Preventing more serious conduct. And wed be happy to meet with you or engage with you to provide a better seasons of how all this works from an operational perspective. I know that the key consumer of the information here, as your question alluded our state and local Law Enforcement, so i would to make sure we do it in a way we work with them as to what they would find most useful. As i said in response to senator feinstein, the volume of nix checks overall and as a small subset of denials has exploded over the curse of the last year. So i am mindful of the resource burden that it puts on everybody in the Law Enforcement system. But wed be happy to talk with you more about it. Thanks. I look forward to working with you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Senator sass. Thank you, chairman. Thank you, director, for being here and being available to us on this committee and on the intel committee. Weve always been grateful for your work and availability. Weve talked a good bit about the intelligence failures around january 6th, but some of it is how did we sort signal from noise, and some of it is the handoff from the fbi and other entities to the Capitol Police. As you do an afteraction, how much of the problem is the challenge of navigating a social media world where any drunk guy in a bar now has amplification that he can be heard around the world and lots is just drunk guy in a bar ranting, and some of it is more particular threats because people can find communities of kind of warped belief with other people if theyre planning something wicked on social media. How much of it is the fitters of social media to make sense of it and how much of the january 6th failure, wz the handoff from the fbi to Capitol Police . Senator, as i said, when it comes to the handoff, a lot of the attention has been about this norfolk s. I. R. , which i uf talked about al at some length, provided the information to our partners in three different ways, and as it was the information was raw, uncorroborated information at the time, certainly. I think the other part of your question, the filter, the social media piece of it, is a huge issue. Its something we and everybody in Law Enforcement struggles with right now. You know, you use the drunk guy example. I guess sometimes i refer to it used to be some angry demented guy living in moms basement, not that theres anything wrong with that, you know, in one part of the country is now able to communicate with the similarly angry guy in grandmas attic in another part of the country, and they get each other spun up now, and how to separate whos being aspirational versus whos being intentional, it wont shock you to learn, hopefully not other members of the committee, that the amount of angry, hateful, unspeakable combative violent rhetoric on social media exceeds what anybody in their worst imagination is out there. So trying to figure out whos just saying you know what we ought to do is x or everybody ought to do x versus the person whos doing that and actually getting traction and getting followers and of course thats assuming theyre not communicating through encrypted channels about all that stuff is one of the hardest things there is to do in todays world with the nature of the violent extremism threat we face. Social Media Companies play a huge role in helping us with that, but you often hear us say if you see something, Say Something. To me the refinement here would be if americans see something on social media that seems to have crossed that line, they need to Say Something, because thats going to be our best source of information to prevent this. So its helpful. Ive heard from Law Enforcement before at one level they dont know what to do if you see something, Say Something, because its not clear where they hand that information. Lets talk a little more about the handoff between state and local Law Enforcement but also about platform content information. But first inside the bureau, give us comfort that were getting a lot better at this, because i dont think were giving you enough resources to get the right kind of Human Capital youll need, but id love to be wrong. Go from three years ago, to a year ago, to now, how are we Getting Better at filtering signal from noise and what kind of new Human Capital are you hiring that should give us confidence well get better in this world that is exploding with online rant . There are a number of things were trying to do better. Were making progress. But all of it like you said requires reresources. Theres Data Analytics piece because the volume is so significant that we need to get better being able to analyze the data we have in a timely way to separate the cheat from the chaff and that requires both tools, analytical tools, and weve had requests for those in the budgets the last couple years, but also people, data analysts, who can devote their time to that and have the experience. So thats part of it. I think a second part of it is as i think i referenced in response to an earlier question, all these investigations that we do, all these arrests we make are important not just from a disruption perspective but putting my intelligence hat on, they allow us to learn more about where people communicate, how they communicate, what the magic words are, all that kind of stuff so we get better and better at anticipating from that reason. But make no mistake, we have a long way to go. This is an incredibly hard problem. I know from communicating with my foreign counterparts, especially the five eyes, that theyre struggling with it too. As to your point about people knowing where to go, you know, i will tell you that our tip line, our Public Access tip line, both the email tips and the phone tips, have exploded in volume, and were doing things to kind of get that information out to state and local Law Enforcement much more quickly. And certainly the social Media Companies, some of them have gotten better at providing us more realtime information when they see something because they have a lot of resources to devote to this problem in terms of policing their own platforms. So the more we can incentivize them to do that, thats big part too. So im a high school teacher, a High School Principal and some kid comes to me and says, these kids have always seemed to be online bullies but now it seems like the things