I would like to start by recognizing the family you brought with you. Your wife is here as well as your children, elizabeth and matthew. Senator warren will sign a slip for you to take to school to get extra credit. Your sister also, in a statement john speaks strongly about what each of you provided over the years. I know how important it is for each of you. Our goal in conducting our series is to allow for it. He has provided written responses to over 30 questions. Of course members will be able to ask additional questions. He is the graduate from the college of holy cross served as a clerk for the ninth Circuit Court and then for the late honorable justice scalia. He served in National Security division as attorney general. He also served as council. While at the National Security division he additionally completed a detail as council to Deputy Attorney jechblt following his tenure at doj john joined the boeing company for Vice President and assistant General Council for global law affairs. You are being asked related during a period of significant debate about what authorities and tools are appropriate. They voted out a bill with additional privacy productions for u. S. Persons. Im hopeful this bill will pass the senate and be signed as it provides the department and Intelligence Community. Im also hopeful moving forward youll be in an influential and enforceful advocate for those tools you believe are necessary to keep citizens safe like section 702. As i mentioned to others, i can assure you this committee will follow charter and conduct realtime over dpps sight over the Intelligence Community and we will ask questions of you and your staff and we will expect honest complete and timely responses. You have already successfully negotiated one hurdle having been favorable negotiated on october 19th, 2017. I look forward to supporting your nomination and ensuring consider ragts without delay. I want to thank you for being here. I would notify members we are under a fairly tight time frame. Its my intentions to move this as quickly as we possibly can. Now i recognize the vice chairman. Thank you mr. Chairman. Congratulations on your nomination to serve. I reviewed your statement and testimony before the Senate Judiciary committee. I appreciate your con cander. Across Law Enforcement and intelligence communities. As youre aware another Critical Role is to shepherd the review in approval to the surveillance activities including section 702. Mr. Chairman just mentioned we had a very productive session on 702 last week and last week they supported a bill that seeks to maintain its operational capacities increasing the privacy and civil liberty protections. It includes congressional oversight of lawfully collected u. S. Persons data. I will be interested in your comments on the 702 program. Ill be listening closely to be assured you recognize the need to conduct reviews in a manner that products privacy concerns. I very much appreciate these words. I would like to hear your commitment that you would seek to provide timely responses to the president , his cabinet, advis advi advisers and the congress. Youre also aware this committee is conducting an investigation into russian interference. This morning i will ask you during the question and answer question. I want to hear that you will fully cooperate and provide with all of the information requested in a timely fashion. I will ask that you inform this committee if you become aware of relevant information in youre confirmed. I believe yesterdays indictment of president Trumps Campaign manager and the guilty plea by is evidence these informations are serious and this country needs to hold accountable any of those who do a disservice. This is not about relitigating the election or playing got you with the president. Its about following the facts where they lead and ensuring principals through free and Fair Elections untarnished by foreign interference. Congratulations. I look forward to this mornings discussion. Thank you. Will you please stand . Raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god . I do. Please be seated. Before we move to your statement ill ask you to five questions. They just require simple yes or no answer. Do you agree to appear before the committee here or any other venues . Yes do you agree to send officials from your office and designated staff when invited . Yes. Do you agree to provide documents or any other materials in order to carry out legislative responsibilities . Yes will you entour it provides such did he recall to the committee when requested . Yes. Do you agree to the fell if you willest extent possible all members and action rather than only the chairman and the vice chairman . Yes. Thank you very much. Well know proceed to Opening Statements which ill recognize members by seniority. I would remind members that purr student to senate revolution 400 they received this member from the judiciary committee. We have 20 calendar days. The floor is yours. Thank you for the student to be here today and for considering my nomination. I worked closely to draft and negotiate the act 2008. I hope it will be the beginning of working with you again on issues critical to the nations security. Issues best addressed when they work constructively together. Public service is never an individual endeavor. I would like to thank any wife and children who are here and agreed to join me on this next chapter. I would do well to thank all of the teach rs i have had along to way. I owe them more than they and i will ever know. I am grateful for the opportunity to return to the department of justice and to the National Security division. Protecting National Security is at the forefront of these efforts. Although the thinking behind the division may be obvious now those of you who worked these before