First president in his lifetime who does not try to unite the American People, does not even pretend to try. You can read the entire statement at the atlantic. Com. Next, former Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein testifies processisa application and how it was used by the fbi to investigate potential ties between russia and the truck president ial campaign. This hearing is part of an ongoing review into possible misuse of the fisa process. Mr. Rosenstein was asked about his role at the time of the investigation and his decision to appoint a special counsel. Good morning, everybody. For those watching on television, it is 28 degrees in here. [laughter] is that what it is . Chairman graham i do not know, but let it the air conditioning works. Thank you. We will have a hearing today about all things crossfire, hurricane and the Robert Mueller investigation. We will have five minute rounds. As usual, i will try to make sure you are able to finish your thought in five minutes, and not cut you off. I appreciate all of the participation. Mr. Rosenstein, thank you for coming to the committee voluntarily. We appreciate your service to our country and your bridges a patient in the hearing today. And i will try to do a pretty short opening statement, then we will get to the witness. Why are we here . I think we have a clip. This is mr. Rosenstein on may 1, 2018. It really does illustrate chairman graham turn it up. Mr. Rosenstein we make mistakes. We are not flawless. If we accuse somebody of wrongdoing, we need credible witnessesa nd prepared to prove our case in court and we have to put our signature on the charges. That is something that everybody appreciates. There is a lot of talk about fisa applications. People seem not to recognize what that is. It is actually a warrant, like a search warrant. In order to get a fisa search warrant, we need an affidavit signed by a law officer who swears and that the information is true and correct. And that is the way we operate. If it is wrong, sometimes it is, if you find out something that needs corrected, that person will face consequences. Or could face discipline even prosecution. Chairman graham thank you. That was delivered at the Freedom Forum by mr. Rosenstein in may of 2018, and you described the way the system is supposed to work. What brings us here is the fact it did not work that way. Based on a report that was delivered to this committee in 2019, that the process did not work the way that mr. Rosenstein described it in 2018. What do we know . We know that information was withheld from the report. We know, according to mr. Horowitz, without the dossier, paid for by the Democratic Party prepared for by a former british agent working with a russian sub source, without that dossier there wouldve been no warrant issued against carter page. We know that an email was doctored to get the fisa warrant by a lawyer at the fbi. So, wire we hear . Why are we here . We are trying to figure out why that happened. And our desire is to make sure it never happens again. Every american should be concerned by the fact that the Inspector General found criminal wrongdoing, abuse and a warrant application against carter page, an advisor to the Trump Campaign , and we are here to try to find out who knew what it when what and when. To find out if mr. Rosenstein that the sub source the dossier . Lawyer know that the fbi doctored an email showing the relationship between mr. Paige and the cia, changing it where there was no relationship . Did you know that . And if you did, why . Flask everybody, did you know . And now that you know, how do you feel about it . I want the country to understand that the molar Robert Mueller investigation was allowed to go forward with bipartisan support. I remember the senators coming to me, including senator grassley and senator tillis, saying lets make sure that Robert Mueller can do his job without interference. It president was hot when came to the investigation. And we came up with legislation to protect the general counsel from being dismissed without cause. To let the country know, the president know, it was important for mueller to do his job. Now it is important to find out what the hell happened. How could it have gotten to be where it wound up being . Therevidence, if any, was in may of 2017, when Robert Mueller was appointed by mr. Rosenstein, that anybody on the campaign was colluding with the russians . Was there a lawful predicate to appoint Robert Mueller to begin with . We will be looking at that. And we will be looking at how the warrant was signed over and over by the highest ranking officials in this country and given to a fisa court on four different occasions over months, and it was full of lies and criminally altered. I hope you want to know that. I sure do. You have got to remember the people running the investigation are the same people that were running crossfire hurricane. At least until they got fired. So the warrant application that mr. Rosenstein signed in june of 2017, the last application against carter page, who prepared the application . Ge, march 3,and pai oh my god, he is an idiot. Win. Ry should the fbi lawyer who authored the after the election said, resistance. This is the fbi lawyer in charge of the Mueller Investigation. 