Walker to serve on the d. C. Circuit court of appeals. Sending his nomination to the full senate for consideration at a time to be determined. Span. I think we have chair graham i think we have enough to hold over the act and the judge for the fifth circuit. My colleagues, we will take up the access act next week. I have a call from mr. Horwood and the Justice Department trying to find out if we can find an accommodation to on board. Accommodation to on board. Will be heldon over, the circuit judge for the fifth circuit. Tell you what, we have two matters on the agenda, mr. Districtnited states judge for the district of columbia and the subpoena authorization, i do not know if we have enough to do business yet, but i thought i would make a bit of an Opening Statement here. Here is where i am going and what i am trying to accomplish. I thought it was important to get mr. Mueller the space to complete his job, i thought a special counsel needed to be comey was fired, not that i doubted that tell me waslaw that comey lawfully terminated, and Jeff Sessions was a member of the Trump Campaign, and the accusations were that the Trump Campaign was colluding with the russians, for lack of a better word, and mr. Rosenstein connect contacted mr. Mueller to conduct the investigation. I supported that and i was going in my comments. I think he was a good man. Completed,has been and he was able to do his job, and the results are out. And, you can read the report for yourself, but here is what has happened. Horwitz is the Inspector General for the department of justice and was able to find that during the course of the mother investigation that there were 17 irregularities when it came to seeking warrants against carter page by the mueller team. Crossfire hurricane, and eventually the mueller team. It was so bad that the court issued an order that senator hawley read yesterday. Isill not go over it, but it a rebuke of the fbi by the pfizer court that is stunning. We are not going to retry the Mueller Investigation senator grassley held a lot of hearings about russian interference in our election. We called donald trump, jr. Before the committee. We interviewed people who were in the trump tower meeting with the russians about adoptions and other things. Help,enator whitehouses we issued a subpoena to a bank that mr. Manafort was doing business with. I think we took seriously the allegations of russian collusion and russian interference, and i want to thank senator grassley for upholding all of those hearings. Here is where we find ourselves as the committee. The court has issued a stunning rebuke of the fbi, is that our job to find out what happened . That it is said inexplicable to him that for over nine months so many errors could have been made. I think i know, but he says it was inexplicable, they were fundamental errors, and really bad stuff over a long period of time. If theim, do you know Senior Leadership of the fbi was aware of the fact that the russian source interviewed in january who disavowed the dossier, did they know that the warrant application had fallen apart, because mr. Horwitz and mr. Mccabe tell us without the russian dossier prepared by mr. Steel who was on the payroll of gps paid by the Democratic Party, there would have been no warned. They could not get into it until they found the dossier. Others hawley and a few mentioned that a Russian Disinformation Campaign could wind its way into the hands of an fbi and eventually get warrants. None of us should ever want that to happen again. There was involvement in our campaign by the russians in our election. Itwas not the ukrainians, was the russians, and they played both sides. Peoplewant to know, the who interviewed the sub source and found out that it was a bunch of bartok, hearsay, and not reliable, did they sit on it . If they did report it up the chain, dont you think they should be disciplined . People in lawy of enforcement to disclose to the court, and their superiors information that would undercut the case. If they did not report it up the chain, and i hope they will be dealt with, and i cannot answer that question as to the subpoenas. I cannot talk to these people, the fbi will not let me talk to the case agent and until analyst. I do not know if mr. Durham is talking to them or not. I think the committee has an obligation to find out what happens when the department of justice and fbi were put on notice that the central document necessary to get a warrant no longer was reliable. How do you explain that it was used twice after the january interview, in april and june, and the court was misled. The application says that the sub source was interview and was cooperative. Mr. Horowitz found the interview a memo based on the interview. Heres the other question. Mr. Mccabe. He said he never misled mr. Rosenstein. Somebody misled the court. Mccabe,it possible mr. In charge of this investigation on a regular basis, had no wasledge that the dossier disavowed by the russian sub source . Shocked, but i would be if one of the most highprofile cases and they have to history of the fbi did not make it out of the basement that our case just fell apart. Did not did know, josh know, he should have known and how could he not. If comey knew and they continue to seek a warrant after they knew it was unreliable, then they should be held accountable, either criminally, or otherwise. And, nobody knows the answer to that question. And, we are going to get to the answer. Mr. Chairman, i support the investigation into this rogue fbi counterintelligence investigation known as crossfire hurricane, what i think what mr. Rosenstein pointed out to us yesterday and something we all know from the department of chart isrganization that the fbi director is supposed to be accountable to the Deputy Attorney general, and yet, director comey was in but josh was directing this investigation