The presiding officer thank you. Mrs. Feinstein i rise to oppose the nomination of mr. Bress. This is a california seat on the ninth circuit, and the fact is that mr. Bress is neither a California Attorney nor a california resident. In fact, hes not been a resident of the state for over a decade. Hes lived and practiced in the washington, d. C. , area for almost his entire adult life. As california senators, senator harris and i know that the kind of experience and connection to california is really necessary for a ninth circuit judge to be effective on the bench. We know our state, we know our constituents, and we know the challenges they face, and thats why the blue slip is so important. Honoring the blue slip ensures that the senators who understand are and are accountable to their constituents have a say in judicial nominations for their home states. Our blue slips, senator harris and mine, were not returned. Ultimately that symbolizes our objections. I was very disappointed that t
and we start the fourth hour of morning joe with the january 6 select committee holding the final public hearing before the july 4th recess and there were plenty of fireworks and a lot of drama. top officials from the justice department described then president donald trump s relentless obsessive efforts to persuade doj officials to join him in a plat to overturn the 2020 election results by just saying the election was corrupt and essentially act as an extension of his campaign. riveting testimony came from trump s former acting attorney general jeffrey rosen. his deputy richard donahue and steven engel. how often did president trump contact you or the department to push allegations of election fraud? so, between december 23rd and january 3rd, the president either called me or met with me virtually every day. so the common element of all of this was the president expressing his dissatisfaction that the justice department in his view had not done enough to investiga
Massachusetts house of representatives. And he was also even while he was on the Supreme Court a professor at the harvard law school. Interestingly enough, he was also noted as one of the most successful authors of the first half of the 19th century. Matter of fact, when he was 65 years old, that particular year his book royalties gave him twice as much money as his salary as a justice of the Supreme Court. As many of you know, he became when he was appointed at that time, the youngest justice to serve on the Supreme Court. And one of the youngest ever to serve. He was appointed by president madison in 1811. And was actually took office the following year in february of 1812. As most of you you know, im sure, he made a significant mark on american law in his 33 years on the bench. But his greatest contribution to jurisprudence is his commentaries on the constitution in which he set forth a philosophy of judicial restraint. He was quite enamored by the philosophical approach to the law
College campuses. I will yield so he can say a word about the tragedy that occurred in texas. I thank you, mr. Chairman. Welcome. Let me just say briefly that before discussing the important topic of todays hearing on sunday a gunman shot and killed 26 church goers in texas. We now know that information concerning his courtmartial for Domestic Abuse should have been submitted by the air force to the instant criminal background check system. Should have been prevented from purchasing firearms from licensed gun dealers via the brady background check system. Yesterday before this information came to light, i wrote to you, mr. Chairman, requesting that the briefing planned for our members tomorrow afternoon by atf on the issue of bump stocks. Be expanded through the fbi to discuss the background check issues. Related to southern springs. And in that briefing be conducted as a formal hearing open to the public. Now tat we have even more information that theres been a break down in the imple
[inaudible conversation] before we have our Opening Statements for this hearing, i have a short statement i want to make on another issue. If mrs. Feinstein has anything on the same thing im talking about, she would get whatever time she wants. Separate from my regular opening statement, i need to talk about a serious threat to this committees Oversight Authority. The need for congress to havee access to information in the executive branch is inherent in the constitution. The Supreme Court has said so clearly and repeatedly. Executive Branch Agencies cannot limit our legislative power of inquiry mary merely by entering into nondisclosure agreements with one another, but thats exactly what the fbi has tried to do. Yesterday i sent a pair of letters to the office of special counsel and the fbi about the most recent example. P nondisclosure agreements are essentially gag orders, plain and simple. They thwart transparency, corner jim account ability and seek to obstruct congressional overs