jeopardy. It can jeopardize our partnerships with foreign liaison services, which are the lifeblood of the Intelligence Community in many ways. So, its serious business, and it needs to be taken seriously. But again, im not speaking about a particular case. And speaking generally. I very much appreciate it, mister chairman. I appreciate, but i want to point out to the world, none of this is normal. It was not normal what took place here. I yield back. The gentlelady yields back. The bathroom, ballroom, about a box in a mister chairman each aus in yellow where in a biden mister chairman, point of order the gentleman from texas is recognized. Thank you, mister chairman. I want to talk about china but before i do, i want to just comment, you know, in the last exchange with mr. Roy, i heard you say certain practices were outrageous to you, and i appreciated that. I think we would have liked to have heard more set this hearing about things, acknowledging failures. I realize there are a lot of positives to talk about, but we do, as a committee, want to work with you when chairman jordan asks why so much is redacted in the document, could we perhaps sit down with you, even if its privately, and you tell us why that needs to be the case . If we ask for the names of these employees behind the catholic, the catholic issue and virginia, can we get a commitment we will eventually get those names . I didnt hear that in the exchange with mr. Jordan. You certainly have my that we will work collaboratively with the committee. We obviously have rules that govern what we can share, and we have to be mindful of those. In my experience, thats with the longstanding accommodation process between executive branch, especially lawton forsman agencies and congress, is there for. We absolutely pursue that in good faith. I know we have been providing enormous amount information, and if there are places that we can do better on that, want to try to do better on that, again, consistent with our rules, and very mindful of the fact that the whole reason im in this job its because my predecessor was fired, and when a fairly scathing Inspector General report, one of the things he was criticized for was sharing more information, both with the public and frankly, with congress, then was consistent with the federal rules. Thank you for that pledge. Now, to china. Most americans dont realize, i dont think, that u. S. Companies doing business in china are required to have joint venture agreements. Thats been around since 2017 or 18, i believe. It requires the Chinese Communist party to have political sales within these enterprises, American Enterprises in china. In the last few weeks, it has come to my attention that they have taken that up a notch and actually gone further. The chinese, have and said that not only must they be present and have access, but they now control these american businesses. So they are in excess nationalizing American Enterprises in china. And the ceos ive talked to are afraid to say something. They say theyve come to the fbi, the fbi, i think, is aware of this. Im about to turn it over to you. My question is, is this happening . What can be done about it . What do we need to do about it . Well, i think youve put your finger on a very important issue. Frankly, one that does not get the attention that it really deserves. So, i appreciate you bringing it up. I will say that in my view, there is no country, none, that presents a broader, more comprehensive threat to our ideas, our innovation, our economic security, and the Chinese Government and the Chinese Communist party. In many ways, it represents, i think, the defining threats of our era. When it comes specifically to the Business Community, while theres no law against joint ventures, the problem that we have is that the Chinese Government all too often has exploited those joint ventures to then use them as ways to get improper access to companies secrets and information. Do you find they have stepped up, though, to where they are, in essence nationalizing u. S. Companies quietly . In a variety of ways, i havent thought about using that term, but i think you are on to a very important point. I will give you an example i think a lot of people in america still dont know about, would be shocked to hear, which is that really, any company of any size in china, it is required, required by chinese law, to have what they quaintly call a committee. Which is essentially a cell inside the company, whose sole function is to ensure that Companies Compliance with Chinese Communist party orthodox. If we tried to install Something Like that in American Companies, or if the british tried to do in British Companies or any number of other places, people would go out of their minds and right agreed. Thank you, id like to work with you more on that. I yield back my time to the chairman, thank you. But thats exactly what you did the judge said it last week every week you are meeting with Big Tech Companies saying hey, look at this this violates your policy take this americans down, you are doing the same thing you just described the chinese about, and, we put up an email. Mr. The