Chairman, congratulations. Thank you. [indistinct conversations] the committee will come to order. The chairs authorized to declare recess at any time. We welcome everyone to the hearing, oversight of the department of justice. Political interference and threats. Before we begin, i want to remind members we have established a distribution list dedicated to circulating written materials members might want to offer as part of the hearing. If you want to submit materials, send them to the email address previously distributed to your offices and we will circulate them to members and staff as quickly as possible. I want to remind all members the nodance of the office says facetoface is required. Required here is to follow guidance. This is for the health and safety of our staff and loved ones we will return to at the end of the day. I expect all members to wear a mask, except when you are speaking. I but recognize myself for an opening statement. Mr. Chairman, the point of last friday,er william barr announced that Geoffrey Berman was stepping down. This was, of course, untrue. He had not resigned. In a statement, he made clear he had no intention of resigning. And every intention of moving forward with his work, without delay or interruption. He emphasized that point. He wanted to stay on the job to ensure his work would continue. In order to understand the standoff, it is important to note that the work of mr. Bermans office has concluded a number of criminal investigations aimed and individuals close to President Trump, among them michael , Michael Cohen and Rudy Giuliani, his direct line to kiev. On saturday, mr. Barr attempted to fire mr. Berman directly. Even then, mr. Berman resisted. Only when he was certain that his deputy would take his place is acting u. S. Attorney did he relent and step aside. So what are we to make of these events . If this had been an isolated incident, if the attorney general had simply misjudged the situation and about that mr. Berman would go quietly, then we might chalk this up to simple miscommunication and incompetence. But make no mistake, this was not an isolated incident. The effort to remove mr. Berman is part of a pattern of conduct that began when mr. Barr took office and continues till this day. Mr. Barrs actions made clear in his department of justice the president s allies get special treatment, his enemies, real and imagined, are targeted for scrutiny. And the needs of the American People and the needs of justice are generally ignored. Mr. Barrs practice of using the department a shield the president and his allies go back to the beginning of his tenure. Last year, when the special counsel had completed his investigation, when mr. Barr had the report in hand, but before the public could read it, he blatantly mischaracterized the findings and did so on the president s behalf. Mr. Barr pretended that compelling evidence of obstruction of justice, including evidence at that the president may have lied directly to the special counsel, simply did not exist. His deception seems blatant. But do not take my word for it. The special counsel wrote to mr. Barr directly to complain about the inaccuracies, which lingered uncorrected for weeks. A federal judge later said that mr. Barrs inconsistencies were so misleading and distorted, he questioned his credibility and in turn could not trust the departments assurances about the content of the Robert Mueller report. Mr. Burr has also worked to undermine criminal cases stemming from the special counsels report. Early this year, after the president s associate roger stone was convicted, mr. Barr overruled his career prosecutors and recommended a lighter sentence for President Trumps friend. One of those prosecutors will testified today about that experience. We should be clear about the timeline in the stone case. If nothing else, it helps explain why mr. Berman refused to go quietly over the weekend. In january, mr. Barr removed the u. S. Attorney for the district of columbia and replaced her with his longtime aide. In february, President Trump tweeted his feelings about stones ongoing criminal case. The president was outraged that his friend might be punished for obstructing justice. Quickly thereafter, mr. Barr reached into the case come overruled prosecutors, and submitted a lenient recommendation for mr. Stone. Caseour prosecutors in the immediately withdrew. President trump tweeted his congratulations to mr. Barr. Isolated case wasnt incident either. In may, mr. Barr abruptly reversed the prosecution of Michael Flynn, the former National Security advisor to the president , who pled guilty to lying to the fbi about his conversations with the russian ambassador. Once again, the president tweeted his feelings about the case. Once again, mr. Barr reached into the proceedings come overruled his career prosecutors, misrepresented statements by department officialsand asked the court to dismiss charges against mr. Flynn. Once again, the president tweeted his delight at the outcome. The former federal judge john gleason, appointed by the court the unprecedented motion against mr. Flynn, argued the facts surrounding the motion constitute clear evidence of gross prosecutorial abuse. Dismisss a decision to that is based on the fact that flynn is a political ally of President Trump. Judge gleason was not alone. Ons after mr. Burr insisted dropping charges against mr. Flynn, almost 2000 former fbi agent and the department of justice officials wrote an open letter calling for his resignation. Now, my republican colleagues may try to explain these events or incidents the way, they may you that his attempts to fire berman were harmless, that flynn