they ear saying sound more violent. What do you tell them to do . Contact your local fbi field office. Not the local Police Department . They could also contact state and local Law Enforcement. We all now work so closely together i think we view a call to one as a call to us all. If we get the information were nine times out of ten going to be pushing it to state and local Law Enforcement as quickly as we can. We do a lot of outreach to the high schools like youre talking about, meeting with teachers, meeting with students, meeting with parents to try to get them to understand better what to be on the lookout for, what might be that indicator. Because the one thing we know whether its any kind of Domestic Violence extremism weve talked about this morning or frankly just the horrific active shooter, School Shooter situation, is that when you look back on the path to the key moment, almost every single time there was a friend, a family member, a neighbor, a classmate, a coworker, something, somebody who knew the person well enough to know this is their baseline, theyve now changed in a way thats scary to me and no one knows better than the person who knows them well. Thats the person we need to come forward. When they do and theyre doing its more, were able to get in front of it. Ill flag a question i want to continue talking with you about. I would love to hear your big National Pitch for these data analysts because we need more great Human Capital serving their country in this way. I want to be sure our training for these data analysts have 1st amendment sensibilities about what theyre there to do. Theyre looking for violence, not to be the National Speech police. So look forward to continuing that conversation. Thanks for your work. Thank you, senator sass. Senator blumenthal . Thank you, mr. Chairman, thank you director wray for being here today. I want to join in expressing my condolences for loss of those two agents, and my thanks to the thousands of agents who work day in and day out to make america safer. When you last appeared before this committee in july of 2019, i expressed my concern that Donald Trumps attacks against members of congress and his other rhetoric, quote, might ignite White Supremacists and nationalist organizations and encourage hate crimes. I asked you whether you were concerned about this increasing number and intensity of is attacks on Public Officials and what the fbi was doing both proactively and responsively about them. And you said, quote, i think we are very concerned about any threats of violence against any americans but certainly that would prominently include our elected officials. Weve seen increasing attacks by the president and others against Public Officials. When the rioters who came to the capitol stormed the citadel of democracy on january 6th were inside, they boasted proudly and loudly that they were doing what donald trump wanted them to do. We have warned specifically about qanon in a letter dated december 8th, 2020, a number of us, members of the senate, warned that qanon specifically was a threat. I would like to ask you whether the threat posed by qanon, and as you well know, adherence of qanon, were among the rioters, very prominently, who stormed the capitol, whether the continuing threat is worsened when prominent elected officials, including members of congress, endorsed the qanon they ary. Certainly we are concerned about the qanon phenomenon, which we view as a sort of loose set of conspiracy theory, and weve certainly seen domestic violent extremists of the sort youre describing who cite that as part of their motivation. So thats something that we do but i apologize for interrupting. As you know my time is limited. When members of congress, as has happened, endorse the qanon theory, doesnt it worsen the threat of violence . Well, again, our focus is on the violence and on the plans to commit violence, the threats to commit violence, less on the rhetoric and the ideology. Obviously, the folk who is engage in this kind of violence draw inspiration from a variety of sources and were concerned about any source that stimulates or motivates violent extremism. Ill follow up in another setting. But i am strategist frankly disappointed youre not discouraging one of the sources of incitement, which is prominent Public Officials endorsing a theory that in turn resulted in storming the United States capitol. Let me turn to hate crimes. Hate crimes are underreported. Were seeing a rising trend of hate crimes particularly directed at asianamerican Pacific Islanders. I have a bill called the no hate act that would require more reporting, provide both incentives and requirements. Wouldnt you think that kind of measure is a good idea . So certainly we share your goal of both deterring and reducing hate crime but also particularly relevantly in promoting better reporting, more complete reporting of hate crime. And we are specifically concerned about hate crimes against asianamericans as well. Im not directly familiar with the bill, but i think we share the goal of trying to figure out how to improve reporting. As you may know, we have a new system that were rolling out, trying to get to 100 on that, and wed be pleased to work with you on figuring out how this bill might help advance that goal. Well, the no hate act would, in fact, lead to better reporting if 87 of hate crimes are unreported now. That is a searing indictment of the present system. We need to know more and particularly about asianamericans and island pacificers being victims of them. I know you dont want to be a, as you said, armchair quarterback, but youre going to be armchair quarterback by the American People. And i think the American People listening to these past ten days of hearing and knowing how much information there was out there on social media, in other forum, about these thugs and rioters coming to washington, organized groups, 3 proud boys and others, are wondering why didnt the fbi sound the alarm . I know there was a communication through that threat assessment. I know youve talked about the agencies that were hearing that assessment. But here we have the United States capitol, where a key function of democracy, enabling the peaceful transition of power was taking place and a threat of violence and even death to them. Why didnt you go to the gang of eight . Why didnt you sound the alarm in some more visible and ringing way . Well, senator, i guess a couple things. One, over the course of 2020, we repeatedly, repeatedly put out intelligence products on this very issue. Domestic violent extremism, tied to the election, violent extremism tied to the election and continuing beyond the election up through the inauguration, and specifically in december of 2020. In addition to that, in connection with the one piece of raw intelligence thats been discussed so much here today, we did pass that on to the people in the best position to take action on the threat, not one, not two, but three different ways. Now, more broadly in terms of whats out in social media, as a number of the questions here today have elicited, it highlights one of the most challenging jobs for Law Enforcement in todays world with social media. There is so much chatter often unattributed to somebody in a neatly identifiable way where people are saying unbelievably horrific, angry, combative things using language about beheading and shooting and explosives an all kinds of things like that, and separating out which ones are getting traction, which ones reflect intention as to posed to aspiration, is something we spend an enormous amount of time trying to do. Sometimes we dont have the luxury of time and the ability to make those judgments. I can assure you that as i said i think to senator klobucar, my standard is were trying to bat a thousand. We want the thwart every attack. Anytime theres an attack thats not thwarted we and our partners want to make sure we figure out how to do even better sprenting that. Were pleased that the inauguration, for example, went smoothly, notwithstanding threats and chatter we were seeing not just near in the National Capital region but state capitals across the country. Our focus was on engaging with all of our partners, our state and local partners. I did a conference with like 1,000plus Police Chiefs around the country about the state capitols. Thats the kind of thing we were doing to try to make sure were doing the grind, the hard work, to get in front of the threat. And were going to keep working at it every single day. I understand your response. What i dont understand is why this chatter, raw intelligence, didnt prompt a stronger warning, an alarm going to the very top of the United States congress, because clearly, the United States congress was under severe threat. Thank you, senator. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Senator holley . Director wray, thanks for being here. I want to go back to questions from senator lee. He asked you about the geolocation and metadata aspects and gathering related to investigation of january 6th riots. You said you werent familiar with the specifics. Can i just clarify your responses to him . So when you say youre not familiar, are you saying that you dont know whether or not the bureau has scooped up geolocation data, metadata from cell phone records, from cell phone towers . Do you not know . Are you saying that the bureau maybe or maybe hasnt done it . Just tell me what you know about this. When it comes to geolocation data specifically, the use of it, i would not be surprised to learn but i do not know for a fact that we were using geolocation data under any situation in connection with the investigation of the 6th. But, again, we do use geolocation data under specific authorities and specific instances because this is such a sprawling investigation that would not surprise me. When it comes to metadata, its a little different obviously than geolocation data. I feel confident that we are using various legal authorities to look at metadata under a variety of situations, but, again, the specifics of when, under what circumstances, with whom, that kind of thing im not in a position to testify about with the sprawl and size of the investigation and certainly not in a congressional hearing. What authorities do you have in mind . You say youre using the relevant authorities. What authorities are they . Well, we have various forms of Legal Process we can serve on companies that will allow us to get and thats been done. Were using a lot of Legal Processes in connection with the investigation, so yes. But specifically, serving process on companies using, invoking your various legal powers to get that data from companies, thats been done in the case of gathering this data . In gathering metadata . Yeah. Again, i dont know the specifics, but i feel confident that is happening because metadata is often something we look at, and we have a variety of legal tools that allow us to do that under certain circumstances. What about the cell tower data that was reportedly scooped up by the bureau on the day, during, in fact, dwhil ray ottawa was under way . Whats happened to that data . Do you still have it . Has it been retained . Do you have plans to retain it . Again, whatever were doing with cell phone data im confident were doing it, you know, in conjunction with our appropriate legal tools and working heres what im trying to get at. I think its what senator was trying to get at. How are we going to know what youre doing with it and evaluate the bureaus conduct if we dont know what authorities youre invoking, what precisely youre doing, what youre retaining . You said to him repeatedly you werent familiar with the specifics. Youve said it to me. Im not sure how the committee is supposed to evaluate youre saying trust us. Do we have to wait until the end of the investigation to find out what youve done . Certainly i have to be careful about discussings an ongoing investigation, which im sure you can appreciate. All the tools we have are done in conjunction with prosecutors and lawyers from the justice department. Now, if theres information we can provide you before an investigation is completed that goes through what some of the authorities we have, the tools we have, et cetera, we can probably provide information like that that might be useful to you to help answer the question. That would be helpful. Thank you. Ill hold you to that. Let me ask you about other things that have been reported in the press, particularly there have been a series of reports that the bureau has worked with banks in the course of the investigation into the january 6th riot and both before and after and that some