Of 2016 as the u. S. President ial race was getting underway, an individual was linked to the russian government reached out to the Truck Campaign for mr. Trump. In july of 2016 the russians began dumping the emails in the same fannish fashion. It was at this point informed of the russian outreach to patent jobless and aware that the russians were meddling in our elections through the anonymous release of information that the fbi opened up this investigation. As james comey would explain in his first public testimony in march 2017 and before this committee, the investigation began not as a criminal probe but as a counterintelligence investigation. What does that mean . How does the counterintelligence investigation differ from a criminal investigation . What does it mean that he u. S. Power . May be acting as a how could the russians use the compromise of u. S. Persons to influence u. S. Policy in a manner that jeopardizes our National Security . These are the questions we hope to answer today during the second of a series of hearings special counsels develop just disturbing findings in volume one of the report and to examine what steps were necessary and our National Security. We will hear from two former senior fbi executives who oversaw the Counterintelligence Division who will help us better understand the counterintelligence implications, the range of contacts between the Truck Campaign and the russians tied to Intelligence Services. Volume one of the report outlines the sweeping systemic effort by russians to interfere in the 2016 election for the benefit of donald trump. It establishes that the Trump Campaign new of the interference because it expected to benefit from information stolen and released to the russian effort. It shows how the Trump Campaign stolen document into its Campaign Messaging and strategy. Counsel made clear, it sets out great detail where the conduct should concern every american. Report details over 100 contacts between the Trump Campaign and agents of russia. Some of this outreach was conducted in public to hack his opponents emails, a unit of the Russian Military attempted to do just that. Other contexts to view outside of the public view. Between a russian delegation and the president s eldest son, donald trump junior. Their discussion of the Campaign Strategy for winning democratic votes in midwestern states. Must americans consider solicitation of foreign help during a president ial campaign, the offer for assistance and the campaigns eagerness to accept that offer. If it is what you say it is, i love it. Not to mention the sharing of polling data and Campaign Strategy but the chairman of the campaign with a foreign nation which at the same time was intervening to help their campaign went. Thertheless and contrary to theidents repeated mantra special counsel reached no conclusion as to whether the Trump Campaign many russian context constituted collusion since that term is not defined in criminal law. For those who have not read the Mueller Report they might be astonished to learn that the no collusion is nowhere to be seen on any page or in any passage of the Mueller Report. Instead and making its charging decisions, the special counsel high bar of being able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt at trial each element is a crime of conspiracy and found that it could not even as it emphasized as a failure to establish conspiracy did not mean an absence of evidence of conspiracy. Volume one of the Mueller Report is by its very nature and the special counsels mandate report about the exercise of prosecutorial judgment, who should be charged and should not. It does not contain the fbis counterintelligence soundings just findings findings. Whether advancing russian interest or compromised whether or not such actions were crime. These are the types of concerns that you guys Counterintelligence Division works to expose using an array of investigative intelligence capability as we will hear from our witnesses today, the primary objective of the counterintelligence investigation is not to target an individual for prosecution but to protect the nation by developing information but the actions and intentions of foreign powers and to report them before they can act against us. The president s efforts to make money from a roasted project in areand to conceal the a quintessential example of a counterintelligence nightmare that may or may not include criminal activity. It may not be a crime to build the trump tower in moscow are two Michael Cohen to speak it may not be a crime to try and enrich yourself while running for president but it is deeply compromising. Not only because of the inducement of hundreds of millions of dollars. That is only part of it. It is also deeply compromising because the russians were on the other end of the transaction and could expose the president s duplicity at any time. The trump organizations efforts to enlist the kremlins help or exposed, Dmitry Peskov told the International Media that the kremlin never responded to Michael Cohens outreach. Next to the Mueller Report and our own investigation, we now know that mr. Has golfs statement was a lie. The criminal did followup. He we have a prospect of the kremlin participating in a