Youd like to make an opening statement. You may if you like. I have no opening statement. Im ready for your questions. Thank you. And ill take a little more than five minutes here but well try to plow through it. Mr. Comey, on a scale of one to ten, with ten being the top of the line, how would you rate the cross hire hurricane investigation in terms of being done thoroughly by the book and investigation the fbi should be proud of . Im not sure i could apply a number scale. But i would say in the main it was done by the book. It was appropriate and it was essential that it be done. Okay. So youre proud of it . Overall im proud of the work. There are parts of it that are concerning, which im sure well talk about. But overall im proud of the work. Okay. Sounds good. When did you first learn of the existence of the steele dossier . Sometime towards the end of september of 2016. Okay. Do you agree with mr. Horowitz that the dossier was essential to the carter page fisa warrant application
Thank you. Appreciate the break. Mr. Comey, are you with us . Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you very much. Was that a sufficient break for you . Youre okay . Yes, okay, thank you very much. Was that a sufficient break for you . Youre okay . Yes, thanks very much. Thank you very much. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Comey, weve heard a number of things this morning, weve heard you say a number of times that the oig found problems in fisa applications across the board, but of course, it was only this one, these involving carter page, that you signed off on, that drew an unprecedented rebuke from the court, which im sure you remember. Let me quote from the order. The frequency of the orders in a case of the sensitive area, have called into question the reliability of the information in other applications. Do you remember that order from the court . It came after i left as i recall, but i remember reading about it. Yes. Have you ever known the court to ever issue the order youre familiar with . Yes.
[inaudible] the committee will come to order. The committee will come to order. Without objection the chair is authorized to recess the hearing at any time. Before we turn to the substance of todays hearing, let me address a House Keeping matter. First, let me remind members should during these proceedings , with the exception of when theyre speaking, take precautions in light of covid19 including by wearing a face cover such as a mask. Were also limiting staff attendance at the hearing. I would encourage and urge unless youre speaking to please be wearing your mask. Were also conducting this hearing in the Capital Visitors Center auditorium, which affords Additional Space for those present to remain physically distant from one another. Before i get into the other housekeeping matter, let me just express my best wishes to the president and first lady for a speedy recovery from covid19. I know were all quite shocked and distressed this morning to learn of their illness. And we hope for
Away. Weve also got a former e. R. Doctor, congressman mark green on this, and the hill media reporter joe concha takes on the media hysteria in the midst of a Public Health crisis. Msnbc asking nancy pelosi whether the white house talked to her about the continuity of government. Carl bern teen proclaiming bernstein proclaiming a National Security crisis, and Michael Moore makes up a new, off the wall, cinematic conspiracy that makes 9 11 conspiracies look tame in comparison, and its easily proven false. Critics now ask is it the debates that need the mute button, or is it Michael Moore and the media . Also to trump 2020 Advisory Board member Harmeet Dhillon, fired up that cnn is facing blowback for airing a leaked conversation secretly taped by a former friend, a former friend taped it and distorting what the first lady really said. What is the news value in this . Plus attorney general william barr testing negative for covid19 while senator mike lee tested positive. New document dis
Personally bought insurance for themselves fearing they would be sued because of the, quote, madhouse going on behind the scenes of the fbi, the misconduct there. The flynn probe was such a problem, it was a, quote, nightmare at the fbu, that the agent running it, quote, was obsessed with conspiracy theories. That person thought to be Andrew Mccabe. And so flimsy was the case against flynn, that the fbi planned to shut it down earlier than realized, in november of 2016, the day trump won. But top fbi officials kept it alive to satisfy the Obama Administration. Plus, ken starr back with us on this revelation, a key fbi agent who worked on both the flynn case and the Mueller Probe said he believes the flynn probe was part of a, quote, push to get trump, that trumprussia collusion was not there, it was a dead end, that the flynn probe was so, quote, problematic and based on such dumb theory thats a quote that he even warned there would be an investigation into what the fbi would do, and h