The committee will reconvene and continue the questions f committee will reconvene and continue the questions for the Deputy Attorney general and the chair recognizes the gentleman from florida, mr. Gates, for minutes. Was peter the carbon copy on any meetings between bill clinton and lor ta lynch . The Inspector General is handing that investigation and were going to try to accommodate any congressional requests that we can. But ill have to consult with them before i do. Zbh so if the president declassified the documents, how quickly could they be produced . If documents are declassified, they could be produced fairly quickly. Within a week . If they were declassified, i guess they wouldnt be sensitive. Within a week . Which documents . Relating to the tarmac . Assuming theyre declassified. How quickly woultd it take them to get from you to us . If theyre documents its appropriate to disclose, we disclose them as quickly as we could. When did justice first learn that nelly ore was employed by fusion gps . I do not know. Can can you find out . Weve got to find out. Youve got wife of one of the top officials in the department of justice working for the company that was a pass through for money for the Democratic Committee to russia bs to get dirt on the president. Was not a counterintelligence official. But yes, i agree. Mr. Ore scheduled to testify before one of the committees at least to be interviewed next week. We want to find out when his wife started working for these people who wrote this dossier. What did the department of justice learn of bruce ores contact . I dont know all the information and i want to make sure with all the information before we give any answers. We do want to know the information. Thats why we keep asking these questio questions. Youve got this person who works at the department of justice whose wife is working for fusion gps and during campaign, hes meeting with the author of a dossier mr. Comby called salacious. Is that something you can get to the committee . If we get all the information and we have a firm answer. When did the department of justice learn of the contact with fusion with Glenn Simpson after the election . We have agreed to provide all the relevant documentation to Intelligence Committee. I havent seen it all, so im not in position to answer. Trz. So during mr. Shads question, he thoroughly laid out the number of people on mr. Muellers team who have financial donations to the democrat, the Clinton Obama campaigns. I think over half of the mueller team donated to either clinton or obama. None donated to trump u. So thats either one of two things. Either mr. Mueller was cure rating a universe of people who hate the process or its a kins dense that a lot of people have bias we learn more and more about each day. The its the action that is your responsibility to make sure its not infected by this bias. When mr. Struck goes and changes wording from gross negligence, a crime, to extremely careless, thats not a belief. Thats an action. Like, we cant find out, you wont tell us whether or not tack pair money was used to buy this dossier. If it was, if the fbi was working with the Democratic Party to buy a dossier to discredit the president of the United States, thats not a belief. Thats an action. If that was dressed up as an intelligence document and brought to a court, that wasnt a belief, it was an action. If bruce ore is meeting with the author of the dossier during the campaign and the head of fusion gps after the campaign, you can want tell us when it occurred. They are actions that undermine the credibility of this ve investigation and i would suggest you and mr. Weissman send answer email on his official department of justice email to sally yates praising her for defieing the president of the United States, b thats not belief. Thats an action. So my question to you like what are we ultimately, what do you have to see in terms of the actions of people with demonstrated bias against the president of the United States before you will appoint special counsel to investigate the clear bias that has infected this investigation. There are a number of different issues youve raised with regard to the allegations of bias. As o ive explained, our Inspector General is inspecting a thorough review of that. Hes the one who identified the Text Messages, so im confident thats going to be done appropriately. Mueller didnt. Mr. Mule ir didnt find this information. Mr. Mueller found it when somebody told him about it, but it was in the Text Messages, which the ig got access to. It makes you wonder how these people ended up on his team. I yield back. If i could just clarify, i want to make clear. Gentleman may answer. We are working with the Intelligence Committee to try to provide all the information they need to answer some of those questions and i dont personally know the answer, but im confident well be able to get that information to them. Thank you. I want to note here and ill take the time, i was going to Say Something at the end. The house has direct responsibility over the department of justice and the federal bureau of investigation. We have an overwhelming majority of the majority called for appointment of a Second Special counsel. To investigate this. If that were taking place, that might satisfy a number of of us. However, its not. Even based upon prior conversations ive had with you, youve noted we have the right and the responsibility to do that oversight. So when you talk about providing documents to the Intelligence Committee, i have no mproblem with your doing that, but all of that information should be made available to this committee as well. The Inspector Generals investigation is very important. We support that. It is very encouraging to us he is doing what i think is good, unbiased work. We