2016,y, on august 8, carter page says he will never be president , right . No he wont. , we will stop him. We are going to get to the bottom of this. We did a lot together when it can be russian interference in our election. We had hearings. We talked about russia and other had talker sees for undermining democracy. In the interference election. Extremist content and direction tos from october 2017. Drotecting our elections an Virtual Currencies as avenues for foreign interference, june, 2018. Cyber threats against our National Infrastructure on august, 2018. We have looked at russias role in the election. Now, we will look at the Mueller Investigation. And we are going to look hard. And we are going to see if what mr. Rosenstein said at the start of the hearing comes true. That if somebody corrupts the process, that if somebody lies to the court, they will face discipline or maybe criminal prosecution. You describe, mr. Rosenstein, the way it should work. Indication ofs an what happens if it doesnt work that way. What will happen . There are millions of americans pretty upset about this. There are people on our side of the aisle who believe that this investigation, crossfire hurricane, was one of the most corrupt, biased criminal investigations in the history of the fbi. And we would like to see something done about it. Mr. Durham is looking at the criminality part. What is our job . Our job is to explain to the American People what the russians were up to, and we did that together. Our job was to give mr. Robert mueller the james tanner the chance to do his work, and he did. Now it is our job to take the report that shows 17 violations and try to warrant explain how that happened and it shed light on the fact that it did happen and hope the system will respond. What are we going to be looking at . We will be looking at general flynns case. Onwill get the fact that january 4, 2017, the field office of washington, d. C. Said there is no longer justification for general flynn to be considered part of crossfire hurricane. We are going to be looking at the Mueller Report appointment in may of 2017, to see if there was a crime worthy of being investigated. Was there anything there. We will look backward, so we can move forward. We are going to hold people accountable. If you do not donald trump, fine. But this is not about liking trump or not liking trump, this is about us as a nation. We are talking about the nominee for president on the republican side and his campaign being under continual investigation. We are talking about warrants being issued after the president was sworn in. Yeare talking about a two investigation that spent 25 million to 30 million, but turned peoples lives upside down, to save this shouldve ever happened to begin with. We will be talking about how it , who isthe rails responsible for it getting off the rails, and making sure that they are punished appropriately , sothe system is changed that in the future no other candidate for president , no other sitting president has to go through this. That is why we are here. It is going to take awhile, but we will not be deterred in our effort to get to the bottom of what i think was a very major abuse of power. Senator feinstein . Sen. Feinstein thank you very much, mr. Chairman. As you have made abundantly clear, we are here at your request to examine crossfire hurricane. Thats the fbi investigation into Russian Election interference and ties to the Trump Campaign. Let me begin with a little but of history. The president has long claimed that the investigation of his campaign was a witch hunt and a hoax, and has demanded that his allies investigate the investigators. Officials,bama era including joe biden. As support for this claim, the president and his allies. Point to errors identified by Michael Horowitz in fisa on a former Trump Campaign aid carter page. The Inspector General did in int identify serious errors the handling of the carter page fisa application. A broader fisa audit revealed that many of these problems are unfortunately widespread. This needs to be fixed. And efforts to do so are already underway in the fbi, congress and the fisa court itself. Contrary to the president s claims that his campaign was unfairly targeted, Inspector General horowitz found no evidence of political or antitrust bias in the crossfire hurricane investigation. Carefullyched this ig now since 2012, that is eight years, and find him to be independent and believable. And Inspector General horowitz also confirmed that the opening of the investigation into possible ties between the Trump Campaign and russia was in fact justified. Explains,zs report australian officials informed 2016, thatlate july, Trump Campaign advisor George Papadopoulos was told that russia was willing to assist the campaign, meaning assist the Trump Campaign, by anonymously releasing dirt on clinton in the form of thousands of emails. Weekbi learned this one after wikileaks had a release 20,000 emails that russia had hacked from the computers of the Democratic National committee. And thes by russia, possibility that the trump russias plansf to use the stolen emails to interfere in the 2016 election created a counterintelligence concern that the fbi was obligated to investigate, i think everybody would recognize that. That counterintelligence investigation eventually became the Mueller Investigation, when in may of 2017, the dippy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel after the president fired the fbi director, james comey. Revealed investigation sweeping and systematic interference by russia in the 2016 election. Thatshould cause