Behavior to a man who served his country. Protesters interrupted the hearing two more times. After the hearing, senator mccain said that there was responsible must be held accountable. In my 32 years in the house and senate, i have never witnessed this physical intimidation of a witness. Also we thought Madeleine Albright and george schultz. You can see all of the National Security hearing on cspan at about 11 30 eastern time. Or you can watch it any time at cspan. Org. New congress, test access. On cspan, cspan radio, and cspan. Org. Some of the headlines from the second day of the confirmation hearing from president obamas nominee Loretta Lynch. The senate has confirmed Loretta Lynch is not. Eric holder. Part reformers arent afraid of the resolution. The nominee opposes legalization but pot leaders dont see her as a threat. The gop case against laura lynch falls apart. Just some of the headlines from today. Witnesses testified before the Judiciary Committee on the nomination of Loretta Lynch. There justification went on for about three and a half hours. For the members who are present except for the ones that are here already, and other people that come in, you will be called on according to how our respective staff keep track of you in the order of your appearance. Before chairman leahy and i get our Opening Statements come up i would like to go over some things i said yesterday. First of all, we welcome everyone to the second day of hearing on ms. Lynchs nomination to the attorney general. As i said yesterday, and everybody provided by this, and i think everyone yesterday for their courtesy i want everyone to watch the hearing without obstruction. If people stand up and block the view of those behind them, it is not fair or considerable to the others. Officers would remove those individuals. I want to thank you, because we didnt have those incidents yesterday. Before we begin the Opening Statements let take care of a few housekeeping items. First of all, i want to thank everyone for their patience yesterday. It looks like we will have more votes today. I am asking for your flexibility after Opening Statements. The plan is to start the first round of questions then recess so members can vote. Then we will return after the first series of the stack votes. I am assuming that his round 12 45. You cant necessarily count on that. Then there are four votes this afternoon. We will not adjourn at that particular time, we will do like we did yesterday. We will take turns going in voting. Senator leahy and i will now give our Opening Statements. Then we will turn to our witnesses for their Opening Statements. Following their statements, we will begin with a first round of questions, in which each senator has 10 minutes. After the first round, we will go to eight minutes of questions. Then i will give my opening statement. Obviously, i welcome everybody and the audience as well as witnesses to our second day of hearings on mrs. Lynch nomination to be attorney general. Yesterday we heard from the nominee. I thought she was very engaging, very competent. There is no question about her competence. From what she has done as far as her legal background and her work as a u. S. Attorney, we appreciate your willingness to stay here through it all so we can get done with her in one day. Everyone that wanted to ask questions were able to do it. Of course, there will be a lot of questions in writing for her to answer in time. She is clearly a skilled and competent lawyer. We asked questions yesterday. But i have to say, at least from my standpoint, it seems like indirect answers. I suspect those will be followed up with questions for the record. Today we will hear the second panel in front of us right now. Many of these will speak to in many ways, the department of justice under its current leadership, has failed to fulfill some of the most recent aspects of its nation. The question for me and a lot of members whether miss lynch is committed to leading the department of justice in a new direction. There are obviously people here going to speak about the direction of the department. We will listen courteously to that as well. You will hear from Cheryl Atkinson as one example of a person who was an investigative journalist who has been bullied, threatened, and even blocked by the department of justice as she had the guts to report on issues like benghazi. That is one example of something we would like to have a new attorney general six. We will also hear from catherine engelbrecht, who was targeted id irs by the irs simply because she had the courage to stand up to the administration. I would like to know how miss lynch will take seriously the targeting of fellow citizens aced upon their political views. Then we have a sheriff david cook of milwaukee, who will testify how thousands of Law Enforcement field of the current leadership doesnt fully appreciate the work that Law Enforcement does every day. That is important to see how ms. Lynch mike duke to mend the broken relationships. Then we will hear from professors who will address how the department of justice under eric holder has rubberstamped the president s lawless actions from the unlawful recess appointments in the unlawful executive action, specifically on immigration. Those people will bring up points that we have made not quite as directly as they have. In hopes that ms. Lynch will restore the office of Legal Counsel to the impartial role it used to play as a check on president s authority. I look forward to hearing, and