want that to continue. But our investigation does not need the wait on the Inspector General. Again, i thank you for the documents provided to us yesterday. There are many more documents the Inspector General has and we have a commitment for the assistant attorney general to provide those by15th. Weve sent a letter asking for certain information and commitments regarding that production date, but that is very important for us and we dont intend to wait on report. Maybe before that, after then. So pursue as long as we have that understanding and you live by the commitment thats been made to your production of document, no problem to provide to the Intelligence Committee, but dont look at it as something thats just provided them. If it needs to be handled, in camera, if it needs to be handled in a classified manner, we have the facilities and we are certainly prepared to make necessary commitments to do that. I have instructed our staff to make sure they make this available. Theyre seeking to make arrangements with your staff this month. Last night, i was discussing the importance of this hearing with my teenage daughter. Shes in civics. John adams summarized were a nation of laws not of men. I reminded her the founders understood all men are fallen, were flawed and people have a natural instinct to benefit their friends and seek retribution against their enemies. Thats dangerous. The founders give Constitutional Authority to congress to monitor this so we can maintain rule of law. As has been mentioned here today in hearing, the survival of our republic depends on that. Theres been a lot of discussion about biases of some members of the mueller team and weve expressed our serious concerns about comeys investigation of hks illeg Hillary Clintons illegal use of a private server. Its prohibited. From participating in a criminal investigation if the employee has a personal or political relationsh relationship. In only 2,750. Isnt it reason fbl r us to assume theres an inherent bias there . I can assure you that while i understand the base for the concern, director mueller and i have a lot of experience as managers in the department and we understand our responsibility that nobodys personal opinions are allowed to impact the investigations. This investigation is not affected by any bias. What are those appropriate steps . For my daughter, what does that look like . I think there are several as pechts to it. One is the tone you set around the office. Make it clear to everybody. Not to discuss it in the context. Two, its the process we have within the department of justice. Nobody does anything on their own. Everything is subject to review an the higher level the review and more people are involved in reviewing it and we have external checks as well. For any matters we bring to the department of justice, we need to be prepared to prove our case in court. There are several levels of checks within the department. Holder announced a policy shift. There was a presumption that the fbi and other federal Law Enforcement agencies will record all interviews of b wbss and suspects. Question is, is that policy still in place today . With regard to the interview of former secretary of state Hillary Clinton ability her e server in 2016, was that recorded . Do you know . I have no personal knowledge of that. My understanding from what ive read is no. Could you find out . Certainly. If it was not, would you have an idea why under that policy . Tink norm would be for a noncustodial interview not guilty to be recorded. If it was her email server, wouldnt she be, wouldnt it be implied she was a custodian . It only aplies to those who have been in custody at the time of the interview. Ill defer to you on that. If you cant get us information on that, it would be helpful. When this o dur, its irresponsible that a leak on that level would ever happen. Can you imform this community on what is happening within the doj . Hes made ate high priority for us. When we serve a referral from an Intelligence Agency that they believe theres been a leak within their jurisdiction and they believe criminal investigation should be conducted, we give that a very high priority. We are monitoring those cases to make sure they move expeditiously. Thr there are challenges in proving a leak case, but we are giving those extraordinary attention. Im out of time. I yield back. Thank you. Jgentleman from arizona. Thank you, mr. Chairman. You said you were supervising the Inspector General and his review. In the conduct, the Inspector General has a high degree of autonomy, so im not micro managing it, but im aware of the investigation and aware that we anticipate a conclusion in the near future. Is he providing you subtive or timeline reports . Generally, timeline reports. There are significant issues that arise in his investigations as for example with the Text Messages that came up in the review of the Hillary Clinton investigation. There are actions leading up to director comeys 2016 announcement that democratic president ial nominee Hillary Clinton would not be charged in h her use of private email cierre serve e. Er. What are the boundaries . U i believe its broader than that. The Inspector General was scheduled today. It would be better to direct it to him. He has talked about the scope of the investigation and identified a number of matters within the scope of the investigation so its relatively broad, i believe. In light of that, director ray was here last week and he said that he would try to unring the bell if if Inspector Generals conclusions indicated there was something that had gone amiss with the Hillary Clinton investigation. I asked him what that meant and he alluded to some personnel issues. And remedial personnel action. He said they might reopen that investigation if necessary. Is