banks, particularly bank of america, may have handed over data for 200plus clients who may have used their credit or debit cards to make purchases in the d. C. Area. What do you know about this . Has bank of america voluntarily turned over information to the bureau about its customers . I dont know any of the specifics. Id have to look into that. So has the fbi requested similar information from any other companies to your knowledge . Again, sitting here right now, i do not know the answer to that question. I do know that we work with private sector partners including Financial Institutions in a variety of ways all the time in a variety of investigations, but the specifics of what may or may not have happened here, that i dont know sitting here as were talking today. As im sure you can appreciate my concern here, is that 12 usc 3403 prohibits Financial Institutions from turning over confidential client records unless of course they have reasonable suspicion theres a crime being committed. Now, the news reports on this have indicated that the Financial Institutions were doing this in cooperation with the bureau without any such indication of a crime. Theyre just turning over reams of consumer data. That would be a major legal problem, a major legal concern. Can you try and get me some answers to these questions . I appreciate you saying you dont know today, not ai ware of whats going, but can you look into this and follow up . Id be happy to see if theres more information we can provide. We have a variety of ways in which we engage with Financial Institutions in particular, and as you referenced, theres a number of legal authorities that describe when you can and cannot do that and how thats supposed to work. So i dont want to get out as i say over my skis and try to characterize what may have happened in this specific instance, but im happy to look into it and see if theres more information we can provide. What about some of the technology companies, facebook, google, twitter, apple, amazon . Has the fbi had contacts with those tech platforms following the events of the 6th . Weve certainly had contact with a number of the social Media Companies in connection with the 6th. So that much i know. Has the bureau sought to compel any of those companies to turn over user data related to the 6th . Well, again, i cant tell you the specifics here, but what i will tell you is that i feel certain that we have served Legal Process on those companies which we do with some frequency. And we have received information from some of those companies. Whether thats true of every single one of the companies you listed, i cant say for sure, but i suspect it is because we work with the social Media Companies quite a lot. Are you ai ware of any of the companies voluntarily turning data over to the bureau in relationship to the 6th . Sitting here i cant say for sure. One more question, mr. Chairman. Time is almost expired. Are you currently pressuring any of these platforms, these social media platforms or tech platforms to include back doors in their software that would help defeat endtoend encryption . Are we pressuring are you encouraging, pushing for, are you is it your desire to get such access . We are not trying to get back doors. That is i think a criticism that gets leveled our way by people who dont understand our position often. So i appreciate the opportunity to address it here. We are concerned about endtoend encryption, especially default endtoend encryption with a lot of these platforms, and we are concerned that if these Companies Continue to move in the trajectory that theyre moving, and we are going to find ourselves in a situation where no matter how bulletproof or ironclad the Legal Authority, no matter how compelling the facts and circumstances, no matter how horrific the crime or heartbreaking the victim, we will not be able to get access to the content that we need to keep people safe. What we have been suggesting, and the cryptologists i talk to say this is doable, is for the companies themselves to build in a way to have legal access when confronted with a proper Legal Authority so that they can get access to information and provide it in response to a warrant or a court order. Were not going to have a key. Were not asking for a back door. Thats a myth, an urban legend that has been directed our way. But this is a subject that i think the American People need to understand, because decisions that affect the life and blood of americans all over this country, which normally are made by our elected representatives, are in effect getting made in corporate offices and Big Technology companies. Different people can come down in different places on that balancing, but i would submit thats a balancing that should be made up here and not by one Company Based on its business model. In the context, for example,exp and to facebooks great credit, we get millions, millions of tips on Child Exploitation through nicknick every year and help us rescue hundreds of kids every year. If they move forward in the direction theyre moving, a direction apple already went, well be in a position where those tips, those leads, that content, that information will drop into the abyss, so the tips will be gone, the victims, all those kids will still be out there. The pedophiles that are exploiting them, theyll still be out there. The only thing that will be different is neither the company nor we in Law Enforcement will know who they are, where they are, or what theyre doing. And i dont think thats the situation that we want to find ourselves in. So we would welcome the opportunity to work with the companies, perhaps encourage or incentivize through congress to get to a situation where we can balance strong cybersecurity absolutely. Its a key part of our mission as well at the fbi. Along with strong flesh and blood security, especially for americas children. Thank you, senator. Can you hear me, senator . Thank you, mr. Chairman. Director wray, following the january 6th insurrection, you and other senior Law Enforcement officials were missing from public view, and the people who were providing the briefings to the public were the d. C. Acting u. S. Attorney and the assistant director of the fbis Washington Field office. I hope you agree that at a time like this, it would be very important for highlevel Law