september 11th know that it was revelation neuro. It brought together the lawyering with those working oin tell jens investigations. It created a strong link between the Intelligence Community. Since that time it has to confront manifestations of old threats. The they have worked with other parts of government to guard our security regardless of whether the threats come on airplanes. They understand that without this security the promise of liberty enshrined in our founding documents would be an empty one. They also understand security has no purpose. They understand it is the rule of law. Having worked with many in the division and followed the Division Since i left i know this firsthand and would consider it an honor to return to serve with them. Critical to our liberty that the investigators use every day. I look forward to working together with you and your colleagues to ensure that the Intelligence Community and prosecutors have the tools they need and that they keep up with the threats that face us. I also understand that the only way to keep the confidence is to use them lawfully and wisely. I look forward to forwarding the oversight and supporting the oversight. The threats we face are real. The objectives are plain. To weaken our culture, our demock six our values, and our resolve to lead to undermine the very idea of america. I appreciate you have always taken these threats seriously. I look forward to working with you to ensure this country continues to thrive and that all americans enjoy liberty and security under the rule of law. Thank you for the opportunity to being here today. I look forward to answering your questions. Thank you very much. The chair would recognize himself first. Leaks put sensible sources at great risk. I am with those that say they can disclosed. How do you plan with those who leave classified information . I agree that it presents serious threats to National Security, in particular the methods and also in revealing what we know to others, what we know about them. Lets make no mistake, some times those sources are human beings. The cases themselves, the investigations need to be pursued fully and on the facts, following the facts where ever they may go and then the prosecutions need to be considered carefully as well taking into account the need to deter and ka pass taincapacitat. Ill work closely with the career attorneys at the department who have been doing these cases for many years and continue to follow the facts where ever they lead us. Will you commit to communicate on the progress of investigations and potential prosecutions . I think within the bounds that i can as long as its not interfering with the investigation itself i will. Good. We mentioned title 7 authorities including what is well known as section 702. They expire at the end of the year. The committee has interest in reauthorizing these authorities. How critical is reauthorizing to our nations National Security . Senator, i saw the world before the amendment achlkt i saw what it was like before this authority. It was very difficult for the lawyers at the Justice Department. We were focusing a lot of our resources on nonu. S. Persons outside the u. S. , folks without constitutional understand the community considers it to be a critical, if not one of the most critical, tools it has in the work that it does. I have also seen the review that the privacy and Civil Liberties board did of this authority, and i take note of the fact that they found no intentional misuses of the authority. It strikes me that this is a critical authority. I support its reauthorization and look forward to working with the committee on that if i am in there on time. If not working with you on your oversights effort and make sure the authority is used effectively and well. Thank you for that. Deputy attorney general rosenstein called cybersecurity one of the departments highest priorities. How do you see furthering the departments cybersecurity efforts from within the National Security division . I think the cybersecurity is the area that has changed the most since i was there last about nine years ago. Now it seems to permeate all of the work of the division whether on the counterterrorism or counter espionage side. Whether were talking about folks who are being radicalized or radicalizing themselves on the internet, nationstates and the efforts theyre trying to take. Cybersecurity is there. I note that in the Prior Administration they developed a separate unit in the division to focus more squarely on cybersecurity. I support that. Ill be looking closely at that to be sure that its resourced correctly and that the correct focus is on cybersecurity issues. I think theyre going to be one of the biggest parts of the job going forward. Thanks, john. Vice chairman. Welcome, sir. As you are obviously aware, one of the most important investigations this committee is involved in at this point in the Russian Investigation into activities in 2016. I just want to get you on the record. Do you promise to fully and completely cooperate with this committees investigation of russian interference in the 2016 election including by turning over all materials in your possession to the committee as requested as promptly as possible . I do support the work of the committee and that investigation. I think its a very important one, and i do pledge to cooperate with you on that investigation. Obviously in terms of turning over everything, i from the outside, i dont know all the rules, senator. I would have to talk to other folks at the department about it, but i support within the constraints of the rules we need that cooperation. Youll have it. We have it from many. There are some entities i think we still have a ways to go. Again, i think you have answered this before but i want it on the record here. I