To the networks in the United States to the streets of america. And we will continue to do that with every resource that Congress Gives us. Human smuggling and Sex Trafficking are obviously abhorrent. The Justice Department has task forces on both of these subjects. And have brought in many, many cases on these subjects. On the idea of putting sexually explicit material about children on the web is another area that we are continuing to investigate and to prosecute and to ask the social media to take down from their sites. Gentleladys time is expired. I guess im wondering, mr. Attorney general, has anyone at the department told President Biden to knock it off . With hunter . You guys are charging hunter biden on some crimes, investigating him on others, you got the president bringing hunter biden around to state dinners. Has anyone told him to knock it off . Our job in the Justice Department is to pursue our cases without reference to what is happening in the outside world. Just yes or no, have you done that . That is a so it is a no . No one i know of has spoken to the white house about the hunter biden case, of course not. I got it. So hunter biden is selling art to pay for his 15,000 a month rent in malibu. How can you guarantee that the people buying that art arent doing so to gain favor with the president . The job of the Justice Department is to investigate criminal allegations. Are you investigating this . Someone who bought Hunter Bidens art ended up with a prestigious appointment to a federal position. Doesnt it look weird that hes making hes become this immediate success in the art world as his dad is president of the United States . Isnt that odd . Im not going to comment about any specific not going to comment, not going to investigate. So hunter Biden Associate devin archer told us that hunter sold the appearance of access to then vice President Biden. Are you confident he has stopped doing that . Im sorry, i didnt understand the question. Hunter Biden Associate devin archer told us that hunter sold the appearance of access to then vice President Biden. Are you confident he has stopped . Im going to say again, all these matters are within the purview of mr. Weiss. I have not interfered with them and i have not if youre confident he has stopped so it was a lot of chinese money that was working its way through these Shell Companies into the accounts of the biden family. So the China Initiative was set up during the Trump Administration at the department of justice to go after the malign influence of the Chinese Communist party and the biden Justice Department dissolved the China Initiative. Does the department have any documents that would detail the basis for why you got rid of the China Initiative that President Trump had signed . The assistant Attorney General gave a long speech which explained that, he testified before Congress Several times. We would be happy to provide you with what is the basis . Tell us all now, why was the China Initiative dissolved . We face attacks from four nation states. North korea, china, russia and iran and we need to focus our attention on the broad range of these attacks. Are you saying that north korea has the same malign influence risk to the United States as the Chinese Communist party . Are you trying to represent some parity there . Here is what it looks like. It looks like the chinese gave all this money to the bidens and you guys came in and got rid of the China Initiative and it was successful. One of the people you convicted was a guy named charles lieber, taking 50,000 a no do chinas bidding and give them whatever research was being done. There are a lot of questions, let me start with the first one about north korea, north korea is a dangerous actor, both kinetically and with respect to not on par with china. Im on the Armed Services committee, mr. Attorney general. May i answer your question or not . Answer the question about whether or not you know about all the millions of dollars that you dont want me to answer about north korea . I already know the answer. And so does everyone. Theyre not the same risk as china. So lets get on to serious questions and serious answers. Do you know about the money that moved through the rob walker Shell Companies, yes or no . As i said repeatedly, i have left that these matters to mr. Weiss, ive not intruded, ive not interfered, i have not tried to find out it is like youre looking the other way on purpose because everyone know this stuff is happening. The China Initiative resulted in the convictions of harvard professor, of someone at monday monsanto. Now youre sitting here telling me that north korea is the big threat. We got to get to this one thing on january did the fbi lose count of the number of paid informants on january 6th . Let me answer your question about china. China is i only get five minutes. You already january 6th, did you lose count of the number of federal assets . Did you lose count and order an audit . The gentlemans time is expired. I get an answer to the question. The Attorney General can respond. China is the most aggressive, most dangerous adversary mr. Attorney general and were doing everything within our power to rebut that, to stop that, to prevent their invasions both kinetic, both and through cyberspace and we will continue if someone gave that answer in your courtroom when you were a judge, you would tell them they were being nonresponsive and ask them to answer the question. Point of order. Badgering the witness. Point of order, please. Time has expired. I was i was i was your honor, you want to stick with that . I was laughing at Point Of Order either way. I understand that too. All right. The gentleman asked his question before his time expired, the Attorney General did not respond to the question, i was hoping he would answer the question to the Confidential Human Sources On the question was before that. He was not given a chance to answer. So the witness might have thought the witness doesnt mr. Chairman, Point Of Order, the witness does not control the time. Exactly right. Members control the time. If they want to switch their question and focus on one more question they would like an answer to, i want to give the witness a chance to respond to that final question mr. Gaetz asked. Someone will ask it, im sure. We now recognize the gentleman from tennessee for five minutes. Thank you, sir. I would follow up with a few of the questions that were asked here. Did devin archer not say joe biden did nothing wrong . I only know about mr. Archer from newspaper reports. I want to be clear that i kept my promise to not involve myself in this investigation. Now stated. He said in joe biden did nothing wrong. Secondly, did you say that President Trump, President Trump appointed weiss who then you appointed . Yes. President Trump Appointed mr. Weiss as the United States attorney. That should take care of that issue. And they say the department has been weaponized. Wasnt there an investigation of mr. Gaetz and you didnt prosecute him . Justice department does not make comments about its investigations. Were not weaponized. Were weaponized, we would have done it. That was a beautiful exchange. Shows we didnt do that. Youre the nations chief Law Enforcement officer and i appreciate that. And Law Enforcement is one of our governments fundamental functions. Crime