Enforcement people like you and others to have briefed the public to limit the spread of misinformation about what happened and who was behind what happened. Wouldnt you agree . Certainly i agree. Its important to prevent misinformation. Part of the misinformation that happened was that youve testified that so far there is no evidence of fake Trump Supporters committing or provoking violence during the january 6th riot of the capitol. Thats part of the misinformation that got out. Were you ai ware of these false claims . Well, certainly along the way, weve seen a whole variety of claims from a variety of people about the investigation into the january 6th attack, just like with a lot of other highprofile attacks. Whether i can recall exactly when the first time ive heard that specific claim, i dont know for sure. This is part of the kind of false information narrative that got out, blaming others such as antifa for what happened. So that is why i think its really important for you and others like you to be up front. Youve been asked some questions about hate crimes, and you acknowledge that this is a rise in hate crimes against the asianamerican Pacific Islander community. Wouldnt you agree that calling the covid19 the kung flu or the china virus adds to the targeted hate crimes we are seeing ai rise against the Asian Pacific community . I dont know its my place as fbi director to start weighing in on rhetoric, but i can assure you thats not language i would ever use, and hate crimes against asianamericans and Pacific Islanders is something we are concerned about, we take seriously. We are investigating where we have facts sufficient to do that. Were also engaged in a forms of outreach to the public. I think weve done, you know, 60plus training or liaison events with the asianamerican Pacific IslanderCommunity Since march of last year. Weve put out intelligence reports to our partners about hate crimes in that community in particular. Its something we take very seriously. I commend you for working with i assume local and state Law Enforcement entities as well as Community Advocacy groups to deal with the rise in hate crimes against asianamericans, and in fact just a few weeks ago there were lethal attacks there seems to be a targeting of senior asians, so lethal attacks in San Francisco and in new york. These are totally unprovoked attacks. And so i think that we need to continue to focus on what the community can do and what Law Enforcement can do to make sure that these crimes are prosecuted as the hate crimes that they are. And i think its also important for leaders to not fan the flames by calling covid19 the china virus or kung flu. You also testified that you were asked questions about the role of social media by these extremist groups. You said that terrorism moves at the speed of social media. Senators warner, klobucar, and i recently introduced a safe tech act which would pull back section 230 immunity from Tech Companies for things like civil Rights Violations and wrongful death suits. Do you think that exposing these companies to civil liability would force them, basically, to take extremist content off of their platforms or take this kind of content more seriously and do something about it . Well, senator, i want to be careful not to get out ahead of the rest of the administration in weighing in on specific pieces of legislation. But having said that, i think there are a few things i could say. You know, one is while the immunity under section 230 has obviously helped the evolution of the social media industry, its also allowed it to ai void burdens and risks that other brickandmortar companies have had to face. It means that important decisions that affect many aspects of society that would normally be made by the peoples elected representatives are now being made in corporate offices in the industry. And so while i cant comment on specific legislation, i certainly can tell you that i see the value maybe is the best way of putting it of incentivizing Online Platforms to address both illicit content on their platforms and to assist Law Enforcement in bringing to justice criminals who use those platforms to victimize americans. And then there is also the concern that as entities such as facebook and twitter do more to control, modify this kind of content, that i know this could encourage driving extremists to use encrypted platforms like telegram and signals. Thats another area well need to address. I wanted to turn briefly to your testimony that identifies lone wolf actors as a concern for you. With regard to that, we need probably a whole society approach. So what can we all do to deal with the problem of lone wolf extremists . I appreciate the question. We do consider that, the lone actor. Ive sort of stop using the term wolf because i feel like it gives them too much credit. But the lone actors, whether theyre Domestic Violence extremists is a real threat because one of the a, because its so pervasive, but b, because unlike somebody whos working as part of a large group, somebody act eight loan has fewer people theyre in contact with, which means fewer dots to connect, et cetera. It makes it that much harder for us to get in front of it. What we desperately need is more and more situations where the members of the public who know that person, who see the transformation, who see things starting to change in a way they know is different and has become much darker and more dangerous, those people to speak up to contact Law Enforcement, whoever they trust in Law Enforcement, to alert people to the threat. And the good news, if theres any good news in this, is we are seeing that happen more and more in this country. Weve had lots of people, as heartbreaking as it must be, turn in family members when they see this transformation because they know that having us or our partners intercede may not only prevent that person from committing an attack against an innocent american, but also may in some instances result in that person being offramped to get help as opposed to potentially being killed by Law Enforcement or incarcerated or something else. So we need the people we always say if you see something, Say Something, and most people picture the abandoned backpack in a Greyhound Bus terminal. Obviously, we want people to see something and Say Something there. But if people see something about somebody to Say Something, and the more of that we can have and the more members of congress as key voices in their communities in your home states can encourage people to do that, thats one of the key weapons we have as a country, to use your phrase, the whole of Society Defense against this threat. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Senator cobb. Director wray, thank you. I was deeply saddened by the loss of the special agents, and i want to extend condolences to their families and the agency and the entire bureau. My wife and i know many of your agents across the country and were extremely grateful for the work they do. Turning to your written testimony, you say that the fbi assesses homegrown or homegrown violent extremists as the greatest threat to the homeland. Theyre u. S. Based individuals located in and radicalized primaily in the u. S. Not receiving individualized direction from global, jihadinspired foreign terrorist organizations but are inspired largely by isis and al qaeda to commit violence. So what youre saying there, director wray, if i understand it directly, is dangerous to the threat as from other kinds of extremists like racial supremacist groups or anarchist groups. The most dangerous tlelts we have in the country from extremism remains jihadists. Is that correct . The key word there was international. I dont have the written statement for the record in front of me. But what i would say is we view the let me step back. What we view as the most dangerous threat to americans today is largely lone actors, in some cases small cells, if you will,y radicalized online, in the United States, attacking soft targets using crude readily accessible weapons motivated either by jihadist inspirations or by a variety of domestic inspirations. So we have the hves, the homegrown violent extremists jihadist inspired and the dve, domestics, who are inspired by sources. That buck etc. , which have a lot in common with each other, is the greatest terrorism threat we face as a country. I would turn to another kind of potential terrorist threat. We talked about domestic terrorism, obviously International Terrorism remains a serious threats, an important part of the federal governments counterterrorism work remains trying to prevent foreign terrorist from reaching our shores. Yes. And part of the screening is checking databases. But providing about terrorist ties and documents so terrorists cant obtain fake i. D. S. Is that correct . Certainly thats a part and part of kind of hardening our homeland defense. Your predecessor testified to congress in 2015 that without cooperation from those governments if the terrorist is not in our own databases we could, quote, query our database until the cows come home but there will be nothing to show up unless Foreign Government work with us. Is that the case . We depend heavily on cooperation from Foreign Governments to make that kind of defense effective. Lets turn to the Foreign Governments. Is it still the case syria and iran are nations that share little, if any, information with the United States about potential travelers or immigrants coming to our country . I will confess im not sure i know the answer sitting here today, but i would be flabbergasted if the answer was anything other than yes. Still the case a syria and iran sorry, that libya and syria are both countries that lack effective control over significant parts of their territory and therefore cannot provide information from people coming from those parts of their country . I believe that to be the case. What about myanmar, also known as burma, where theres a military coup last week. Is it true that the United States now faces serious obstacles to vet individuals coming from burma . Im not sure i know the answer on burma, but i suspect the answer is the same. And finally, in this, what about north korea . Is it true that north Korea Remains uncooperative in providing us information about north korean nationals that might try to come to the United States . I have rarely heard north korea come up in the context of cooperativeness. Thank you. I just want to note before we close on this topic that all of those nations syria, iran, libya, burma, north korea were among the nations from which President Biden lifted travel restrictions by executive order on his first day in Office Without any plan in place to improve security for these travels. Another kind of threat we face is crime and Gang Violence in particular. Unfortunately, Drug Trafficking and Violent Crime are on the rise in the United States. Are street gangs driving a significant part of Violent Crime on streets across america . Well, certainly when i go around and ive talked with state and local Law Enforcement in all 50 states i think the numberone issue you would hear from maybe all of them is Violent Crime. What drives it in each city, state, town is different, but its not just the National Gangs. You know, the ms13s, the 18th street gangs, et cetera. A lot of times its the neighborhood gangs that are top of mind when you talk to chiefs and sheriffs around this country. And those gangs of whatever type, they often use Violent Crime as a way to expand their territory and exert more control so they can use moneymaking Enterprises LikeDrug Trafficking, property crimes like robbery . Yes. So lets talk about ms13 since you raised it. Ms13 has gained notoriety for brutal crimes across the country in recent years and continue to expand their influence in the United States. Is that right . Well, i know weve made significant strides against ms13 over the last six months or so, but it is a very significant gang threat. And the brutality, the savagery, and the level of kind of organization that exists there is something that has to be taken essex treatmently seriously. It remains Central American and El Salvadoran gang, is that correct . Certainly from the triangle, the socalled triangle, but yes, el salvador is one place from which a lot of them come. They dont exactly handle out membership cards, im sure, have a membership directory. Unless theyre named by another gang member, you still use methods like gang tattoos to identify who belongs to ms13 . That would be one piece of information that would be relevant. Were talking to human sources, witnesses, informantinformants, collecting information