that your understanding as well . I dont know what he said, its hard to unring bell, but we make every effort to take appropriate action if something comes to our attention. I support him if he feels theres justification for reviewing that. If thats youd concur . If he felt that was appropriate. If there were conflicts that arose, we have a process with a process to take care of that. Youve indicated that processed include the tone around the office, everything subject to review by the supervisor b and and Inspector General could be called in if theres something amiss. Attorney general session testified in this committee there are no formal processes to discover individual processes of interest. Would you concur with the bottom Line Assessment . Id say its left to the individual and supervisor. Is supervisor has the responsible thety to know if theres a reason for concern and should take appropriate action and do an inquiry. And another issue that weve touched on today and this is been brought up repeatedly is this idea of integrity and independence. Adheres to the rule of law. And this idea that we dont want to lose faith in the rule of law. I cannot convey in Strong Enough term ss that when i go home to my constituents, theres a real sense theres disparity going on in the how the Current Administration is being treated i understand a lot of that is the deviciveness the nation. Partisanship, i understand that. But some of the things weve talked about today, whether its the struck issue. And jean any ray. Et cetera, et cetera. It isnt the money people donate to campaign. I think weve established that. It is what do they do beyond that . These are actions. These are actions someone took. It is something that goes beyond that and taned this investigation. Its not because we dont think director mueller is a war hero and is been of Great Service to this country. It has taint eed everything arod this investigation so that i cant go home without people decrying it in loud terms. Some came out with questions from Inspector General, but some not timely. I agree with the chairman here. This committee has jurisdiction. We need to be getting this information timely and with that, my times expired. Thank you, mr. Chairman. The chair recognizes the miss handle. Thank you for your time today. I am having a little trouble today reconciling some comments from your Opening Statement with the realities you said justice requires a fair and impartial process. And i think we could both agree that to have a fair and impartial process, no appearance of conflict needs to be present. Its my understand iing that te messages and emails that he sent were specifically labeled quote, mid year exam or mye or me. Which was the code name for the clinton email investigation. No, but i can check and get back to you. I would preeappreciate than answer to that. With the revelations regarding truck, page and others from the mueller team, has mueller taken any specific action on the remaining member of the teams to fair out whether they, too, have these types of biases an perhaps have sent such texts or emails . Ive talked to director miller about the importance of ensuring the integrity of everybody working on the information. I dont know precisely what steps hes taken. If youre supervising this, dont you think that would be something you should know. Yes and i can say sure you based on his reputation, he knows what to do in order to ensure his team is is not biaseded. Okay. Well apparently not. Since weve just seen all these Text Messages. Do you think that the actions weve seen rise to that stand d standard . Thats our aspiration. We recognize there are going to be deviations. I think the commit m i have in the attorney general is that when there are deviation, well deal with them appropriately. We cant guarantee, but we can ensure that well set the right tone and comes to our attention, were going to take appropriate action. Okay. Were those Text Messages or emails sent on bureau or doj issued cells or other Electronic Devices . B i believe the answer is yes. You said you said he was rei sign signed to h rrk. Is that correct . Detector mueller woul make the decision to have him participate in the counsel. Where is struck working now. Hr . That would be very interesting. I would like to have an answer to that. Its peculiar to me that an individual under investigation by the Inspector General would be rete played to the very division and dmt that is tasked with is thing workplace policies. Do you think thats a little strange . What else would you be doing in hr . Interesting. A person under ig investigation processing hr. Thats all i have. I yield back. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you for your long testimony today. I want to taub about policy. Everybody understands youre going to have bias. It was mentioned earlier, everybody ak a septembering that you can have bias until it crosses into the workplace and affects actions and how you conduct investigations. Thats when leadership and policy comes into play. Has special agent, i dont know if hes been found guilty of a charge, but is there a charge gens them . Theres an inquiry and hell reach a conclusion. Im not asking for the conclusion, because clearly, weve got to wait for due process. Is there a the charge wold occur at the conclusion of the investigation. You mentioned earlier that offering immunity in a noncustodial interview is not unusual. On an vest ginvestigation, you immunity and dont record an interview . That to me is unprecedenteded. We discussed this with director ray last week. Is that that investigation occurred before i arrive d, so i dont know the details of what decisions were made or why in my experience. On the circumstances of the case if theres anything inappropriate about