unanimous consent request you put this up from the fbi and the big of america. Because they want to know something. This is a full email. Go to the full length when it goes to any historical purchase going back six months, generating weapons, weapons related purchases. Do you see that, director . You see the bullet point . The one that says any in all caps . This is the email. How did you know . How would you know if its a purchase . How is the fbi not gonna know this . Put your mic on, please. Im sorry, im not going to start engaging on specific correspondence. I dont have a whole string here, as ive said before, my understanding is our engagement with bank of america was lawful, but we also took steps as we discussed in our earlier exchange if its lawful, why did you take steps to the uk and other both ways. I disagree with actually. Really . Theres plenty of things we lawfully can do that we decide are better not to do, and that is my understanding of what happened here. Wow. Wow. The chair recognizes the gentlelady from texas for five minutes. Thank you, mister chairman. Director wray, thank you for your testimony and thank you for your public service. Last week, in my district and my hometown of el paso, texas, a domestic violent extremists was sentenced to 90 consecutive life terms for a horrific attack he carried out on my community in august 30, 2019. On that day, he confessed that he drove over ten hours from his community in east texas to mine, in order to slaughter mexicans. And immigrants. And before he walked into that walmart, he published his creed online, and he used some of the same ugly, xenophobic rhetoric that i hear my colleagues on the other side of the aisle use, and he walked into that walmart with an automatic style weapon and began shooting indiscriminately. He killed 23 people, injured dozens more, and my Community Remains profoundly impacted by that attack. And the victims and the survivors and the loved ones still live with profound pain and trauma. What is the fbi doing, director wray, in response to racially motivated domestic terrorism . Well first, let me say i feel your pain. I actually visited the walmart crime scene shortly after the attack and spent time with our folks on the ground who were processing the crime scene in blistering heat on the parking lot there, and obviously, got briefed by the Investigative Team and met with our local partners, and obviously, it was a horrific, tragic event. And the individual stories about some of the individual victims stick with me to this day. As to the broader phenomenon of racially motivated violent extremism, we have done a number of things. We have allocated it to a National Threat priority back in the summer of 2019, i believe it was . Which means that is squarely in scope of all of our joint Terrorism Task forces and treated as a priority at the top level, thats our highest level of priority. We also have engaged and created a domestic terrorism hate crimes fusion cell, and you might wonder whats the point of that . Well, what we found was that sometimes, the same acts of violence, called a hate crime, or could be called an active domestic and in the way the fbi is structured, the in the second is focused on presentation, by bringing the two subject matter letting anything slip through the cracks of more importantly, we could be proactive in thinking ahead, and that same fusion so for example, was then very important in us identifying and preventing devastating attack against the outside of colorado and really, one of the first times in recent memory that a hate crimes prosecution was able to be preventative. All too often, unfortunately, those cases are brought after theres a horrific attack. So, we are very proud of disrupting that line. Thank you so much, director wray. Im also very curious about what steps youve taken to improve coordination between the fbi and four department of Homeland Security, in terms of reporting that domestic terrorism data. Well, theres, there were a number of places, this gets a little bit technical, but the reports that the Congress Called for, i had a number of engagements with senator peters, on the senate side, about this. Where data about how many domestic terrorism attacks there have been and cases there were. I think there are different ways in which the two agencies were counting and so forth. So, in order to kind of get better and providing that information, as required by congress, weve worked more and more closely with the hss on ensuring a common set of metrics until fourth, to make sure the reports are getting in on time. Police will have made significant progress. I appreciate, that data is critically important. As you know, im just about out of time. Thanks again for your service, mister chairman. I go back. Excuse me, gentlelady yields back. The gentleman in florida is recognized. Good afternoon, director wray. Correct, or how many special agents are there currently in the United States . You mean outside the fbi . No, in the fbi. In the fbi . I think we have about 40,000 or so fbi special agents. And they are spread across field offices and resident agencies in the