from partners, et cetera. I know your safe streets task forces and National GangIntelligence Center often Work Together with the department of Homeland Security and state and local Law Enforcement to find and prosecute and deport these gang members. In your professional opinion today, is immigrations and Customs Enforcement deporting too many or too few ms13 gang members . Well, i dont know that ive tracked the deportation rate to ms13 members. When we come across them in this country, our focus has been locking them up and putting them in federal prison as much as we can, which is where we like to have them. In addition to the units that you listed off, i think correctly, i would also cite our tag, our transactional group, which is a task force that we have in el salvador, because we actually have pretty effective results with u. S. Law enforcement working with el salvador Law Enforcement to a somewhat lesser extent the other two countries in the triangle to take down some of the ms13 members in their home country as well. So its the two pieces together. So i cant say sitting here right now anything about the immigration posture, but certainly when we find ms13 gang members here, we want to put them in orange jump suit where is they get to spend a lot of time in our prisons. Thank you. When it comes to ms13, i support the lock em up policy but also the deportment policy. That thank you, senator cotton. Director wray, hello. Its been a long day and i appreciate you here on the tail end of the questioners, so i appreciate your endurance. I first just want to associate myself with maybe not the heat that you receive from senator whitehouse but definitely the spirit of what he was talking about. I appreciate your commitment to meet his concerns, which are concerns ive heard on both sides of the aisle. Its very hard to play our role, our constitutionally mandated role if we dont have the oversight of the agency. I appreciate your commitments. I also want to join what i think as youve seen a really bipartisan condolences for loss of daniel alfin and lauren schwarzenberger. That is the greatest sacrifice anyone can make for this nation, which is to die in the line of duty protecting others. Im ai ware other officers were injured, other agents injured. I hope theyre recovering well . They are. They are. Ive had the opportunity the morning after the shooting to go down not just to meet with laura and dans families but to visit the hospital. The four injured agents should make a full recovery. Would you please express from the entire committee not only our condolences to the families but our robust concern for their recover and wellbeing. If they need anything, you have allies here in their wellbeing. Thank you, senator. You and i have had a treasuried conversation, frankly, you showed me the honor of the coming to visit me before you sat with me in my office before you stepped into that job. I really appreciated our conversation about the challenges we still have in this country around racial issues and the urgency for the fbi, which has abused it power before, whether investigations of Martin Luther king or other ways to really set an example for the largest driver in many ways as we pledge ai lee i cant answer to the flag, this driver of being a just nation. I just want to ask you, though, about your team. We know that diverse teams are better. Everybody from Harvard Business school to every top Business Consulting agency has shown study after study diverse teams are stronger teams but especially ones in Law Enforcement that have such a mandate that you have, having diversity is really important. So i guess my first question is, how diverse is the fbis workforce now in terms of relig diversity . So, senator, this is a top that i can as you may recall from our prior visit is very important to me personally and something ive tried to make as a priority. Were addressing it in a variety of ways. But in terms of results, there is i guess i would characterize it as cautiously optimistic. So on the racial diversity front, our special agent class has been more diverse with each year over the past few years. In each case more certainly than the diversity percentage of the workforce that exists. And this year, thing is the racial diversity of our applicant pool is much higher than years past. On gender much the same. Applications the diversity of applications is up significantly. The gender diversity of our classes is up. Ive set aggressive targets for our field offices and those targets are for the most part being exceeded. So were doing a number of things to try to address the issue. We have what we call diversity agent recruitment events which were easier to do precovid. A lot of times i would go to in different parts of the country myself and speak at. We have a very encouraging project weve started with 300 entertainment thats focused on historically black colleges and universities and trying to improve our recruiting pipeline there. Can i maybe just ask you, could you share that data with the committee of the progress that youre making . Sure. I think theres definitely information we could provide separately. And then your Leadership Team, could you provide the diversity of the Leadership Team that you have around you . Sure. Well, i will say yes is the answer. But i will say that on that front ive recently appointed you know, we have im not sure how much you may remember about our structure but we have at the very top of the fbi six eads, executive assistant directors, each one is over a branch that has multiple divisions. Just over the last couple months, as people retire ive replaced one of the eads with an asianamerican woman who oversees our Human Resources branch and one of the other six eads with an africanamerican male who oversees our Intelligence Branch which includes not just our entire intelligence function but our private sector engagement and our Law EnforcementPartner Engagement as well. I also appointed the first i want to honor the time here. I look forward i know youll be available to discuss that more and give me information. In the minute or so i have left ive really i think a lot of the questioning has been very illustrative of a lot of the challenges we face and i appreciate that from members of both sides of the dais here. I wanted to drill in something weve talked