that, hed have the authority to review it. Heres the situation i think the American People are looking at. We have a situation where a special agent does something unprecedented in an investigation by offering immunity and failing a report. It was questioned earlier, was there a proctored statement during that interview. I suspect the real answer is nobody knows because it wasnt recorded. If there would be a proper activity, it would have been written down. Here we have a situation with special agent struck, which is really bringing the agencys integrity into question. Whats beginning ton important is how you and director ray address this at the end of the investigation. I get that and i appreciate that. And we are really waiting to e see. What really concerns me now, after that situation and the ones that have been mentioned earlier, do you see any reason after president trumps election that the office of the attorney general should have any reason to fear his election . No. Do you think the fbi should have any reason to fear the election of donald trump . Let me read to you, this is number 89 of mr. Strucks conversations. It says that he is worried about, hold on a second here. The New York Times probability numbers are dropping every day. Im scared for our organization. You have any idea what hes referring to there . No, sir, i do not. Our organization. Then on email number 89, page 89, it says i keep thinking about what d said, what is is it, sick to ones stomach. Want to talk to you about it more and would like to talk the to jim and andy, too. Jim may be too much a true believer though. These are scary con vversations that hes having these conversations and hes worried because of a, the possibly of a president ial election. Hes worried about what thats going to do to his organization. Can you comment on that . Attorney general sessions have been b clear with me that our mission is to make sure we run the department and fbi properly. If information comes to our attention to suggest theres been wrong doing, to conduct an investigation that includes due process and take appropriate action if theres an adverse fi finding. Weve been asked several times about this issue and the reassurance is that the issue that the tournl and i have made. Thats reflected by all of this administrations appointees and really suh push experienced team. Particularly christopher ray. I really appreciate that and i believe we have the right people in the right seats right now to root this out. Im going to tell you, i fear that it runs deep. We have a protect the integrity of the men and women, all the staff folks who are good, you know, lawabiding, hard working heroes out there. They deserve an agency like theirs so thank you for everything youre going to do to make that happen. I yield back. Thanks, gentlemen. The gentleman from texas has unanimous consent requests. Thank you for your kindness. A letter by four members of the committee f committee, four women of the committee. Myself, miss bass and miss lofren for asking them to hold hearings for the accusers of mr. Trump to be heard. Objection. That will be made part of the record. And i have a line of questions that i hope to put in the letter to the Deputy Attorney general that would not complete. I ask unanimous consent to put that in the record. Objection. Then hr 3654, a compliment to the senate bill follows my line of questioning to the integrity of the work special counsel mueller. And mr. Chairman, scheduling, if i could stop and ask for a scheduling question. Are we having another judiciary do you think in the next week . I would just ask the committee to be an active participant many the daca fix. This is our jurisdiction and as i go home, there are so many People Living in fear and i know that our engagement with the speak speaker to young people who are right now so fearful that will be unstatused that ive had adults come to me whose children are not daca, but whose childrens friends are about the suicidal nature of these young people because theyre to frightened. I dont know if we could fix it in the committee or if there are bills or whether or not youd provide dialogue with the now present Ranking Member that we look to see how we can fix this or at least provide a clarifying message for these daca young people as they go home. Excuse me, sorry, as we go home for the Christmas Hol kay. We are leaving young people coming home from school into hom homes. Theyre fearful theyll be deported and not able to go wbak to school. Medical school. Pa ph. D. Candidates and other individuals and of course, people are working. Im very concerned, mr. Chairman. I understand your concern. As you know, the speaker has pinted a task force on the majority side of which three members of this committee including myself are involved. I would be happy to have a discussion with you about it. I dont believe Daca Recipients where the program has been extend ed through march need fer whats going to happen here. I do hope for an outcome that allows us to have the laws of the land changed to prevent but also address the concern of the these people who were brought here illegally in many instances by their parents. Ill take you up on this order and i would beg to differ. They were statused even as they came into this country even through no fault of their own. So i dont want it to hang over their head. Let me just say that the march deadline has been, it seems to be encroaching on their thinking process because the raids are still continuing in their schools. Places where they are, so if nothing else, let me just put on the record. We need first of all, the daca fix. I disagree that march is an appropriate time frame. I understand what youre saying, but we certainly need the president , the speaker of the house, leadership of this