and a stone should be excused barrsir crimes, and mr. Attempt to protect the president from criminal liability are necessary to correct a vast conspiracy at the Justice Department. Those excuses ring hollow. There is injustice at the Justice Department, as there is extensive injustice in our Justice System nationwide. We have rightly focused on one major aspect of that injustice in recent weeks. Since the murder of george floyd at the hands of Law Enforcement. But as we prepared to address that injustice on the house floor, in the single largest sweeping package of Police Reforms in our history, i cannot help but notice the members who shout loudest about witchhunts, also stand in opposition to these commonsense reforms. Ask yourselves, what are you saying to the American People when your commitment to justice means you will stand up for stone and flynn and barr, . But go no further . Mr. Barrs work has nothing to do with correcting injustice, he is the president s fixer. He has shown us there is one set of rules for the president s friends commend another set for the rest of us. And to be clear, there are plenty of reasons to be angry with the attorney general. It is unacceptable and that he would order the antitrust division to initiate investigations into industries he and the president do not like , simply because they do not like them. We will have that testimony today. It is dangerous for him to threaten frivolous litigation against state and local officials who are doing their best to contain the epidemic in. Their communities it is irresponsible for him to do in the absence of guidance from the white house or leadership from the president. And it is outrageous that mr. Barr occupy the city with a federal police force, in paramilitary gear, then turn it on Peaceful Protesters in lafayette square, spraying them with teargas and physically knocking them back, all to arrange for an awkward photo op for President Trump. The images from that day or so disturbing, that we cannot blame mr. Barr for trying to avoid responsibly for his role in the event. But please understand that these are merely the symptoms o f underlying disease. We must address his abuse of the department of justice as a weapon to serve the president s private interests. The cancer that we must root out is the decision to place the president s interest above the interests of the American People. When is it today was beat to the extremes to which mr. Burr has reached to carry out the president s bidding. Currentteful to them, department employees, for their bravery in appearing before the committee. This administration has a record of witness intimidation and have no doubt that they will try to exact a price for your testimony, but you are patriots and you have done your duty here today. It gives me hope for what may come at the department of justice, when bill barr is finally removed. I thank the witnesses for being here. And i look forward to your testimony. I now recognize the Ranking Member of the judiciary committee, the gentleman from ohio, mr. Jordan for his opening statement. Rep. Jordan the department is about correcting injustice. You almost have to laugh at this, they do you have a hearing going after barr and alleging that there is politics there, the very day we get the order from the court of appeals. The order says, dismissing the flynn case, the District Court will grant the motion to dismiss, the District Courts order is vacated. They are not political, they are just right. This is not politics. Again, you almost have to laugh at it. Attorney general holder said he was obamas wingmen. His department attacked investigative journalists. If a risen said this, president there is a whistleblower in jail for trying to talk to a reporter, you will have one man to thank, barack obama. Hats not me talking, that is the New York Times, when the Justice Department for obama went after him. We know about operation chokepoint. And even though the chairman always does not want to talk about this, we know how political the Justice Department was in the russian hoax. Remember this, the Obama Biden Department of justice spied on a four american citizens. That is the big thing you have with william barr, the first time he testified he used the word spying, everybody went crazy. But they spied on american citizens associated with a political campaign, an investigation we now know was bogus because we have released all the transcripts from all the people involved in the intelligence community, and they all said there was nothing there. The obama biden Justice Department, in order to spy on those americans, what did they do . They lied it to the fisa court 17 times, they used the famous dossier, the one that jim comey said was fallacious and unverified. They did not say the guy who wrote it was being paid by the Clinton Campaign to put it together. And the used that to get a warrant to spy on a palouse his sin and you think it is no big deal. William barr thinks it is a big deal. That is why they are doing the investigation. You know who else thought it was a big deal . The Inspector General of the Justice Department, michael horowitz, who wrote a 400 page report talking about the 17 lies, talking about the abuses in the comeybiden Justice Department. The judiciary, committee did not even get a chance to ask questions of mr. Horwitz about the report, because the german wont bring him into testified. I do not know if ive ever seen anything like it. A 400 page report written by the Inspector General of the Justice Department, scathing report about the pies a court, and the wont of the committee, w even let him testify. Here is what the u. S. District