along with the deputies, director mccabe, and others. Sally yates and Loretta Lynch did not have a clue what was going on. You remember what sally yates reaction when they talked about the kislyak and the flynn conversation, and she was surprised that there was an ongoing investigation. , think it was crossfire razor as i recall as a subset of crossfire hurricane. It occurs to me that, in addition to questions i have and itse fisa court, function and whether it serves as a check, and oversight over the fbi and counterintelligence investigations because it is a nonadversarial process, that we ought to look at more fundamental issues, like is the fbi the right agency to handle counterintelligence investigations . They are the premier Law Enforcement organization in the world, but on counterintelligence, particularly where it is completely unsupervised, and, where there is so much opportunity for mischief, as we have seen as laid out in the Inspector Generals report. We ought to be asking those questions and i hope that we can work with you and our colleagues across the aisle to look at that. After 9 11, the fbi took on a whole new role in counterterrorism and counterintelligence matters that was outside of its traditional wheelhouse. So, i wanted to plant that seed. I have not thought it all the way through. It is still a kernal, but we need to be asking fundamental questions and getting answers. Chairman graham somebody who will be leaving us, you have something to say . Thank you so much for letting me take a moment to praise the service of my chief counsel, carter burwell. He came to me after working for hasrman grassley, and he served his committee for six years. He came to the committee on detail in two thousand 14 from the department of justice, originally, and then joined my staff in 2000 16 and became my chief counsel. Aid onbeen an invaluable National Security matters, which is his background as a former prosecutor. 702thorization of section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act like the back page bill and criminal justice issues like the First Step Act that i am proud we have been able to accomplish together. He and my Judiciary Committee staff have done work on judicial nominations. Yesterday we filled the last vacancy to the federal judiciary in texas with the confirmation of drew tipton. 21 new texas judges under this administration. Carter will be going over to help secretary mnuchin on National Security matters and our economic recovery. I hope youll join me in thanking carter for his service, not only to my office, but also to the committee. [applause] knowing senator cornyn the way i do, i am sure you are getting a pay raise. Senator feinstein. Let me beginn with this, and i will take a few minutes. I believe it is important to believe to know that the committee has never heard from mr. Miller and his team. Yesterday you questioned mr. Rosenstein about whether there to justifye there investigating possible ties between the Trump Campaign and russia. I wrote you a letter, signed by every democrat on this committee. 2019, that says we are writing to you to follow up on our request, this is a followup, the committee hold a hearing with special counsel mueller regarding his report on russian electoral interference and obstruction of justice. The Mueller Report is a seminal document that caps the special counsels nearly two year investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election. As comprehensive as the report is, it is clear that there are many outstanding questions that remain unanswered. The attached document identifies at least 60 Unanswered Questions related to both russian interference and obstruction of justice. We believe that Robert Mueller would be best suited to answer these and other questions. Theuld like to put this in record, mr. Chairman. We asked for this over a year ago, and there was no answer to our plea. To address the authorization for subpoenas. Comment, e one you can read the Mueller Report for yourself, but mr. Mueller is a great patriot and served his country for a long period of time. I am not adverse to having somebody from the mueller team, until the committee what they did and how they did it. I think that is a good idea, i am not so sure mr. Mueller would be the good person the best person now, but maybe mr. Wiseman. I would agree with you, i think we need to understand how the team worked, and i am very open to getting somebody from the mueller team over here during the course of our inquiry. I want to let you know that that is not an unreasonable request. Feinstein thank you. We sent this asking for mr. Mueller. He has a man of extensive brain cells and can well recall the situation. I think the side would like to have him here. I will just leave you with that. Today i want to address the chairs authorization for subpoenas. Provide that rules a subpoena can be issued by the chair with the agreement of the Ranking Member, or a vote of the committee. In this case, neither was done. The chairs motion is a runaround Committee Rules. It does not require the Ranking Members agreement or a vote on the specific subpoena, instead, it would give the chair Sole Authority to issue hundreds of subpoenas. This removes the minority from any role in the issuance of a subpoena. This leads me to believe that the is a move to grant majority total control over investigations, and prevent the minority from gaining information in crucial areas. This would allow the majority to present a one sided, selective account of the fact, and we facts and we oppose that. With this with this motion, the chair granted unbridled authority for subpoenas for any document or witness related to crossfire hurricane. The early stages of the fbis investigations into the trunk campaigns ties to russia, and it allows subpoenas for 53 officials, named in the motion vast majoritye