cover up by the president of the United States. Here is what we know. The president saw to make money from a foreign power during the campaign. So did some of his children, so did his Campaign Manager and deputy Campaign Manager pitts so did his personal lawyer and National Security advisor. Some of these actors have been prosecuted but all the actions are deeply compromise and over National Security. Yet mullis report provides no evaluation of the counterintelligence concerns raised by these facts and others , of all the questions what happened to the counterintelligence investigation. Were there other forms of compromise like moneylaundering left out. Were individuals granted security clearance that should not have. Are there individuals still that lead america vulnerable. We are determined to find out. I yield to the Ranking Member idiotic remarks. Here we are two years more than circumstantial evidence the Truck Campaign colluded with russia to hack the 2016 election. And more than two years since false allegations on the dossier in an open hearing. After that the American People were subjected to endless and anonymous intelligence leakers. Singly everyday the media triumphantly help with this bombshell story. Reporters had not seen. It proved that President Trump are some associate was a treacherous russian agent. Democrats joined the news pundits and denouncing the traders and eventually the democrats became convinced that the Mueller Report had read them of their sinister president who had the audacity to defeat Hillary Clinton. The entire scheme has imploded and the accusation has become exposed as a hoax. One would think the democrats would apologize and get back to lawmaking and oversight but it is clear they could not step with the spectacle. After years of false accusations and mccarthy like smears, the conclusion has helped to find the Democratic Party. A constructive vision for our country. The democrats assembled us to analyze the shoddy piece known as the Mueller Report. It is written in the same spirit of the same purpose as the steele dossier which was once championed by the democrats on this committee of which they really mentioned after it was exposed as another democrat created hoax. The moment dossier either debunked many of their favorite conspiracy theories are did not find them worth discussing. These include mothers finding that Michael Cohen did not travel to prague to conspire with russians. No evidence that carter page conspired with russians, no mention of Paul Manafort visiting Julian Assange in london, no mention of secret communications between the trump tower server and brushes alfa bank and no mention of former nra lawyer and her supposedly knowledge and is keen to launder russian money through the nra. Insinuations that mitchell originated, these in situations originated with were made public in a document published democrats in this committee. The real purpose of the mueller dossier was to help democrats impeach the president and ask for any evidence of collusion. That is as the report concludes, if a certain number of contact indicated onepiracy, even if no discussed conspiracy. Selectivelyteam edited to make it seem threatening. No comment on the close relationship between democrat operatives and multiple russians who participated in the june 2016 meeting at trump tower. In fact no mention or comment of fusion gps at all. No useful information on key roles in investigations such as a malta diplomat of the australian diplomat. On the democratic paid operative , former spy, Christopher Steele. No useful information about the irregularities. Furthermore the mueller dossier sites multiple for perpetuating the russian hoax. Thus mueller produced a perfect feedback loop, intelligence leakers creating a false story for the media. The media publicist story. The media and democrats fake outrage. Tor relied on a mass hack the election. It is false. The democrats spreading hoax claiming trump is a russian agent but it was later whoovered the only people colluded with russians were democrats who paid for the dossier. I would like to remind the democrats. This work is even more crucial now since the media has abandoned the traditional watchdog role. I understand the democrats inability to move past the hoax and get back to business. Nevertheless i suggest they give it a try. I welcome this because today. I yield back. Thank you to our witnesses. To ensure that all members are able to ask questions due to competing business of other competing other committees, todays witnesses will be afforded five minutes each which will basically enforced. I want to thank our witnesses for joining us for this important open hearing. Stephanie douglas who serves as senior manager and director of guidebook solutions, adjusting highrisk investigations. Prior to this position, she served for over 23 years at the fbi including as assistant, executive assistant director. Robert anderson is the chief executive officer of Cyber Defense labs. He was a principal at the church off group. Mr. Anderson served for many years in the fbi rising to the executive assistant director of the criminal Cyber Response can Services Just response and services branch. I would like to welcome and mccarthy welcome andrew