Security and Global Threats with fbi director christopher ray, at National Counterterrorism director chris miller, the talk included Election Security, cyber campaigns from russia, iran and china, extremist or threatened domestic threats. This is 2 hours and 40 minutes. This hearing will come to order, thank our witnesses, the honorable christopher wray, director of the federal bureau of investigation, the honorable chris miller, director of the National Counterterrorism center and the honorable Ken Cuccinelli, senior official performing duties of the deputy secretary. This is the annual threat hearing. When you look at the threats, and interesting how many hearings you held on so many of these things. I want to ask for my Opening Statement to be entered into the record. If you consider these threats, down the list, cyberattacks, ransom, intellectual property theft, something we are concerned about if you try to develop a vaccine, hundreds of millions of dollars of Economic Loss due to intellectual property theft. Cyber attacks and threats against our Critical Infrastructure. Drug trafficking and the overdose crisis, gains like ms 13, emp and gmp threats to our electrical grid. Drones, human trafficking, Election Security, school and other Mass Shootings was these are threats this committee not only held hearings on but past significant pieces of legislation. When hearing talking about School Shootings or we had the parents of luke choir coming in from parkland, florida to describe what could be some Common Sense Solutions to help prevent or minimize the destruction from some of these Mass Shootings. As we consider these things and consider these things i want to raise the troubling aspect of what is happening in the streets of america. As serious as these threats are, i have a growing fear that what is happening on the streets of america actually represent a greater threat to longterm democracy. As senator peters pointed out yesterday and again today the Mass Shootings, the last couple years certainly, instead of being perpetrated by islamic terror, a greater percentage, the majority by White Supremacists. As acting secretary said yesterday what happened in terms of Mass Shootings the last couple years is completely different versus what happened in the last four months. I want to cite a study published by us crisis project, a joint effort, Armed Conflict location and data project at princeton university. Lets take a look what is happening in the streets, they analyzed data on the last 3 months of demonstrations and what they found is more than 10,600 total and they went back and joined 2019 and set on average at least for july there were 1400 demonstrations in 2019. You can extrapolate and say a normal level of demonstrations every month is 3 months, 4200. This year we had 10,600, access number of 6400. They also analyzed who is protesting, who are these demonstrators, 7750 of those protests have been linked to black lives matter in all 50 states and dc. What they found is 10,600, but 95 were peaceful. 5 turn violent, turned in some kind of riot. They were peaceful in 2440 locations but the 5 returned violent and ended up being a riot where there is property destruction or loss of life occurred in 220 locations. It is only 5 but turn violent. Represents almost 570 riot that occurred in this nation the last few months they studied, almost 570 and we have seen destruction of property. My own state of wisconsin in kenosha the protests turned into property destruction. Dozens of businesses burned down, the downtown all boarded up and final night of those riots, two people lost their lives as well. Weve seen in louisville last night where two Police Officers were shot. Our thoughts and prayers go to them and their families for speedy and full recovery. Why were those people protesting, why did that turn into a riot . They were protesting because they dont agree with our system of justice, where a grand jury looked at the evidence and brought forward an indictment but it wasnt the indictment or enough indictments they wanted so rather than accepting a judicial system to serve this nation well for as long as weve been a nation these individuals turned to rioting and disruption so what i would like to do and ask the senate recording to show a video of supposedly peaceful protest following Donald Trumps acceptance speech at the white house. [crowd shouting] fortunately senator paul, his wife kelly and their guests were unharmed but they were scared unbelievably and had every right to be frightened by how they were are costed. That is not a peaceful protest. The fact of the matter is when you look at these statistics from the center of the study found there were no riots in seattles capitol hill, i am not sure the statistics but once again 570 peaceful protests turned into rioting, turned into property destruction and loss of life and by the way i can see the point that Mass Shootings, majority of those come from White Supremacists but those people and i denounce White Supremacists, im not defending them in any way, shape or form but those 700,750 demonstrations, 570 turned into riot and property destruction and loss of life those are not being perpetrated by White Supremacists. Those are being perpetrated by people with leftist ideology, perpetrating the rioting and anarchy that we cannot allow to continue in this country. The other thing i want to point out is even peaceful protests continue to linger day after day after day as is happening in kenosha even if it doesnt