Good morning, everyone. Thank you for coming. Well get started with our hearing. I want to thank mr. Comey, james comey, the former director of the fbi for appearing today before the committee to talk with us about cross fire hurricane and anything else the committee would like to speak with him about. So give a little brief introduction of why were here and what were trying to accomplish. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is a tool thats been around for a very long time. For our Intelligence Community, the fbi to make sure that when Foreign Agents, terrorists or agents of a Foreign Government are in our country, they can be surveilled if theyre doing things that are threatening to our National Security. I think this legislation goes all the way back to the 70s. And its been used a lot. Its been used in terrorist cases when we suspect someone of being a terrorist under the foreign intelligence act. We have the Legal Authority to surveil those people. And you can get a warrant under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to actually follow an individual around. I will say the system is very much in jeopardy, the crossfire hurricane, crossfire razor investigations i think have really shaken confidence in the system. And my goal as chairman, and this will go into the next congress no matter who is in charge, senator feinstein, is that fisa needs to be reauthorized, but right now without substantial reform i dont think we could get it reauthorized. And my goal is to understand how the system failed, how it got off the rails and be able to assure the American People and ourselves that what happened here will not happen again. So the horowitz report is sort of the basis of what ive been trying to do. Mr. Horowitz is the Inspector General at the department of justice and he did a deep dive into the fisa warrant applications of carter page, and he found 17 significant errors and omissions, and the committee in its work has found other things that were pretty disturbing. We tried to use the foundational document of the horowitz report. And i want to thank mr. Horowitz and his team of the thorough investigation of the carter page fisa application. They found evidence the primary russian subsource was a single individual. They found interviews in january and march of the subsource where he basically said the dossier which was essential in getting the warrant get carter page was bar talk, hearsay, and quite frankly much worse. We found the primary subsource, a gentleman named igor, was actually suspected by the fbi of being an agent all the way back to 2009. And what happened here as a result of this information the fisa court issued a order rebuking the fbi and department of justice conduct. The fbis handling of the carter page applications was antithetical to the heightened duty of candor described above, but this expects the government to provide complete and Accurate Information with every filing with the court. Without this the fisa court cannot properly ensure the government conducts, electronic surveillance for intelligence purposes only when there is a sufficient factual basis. So were trying to find out as the committee of oversight and department of justice and the fbi how this happen asked to make sure it never happens again. So the basis of our inquiry started with the horowitz report, an independent Agency Within the department of justice. And were going to look at the fisa rebuke and see if we can find a way to convince the court in the future this problem has been solved very quickly. Carter page was on the Trump Campaign team and carter page is an interesting character, but the fbi sought a fisa warrant against carter page for suspected ties to russian intelligence operatives. They were unable to get the warrant approved internally just based on contact with russian operatives. Mr. Page denied knowing half the people, and theres yet to be any indication he was lying. And the other group that he was associated with were foreign intelligence operatives of russia, but he told the fbi early on i was working with the cia, thats why i knew these people. And the cia confirmed to the fbi that was true, but later on mr. Cline smith doctored the information coming over to say mr. Page was not with the cia. Why was that important . If the court would have known these contacts had no legitimate purpose, there would have been no basis for the warrant. How would you like in your case for the government to alter a document that was exculpatory to you . And thats what happened, and thats a criminal act thats going to continue to be prosecuted i hope. But during the court between october and june of october of 2016 and june of 2017 the dossier that was central and essential to getting the warrant had so many holes shot through it that it became almost a joke. The point is without the russian steele dossier there would have nono warrant. It wasnt until the dossier appears on the scene that they were able to go and get a warrant. The dossier was prepared by a man named Christopher Steele who was hired by fusion gps that was being paid by the Democratic Party and the Clinton Campaign to do Opposition Research against candidate trump. He had a subsource we didnt know until now it was a single individual he hired named igor, we now know igor was suspected by the fbi back to 2009 as being a russian agent slash spy, a National Security threat to the United States. Thats the man who gave all the material to mr. Steele. I will go in pretty deep