mccarthy. Currently a senior fellow at the National Review institute and contribute editor of the National Review. Ms. Douglas, we will start with you. Morning. As good you for the opportunity to answer questions relative to volume one of the special counsels report regarding russian interference in the 2016 president ial election. As was established and communicated in early 2017, the russian government used a number of intelligence to impact the 2016 election. Thes report supports these conclusions and provides specific examples which illustrate the message of russian influence. I am happy to answer questions regarding this report but understand that i have no access or investigative details other than that that is provided in the special counsels report. Aam proud to have been special agent in the fbi for 24 years. Most of it focused it on counterintelligence and National Security matters that while the fbi has been the subject of much discussion in the press and elsewhere, i support the work of the counterintelligence professionals who work with the special counsel to conduct this investigation. I hope that my presence here and our discussion will lead to further awareness, preparation for what is certain to be another high threat election in 2020. With that, i am happy to answer your questions. , thank you, mr. Anderson. Youanderson thank members of the committee. Thank you the opportunity to be here today to talk about counterintelligence and Cyber Threats to our nation. I background and experience was responsible for all counterintelligence, espionage matters and desist can assist and shedding some light. These threats were highlighted several times by the heads of the Intelligence Committee and reports on the investigation into the russian interference in the president ial election which is known now as the Mueller Report. My current role, i see hundreds of Cyber Breaches every year. In my opinion, these attacks originate from a variety of criminal organizations. In my opinion, in the last three years, these attacks have become more sophisticated, probably never occurred on a much larger scale than ever before. This is extremely important when we talk about Hostile Intelligence Services and their activities into 21st century. Career, i worked for three directors. The last position i held as a chair was the executive assistant director. I managed a number of divisions but i was in charge of highprofile criminal and cyber investigations. The threats to our country have changed since when i first entered into Law Enforcement in 1987 as a young trooper. Beeng my career, i have privileged to work alongside the men and women of the fbi and the United StatesIntelligence Community who have worked tirelessly to combat this hostile activities to our great country. As the committee knows, a number networks haveinst increased dramatically. I look forward to discussing and thesues today committee and i stand ready for your questions. Mr. Mccarthy . Mr. Mccarthy thank you, mr. Chairman, Ranking Member nunez, members of the committee. I served as the federal prosecutor for nearly 20 years, almost all of it at the United StatesAttorneys Office in the Southern District of new york where i retired in 2003. Since leaving Government Service i have been a writer, a commentator, i am appearing in my personal capacity as a former Government Official who cares about our National Security and the rule of law. For most of my first several years as a prosecutor, my work focused on international organized crime. After the World Trade Center was bombed in 1993, i spent much of the last decade of my tenure working on my National Security investigation. I am proud to lead the prosecution of shake rock on. I was privileged in that effort to work alongside a superb team of federal prosecutors and investigators assigned to the fbis joint Counterterrorism Task force. It was in connection with that investigation that i became intimately familiar with the fbis Counterintelligence Mission and the powerful tools the constitution and federal law make available for the execution of that mission while it escaped the attention of Many Americans to know the euro as the nations premier lawenforcement agency, are domestic security service. This is a purposeful arrangement on our governments part to have National Security and Law Enforcement housed in the same bureaucratic roof in the fbi does it generally speaking in an exceptional action. I look forward to engaging with the committee. I would make a few general points about volume one of the report. It draws three principal conclusions, first put in regime received advantage in the Trump Victory and conducted its operation accordingly. Secondly, there was evidence the Trump Campaign hoped to benefit from the publication of negative information about the opponent and third, there is no evidence of a conspiracy between the Trump Campaign and the russian regime. The first of these findings were more in the nature of clinical assertions and prosecutorial findings. Evidence, sufficient a prosecutor has no business speculating on the motive and a politically provocative manner. Moreover, i do not believe the assertions is borne out by the evidence. The report shows that agents of polluta