nation to be able to indicate that the Deputy Attorney general, homeland security, i. C. E. Officer, fbi officers, are not going to unless there is some other element to their status, any action by them is not going to randomly deport daca statused young people. I think that is a crucial statement to have made and i thank the gentlemen. Thank the gentlewoman for her comments. I want advisement. I want to thank the Deputy Attorney general for his participation today. I have a couple more questions. Did former director comey in sharing his memos with another individual who then shared them with a New York Times reporter share classified information . Congressman, i do not know the answer to that, but the Inspector General of our department has jurisdiction to review that issue. And are you aware of the report indicating that jim baker, the general counsel of the fbi, was under investigation by the fbi for sharing classified information . I believe that i read the media account that youre referring to. Do you still have confidence in the fbi general counsel . I have confidence in the fbi and i have confidence, mr. Chairman, that director ray will make appropriate decisions with regard to his staff. And, finally, in an interview with nbcs Scott Mcfarland on december 6th you indicated you were satisfied with how the special counsels investigation is proceeding. Why after you have heard all of the concerns expressed here today, why are you satisfied with the course of the investigation so far . Im satisfied, congressman, because based upon what i know which is different from what accounts may appear in the media based upon what i know i believe director mueller is appropriately remaining within his scope and conducting himself appropriately. In the event that there is any credible allegation of misconduct by anybody on his staff that he is taking appropriate action. Thank you. Thank you very much. We will have, i have no doubt from both sides of the aisle additional questions in writing. We hope you are able to answer those and answer them expeditiously. Again, i thank you. Youre a little bit ahead, not much, but a little bit ahead of director reys time. I know the sacrifice it is to prepare for this and then to give us the better part of a day to answer these questions, but theyre very important. The fbi is an incredibly important Law Enforcement organization. In my opinion it is still the premiere Law Enforcement organization in the world, and, again, as i said earlier, there are tens of thousands of employees there who are very dedicated to doing the right thing, up holding the rule of law, and providing justice in the fashion that the blindfolded woman with balanced scales stands for. I think the department stands for that. I do think at the higher levels of the department there are some serious problems. The gentleman from florida asked some questions very much related to this, and i think that while we all have confidence in director rey, we also believe that there need to be some changes made, both in terms of the personnel, in terms of the protocols that are followed, and certainly in terms of getting the necessary information to this committee and whatever other appropriate committees so that all of this can be aired and the publics understanding that these problems are being solved and that they know what the nature of them are. So, again, thank you very much for your participation. Thank you very much for your work in a very difficult situation as Deputy Attorney general of the United States under these circumstances. Thank you. With that, without objection, all members will have five legislative days to submit additional written questions for the witness and additional materials for the record, and the hearing is adjourned. This weekend on American History tv on cspan3, today at 6 00 p. M. Eastern on the civil war, generals we love to hate with author craig simons on confederate general joseph johnston. Johnstons critics argue that his timidity with the enemy and combativeness with the confederate ral government in richmond so undermined the southern war effort as to make him a contributing factor in confederate defeat. To these critics johnston was the real mcclelland of the west, a man who lacked the moral will to commit troops to battle unless he could be absolutely certain of victory, and since those circumstances never obtained he seldom, if ever, sought battle at all. Sun at 4 00 p. M. Eastern on reel america the white house monthly reports on president lyndon johnson. Two days after his return from new york, the president s oldest daughter,land ah byrd johnson, became the bride of captain charles rob of the United States marine corps. Historically it was the First White House wedding in 53 years. And at 6 00 on american artifacts the 200year history of the Willard Hotel in washington, d. C. , whose guests include abraham lincoln, world war ii soldiers and the first japanese delegation to the United States in 1860. Abraham lincoln conducted quite a bit of business while he was here. He stayed for ten days. In fact, the First White House levy was held not at the white house, it was at the Willard Hotel. When he introduced himself and his wife was quite a bit shorter than him, he said i want to introduce you of the long and short of the new presidency. American history all weekend every weekend only on cspan3. Former ambassadors to the middle east ryan crocker, erik edelman, James Jeffrey and stuart jones, testified yesterday about u. S. Strategy in the region, including efforts to combat isis and iran usa nuclear program. From the Senate Armed Services committee, this is two hours. The hearing will come to order and the Committee Meets today to receive testimony on the u. S. 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