Transcripts For CSPAN House Judiciary Committee Reviews Muel

The Judiciary Committee will come to order. Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare recess of the committee at any time privet we welcome everyone to todays hearing on lessons from the mother report part two, nonpartisan perspectives. I will now recognize myself for an opening statement. Last week, we heard from two former United States attorneys who described President Trumps repeated efforts to undermine special counsel motors investigation on russias interference in the 2016 elections. We also heard from president nixons former white House Counsel told us that the actions by this administration were substantially similar to the measures the Nixon Administration took to undermine the watergate investigation. There is one important difference. Special counsel mother was investigating a different kind of breakin. The target was similar to that of watergate. The barker was hostile organization. The crime was carried out through hacking operation that stole hundreds of thousands of documents. The hacked documents were used extensively to effect the outcome of the election. To be clear, the question is not merely whether Campaign Officials committed a crime, did they take a meeting with foreign officials to discuss dirt on opponent but the federal law or abits hacking operations from foreign adversary. The question comes down to what we as american citizens are willing to except from our leaders. Ago, the fbiars director announced the fbi was setting up a task force designed to combat both foreign influence overtions including actions by Foreign Governments to influence u. S. Political sentiment. The fbi explained that the goal of these operations was to spread disinformation, so discord, an elderly undermine confidence in our Democratic Institutions and values. I cannot imagine that a Single Member of this committee would disagree that these operations must be disrupted. In our hearing last week i was struck by a common theme through mark sets of some of our republican colleagues, acknowledging that we were attacked by foreign adversary, acknowledging that our election systems are not secure, they acknowledge that Congress Must respond to these threats without delay. Then they urged us to stop talking about the findings of the motor report. We cannot simply forget that the president s 2016 Election Campaign encouraged russias actions, both privately and publicly. The nations intelligence officials have made clear russian may do the same thing to the next election, or perhaps worse. Other hostile adversaries may try as well. Oft week, to the alarm americans across the political spectrum, likely the alarm of the men and women of the Law Enforcement and intelligence communities for working to prevent these attacks, President Trump stated in an interview that he would be willing to accept information about a political opponent from a foreign adversary such as russia or china. First, when asked whether political candidates were approached by Foreign Governments with this kind of information should call the fbi, the president responded, you dont call the fbi. Give me a break. Informed that both the fbi happened, he it responded, the fbi director is wrong. The next question was not confusing. President trump was asked by his what is campaign would do for russia orversary like china offered information on an opponent. He was asked should they accept it, should they call the fbi . The president responded that maybe you do both. Want to hear it. If they have information, i think i would take it. This time around the situation is even more alarming. The president was a private citizen before the 2016 campaign. He is provided with our nations most sensitive secrets on a daily basis. He has sworn an oath to protect and defend the constitution against enemies foreign and mystic. Even with the benefit of all that guidance, even with all the authority and responsibility has been granted, the president has said he is open to receiving information from a foreign adversary. Hestating publicly that would accept help from a Foreign Government, he may well have encouraged more foreign influence against our democracy. We heard some relevant testimony yesterday and we will be releasing that transcript soon. The president s willingness to welcome prohibited foreign assistance and now with a full understanding that the law prohibits it is indeed shocking. The president may be willing to describe discard the lessons of the mother report, but we are not. With the 20 20 election looming, we must act immediately in response to the ongoing foreign threats we face as well as the parents apparent willingness the president s apparent willingness to accept it. Recent, sorry history is not repeated. It is now my pleasure to recognize the Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee, the gentleman from georgia, mr. Collins, for his opening statement. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Bipartisan perspectives, i think we will have our tents to hear the statement. I do have a concern i want to bring up. It is a procedural issue, the chairman has every right to ,m glad he has listen to us when our son was asked, we were asked we were taught we obstruction. That was as late as monday night at 9 00, we were told it was going to be all about last week again, on obstruction. Its up to the chairman to do whatever he wants to do and we respect that, but to actually our witness, were happy to have him here, but it is something we were caught unawares about and it is something that if we can go arward, at least knowledgeable headsup would affect all. I think foreign interference in the election system is something we need to discuss. It should, been hearing which we have asked for and youre not going to allow us to forget the rest of it, so dont worry about that. As we go forward, the special counsel finishes investigation and found no one on the Trump Campaign conspired with the russians. I thought it would be great news to all americans, but no surprise, he really wasnt. Democrats are disappointed and angry. Imagine disliking a president so much that you wish you were a foreign agent. That is where the other party is today. Despite the motor reports conclusions, it came to democrats desperately trying to revive the russian conspiracy theory. They didnt like the outcome and democrats now have to redo the motor investigation. Hey launched the do over we will call that the 81 investigation. It was quickly abandoned in favor of plan b. Plan b was democrats manufactured a fight with the attorney general. They issued a subpoena directing the attorney general to violate the law. Unsurprisingly, the attorney general declined to break the law. Rather than engage in traditional process, the chairman held the attorney general in contempt in record time on flimsy ground. Even their own witnesses admitted the subpoena was asking for illegal things. The democrats overplayed their hand again with plan c. Subpoenaed don mcgahn knowing every president since the 1970s including clinton and obama claimed immunity over congressional testimony from close president ial advisers. Plans ac failed to accomplish anything of substance, we decided to go into d. Heavy artillery from plan was it Robert Mueller himself . That wouldve made too much since. It was the pivot to focus on wrongdoing, no, that would have been productive. How do we focus on real issues facing america . Was john dean. Yes, the convicted felon from the watergate scandal whose been 40 years saying that anything he did, anything that happens now is worse than watergate. The columbia journalism review ran the headline, the john dean hearing was a flop. A Washington Post columnist said no friend of the Trump Administration said the best thing that could be said about the hearing is that no one said its not like the one we saw last month. The democrats believe the American Public would be energized by john dean, who has done nothing relevant since the 1970s. The desperation showed last week when after the dean hearing bombed and at least one member of the committee scolded msnbc for ignoring the dean hearing, not showing it enough. I hope the john dean hearing put in into the circus. No matter how many times we really of relive the finding of the report, it will not change. As i said last week, our actions expose our real priorities. What hearing did we include for this week . The motor report, part two, bipartisan perspective. We were given, i fear that once again we are turning this committee into another circus. The attorney general made the motor report public two months ago. Weve had some wonderful, dramatic readings over the past week or two. We all know what it says. Robert muellerhe report is, no conspiracy. Run thel the shows have whole season, it was time for reruns. Tomorrow is the official start of summer. It is time for rerun season. Without further ado, let the show began. Thank you, mr. Collins. We will now introduce todays witnesses. Barry cordero is the robert gates senior fellow and general counsel of the center for new american security. He is an adjunct professor of law at georgetown university. Hes also the cofounder of checks and balances, an organization of conservative libertarian lawyers dedicated to constitutional principles and the rule of law. Richard hayes and is professional lawn Political Science at the university of california Irvine School of law. In 20012010, he served as founding coeditor of a peerreviewed publication, election law journal. He has authored more than 100 articles on election law issues. He received his back first from university of california at berkeley. Director of the project of global democracy and emerging technology, a fellow in the Foreign Policy Program Center on u. S. And europe and Security Strategy team at the brookings institution. She is an adjunct professor of schooln studies at the of advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins university. She received a bachelors degree from every university and a doctorate from the university of california at berkeley. I james monroe distinguished professor of law and Research Professor at the university of Virginia School of law. Before becoming up professor, he clerked for judge Lawrence Silverman on the u. S. Court of appeals in the district of and for Supreme Court Justice Clarence thomas. He received a bachelor from stanford and jp from yale law school. We welcome our distinguished witnesses and thank you for participating in todays hearing. If you would please rise. Or affirm under penalty of perjury that the testimony youre about to give his true and correct to the best of your knowledge and belief, so help you god . Thank you. Let the record show the witnesses answered in the affirmative. Thank you. Your writtenhat testimony will be entered into the record in its entirety. Accordingly