result in direct property loss, loss of life, fact of the matter is these protests turn into sieges that deny other americans their constitutional right to operate a business or be employed in a business, for themselves and their families. We cant just walk it off, so many members of the Mainstream Media slot off like wisely peaceful protests, and those are the facts, this current one gives me the greatest cause for concern. All the threats, i want to highlight how serious the threat happening in our streets today, what happened in louisville last night, what a serious threat that poses and what side of the political spectrum those protests spring from, senator peters. Thank you to each of our witnesses, the shortage of serious and consequential issues to tackle the annual threats, one of the most important opportunities we have to discuss how to safeguard the nation. They held this hearing and that list has continued to grow. Foreign and domestic terrorism Cyber Attacks with foreign governments to so chaos in the country we are dealing with a onceinalifetime pandemic that has taken the lives of 200,000 americans. This disaster has exposed significant security risks embedded in the tools we use every day to connect us with the world. We as we move our daily lives online because of coronavirus, those attack the platforms, adversaries working to infiltrate private companies and government agencies, to find a vaccine. They seized on misinformation and disinformation chipping away at the fabric of our democracy sowing discord and mistrust to the institutions to keep us safe. The scourge of white the premises to violence is a longstanding issue but is now again one of the worst terrorist threats to American Safety and security. Im alarmed this administration downplays this threat and root causes driving the violent ideologies. We cannot be shortsighted when it comes to protecting our National Security. These threats continue to develop and our National Security agencies are willing to adapt. The National Counterterrorism center and the fbi to Work Together to provide a unified effort to defend the homeland. As we discussed at yesterdays hearing on concern the dhs suffered because of lack of qualified and consistent, stable leadership at the agency, while i am disappointed the department does not believe the acting secretary can testify alongside his counterparts from the fbi during our National CounterTerrorism Center during this important confirmation process, testimony from all of the officials here today. Many americans will never know the names of the thousands of personnel who worked tirelessly behindthescenes at each of your agencies to keep the country safe. We are counting on you and your teams with no threats to our safety. The unknown dangers, the months, years and decades. I am grateful for each of you. Look forward to hearing about the threats, each of these threats and how this committee and agency will continue to Work Together to protect our National Security. Our witnesses will hear that. The service and sacrifice of each department and agency. If you will stand and raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear the testimony will give before this, he will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god . Thank you, please be seated. Christopher Ray Christopher wray, director of the federal bureau of investigation, he was sworn in as the eighth fbi director who previously served as attorney general for the department of justice, director ray. Good morning, chairman johnson, Ranking Member peters, i am honored to be here on behalf of the fbi, the nations top threats for the fbi perspective and what we are doing to counter those threats. I know we share a lot of the same concerns about topics from International Domestic terrorism to Cyber Security to the violence in our streets and particularly the threat of foreign influence in our elections to name a few. I look forward to updating you on these and other important topics. I would like to begin by covering a few items that have been particularly on top of the line over the past few weeks. Terrorism remains the top priority though the nature of that threat has evolved since 9 11, we want to prevent attacks by International Terrorist groups like al qaeda and isis. Those groups pose a threat not just to americans overseas but also at home most notably by those we call homegrown violent extremists, loan actors inspired by foreign terrorists, self radicalized typically online, motivated to attack soft targets with readily available weapons. Domestic terrorists inspired by one or more extremist ideologies to commit violent acts. In recent years we have been laser focused on threats posed by racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists. They are radicalized online and mobilize quickly to explain their plans. People like richard holder arrested on hate crime charges late last year when planning to blow up a synagogue in colorado. As with any terrorism case we are focused on disruption while making arrests before the criminal connect. This year alone through the hard work and dedication of was men and women at the fbi and across our Partner Agencies we successfully forded terrorist attacks in kansas city, tampa, cleveland, oklahoma city, boston, phoenix and other locations. We witness protests around the country and many members of congress raised a variety of questions about those protests and although the majority of protesters have been peaceful we have opened investigations, some