Transcripts For CSPAN3 Acting DNI Director Maguire Testifies

Online at cspan. Org or listen with the free cspan radio app. The acting intelligence director testified today about a whistleblower complaint concerning a phone conversation between President Trump and the president of ukraine. Director maguire took questions from members of the house Intelligence Committee. You can read the whistleblower complaint at cspan. Org. The meeting will come to order. Without object, the cheer reserves the right to recess the hearing at any time. The president ial oath of office requires the president of the United States to do two things, faithfully execute his or her office and protect and defend the constitution. That oath, of course, cannot be honored if the president does not first defend the country. If our National Security is jeopardized, if our country is left undefended, the necessity to faithfully execute the office becomes moot, where there is no country, there is no office to execute, and so the duty to defend the nation is foundational to the president s responsibilities, but what is his second responsibility to defend the constitution . What does that really mean . The founders were not speaking, of course, of a piece of parchment, rather, they were expressing the obligation of the president to defend the institutions of our democracy, to defend our system of checks and balances that the constitution enshrine, to defend the rule of law, a principle upon which the idea of america upon which it was born that were a nation of laws, not men. If we do not defend the nation there is no constitution, but if we do not defend the constitution there is no nation worth defending. Yesterday we were presented with the most graphic evidence yet that the president of the United States has betrayed his oath of office. The trade to defend our National Security and the trade to defend our constitution for yesterday we were presented with a record of a call between the president of the United States and the president of ukraine in which the president , our president , sacrificed our National Security and our constitution for his personal, political benefit. To understand how he did so he must understand how dependent ukraine is on the United States militarily, financially, diplomatically and in every other way, and not just on the United States, but on the person of the president. Ukraine was invaded by its neighbor by our common adversary by Vladimir Putins russia. It remains occupied by Russian Forces in a long, simmering war. Ukraine desperately needs our help and for years we have give 10 and on a bipartisan basis. That s until two months ago when it was held up inexplicably by President Trump. It is in this context, after a brief congratulatory call from President Trump to president zelensky on april 21st and after the president s personal emse emissary, Rudy Giuliani made it a bubdantly clear that the president wanted dirt on his political opponent, it is in this context that the new president of ukraine would speak to donald trump over the phone on july 25th. President zelensky, eager to establish himself at home as a friend of the most powerful nation on earth, had at least two objectives, get a meeting with the president and get more military help. And so what happened on that call . Zelensky begins by ingratiating himself and he tries to enlist the support of the president. He expresses his interest in meeting with the president and says his country wants to acquire more weapons from us to defend itself, and what is the president s response . Well, it reads like a classic, organized crime shakedown. Short of its rambling character and in not so many word, this is the essence of what the president communicates. Weve been very good to your country, very good. No one has done as much as we have, but you know what . I dont see much reciprocity here. I hear what you want. I have a favor i want from you, though, and im only going to say this seven times so you better listen good. I want you to make up dirt on my political opponent, understand, lots of it. On this and on that, and ill put you in touch with people, not any people, ill put you in touch with the attorney general of the United States, bill barr, hes got the whole weight of the american Law Enforcement behind him, and im going to put you in touch with rudy. Youre going to love him, trust me. You know what im asking and so im only going say this a few more times in a few more ways, and by the way, dont call me again. Ill call you when youve done when i asked. This is in sum and character what the president was trying to communicate with the president of ukraine. It would be funny if it wasnt such a graphic portrayal of the president s oath of office, but as it does represent a real betrayal theres nothing the president says here that is in americas interest, after all. It is instead the most consequential form of tragedy. It forces us to confront the remedy that the founders provided for such a flagrant use of office, impeachment. This matter would not have come to the attention of our committee or the nations attention without the courage of a single person, the whistleblower. As you know, director maguire, more so than perhaps any other area of government since we deal with classified information, the Intelligence Committee is dependent on whistleblower to reveal wrongdoing when it occurs, when the agencies do not selfreport because outside parties are not allowed to scrutinize your work and to guide us. If that system is allowed to break down as it did