u. S. And in some cases, around the world, is that right . Yeah. Right. As a ford or federal prosecutor and judge, i had the opportunity to work with a number of men and women of the fbi from my home state, and one thing i know that weve heard in your testimony today is that you all have very broad responsibilities. Is it correct to say the fbi, among other things, investigates counterterrorism, counter intelligence, cyber crime, public corruption, civil rights offenses, transnational organized crime, violent crime, and domestic terrorism . And other things as well, but yes. And in addition to that, would you agree with the statement the bureau provides important support to local Law Enforcement agencies around the country . On those subjects, and others . I would say indispensable support. Something i hear about, i am talking with chiefs and sheriffs probably every week in this job since ive started, and if theres one refrain i hear from them consistently, its keep it coming. We need it. Can you give us even more help . Thats what i hear from them. Id like to focus on the subject of domestic terrorism today. And when we talk about domestic terrorism, the bureaus work includes investigating and bringing to justice those who do profound harm to the homeland, given the opportunity, and the bureau has been involved in cases involving hate crimes, violent extremists, and some of our countrys most notorious criminals like Timothy Mcvay and ted kaczynski, right . Yes. And, of course theres many such individuals who have plans to do harm to our homeland thats america never hears about, because youve successfully intercept and prevent before those incidents occur. Yes. In fact, one of the things i think people would be surprised to know because terrorism is not as much in the news as it was during the era when i was serving in the bush administration, the 9 11 era, we have just since ive been director, disrupted attacks against a july 4th parade, in ohio. Any number of attacks against churches and other houses of worship, and attempted attack, plot to attack a hospital during covid. The pier in san francisco, in sort of a peak tourism moment. A crowded beach during memorial holiday, and these are not ultimately terrorism. Some of them are, and thats important for people to know, some of these are jihadist inspired terrorist attacks, too. That has not gone away, even though a lot of the public discussion has been about domestic terrorism. And so, here is what im hoping you can help us reconcile today. We know that there are a limited number of agents. A limited number of resources. A vast responsibility to prevent a broadway of very serious offenses. What i would like to do, with that in mind, is to turn your attention to the decision within the bureau to use investigative resources to you. To investigate israel parents to attend School Board Meetings for the purpose of sharing their concerns about the nature of their childrens education, and the efficacy of the policies that were being implemented by School Boards around the country. Is it correct that, in 2021, the fbi created a threat tag specifically for parents attending School Board Meetings . Yes, i think it is important for people to understand what a threat tag isnt if not. It is not when we investigate. It is not an investigative tool. It is and administer the function. Something that doesnt change anything about how we investigate, the tools we use, any of our longstanding standards for education but in those circumstances . You mentioned the resource allocation question. It is correct, however, that agent surveilled. That agents did in fact surveil and investigate certain parents who were attending School Board Meetings . No, maam, that is actually not correct. We opened 25 assessments into reports that were tagged. None of those involved incidents at School Board Meetings. To my knowledge, the fbi has not open investigations to any parent for exercising speech at School Board Meetings. Would you be concerned that, to do so, would be an infringement and perhaps a infringement on the first to memorize the parents to proceed in those meetings. Do you believe that theyll be a function of the bureau . I believe that our mission is to protect the American People and uphold the constitution. The uphold the constitution part is very important to me and our people. I will say to you the same thing as it often see six of our field offices a soon as i read that memo. The fbi is not and has never been in the business of policing or investigating speech by parents in School Board Meetings. We are not about to start now. We are going to keep doing what weve been doing. That includes when there is violence. Threats of violence. We are going to work with our state and local partners. As we always have, on. That following our normal procedures and following our normal investigative steps in our normal investigation. Thank you. The chairman, are you. Back to the gentlewoman yields. Back the gentleman from colorado is recognized. Thank you, mister chairman. Virtual ray, thank you for being here. Thank you for your testimony. Thank you for your service to our country