everyone is an american some deep concern. Significantly, the special counsel investigation determined that the russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump Presidency and worked to secure the outcome. That is from the Mueller Report, volume one, page one. The investigation uncovered more than 120 contacts between the Trump Campaign and individuals linked to russia, revealing that the Trump Campaign knew about, it wouldand expected benefit electorally from russias interference. And the investigation established that individuals associated with the trump theaign lied to congress, special counsel and of the American People about their contacts with russia. Horowitz confirmed that none of the fisa errors his investigation uncovered call into question any part of the special counsels report. Hastoday, mr. Rosenstein said that the special counsel investigation was justified and an important investigation. Andrtunately, the president his allies have been trying to rewrite the special counsels findings and since the day they were released, but ignoring or excusing what happened in 2016 is really very dangerous. It puts american democracy and National Security at risk. Fbi director wrey has confirmed that russia continues to attempte, and that its to influence the 2020 election, a significant counterintelligence threat. Special counsel are mueller also warned that russian interference was happening as we sit here. Yet, instead of denouncing foreign interference, President Trump has encouraged and even demanded it. In a televised interview following the Mueller Report, President Trump said there was wrong with Foreign Governments offering political dirt on an opponent. ,d that he would take it likely without informing the fbi. On president publicly called china to investigate joe biden, his rival in the 2020 election. The remarks of the president. And the president abused authority by withholding Critical Military aid in an Oval Office Meeting and an Oval Office Meeting in an effort to pressure the ukrainian president to investigate joe biden. Unfortunately, it appears Senate Republicans now plan to spend the next several months bolstering the president s attack on the russian investigation, and his biden. Tic nominee, joe congress should not conduct politically motivated investigations designed to attack or help any president ial period. E, mr. Chairman, this would be true at any time, but even more so now as our nation confronts the Brutal Police killing of george floyd and its aftermath, and remains in the middle of a Public Health and economic crisis. Thank you. Chairman graham thank you. You solemnlyn, do swear the testimony is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god . Mr. Rosenstein i do. Chairman graham you may make your statement. Mr. Rosenstein thank you chairman graham, Ranking Member of feinstein and other members of the committee. Thank you for inviting me today. When i was sworn in as the Deputy Attorney general on april 26, 2017, i became responsible for helping the attorney general to supervise 115,000 department of justice employees and to oversee hundreds of thousands of cases. One of the most important matters pending in the department was an investigation into Russian Election influence schemes. The attorney general, Jeff Sessions come had complied with his legal obligation to recuse himself from that investigation several weeks before i arrived. The matter had been under the supervision of the acting Deputy Attorney general as a result. Many federal agents and prosecutors were working on criminal cases that officials considered potentially relevant to Russian Election meddling. As a result of events that followed the departure of the fbi director, i was concerned that the public would not have confidence in the investigation and that the acting director was not the right person to lead it. I decided appointing a special counsel was the best way to complete the investigation appropriately and to promote Public Confidence in its conclusions. As we now know, the eventual conclusions were that russians committed crimes seeking to influence at the election, and americans it did not conspire with them. A special counsel appointment was consistent with the department of justices prec edent. Attorney general bill barr and janet reno each in the 1990s appointed special counsel in several cases, and concluded that a prosecutor with some degree of independence from the department could best resolve sensitive matters. Recently, the attorney general william barr has assigned u. S. Attorneys to take charge of significant investigations. But in may of 2017, there were only three confirmed u. S. Attorneys remaining, al Obama Administration appointeesl who had been ordered to resign and were permitted to hold over for a few months. Some people confused special counsels and independent councils. Independents are appointed by federal judges. The department of justice does not supervise them. They often expand their jurisdiction, and the usually investigate for many years. In contrast, special counsel mueller was supervised by the department with jurisdiction that was limited in scope and duration. I asked at the special counsel to review each criminal allegation the fbi considered relevant to russian interference and to recommend whether to close the matter, to investigate because it might be relevant to Russian Election meddling, or to refer the matter to another prosecutor.