here, if the whistleblowers come to understand that they will not be protected, one of two things happen. Serious wrongdoing goes unreported or whistleblower take matters into their own hands and divulge classified information to the press in violation of the law and placing our National Security at risk. This is why the whistleblower system is so vital to us, and why your handling of this urgent complaint is also so troubling. Today, we can say for the for the time since we have released this morning the whistleblower complaint that you have marked unclassified that the substance of this call is a core issue, although by no means the only issue raised by the whistleblowers complaint which was shared by the commit for the first time only late yesterday. By law, the whistleblower complaint which brought this gross misconduct to light should have been presented to this meeting weeks ago and by you under the clear letter of the law and yet it wasnt. Director maguire, i was very pleased when you were named acting director. Sue gordon was not going remain i was grateful that a man of your superb background was chosen. A navy s. E. A. L. For 36 years and director of the National Counter Terrorism Center since december 2018. Your credentials are impressive. And in limited interactions that youve had since you became director of nctc, you have struck me as a good and decent man which makes your actions over the last month all the more bewildering. Why you chose not to provide the complaint to this committee as required by law, why you chose to seek a Second Opinion on whether shall really means shall under the statute, why you chose to go to a department by a man, bill barr, as implicated in the complaint and believes he serves the interest of the president and not the office itself, mind you, or the public interest, but the interest of the person of donald trump. How you chose to allow the subject of the complaint to play a role in deciding whether congress would ever see the complaint, why you stood silent when intelligence professional under your care and protection was ridiculed by the president and was accused of potentially betraying his or her country, when by the very act of coming forward has shown more dedication to country, more of an interesting of the president s oath of office than the president himself. We look forward to your explanation. Ranking member nunes. I thank the gentleman. I want to congratulate the democrats on the rollout of their latest Information Warfare operation against the president , and their, troerd ne extraordin to once again enlist the Mainstream Media in their campaign. This operation began with media reports from the prime instigators of the russia collusion hoax, that a whistleblower is claiming President Trump made a nefarious promise to a foreign leader. The released transcript of that call has debufrpged that central assertion, but that didnt matter. The democrats simply moved the goalpost and claiming that there doesnt need to be a quid pro quo for the conversation for impeaching the positive. Speaker pelosi went further on whether she would put breaks on this, if the transcript turned out to be benine. She responded, quote, if the whistleblower operation doesnt work out the democrats and the media, we have candidates quote, we have many candidate for impeachable offenses. That was her quote. So there you go, if the whistleblower operation doesnt work out, the democrats and their media assets can always drum up Something Else, and one other information has come to light since the original false report of a promise being made. Weve learned the following, the complaint relied on hearsay evidence provided by the whistleblower. The Inspector General did not know the contents of the phone call at issue and the whistleblower displayed arguable political boy ias agai tru trump. The department of justice investigated and found no investigation was warranted and once again, the supposed scandal ends up being nothing like what we were told and once again, the democrats, their media mouthpieces and a kabal of leakers are ginning up a fake story with no regard to the monumental damage theyre causing to our Public Institutions and to trust in government, and without acknowledging all the false stories they propagated in the past, including countless allegations that Trump Campaign campaigned colluded with russia to hack the 2016 election. Were supposed to forget about all those story, but believe this one. In short, what we have with this storyline is another steeles do ye. The democrats meeting to overturn the 2016 elections, everything they touch gets hopelessly politicized and it was our intelligence agencies which turned into a political weapon to attack the president and now today the whistleblower roes is is the casual tee. Until about a week ago the need to from protect that process was a primary concern of this commit committee, but if the democrats were concerned with pursuing that process they would have a preched this with a sober inquiry as we do for it is whistleblower. They dont want answers. They want a public spectacle and weve been treated to press releases, press conferences and fake news stories. This hearing itself is another example. Whistleblower inquiry should not be held in public at all. As our Senate Counterparts both democrats and republicans obviously understand their hearing with mr. Maguire is behind closed door, but again, that only makes sense when your goal is to get information not to create a media frenzy. The current hysteria has Something Else in