detail about how the dossier over time not only became uneliable, it just lost all credibility and the court was never told of the information that was obtained between october and june. The fbi ignored exculpatory evidence, altered documents from the cia, had interviews where the subsource disavowed the accuracy of the document and never submitted any of that information to the court. This to me is a stunning failure of the system to work. And i will end with this. Warrant applications are nonadversarial. If theyre trying to get a warrant against you or your family there is no lawyer there to protect you. The court has to rely on the agents, the department to be honest and forthright when it comes to obtaining a warrant against an american citizen criminally or even in the fisa arena. So heres the question. What do we do when we find that the warrant application relied upon a document that was fundamentally unsound, that the fbi ignored all the warning signs about this document, misled the court about the author and the reliability of the document and over and over and over again it was used to keep an investigation of american citizens alive that we now know had 17 irregularities. What do we do . We just say, well, that was bad, thats the way it goes . Does anybody get fired, does anybody go to jail . And im saying this to my democratic friends if it happened to us, it could happen to you. Every american should be worried about this. This is not just an abuse of power against mr. Page and the Trump Campaign, this is system fi failure, and you could be next. Make sure this never happens again starting with finding out who did it, whos responsible. Apparently everybodys responsible but nobodys to blame is not the right answer. So my goal is we can have a deep dive and understand how this happened and working together to assure the American People it never happens again to any Political Campaign of any party and the system can survive this very sad chapter. Were turning the paige on a very dangerous chapter in the history of the fisa program, and were trying to start anew. And the only way we can start anew is find out what happened and hold people accountable. Were not prosecutors here. There are people out there who do have prosecutorial authority. Well let them decide what to do independent of us, but it is a responsibility of this committee to try to restore trust in a program we all need. And we will start that endeavor seriously today and continue until we get to the bottom of it. I have two documents id like to introduce for the record. I have a office of intelligence attorneys statement. This is the doj lawyer that signed off on the fisa application, and the letter says the attorney advises that had he she been aware of the significant errors and omissions identified by the oig Inspector General and the errors in the woods process he she would not have signed the carter page fisa applications. The oi attorney further advises he she is not aware of the additions on the page. This is yet another person saying if i know then what i know now i wouldnt have signed this report. Horowitz did a really good job. Rosenstein and sally yates said to this committee who signed the warrant application. If i knew then what i know now i would not have signed the application. Mr. Chairman, may we have copies of that document, please . Yes, well submit it to everybody. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. We are here again today as part of the chairmans examination of cross fire hurricane. The fbis russia investigation. The president has long claimed the investigation of his campaign was a witch hunt and a hoax. Contrary to the president s claim of a witch hunt the department of justice Inspector GeneralMichael Horowitz confirmed in a detailed report that the fbi was justified when it opened the investigation into ties between the Trump Campaign and russia. The fbi learned in july 2016 that the Trump Campaign appeared to have advance knowledge of russias plan to release, quote, thousands of emails end quote to harm Hillary Clinton and help trump. The fbi learned this one week after wikileaks published 20,000 emails that russia had stolen from the Democratic National committees hacked computers. The dnc hack and the possibility that the Trump Campaign knew of russias plans to interfere in the 2016 election by releasing stolen emails created a significant Counter Intelligence concern. Mr. Comey has said that the fbi, quote, would have been derelict not to investigate, end quote. And i agree. Special Counsel Robert Mueller assumed control of crossfire hurricane after mr. Comey was fired by President Trump. Muellers findings confirm that the fbi was correct to investigate. Mueller found that the russian government, quote, perceived it would benefit from a Trump Presidency and worked to secure that outcome, end quote. And that the Trump Campaign knew about, welcomed and, quote, expected it would benefit from russias interference. Mueller also uncovered numerous contacts between the Trump Campaign and individuals linked to russia. For example, mueller found the Trump Campaign manager Paul Manafort gave internal polling data to constantine kilimnik, a russian Intelligence Officer. The Senate Intelligence committee of which im a member recently issued the bipartisan finding that manafort was, quote, a grave Counter Intelligence threat, end quote because of his ties to russian intelligence. So think about that for a moment. The president s Campaign Manager had ties