now it is senator leahys turn to give his Opening Statements. Thank you mr. Chairman, this is the second day of the committees consideration of Loretta Lynch. we had a long day yesterday. Today we will hear testimony from outside. I am especially interested in testimony from those who actually know her. We heard directly from her for nearly eight hours of testimony. She testified about the values and independence she will bring to the office. How she would make priorities of National Security as well as preserving the values that all of us hold dear. I was encouraged, and republican senators agree with me, but the key question in voting for a nominee to be attorney general is independence. Some of us remember past attorney generals. He was a member of the president staff. We all had to remind them, no he is not. He is not an elected secretary of justice, he is the attorney general of the United States. He is supposed to be independent. Responding to questions on issue after issue. It is clear that miss lynch is a independent lawyer. I also want to take a moment to thank chairman grassley for his handling of yesterdays hearing. It was no easy feat, especially yesterday afternoon. He kept it going, making sure that every senator who had a question on either side of the aisle was giving the time togiven the proper time. And today, i was not surprised. We have been friends for decades, and i know you well. We will hear from Law Enforcement officials that have actually worked with ms. Lynch. People who have the best knowledge of her. They strongly support her nomination. The president spoke about his support of her. Barack obama is not the nominee. That may come as a surprise to some who are fielding some of the questions. Eric holder is not the nominee. Loretta lynch, the daughter of Lorenzo Lynch the u. S. Attorney, twice unanimously confirmed by the United States senate, has been applauded or Law Enforcement work, that is who we are being called upon to consider. After hearing the testimony of the committee, no one in good faith could question her integrity or her ability. She explored the work of the congress to confront the many issues facing americans today. She has met with over 50 senators in both parties. I hope we come together in the senate and support this historic confirmation. And to move quickly doing it. Thank you. There is no reason to make these people stand for an officer. Cant they do it sitting down . All right, they have to stand. I want to know what is legal. Do you affirm that the testimony you are about to give before the committee will be the whole truth in all . Let me start over again, please. [laughter] do you affirm that the testimony you are about to get before the committee will be the whole truth, the holger, and nothing but the truth so help me god. Thank you. Now i will just introduce everybody at the table one by one. Be patient with me. Cheryl atkinson is an investigative journalist and author are over 20 years. She worked for cbs news, winning multiple emmy awards for her Investigative Journalism pieces. Including her reporting on the 12 benghazi report 2012 benghazi. This man served at the District Attorney for utah in 2011 and 2014. Prior to his tenure as a u. S. Attorney, he served on this committee. Next is reverend newsom. Reverend Clarence Newsom is resident of the National UndergroundRailroad Freedom center in cincinnati ohio. Next is she has served as assistant director as in charge of fbi from 20112012. I know i pronounced it wrong. Next we have Stephen Lacombe ski he is at John S LehmanUniversity School of law. Next we have a jonathan turley. A professor of Public Interest law at George WashingtonUniversity Law school. David clark, sheriff of the lucky county no walkie county milwuakee county. He is a professor of constitutional law at georgetown University Law center and a senior fellow at the cato ins titute. Finally we have catherine engelbrecht. She is in charge of an electric Election Integrity organization. And the coowner of engelbrecht manufacturing, a Small Business she owns with her husband in the home state of texas. Now we will start with ms. Atkinson. Thank you. Maybe i should say we would like to have five minutes. Go ahead. Ive been a reporter for 35 years at cbs news. Yesterday, i will get a little closer. Can you hear me now . I have been a reporter for 40 years at cbs, pbs, and local news. My producers and i have probed countless organizations, ranging from iraq waste under bush, two green waste under obama, to consumer stories in the industry. Most recently, investigative any nominations that were awarded for reporting on tarp, and ghazi, green energy spending, fast and furious and a undercover investigation into republican. Fundraising the job of getting at the truth has never been more difficult. The facets of government have isolated themselves from the public they serve. They covet and withhold Public Information that we, as citizens own. They bully in front journalists who do their jobs, those who publish stories they dont like, or whistleblowers who dare to tell the truth. When i reported on factual contradictions regarding fast and furious, push back included a frenzied campaign with white house officials trying to children reporting by calling and emailing my superiors using surrogate bloggers to advance false claims. One white house official got so mad he angrily cussed me out. The Justice Department used its authority over a security to handpicked reporters allowed to attend the fast