think one of the most important functions of the i. C. Is speaking truth to power. Can you talk about the assistant ags role in ensuring the Intelligence Community will continue to provide unvarnished assessments to the attorney general and the president regardless of politics . Politics has no place in the work of the Intelligence Community. Partisanship has no work in the work of the Intelligence Committee or in the work of the National Security division as part of those efforts. Its critical for all of us to speak truth to those within the executive branch and also here on the hill. So i pledge to do so and pledge to support the efforts of others to do so. The chairman has already raised 702. We had a spirited debate last week on this important tool. I believe that we strengthened 702 in terms of putting additional responsibilities in place in terms of protections of american known americans privacies. Some of my colleagues didnt it went far enough but i do think its important and would like to hear your comments about the oversight responsibilities of the assistant ag for National Security to ensure there is full and robust oversight of the legislation including 702 and what youll do to make sure that recommendations by the United States to the fisa court are always accurate. I have not read the bill that came out of committee but i do support, obviously, the oversight within the bill. I think there was significant oversight in the law as it stands today as well. The role of the assistant attorney general in the National Security division whether section 702 or title 1 is, of course, to conduct that oversight of the use by elements of the Intelligence Community of these authorities to be sure that the minimization procedures are being followed accurately, that the orders are being followed and in this case that the targeting procedures are being followed as well. And then to promptly report any noncompliance, both to the fisa court, which has authorized the use of those targeting minimization procedures but also to the congress. And then to look and see, you know, to really do a root cause analysis of what the reason for that noncompliance is and to fix it going forward. I would strongly urge you to please take a look at that legislation. We have added some daeadditiona requirements that while not perfect i think go a long way should a known american be in any way queried to make sure that there is almost a simultaneous, appropriate review. It will add some additional challenges, but i think those challenges are appropriate in terms of balancing the very, very critical privacy protections. This is a tool that, again, i think, as your comments indicated while there has been no indication of abuse, because there are americans inadvertently swept up in the 702 foreigntoforeign Contact Information i think we have to go the extra mile. And i would hope that you would do a thorough review of what at least this committee has passed out and would look forward to getting your comments on whether you think weve struck that right balance. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Mr. Demers. I want to follow up on the questions on section 702 which have been a matter of great debate before our committee. And ultimately before the full senate. As you are well aware, if a u. S. Person is in contact with a foreign target of section 702 collection, some of their communications could be collected incidentally to the intent of targeting the communications of a foreigner located overseas. My the question that has been a matter of debate is whether the foib shoubi should be able h the content of the section 702 database using a u. S. Person identifier or search term without first securing a warrant. I have a couple of questions for you. First, are you confident that such a process does not violate the Fourth Amendment prohibitions against unreasonable searches and seizures . And second, since you have worked in the National Security division before, could you tell us from an operational perspective what harm you would see if congress were to require the fbi to get a warrant every single time it sought to query these section 702 database using a u. S. Persons identifier. Thank you, senator. I think here were talking about the querying of lawful acquired information in the governments possession, information which the government acquired by targeting nonu. S. Persons outside the u. S. And as you say, you know, can and does incidentally pick up communications of u. S. Persons as well. As i understand it, every court to consider this has found that there is no Fourth Amendment requirement that the government get a search warrant before looking at this information, before querying this information for a u. S. Person identifier. Thats consistent, i think, with the general Fourth Amendment principle that the government doesnt need a search warrant to look at information lawfully in its possession. So i i believe that is the state of the case law today. In terms of the operational question that you posed, again, i would its been a little while. I would have to talk again to the fbi, but if what were talking about is getting the equivalent of a fisa order every time you query the database, a fisa order is a fair bit of work, one, to put together because you have to have probable cause. Its not just about the amount of work, its also about at what stage of an investigation you are willing to do this and whether you have enough information to do probable cause. Its not just, well, it will take x number of hours but its can you do it at all based on the information you have to tie that u. S. Person to being an agent of a foreign power or foreign power. So i think, you know, if you had a warrant requirement, it would slow things and it would also limit the amount of querying that yo