who served under president obama. Using a single motion to authorize subpoenas for 53 people, and possibly hundreds more documents and witnesses is unprecedented in this committee. I asked my staff to Search Committee records to find just one comparable example, they could not find a single instance where this committee has authorized subpoenas for 53 people in a single vote. In addition, the committee has not been provided with explanations for why any of these people have been listed. For example, why is treasury list,ary jacob lew on the or joe bidens chief of staff who is a Senior Advisor on bidens president ial campaign . Why is he on this list . John podesta, Hillary ClintonsCampaign Chair is on this list, even though he has already testified twice before the house Intelligence Committee, and the transcripts of his testimony are publicly available. And, we have been given no explanation as to why samantha power, former ambassador to the united nations, warrants a subpoena from this committee. It simply, this motion, and am sorry to say this, but i believe it, grants the chair unbridled authority to go after obama era officials. I cannot support this kind of conductauthority, to politically motivated investigations. And, i urge my colleagues on both sides to consider carefully whether we want to set this as a precedent going forward. Committee,on this which is well over 20 years, we have always been careful about the use of subpoena authority. We have required specific explanations for what information is being sought, why we need it, and whether this process against any specific individual is truly warranted. In fact, her roles are designed to ensure that the committee our roles are designed to ensure that the committee is following bipartisan cooperation, and we have historically done so. Our last subpoena was three years ago, and 2017, when chair grassley and i agreed to subpoena paul manafort. 2007, the committee authorized several subpoenas by voice vote to white house and Justice Department officials involving the u. S. Attorney firing scandal. With the Ranking Members consent and following a bipartisan vote, we also authorized subpoenas concerning the bush administrations warrantless wiretapping program. 2008 are laheys authorization of torture memos followed years of bipartisan efforts to obtain those materials. Motionsay, the chairs is a significant departure from this tradition of bipartisan cooperation, and i am surprised. Once the door is open to proceeding in this manner, to allow the chairman sweeping, unit unilateral authority to subpoena political opponents, that door remains open of which party has majority power. I take great exception to the subpoena authorization and will oppose it. And, the second part of this is on Justin Walker, which i am happy to put in the record. Let me say this, personally, mr. Chairman, i have great belief in what this committee does. We have always considered both sides. Since i have been on it, and i have been here 26 years. It was joe biden asked me to go on it when he was chairman. This in thiss do with a bulk list of subpoenas, not knowing why anybody on this list is actually being subpoenaed, i think opens this committee to enormous concern and criticism. I am very sorry that we are at this stage, but, on our side, we have to stand up and fight this, because it sets a poor precedent that has never existed before. Thank you very much. Chair graham thank you. I will Say Something really quickly. I want to thank you for the hearing we held yesterday mr. Rosenstein, i thought it was a normatively helpful and beneficial. Thought it was something that shows front and center the need for fisa reform. What we saw yesterday was that the system that we finished for a couple of decades is not working well. It does not self police. This is one of the things that is what happens when you have a secret court. In most circumstances, absent reform, you cannot even have an amicus curiae. We need to pass something at leeleahytrong as the fisa bill which the senate adopted along bipartisan lines. Mr. We heard yesterday from rosenstein confirms the need for aggressive fisa reform, at least as strong as what we have adopted with leeleahy. This enterprise involved in fisa, the agents we heard about yesterday were of were abusing the law. , which every american are potentially at stake when they can use the apparatus of fisa to go after someone. Of these improper investigations were themselves politically motivated, and we have to get to the bottom of them to figure out what happened. ,t is essentially important regardless of what happens with those investigations that we conclude them by updating and reforming our laws. Toy have proven too easy manipulate and we must not allow them to withering on the vine. , am grateful to senator leahy with whom i have worked with. We spotted the risk of abuse of this shortly after i arrived in the senate, and he and i worked together to try and inform this. It does need to happen. Last week something significant happened, the reforms we passed in the senate died, they were not able to secure passage. For the first time in history, these were the most aggressive fisa reforms we have adopted in either house. And, for the first time, these becausestalled, not they did not do enough to help the government, but because they were perceived by many to not do enough to restrain government. This is the right direction. We need something just as aggressive. Thank you. Mr. Chairman . Chair graham yes. Senator durbin. Po durbin do i understand sen. Durbin , do i understand that we are debating . Chair graham do you want to do walker or the subpoenas . Durbin , i confer to the i defer. Chair graham i would like to do walker first. Let us turn to walker, and we will come back to this. Feinsteins statement on mr. Walker is in the record. Durbin durbin se