of whom, violent extremist agenda is designed to so discord and upheaval. Let me be clear, we do not investigate groups or individuals with ideology and exercise of First Amendment activity alone, when the ideology leads someone, the fbi will not hesitate to take appropriate actions. That is why im working with federal state, local partners, the safety of all those trying to exercise their First Amendment rights. We in Law Enforcement must keep our communities safe and secure while safeguarding our citizens Constitutional Rights and civil liberties. As i said before, one need not and must not come at the expense of the other. We remain focused on other threats. In less than two month americans will exercise one of the most cherished rights, to vote in a free and fair election. Americans must have confidence in our Voting System and our election infrastructure. That is why the security of our elections is and will continue to be one of the highest priorities. We will not tolerate foreign interference in our elections and are working closely with federal and state and local partners and the private sector to their information, bolster security and identify and disrupt any threats. We shared threat indicators with facebook and twitter that allow them to take down fake accounts created as part of a Russian Disinformation Campaign before those accounts develop a broader following. Turning to the cyber, we are focused on an increasingly diverse a way of threats from statesponsored chinese intrusions to intrusions by russia, iran, north korea, sophisticated cyber criminals seeking to exploit technical vulnerabilities primarily for personal profit. Last week i announced the fbis new Cyber Strategy utilizing expertise and authorities to impose risks and consequences on cyber adversaries. We have been focusing on results and impact, to enable our partners operations as well as our own. The fbi and nsa recently joined to expose highly sophisticated Russian Military intelligence malware, and other government partners, indicators to disrupt that tool. Just last week our investigations and able to coordinated mix of disruption actions, 3 of which work for the iranian government. Will charges by doj, treasury opec sanctions and fbi alerts enabling potential victims to protect themselves. We also face the increasingly blended threat of statesponsored is the economic espionage by cyber intrusions. In july based on the fbi investigative work doj indicted two chinese hackers working with the ministry of state security for carrying out a Global Computer Intrusion Campaign targeting hundreds of victims including Companies Developing covid19 vaccines, Testing Technology and treatments. With that kind of behavior china continues to undercut claims of being a trusted and affected partner in the community. And and sees or hundreds of accounts, i touched on a handful of important threats. Many significant others. Default, impact complexity and agility were relying on a deep well of expertise and partnerships. Im committed to ensuring the bureau does great work while adhering to our core tenets of fidelity, bravery and fidelity. In these challenging times i remind my folks we have to keep calm, remaining faithful to core values while making sure we are always doing the right thing in the right way. I will be happy to take your questions. Our next witness is Christopher Miller who was sworn in as the director of the National Counterterrorism center in august of 2020. Prior to his confirmation he served as Deputy Assistant secretary of defense for special operations combating terrorism. Mister miller previously served as special assistant to the president and senior director for counterterror threats at the National Debate council. Mister miller served with interagency and joint special operations. Chairman johnson, Ranking Member peters, distinguished members of the committee, deep humility that i appear before you today to present my views about the war against islamic jihadist terrorist groups and other extremists that mean us harm. I recommend represent a talented group that is on duty 24 7 365 to protect our citizens from terrorist attack. I want to publicly thank the department of justice for their tireless pursuit to bring the beatles to justice in partnership with our friends in the united kingdom. The beatles were isis leaders in the brutal killing of americans. Americans can never replace their loved ones, we are hopeful the families receive some degree of closure. This is a reminder to our enemies that we never forget to pursue justice to the end of the earth. 19 years ago after the shock of al qaedas devastating attacks, our nation set out to accomplish three objectives, one, harden our borders, 2, go overseas to destroy the safe havens and centuries of al qaeda and its associated groups, and 3, addressed the drivers of instability that created al qaeda by supporting likeminded partners in their efforts to combat islamist extremism. Due to the enormous dedication, service and sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of americans, likeminded foreign partners, we have been remarkably successful in accomplishing the first two objectives. I sense we are on the verge, if providence is kind, of transitioning from a usled partner enables campaign to and era for local and regional partners to take the lead and we provide niche support to fill gaps in their security, intelligence, information, and legal architecture. I must be clear and not histrionic. Our enemies will