judge and pfizer presiding judge Rosemary Collier said about the findings in the report, quote, the frequency with which representations made by fbi personnel turned out to be think about that, unsupported. That is a nice way of saying that they lied. Or contradicted by information in the position, with which they withheld information, another way of saying that they lied, calls into question if whether information is reliable. What the judge was saying is you lied to us so many times, how are we supposed to believe anything you bring in front of the court. That was in the report, but jerry nadler will not even let the inspector come to answer our questions and go into detail about the report. Yet today, the day we get the ruling from the court of appeals, the chairman says it is the trump doj that is political. Guess what happened in the final days of the obama administration, guess what else 8 michael3 flynns name. Six people at the treasury department. Everyone. This is between election day and inauguration day. William barr wants to get to the bottom of all this and somehow that is political, when in fact the politics was in the Previous Administration and he is trying to stop it. Here is how we know this was all egypt. C was all a joke. Said he did not see anybody conspiring with the russians. Yet, we had a twoyear investigation. Susan riser, i do not recall anything i would consider evidence. And i do not believe anybody reached a conclusion yet. They had nothing to me . This entire investigation. Some of the powers and said the same thing. All these key people, they all knew there was no predicate for the investigation and it happened, and somehow the bar Justice Department is political. They are not political, they are just right. We saw that with the decision today. Finally, i have never seen anything like this. This is the truth. I have never seen an agency where this happened, the top people, the very same people, the testimony that william barr gave when he talked about, where he talked about spying, he said there was a failure of leadership in the Upper Echelon of the fbi in the previous demonstration. That is the understatement of the year. Leaked memos in order to put the country through what we went through. Andrew mccabe, deputy director, fired. Referred by that same ig for prosecution. Baker, investigate by the u. S. Attorney in connecticut, took information from the d c lawyer. And of course, peter strzok and page, who ran the clinton investigation, who ran crossfire hurricane and crossfire razor, trump russia investigation, they were both kicked off of Robert Muellers team. We know the bias that had against President Trump. We saw it in hundreds of Text Messages that we have now become familiar with. The politics was in the previous demonstration. Barr is doing the lords work, so it doesnt happen again. I will say it in closing again, in a statement a little over a year ago, where he said, if they can do it to a president , they can lied to get a warrant to go after president , go after a major campaign, if they can do it do a president imagine what they can do to you and i, imagine what they can do to the folks we get the privilege of representing back home. That is why this is important. That is why the work bill barr is doing is important. You continue to play your political games, bill barr will get to the truth. I have a parliamentary inquiry. Chairman nadler thank you. Without objection, all other Opening Statements will be included in the record. Without objection, three letters from bradley why sherman, the associate deputy and turn general will be admitted into the record. Mr. Chairman. It is a point of order. What provision of the democrats a new house rules allows for a duly subpoenaed witness to appear and provide testimony by video . Chairman nadler the rousseau provides. I went out and reduce the copy of the subpoena that we have. Chairman nadler the gentleman does not allow for this. The chair has not answered the inquiry. Chairman nadler section four i appeal the ruling of the chair. The witnesses are not allowed to attend by video under the subpoena the german issued. Chairman nadler section four, f 1 under the rules of the house, House Resolution 965 allows subpoenas for remote participation. Required toereby appear before the court. Chairman nadler i will not introduce the witnesses. I appeal the ruling. Mr. Chairman. Chairman nadler the Deputy Attorney general under george w. Bush. He joined the department mr. Chairman. You simply cannot go forward without rules do not matter here. 18 months chairman nadler it was not point of order. I challenge of subpoena that he can appear remotely. I and making it a point of order. I challenge the ruling of the chair. Chairman nadler you cannot appeal i challenge the ruling of the chair. [gavel pounding] chairman nadler donald served here we go again. You cannot overlook that. You cannot interrupt the Proceedings Committee mike people deserve to know the truth. This has nothing to do with the truth. Chairman nadler there has been no ruling of the chair. I made a point of order, you ruled. I appeal the ruling of the chair on not recognizing the rule of order. Nothing changes around here. Chairman nadler we are introducing donald who served under george w. Bush. He joined at the department as an assistant u. S. Attorney and held a number of other positions, including u. S. Attorney and the Eastern District of california, and under president reagan. He previously clerked for Justice Rehnquist and Malcolm Wilkie of the d. C. Circuit judge. After his career in Public Service, he was in private practice and has taught extensively at law scho