and furious breathing, refusing to clear me into the public Justice Department building. Advocates had to file a lawsuit to obtain Public Information about fast and furious improperly withheld under executive privilege. Documents recently released show taxpayer and White House Press officials complaining that i was out of control and out to call my bosses to stop my reporting. Let me emphasize that my reporting was factually indisputable. Government officials were not angry because i was doing my job poorly, they were panicked because i was doing my job well. Many journalists provided their own accounts. The white house made good on its threat to punish cspan, when it tried to delay a airing of the present. They wrote the white house to unprecedented restrictions on the threat on the press raising constitutional concerns. Someone likened them to the soviet news agency. A former journalist called them by far the most aggressive he has seen since nixon. David sanger of the New York Times called this the most closed, control freak and ministration he has most covered. A New York Times editor said it is the administration of unprecedented attacks on the free press a number of. Was before we knew that the Justice Department had se surveilled foxnews. Before he improperly testified under of americans worked subject to massive data collection, i was tipped off that the government was secretly monitoring me due to my reporting. Three different exams confirmed the longterm remote surveillance including keystroke monitoring, passwords capture, use of skype to listen to audio, and more. Getting to the bottom of it has not been easy. It has been unclear what the fbi has done to investigate. The Justice Department has refuse to answer direct questions about the case. It had no responsive documents then admitting to 2500 of them, but never providing any of them. In 2013, Reporters Without Borders ungraded american standing with the global free press rankings, rating the obama demonstration as worse than bushs. It matters not that when caught, the government promises to dai will back. The message has already been received. If you cross this administration with perfect reporting they do not like, you will be attacked and punished. You and your sources may be subjected to the surveillance devised for enemies of the state. For much of history, the United States has held itself out of the level of Freedom Democracy and open accountable government. Freedom of expression is protected by the constitution. Today those freedoms are under assault due to Government Policies of secrecy, leak prevention, and officials contact with the media. Combined with largescale surveillance programs the nominee, if confirmed, should chart a new path to rejecting the policies used by those in the past. If we are not brave enough to confront those concerns, it could do serious, longterm damage to a supposedly free press. Thank you. If i am accurate, professor rosenkranz, you have recently had a back operation. If you need to stand, we will not object. Whatever you have to do. I would echo that. Recovering from two fractures it is fine if he stands. Mr. Barlow. Thank you chairman grassley am a Ranking Member leahy. It is my privilege to appear before you in support of the nomination of my former colleague, Loretta Lynch. I would be remiss if i did not first think this committee for the strong support i received in 2011, when my own nomination to service u. S. Attorney was before you. It was a tremendous honor to serve as u. S. Attorney in the department of justice. I always will be grateful for the trust put in meet when supporting my nomination. It is now my privilege to recommend miss lynch to you. You have party heard and read much about her 30 year legal career. Instead of collaborating instead of elaborating on her credentials, i want to share personal observations about my former colleague. I first met loretta at 800 of United States attorneys several months after i was warning. At a conference of United States attorneys. She handled a portion of the programs where u. S. Attorneys were asking questions of the executive office of u. S. Attorneys. Loretta monitored the session. Some discussions regarding budgets, hiring authority, and other issues, understandably became intense as my colleagues articulate the various needs districts have had during lean budgetary times. Loretta was calm and unruffled. She asked hard questions in a unfailingly dignified and respectful way. Where strong feelings could have created the risk of creating more heat, loretto brought only light. She was tough, but also fair and gracious. That impression of loretta was confirmed and deepened as i serve with her on the agac. It is roughly a committee of a dozen attorneys that serve as the voice of their colleagues and provide counsel to the Department Leadership on various management, policy, and operational issues. Loretta was the chair of the agac while i served as a member. You already know that the u. S. Attorneys do not attend the group. All are accustomed to being in charge, all accustomed to expressing their views, and all in part the products of very different backgrounds experiences, and places. If you put 12 or so u. S. Attorneys in the room, as the agac does, you will get a wide variety of perspectives. Take someone very special to lead that kind of group. For the agac to work well, someone needs to be smart insightful organized articulate, inclusive, and experience. Loreto was and is all of those things and more.