under some pretty difficult circumstances. We are certainly grateful that the people of the state that i represent, colorado, are grateful to the 38,000 members of the fbi team, as you have articulated, that are working every day to keep the American People safe and keep the people in my state of my community safe. We are grateful for you being here. This committee, obviously, has a legitimate role in conducting oversight. Generally that oversight has extended to the policy areas. The areas of Law Enforcement that, of course, you are responsible for. Unfortunately, much of the conversation today, it is disappointing, i think, for those americans who have been watching. Not been focusing on legitimate areas inquiry but instead conspiracy theories and. Like obviously youve been given an opportunity to respond to some of the attacks that have been made against Law Enforcement agencies that you direct. And the dangerous calls or, at least in my view, the dangerous cause of a made by my colleagues on the other side of the aisle in terms of defunding federal Law Enforcement. Something that is deeply dangerous. You have articulated the many reasons why. I would like to focus in on two areas that are important to my constituency in colorado. That i believe are relevant to the work that you do. That is the federal epidemic and gun violence prevention. Was it back to the letter, you might recall testifying to the committee previously. I had the opportunity to invest in something that happened in my state in colorado. In 2021 the g. A. O. Issued a report in response to this particular incident. By way of background the controller in colorado transferred a firearm to an 18yearold resident of florida without first verifying the purchasers, age eligibility, and purchase the threat to a coals feuding akin to the mass tragedy that occurred in combination. Causing the mass closure of multiple schools in my district back in colorado. The report suggested the fbi strengthened its system to the sale of firearms to out of state purchasers. Particularly, it recommended the fbi updated the system to verify the age requirements to an out of state farm producer. For both the purchaser state of residence in the sale to ensure basic eligibility. We havent reduced elevation. I believe the Justice Department is aware of. That to make that requirement statutory. We wonder if you could expound a bit of cheer you are aware of the report. Or whether the fbi has implemented the recommendation that the g. E. O. Has made. If not, the g the plans to do so. Well, i think these specific regulation would require something that the department is studying. I cannot weigh in on a specific legislative proposal. When it comes to the specific issue of 18 to 20yearolds in particular, and gun purchases, that is, of, course the subject of the bipartisan Safer Communities act that was passed. There are a number of significant checks that now occur. We started implementing that last october. We fully implemented it starting in january. That provides for enhanced checks for that critical population. The 18 to 20 rolled range. Juvenile and criminal records. Mental health records. And contact. Most importantly contact with a Law Enforcement in that persons community. I have been how to and sat with the operators who process those checks. I have seen firsthand how it works. The important work that it represents. I think if you were to talk, im talking to chiefs in sheriffs all over this country every week most of them if you talk to them for very long you will hear their concern and our concern about juveniles and violence. Within the first ten minutes of any conversation. It is a real problem in this country. I thank you for your answer. I think it understood chorus the importance for the program. We would look forward to perhaps following up with your team on this particular administrative issue. Trying to make sure that the database is working efficiently. Limited time left. I wanted to give you the opportunity. I will talk a little bit about the final approach. Devastating that is why we provided a bipartisan representative is one of our cochairs. We wonder if you could just be able to provide us with some of the most dangerous and Disturbing Trends that you think the American People and policymakers to be aware of. There are a whole bunch of trends but because of the importance of the topic i will hit a couple. One is, and we were just discussing this recently internally. We are finding, over the course of the last year, that maybe a little less than a year almost every takedown we have now, and we are doing them all over the country every time, almost everything one now seems to involve, as well, a seizure of fence known. We have been doing gang takedown since congress won the weather prosecutor, as well. That is not new. What is new is that over and over again would seem to find fentanyl through these violent gang takedowns. The second phenomenon which is deeply disturbing. And of the miss trader is concerned about, as well. We are seeing more and more adulteration, or fentanyl, of lacing through also to Prescription Drugs and lots of american to