common with the russia hoax. Back then, they include campaigns with russians, and preparing the steele dossier. Today they accuse the president of pressuring ukrainians it take actions that would help himself or hurt his political opponents and yet there are numerous examples of democrats doing the exact same thing. Joe biden bragged this he exported the ukrainians into fighting a prosecutor who happened to be investigating bidens own son. Three democrats wrote a letter encourage the pros cure the to reopen the investigation into former Trump Campaign officials. Another democratic senator went to ukraine and pressured the ukrainian president not to investigate corruption allegations on involving joe bidens son. According to ukrainian officials the Democratic National committee contractor Alexander Alexandra chalupa tried to get a ukrainian official to get dirt on getting the former ukrainian president to comment on alleged ties to russia. Ukrainian official sergei yushennko was a source for bruce or as she was funded by the democrats and of course, democrats on this very committee negotiated with people who they thought were ukrainians in order to obtain nude pictures of trump. People can reasonably ask why the democrats are so determined to impeach this president when in just aiary theyll have a chance. In fact, one democratic congressmen, one of the first to call for his impeachment gave us the answer, saying, quote, if we dont impeach the president he will get reelected, unquote. Winning elections is hard, and when you compete you have no guarantee youll win, but the American People do have a say in this, and they made their voices heard in the last president ial election. This latest gamut by the democrats to overturn the peoples mandate is unhinged and dangerous. They should end the entire dishonest, grotesque specht tac and solving problems which is what they are here to do. Judging by todays charade the chances of that happening any time soon are zero to none. I yield back. Thank the gentleman, director, would you rise for the oath and raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you will give today shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing, but the truth so help you god . Thank you. You may be seated. The record will reflect that the witness has been duly sworn. Director maguire, would you agree that the whistleblower complaint alleges serious wrongdoing by the president of the United States . Mr. Chairman, the whistleblower actually, i apologize, director. Let me recognize you for your Opening Statement, and you may take as much time as you need. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Chairman schiff, Ranking Member nunes and members of the committee, good morning. Id like to begin by thanking the chairman and the committee for agreeing to postpone this agreeing for one week. This provided sufficient time to allow the executive branch to successfully complete its consultations regarding how to accommodate the committees request. Mr. Chairman, ive told you this on several occasions and i would like to say this publicly, i respect you. I respect this committee, and i welcome and take seriously the committees oversight role. During my confirmation process to be the director of the National Counter Terrorism Center i told the Senate Select committee and intelligence that congressional oversight of the intelligence activities is critical and essential to successful operations with the Intelligence Community. Having served as the director of the National Counter Terrorism Center for eight months and as the acting director of National Intelligence for the past six weeks, i continue to believe strongly that the role of congressional oversight. As i pledged to the senate i pledge to you today that i will continue to work closely with congress while i am serving either in this capacity as aking director of National Counter terrorism, but when i return to the National Counter Terrorism Center to make sure you are informed of the tiffs activitie facilitate the oversight intelligence. The American People expect us to keep them safe. The Intelligence Community cannot do that without this committees support. Before i turn to the matter at hand there are a few things i would like to say. I am not partisan, and i am not political. I believe in a life of service, and i am honored to be a public servant. I served under eight president s when i was in uniform. I have taken the oath to the constitution 11 times. The first time when i was sworn into the United States navy in 1974 and nine times during my subsequent promotions in the United States navy. Most recently, former director dan coats administered the oath of office last december when i became the director of the National Counter Terrorism Center. I agree with you, the oath is sacred. Its a foundationdation of our constitution. The oath to me means want only that i swear true faith and allegiance to that sacred document, but more importantly, i view it as a covenant i have with my workforce that i lead and every american that i will faithfully discharge the duties of my office. I come from a long line of Public Servants who have stepped forward ea forward even in the most difficult timeses to defend our country. When i took my uniform off in july 2010 it was the first time in 70 years that an immediate member of my family was not wearing the cloth of the nation. As a Naval Special warfare officer i had the honor of commanding at every level in the s. E. A. L. Community. It was at times very demand, but the rewards of se