i. S. That you summarize your testimony in fiveminute. To help you stay within that time, there is a timing light on her table. When the light switches to yellow, you have one minute to conclude your testimony. When the light turns red, it signals your five minutes have expired. Mr. Cordero, you may begin. Thank you, members of the committee, thank you for inviting me here today to support the committees effort to bring Greater Public awareness to the information in special counsel muellers report. The written statement ive submitted focuses on the National Security aspect, including exposure of a sustained, systematic intelligence operation by the government of russia to interfere in the 2016 election, why foreign influence matters, and lessons we can draw from the report. It also discusses how the chain of events negatively affected public understanding of the reports facts and findings. A foreign intelligence operation of all two main efforts. The first was a social media operation intended to influence American Public opinion. The effort was successful. Part involved computer hacking to steal and release information from the Democratic Party campaign apparatus. There was a corollary to the social media operation that often gets overlooked. Russian operatives caused unsuspecting americans together for political purposes, pretending to be grassroots activists. They interacted with Trump Campaign supporters and Campaign Officials. The or they organize rallies in florida, new york, and pennsylvania. Russians released hacks tax stolen information into ways o ways. Much of the information regarding wikileaks is redacted in the report and given the harm wikileaks has caused for approximately a decade, we should all be able to agree that regardless of leading a criminal standard for prosecution, it is unacceptable and disqualifying for u. S. Political campaigns to willingly accept information and consider crafting a Public Relations strategy around leaked information from wikileaks or any Similar Organization and in the words of secretary pompeo when he was the cia director, walk and talk like a hostile Intelligence Service. The russian activities to pit americans against each other our ongoing. Foreign influence when conducted behind the scenes clouds the policy debate and impacts decisions about america on crowding out the voice of americans. Foreign Intelligence Service conducting their activities abroad dont care. Setting aside legality for a moment, it simply cannot be that it is acceptable for an american Political Campaign to accept foreign assistance in order to win an election. We have not done a good enough job explaining to the american why foreign influence matters. If we allow for interest to invade our thinking regarding our choice of candidates, to , and tour Media Outlets possibly invade our voter and election infrastructure, we are not making decisions for ourselves. We cannot allow foreign we speak to affect how to each other and interact with each other online. Or an involvement in our elections undermines our democracy. Members of congress have a duty to ensure that the government is protecting americans from foreign influence. We are only 18 months away from the next election. A written statement includes examples of the types of legislative steps that Congress Needs to take. On the leadership front, however, the duty is rooted in members of the ball for an allegiance to the constitution. The evidence in volume one of the special counsels report, in addition to recent Public Statements made by the president and Senior Advisors cannot be ignored. When cannot faithfully defend the constitution and be open to receiving foreign assistance to when an election at the same time and take action to actively federal investigation into those foreign influenced efforts. The oath in those acts are incompatible. It should be of great concern to this body which carries its on constitutional responsibility. We cannot write off what transpired in 2016. Noht now, today, there is Government Strategy to counter foreign influence in elections. No president ial leadership to secure our elections, no legislation passed by congress to address Election Security or foreign influence. Instead, we have deflection, apathy, and inaction. We cannot ignore the information in the special counsels report. We cannot not care. We have to care, and we have to act. We have to raise our expectations. Protecting americans from foreign interference in our. Emocracy needs to begin here protecting our constitutional system with checks and balances needs to begin here. Forecting our shared values free elections in our American Interest needs to begin here. Thank you. Thank you very much. Chairman, Ranking Member, and members of the Judiciary Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to be here today to speak about a matter that is among the greatest concerns ive had 25 years of researching and teaching about campaign issues. The potential for continued illegal foreign interference in u. S. Elections. From president Founding Fathers George Washington and Alexander Hamilton to Supreme Court Justice John Paul stevens and Justice Brett kavanaugh, american leaders have recognized that hostile foreign nation, as Justice Stevens put it, with no basic investment in the wellbeing of the country may attempt to interfere in American Elections in order to manipulate an elections outcome or curry favor with the winner. Justice cav