take all the time. If you think about the phenomenon with the youth in this. Country which is itself a problem with getting Prescription Drugs from their drugs and their friends parents. Whatever happens to be. They may not know that there is, potentially, a lethal dose of fentanyl in some Prescription Drug theyre taking. It only underscores the importance of only getting your prescriptions from an appropriate medical provider. The gentlemans time has expired. The gentleman from congress is the southern border secure . I think the southern border represents a massive security threat. What we have heard from you today as fentanyl has become a really big problem. You have to put more resources to. It is that correct. Towards fentanyl . Yes, yes we are. When we retail some of the story. This all happened over the last couple years as the border has become unsecure again, and i want to defer to Homeland Security which is responsible for the physical security the building. I will tell you from the fbi perspective we are seeing all sorts of very serious criminal threats that come from across the border. Getting worse, correct . You are putting your assets towards it. We certainly do so it is becoming more of a party for you . It is becoming more of a priority for us. In the report, we heard from mr. Durham just a few weeks. Ago the fbi uphold the Important Mission of strict fidelity to the law that predates you. Do you agree with that statement . The one that mr. Durham made . Yes. I do. Was the russia collusion a hoax . In light of the Durham Report, was russia collusion a hoax . What i would say is this, as to the Durham Report itself, and one to the issue of russias malign influence. As to the Durham Report itself be quick. Ill try. The conduct that it describes its conduct i consider to be unacceptable in contrary to the who however the fbi. Secondly, on the other, one it is not seriously disputed that the russian, among foreign adversaries, have attempted to interfere in our elections. So, had there been any number of finding to that finding . President trump himself rightly declared a National Emergency about foreign interim about our elections in 2018. As a result of the actions of the disgraced james comey and the fbi they have interfered with the elections and both 2016 and in 2020. Will that interference happen again in 2024, by the fbi . The fbi will not be interfering in elections. They did in 2016. I dont know that that is what mr. Durham found. I will tell you again that it was conduct today consider unacceptable you can be and now if you want. To im not in denial, sir. That is exactly what happened. Last year the fbi gave a defensive briefing to my home senator, johnson. You can see the slide up there. That defensive brynn seeing was linked to the washington post. Who ordered that briefing . So, defensive briefings, when it comes to election matters, including in the last administration a procedure so that by the last administration are an inter Agency Process coordinated by the director of national intelligence. The way that works is the inter agency concludes that a briefing is appropriate in the fbi has given information from whatever Intelligence Community agency supplies it and then we the senator johnson, that is his quote, he is up there with you and hunter biden. I know it was a setup. He asked you this question back in november last year. He said, i knew it was a setup. That goes back to the point about interfering and elections. Senator johnson was one of the most vulnerable republican incumbents, if not the most vulnerable incumbent that was a target of the democrats in the 2022 election. Then you see this briefing happen. He knew what was happening. There was someone, some people, within the fbi and intelligence arena that were going after him. Did joe biden take payments from burisma or any other Foreign Companies as president , Vice President , or private citizen . As you may know there is an Ongoing Investigation being led by the u. S. Attorney in delaware, mr. Weiss. Appointed by President Trump during the last administration. At our baltimore field office, i would refer you to. Him if anything can be so the president is under investigation . I am not going to confirm or speak to who is or isnt under investigation. He is not an investigation . I didnt say that. Either by Longstanding Departmental policy and practice im not going to be confirming or denying who it is or isnt under investigation. Thank. You i will close with. This russian collusion started, mister chairman, and the targeting, suppression, and the senatorship has continued until this point. We need to thoroughly review what the fbi is doing. At a minimum, i will be allowing fisa to sunset if we are not going to see significant reforms in the agency. I hope. Back of the gentleman yields. Back the gentleman from North Carolina audience. Thank you mister chairman. Thank you director wray for your service and your patients. In 2018, 2018 of temple bath org, a synagogue in my district, received threats mailed to their homes. These threats led to the cancellation of programming and continued a disturbing trend of