to russian intelligence and could have used them to share confidential campaign information. Mr. Chairman, of course the fbi should have investigated. Unfortunately, the president and his allies have been trying to rewrite the russia investigation since the day it concluded. They have seized onairers in the fbis applications for fisa surveillance on carter page to assert that the entire Russian Investigation was corrupt. Those errors were serious. But the errors and the socalled steele dossier, this is important, played no part in the broader russia investigation. This was confirmed by Inspector General horowitz and former Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein who told the committee that none of the Mueller Reports findings of criminal charges rely on the steele dossier, none of them. President trump and his allies also claim that the russia investigation was a political witch hunt overseen by investigators who hated the president. But Inspector General horowitz found no evidence that political bias impacted crossfire hurricane. And none of the ten witnesses the committee has interviewed during the chairmans investigation provided such evidence either. We should not ignore or excuse what happened in 2016. Fbi director wray and the Intelligence Community have warned that russia is interfering in the 2020 election with the aim of denigrating Vice President biden. We should condemn russias current and past interference not downplay it. And insist the president condemn russias interference as well. Mr. Comey, is our Technology Working today . Mr. Comey . I can hear you. Okay, great. Will he be on the screen . Okay, can you count to ten for us, please. Sure. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Well, you did your part. There we go. 11 must have been the magic number. Thank you very much for being with us. Can you raise your right hand, please . Do you solemnly swear the testimony youre about to give this committee is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god . I do. Thank you. If youd like to make an Opening Statement you may if youd like. I have no Opening Statement and im ready for your questions. Mr. Comey, on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the top of the line great how would you rate the crossfire hurricane investigation in terms of being done thoroughly by the book and an investigation the fbi should be proud of . Im not sure i can 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. 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. When did you first learn of the existence of the steele dossier . Some time towards the end of 2016. Do you agree with mr. Horowitz that the dossier was central and essential to the carter page fisa warrant application being approved . I agree that it was important. I cant tell you whether it was essential, and by that i mean it wouldnt have been granted without the steele information. Lets go through the application. There are two parts to the application. Was there an effort to get a warrant approved without using the dossier . Yes, my understanding is that in the summer i asked doj whether they would support moving forward on a warrant application. And they said no. Correct. I think its fair to say doj decided to move forward after the steele information was part of it. Yes, so i would say that it was central, essential based on that. Heres what id like to ask. The contacts between mr. Page and alleged russian operatives are one part of the application, is that correct . Thats my recollection. Okay. Did mr. Page deny knowing people that you accuse him of having contacts with . I dont remember. I think the horowitz report says that in the fall of 2016 speaking to an fbi source he denied knowing certain people, but thats about all i recall. Well, heres the facts. He denied knowing these people and the fbi has yet to find any evidence that he was lying. The people that he did have contact with, did he tell the fbi that he was working for the cia and thats why he had contacts with these people . I dont remember. Do you now agree that the cia confirmed that mr. Page was, in fact, helping them. I know from the horowitz report the cia confirmed he was what they call a contact. So the fbi in august of 2016 had information from the cia informing the fbi that in fact mr. Page was a resource. Did you not know that . I did not know the nature of his relationship with the cia, and im telling you thats what i read in the horowitz report. Do you think it would have been fair for the fbi to tell the court that mr. Page had a reason to be talking to these people because he was working with the cia . Would that have been a fair thing to tell the court . I dont agree with your characterization of what mr. Horowitz found. No, im talking about you as a director. The fbi has in his possession in august 2016 information from the cia confirming what mr. Page said, that he in fact was assisting the cia which explained the contacts. That was never given to the court. Should they have been informed of that because thats exculpatory to mr. Page. I believe mr. Horowitz found they should have at least considered should you youre the director of the fbi. Would you wish that had been been done if youd known about it . Im sorry, senator. What had been done . That you informed the court tat mr. Page was in fact working with the cia and that explains these contacts. Do you think out of a sense of fairness the court should have been informed of that fact . Again, i dont agree with your