is growing too much in this country and my City Of Memphis as well. We need Law Enforcement that is effective, swift and fair. I would like to focus my questions on what actually affects the American People, crime. How do we get smarter Law Enforcement requiring Smart Resource of allocations, not about funding or less funding, but the right funding for the right programs and see that that happens . Memphis, hiring has become more difficult. We lowered our standards to get more officers. Thats not the way to do it. Cops program is helping us review the policies and procedures and i thank the cops program for doing that. What can department of justice do to help see that Law Enforcement is more efficient and more effective . So, the key to this is our partnership, the fbi, the dea, marshals, atf, partnership at every local level with local and state Law Enforcement and task forces in discussions to target the most dangerous criminals in those communities. But at the same time, to engage the communities to help engender Community Trust in Law Enforcement. Everyone who is prosecuted Violent Crime cases and that includes me knows that you need the trust of the community in order to get witnesses and we and the Justice Department are helping our state and local colleagues do just that. The funding allows us to give money to state and local Police Organizations that are having trouble with recruitment and retention and promotion of law officers. And helps them make their departments respectful of Constitutional Rights and at the same time effective in the investigation and prosecution of criminal law violations. Can you share with us how important Pilot Programs are and how they can improve policing . Congress has authorized the Justice Department to conduct pattern or practice investigations when there is a reasonable belief that there has been unconstitutional pattern of unconstitutional behavior in a police department. We are careful to select those cases where we think there is such a pattern. We make those investigations, we then work with the Law Enforcement agencies and the cities. Our hope is to come to a Consent Decree that will lead to a better, more efficient and more Constitutional Police department. We have been successful in all of our cases to date in reaching consent agreements. Thank you, sir. You were part of bringing of charges, federal charges against the five officers who killed tyre nichols. If there is a shutdown of the federal government, how will that affect the department of justice and affect policing and local communities . I havent done a complete calculation on the effects of a shutdown and the difference between which employees are indispensable under the statute and which ones are not. It will disrupt all of our normal programs, including our Grant Programs to state and local Law Enforcement and to our ability to conduct our normal efforts with respect to the entire scope of our activities including helping state and locals fight Violent Crime. Thank you, sir. Happy new year. I yield back the balance of my time. The gentleman yields back. Mr. Attorney general, looking again at the appointment of jack smith and david weiss, this Double Standard of justice couldnt be more glaring. Jack smith was deeply involved in the irs scandal that targeted conservative political groups, his malicious prosecution of former governor mcdonnell was unanimously overturned by the u. S. Supreme court. Chief Justice Roberts rebuked smith directly for attempting to criminalize political activity. You appointed him to prosecute joe bidens chief rival for the presidency. And then we have the appointment of david weiss. Weiss deliberately allowed the Statute Of Limitations to run out on any charges that could have implicated joe biden in influence peddling. He offered hunter biden a Sweet Heart Deal Up ended by the court and hes the one you used to pursue the charges that could implicate joe biden. That leads me to two explanations, corruption or incompetence. Which is it . Those are the kind of questions that judges would rule out of order. Im sure you would. Which is it . As i said before and ill say again, mr. Weiss was the republicanappointed United States attorney, appointed by president donald trump. Do you at least see the obvious Double Standard applied in these two appointments . Mr. Weiss was a republican appointee. Mr. Smith is not registered to either party, his entire career was as a career prosecutor. Im not asking about their party registrations. Im asking about their records and how those records would commend them to the appointments that you made. This is a question of judgment and it is a question of motive. What was motivating you to do this . Mr. Smith had a nationwide reputation for integrity and for prosecution. His work can be measured by what he has actually filed. Everyone in the country can see the indictments how can you say that after he was so heavily implicated in the irs scandal . Or the rebuke that the Supreme Court gave him and many other examples . Let me go on. We had two irs Whistle Blowers inform congress of attempts to obstruct the Criminal Investigation into millions of dollars of ill gotten and undeclared income to hunter biden and several deviations from Department Officials that provided preferential treatment to hunter biden, direct quote, including allowing the Statute Of Limitations to lapse, prohibiting investigators from referring to the big guy or dad in witness interviews, excluding the Investigative Team from meetings with Defense Counsel and in order to find Defense Counsel pending Search Warrants. U. S. Attorneys office tipped off the bidens of an impending search of a storage unit where their records were being kept. That sounds an awful like Obstruction Of Justice to me. Was that coming from you or from Somebody Else . Im sorry, i dont was that coming from you. I dont understand the question. All of the actions that your employees took to obstruct the investigation of hunter biden and the earnings that he made and the taxes he failed to declare, their source and ultimately who they were paid to. Im going to say again, with respect to the Hunter Biden Investigation that it has been and still is in the hands of mr. Weiss, an appointee of President Trump. I dont know about all of these allegations, some of them appear to have been from the period when the Attorney General appointed by President Trump was still the Attorney General. Do these charges trouble you at all . Mr. Weiss will have an opportunity to explain the decisions youre the guy in charge. Does this trouble you . I had intentionally not involved myself in the facts of the case, not because im trying to get out of responsibility, but because im trying to pursue my responsibility. Your fbi director testified before this committee of an uptick in, quote, known or suspected terrorists coming across the southern border. And they told us that the southern border represents a massive security threat. Those were his words. A massive security threat. Do you agree . Im perfectly happy to align myself with the director of the fbi. Well, why is it then that we Senior Administration resend the trump era orders that had secured that border . There is an exponential increase of terrorists. The witness can respond if he chooses. This is the answer to this question about Immigrat