rising antisemitism in North Carolina. In the years since, my state has confronted new threats from domestic terrorists that minority institutions. This past april, a man was arrested on the campus of carolina and tea. The largest hbcu in the country. Multiple firearms, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, as well as a makeshift explosives, brass knuckles, crossbow, knives, and other weapons. Thankfully, this man was arrested before he could cause any harm. The threat that he posed to the campus mirrors threats we have seen hbcus across the country. In North Carolina, and across the United States, we have also seen increased threats against reproductive care providers in the wake of the Dobbs Decision last summer. North carolina recently enacted a 12week abortion ban which has severely restricted access to Reproductive Health care in my state. People often have to go through threatening crowds to be able to access the care they need. While some in North Carolina have highlighted vandalism of Crisis Pregnancy Center since the overturn of roe, they have failed to acknowledge respond to the increase of violence at abortion providers. Does the fbi currently provide antiterrorism training to civilians, hbcu, places a warship, religious centers, individuals providing abortion services, lgbtq groups . Does that training include a domestic terrorism component . So they can help you and Law Enforcement . Well, we do a whole bunch of things to engage with the community. Institutions are targeted with why alerts. That includes a number of the type of institutions that you mention. I know that in particular we work very closely with the jewish community. It has any unfortunate distinction of, despite the percentage that they represent to the american population, they are way disproportionately targeted. We spend a lot of time engaging with them around the country. We also spend a lot of time engaging with campus Law Enforcement. Including at hbcus. We spent a lot of time on the. Especially last year with bomb threats coming in. I was just recently with all of that campus on enforcement leaders from around the country over the past couple weeks, we certainly tried to provide awareness to different kinds of institutions on how to deal with potential mass casualty events and things like that. We also provide information with things to be on the lookout for indifferent communities. What you mentioned on the abortion side. The reproductive facilities. Of course, i would be remiss if i can also point out that there has been pretty significant uptick in violence going the other way since the Dobbs Decision. In fact, most of the investigations that we have opened since the Dobbs Decision, probably about 70 of them, have been violence against prolife assiduities. We recently had a significant charge in madison wisconsin. My guy who was trying to fire bomb a prolife facility there. We are out there with communities across the spectrum. Okay, and how would and investigation differ if domestic terrorism as opposed to just an ordinary criminal . Our investigation focuses on the violence, first and foremost. There is no domestic terrorism statute. There is no assets of domestic terrorism. I we define domestic terrorism, for the purposes of opening investigation, as three. Things violent or threat of violence. In furtherance of an ideology. In other words that is what is driving the violence in that particular instance. And violation of federal criminal law. If we have those three things, enough evidence to indicate that might be whats going on, then we would treat that as a domestic terrorism investigation. Thank, you mister chairman. I yield. Back the lady yields back. Director, we are gonna do one more on our side and then we will take a break and come back for the remaining members. The gentlelady from wyoming is recognized. Yes, director wray, we have established at the fbi and other federal agencies met weekly with executives from major social Media Companies, including facebook, twitter, youtube, google, microsoft, linkedin, yahoo, and verizon. Were you involved in any of those meetings . Yes or no . I was not involved in the kinds of meetings that youre talking about. I did not participate in meetings like that. Are these meetings still occurring . If so, how frequently . Right now, as you may, know there is a preliminary injunction that have been adding prior to these injunctions where the weekly meetings taking place . I dont know if weekly meetings took place, again, before the injunction. Certainly, we have been very open about this. Does the fbi intend to continue to have such meetings leading up to the 2024 election . Two Police Election related speech . Well, we are not gonna be police saying. That is what you previously did. I do not agree with that description. Well, here is what i would say. This committee has learned that the fbi acted to, quote, discredit leaked information about hunter biden before and afters published. That, cool, quitters constant and pervasive as if it were a subsidiary. Quote, a surprisingly high number of request by the fbi for twitter to take down on election