about, extremist groups at the capitol, talked about many others. As ive seen interviews of folks there were many people just saying im here because President Trump now former President Trump wanted us here. And it seemed that this lie that was told over and over again, that many people felt like that their government had betrayed them, that the courts after court case after court case that republican official after republican official were all just dead wrong, really believed in the lie and felt like they were left with no choice but to try to stop the peaceful transfer of power. And so i guess id just ask to begin with, is it attorney general barr said that he had not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election. Do you agree with attorney general barrs statement that there is absolutely no evidence of voter fraud that could have changed the outcome of the 2020 president ial election . I agree with attorney general barr. And to be Crystal Clear on this, as fbi director, these would be federal crimes, youre aware of no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 president ial election . We are not aware of any widespread evidence of voter fraud much less that would have affected the outcome in the president ial election. Well, i have Great Respect for senator kennedy and i see him as a friend. Im not going to abuse the incredible power dick durbin has given me right now, although power is going to my head but im going to police myself and defer to the good senator kennedy. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I didnt hear you, did you call me i called you mr. Chairman. Thank you, sir, thank you, sir. That sounds very good. Thank you again, mr. Chairman. Mr. Director, ive listened from my office to your testimony today. Tell me who had the authority to call out the National Guard on january 6th . My understanding well, my understanding is that the decisions to call out the National Guard in one sense are the responsibility of the secretary of defense. But in another sense okay, mr. Director, im sorry to interrupt you. But i think we can agree that the fbi had credible information that there was likely to be violence on january 6th. Can we agree on that . Well, i dont know that we had assessed its credibility. We certainly had information that was concerning about the potential for violence in connection with the january 6th events. As weve discussed here this morning one piece of information that was most specific that im aware of was passed, you know, quite based on that information, and im sorry to interrupt. But we just keep nibbling at the edges and dancing around the issue. And i understand. Im not asking you to throw anybody under the bus, chris, i get it. But we need to find out what happened. Now, if you were king for a day, based on the information that you had, maybe not at the time but later on, would you have called out the fbi . I mean the National Guard. You know, senator, as you said i really want to be careful not to be armchair quarterbacking others. I think the National Guard, we have seen, can play a very Important Role in crowd control. Excuse me for interrupting. Boy, i sure you know, im not trying to be rude, but my times limited. Well, who made the call not to, based on your information who made the call not to call out the fbi, whether they should have or shouldnt . Not to call the fbi . Im sorry, im tired. The National Guard. Well, i would defer to others who are more involved in that discussion. But from what i have heard, what i have read, my understanding is that at one stage of the process the local government was of the view that it did not need the National Guards assistance. Who do you mean by the local government . The mayor . Yes. So the mayor didnt call out the National Guard. At the beginning. What do you mean by the beginning . Well, you know, in the day or two leading up to the 6th. Okay. As to exactly how it played out on the 6th itself i understand. I mean, clearly our people were overrun. By the nut jobs. So were making progress here, okay. So the mayor, or the City Government decided not to call out the fbi the National Guard ahead of time. What about the house sergeantatarms . I dont know what role the house sergeantatarms played with respect to the National Guard. Okay. How about the Senate Sergeant . Same answer. Okay. How about the Capitol Police, the chief of Capitol Police, did the chief of Capitol Police make the call not to call out the National Guard . I dont know the answer to that. My understanding is that the Law Enforcement officials here with responsibility over the capitol, that there were varying, differing views about whether or not the National Guard was appropriate and when, at what level. All i really know on that is what ive same thing youve seen, in the press coverage of the events. Okay. Thats enough on that. I listened to your comments about diversity and i thank you for your good work there. I think any fair minded person has to conclude that diversity is a strength, not a weakness. But this subject comes up a lot, and i think its going to come a lot again, and thats not a criticism. Thats just an observation. Do you believe that the fbi is a systemically racist institution . No. Now having said that, i do believe the fbi needs to be more diverse and more inclusive than it is and that we need to work a lot harder at that and were trying to work a lot harder on that. Do you believe that the fbi is a systemic a systemically sexist or institution. Again, thats not how i would describe it but we need to be more diverse and inclusive and we need to work harder, progress were making to be satisfactory by my standards. Fair enough. Mr. Director, have you ever been to hong kong . No. Wonderful place, wonderful people. The Chinese Communist party is destroying it. If Congress Passed a bill and said to the good people of hong kong who yearn for freedom, come to america, were going to follow our friends in britain, say come here, you want to get out from under the thumb of the communist party, come to america. We welcome you. Do you think the fbi and Law Enforcement has the ability to screen for spies . One of the criticisms of the proposition i just stated is that, well, we would be letting in spies. Do you think, based on your knowledge of security, that we could catch most of the