misinformation even involving joke tweaks from low follower counts. Are you aware that has been reported . I am aware that some of what the committee has found in its report. I will add, im not sure i agree with the findings. That is what we found. Director wray, you and i both know that the federal government is forbidden in doing indirectly what it cannot do directly. In other words, neither you nor the fbi have any Legal Authority to circumvent the First Amendment by using a surrogate to do your dirty work. Yeah, that is exactly what you have been doing. The bureau, under your watch, has been using proxies to violate the First Amendment. Were you the person who gave the orders to use the social Media Companies to violate the first violate americas First Amendment rights. Again, i do not agree with your description of the interaction with social Media Companies. Who made the decision to use social Media Companies as a proxy to suppress the First Amendment rights of american citizens . Because i do not believe that is what we did i, dont think there is anyone who made that decision. Do you really expect the American Public to believe that you are not involved to the decisions and using social Media Companies to suppress a First Amendment rights of american citizens . I cant help what people believe or not. I can only speak to what the facts are. Was anyone ever fired or otherwise reprimanded for pursuing mass censorship . In other words, has anyone been held accountable for taking the actions that were described in the decision by the District Court at louisiana . While, the District Courts Decision Just came out on july 4th. Has anyone been held accountable . At the moment, we have issued guidance to anyone in the organization that has been affected. Has an a1 been reprimanded . Im not going to speak to personal matters. We have not such determinations at the stage. Mr. Ray, i have some letters from Lindsey Graham and rand paul sent to you on april 20th and june 20th requesting a meeting to discuss the weapons of mass destruction directors works investigating the origin of sars covid 19. Your office has never responded to these letters. Do you intend to respond to senators windy graham and rand paul into funded more information about the origin of covid19 . We try hard to respond to all correspondence we get from the hill. We get a lot. My intention is we will have an appropriate response. Sometimes our responses, by longstanding procedure, our responses has to go through the department before they go out. It could be that is held up there. So i dont know i dont know that is the case in these particular situation. Senator grants and paul should be receiving a response . At some. Point as you know, we are the only agency in the Intelligence Community until more recently when the department of energy did, as well. We reach the assessment that in our view we thought it was more likely to be a lab leak. Mr. Ray, from the twitter files, missouri versus biden disclosures, the german vacation report. And exposure and collapse of the russian collusion hoax. The American People fully understand that there is a two tiered Justice System that has been weaponized to persecute people based on their political beliefs. That you have personally worked to weaponize the fbi against conservatives. I asked mr. Durham about this to which he answered, i dont think that things go too much further with the view that Law Enforcement, particular the fbi, or department of justice, runs a two tiered system of justice. The nation cannot stand under the circumstances. Director wray, what are you prepared to do to prepare reform federal Law Enforcement in a minute work back the trust of the American People . First off i would disagree with your characterization of the fbi. Certainly your description of my own approach. The idea that i am biased against conservatives scenes somewhat insane to me, given my own personal background. As to how we are approaching our work protecting the American People and upholding the American People, it starts with me having to emphasize to all of our folks over and over again and everything that we do we need to do everything in the right way and that means following the facts wherever they lead the matter who likes it. It goes on from there and to all kinds of enhanced procedures, safeguards, approval, double checks, triple checks. Accountability policies. Funding of new functions i can office of internal audit that didnt exist before. The installation the insulation from my prepredecessor. And, where i can take action. Where we can take action. Holding people accountable by removing people from the chain of command. The gentleladys time has expired. Director, we are going to take a 30minute break for votes. We will be back. I will try to start right at 2 15. Unanimous consent for that objection . Those will be entered. We will start with ms. Bush, and mr. Bishop on our side when we return. We stand at recess for, approximately, 30 minutes. This hearing a taking a brief recess. When they return, we will continue with testimony from fbi director Christopher Wray. Stay with cspan three for live coverage