Analysis and as we refer to as ona. Left the committee, no choice but to issue a subpoena on tuesday for his appearance at this hearing today. The department has persistently slow walked security clearance requests from counsel for their clients mr. Brian murphy, a lawful whistleblower and the former acting head of ina and the element within dhs in proceedings before this committee. The committee repeatedly offered to dhs that it would withdraw the subpoena for mr. Maurers appearance if the department authorized the attorney clearances in time for mr. Murphys often rescheduled deposition. Unfortunately dhs refused to do so. Therefore, were Going Forward today with his testimony. I now recognize myself for an opening statement. On august 3rd, amid public reporting of american citizens being scratched off the streets of portland by Law Enforcement officials from the department of Homeland Security, this committee launched an investigation into serious allegations that dhss intelligence and Analysis Office or ina, an element of our nations Intelligence Community, may also have played a role in the apparent abuses documented in portland. The spector of domestic surveillance activities by the nations intelligence apparatus which is supposed to be focused outside of the country has set off alarm bells. Soon after the committee began its review, additional serious and credible allegations emerged that senior officials at dhs had engaged in efforts to politicize intelligence assessments and reports produced by ina and so the committee expanded its investigation to examen whether the Intelligence Unit has withheld Intelligence Reporting about russian interference in our election and sought to downplay the threat of White Supremacy violence. Our investigation is still in the early stages but already the Trump Administration has engaged in obstruction. Despite those efforts over the past two months, a deeply disturbing pictures that come into sharper focus. Time and again dhs office of intelligence and analysis face pressure by the Trump Administration to deploy resources in a way to politically benefit the president of the United States and his Reelection Campaign at the expense of our National Security. Specifically the committee has information that, number one, Trump Administration officials sought to influence the production of election Threat Intelligence by elevating and emphasizing activity by china and iran despite acute operations by russia. The committee has learned that dhs leaders sought to influence the production of classified and unclassified intelligence assessments related to foreign threats to our election by encouraging ina to report more on china, even though the Intelligence Community public statements indicate that only russia is engaged in active measures to denigrate one candidate and support another and sway the outcome of the president ial election. Treating these three actors of differenting intent and capability, russia, china and iran, it creates a false equivalency and dilutes the fact that the most significant threat to our election is in fact from russia, which is aggressively seeking to denigrate Vice President biden and boost President Trump. These politicized changes did nothing to serve our National Security. But would serve to avoid embarrassing the president with a focus on the dangerous facts of russias interference on behalf of his campaign. Number two, similarly dhs officials have sought to modify the unclassified homeland threat assessment which is jet to be released to this day. Specifically the committee has learned that senior dhs officials have pressed for the assessment to elevate the threat to an election posed by china and iran and which would mislead the American Public but bolster efforts by the administration to downplay the most significant foreign election threat coming from russia. Number three, the committee has also confirmed that dhss ina sent personnel to portland at the height of protests in the city and asked engage in activity that raises profound Civil Liberties concerns, specifically the committee learned that ina participated in questioning protesters detained and issued Intelligence Reports on reporters. We have learned that the federal protective service and another component of dhs seized phones from protesters and asked ina, a member of the Intelligence Community, to extract data from those phones. Thankfully that request appears not to been ultimately fulfilled. Ina presence and activities in portland were also in the service of the president s preferred law and order narrative for which he deployed the federal government in response to domestic protests in an effort to benefit himself politically. The committee is examining allegations that dhs sought to modify sesments relating to domestic security threats in service to President Trumps preferred narrative that antifa and socalled leftwing anarchists are the most threat and this is despite to the testimony by fbi director Christopher Wray that it now maked up a share of domestic terrorism and in the wake of the president s inability to fully condemn White Supremacists. It is a dark hour when we are command eared into the president s political narrative rather than speaking truth to power. This is not the first time it is served political interest of the person in the oval office. 45 years ago the church and Pike Committee investigated another corrupt administration that included an attempt to assassinate foreign leaders and to spy on americans exercising Constitutional Rights by monitoring their political activities. 1975, seems like a long time ago but some of the abuses seem all too familiar today. The church and Pike Committee produced a series of recommendations including to create Standing Committees that would act as on a check on the Intelligence Community. These are agreat outgrowth of the Richard Nixon abuse of the Intelligence Committee and we ensure that those abuses do not happen again. That is why we have called you hear to testify today john maher. John maher is performing the duty of under secretary of analysis at the department of Homeland Security. Hes here pursuant to a subpoena issued this week. It became necessary when dhs continued to slow walk the security clearances for the whistleblower mr. Murphy for his attorney. The committee expects hearing witnesses to answer its members questions but today the issuance of the subpoena compels you to answer them fully and completely. In opening our investigation on august 3rd, we asked finished intelligence and raw Intelligence Reports produced by ina. On august 19th we requested additional documents as well as testimony from senior dhs ina officials. On sent 9th the committee released by the former head of dhs intelligence and Analysis Office brian murphy who alleged serious miscon duck related to our ongoing investigation. Following substantial back and forth the department agreed to make available a number of witnesses for transcribed interviews and to provide some, only some of the documents we requested. However the department is still with holding the vast majority of documents relevant to this committees over sight of the Intelligence Community and moreover were dismayed that the security clearance for mr. Murphys attorney, denying him the right to have counsel present for the deposition where we could learn more about his allegations. Allegations that the committee has a duty to independently investigate. Some allegations may prove accurate and others may not but we have a duty to find out given their seriousness and that some of the allegations involve the threat to the upcoming election, we need to find out now and without delay. Because some of mr. Murphys allegations are classified and particularly those regarding the politicization of threats to our upcoming election it will be testify f necessary to testif in closed session. And now to testify to matters under investigation by the committee. Well hold a classified session with mr. Ma her so you may further testify about the allegations of misconduct that were investigating. Finally, mr. Maher we may ask you about the nature of the threats facing our country. That is because you represent an element of the Intelligence Community whose responsibility is to Keep Congress informed to the threats to our nation and the director of National Intelligence has refused to appear publicly before this committee or to the senate Intelligence Committee to discuss these threats, respected on an annual basis. Instead they have published unverified material which he admits may be fabricating undertaking a domestic political errand for the president for an election weeks away even john durham seems to not perform. The American People deserve better. We expect you to speak truth to power today. Thank you. And i now recognize mr. Nunes for his opening remarks. Welcome to another hearing of the trump Impeachment Committee. This committee used to be formerly known at the house Intelligence Committee. Ill begin by noteing there is no reason for this hearing to be held in public except to stir up media interest in the democratss latest stunt. The only reason mr. Ma her is here today is leverage. It is meant to force dhs to rush through top secret security clearances without the appropriate background checks. There is no reason to make this whistleblower public but at all but of course handling whist complaints with discretion as this committee has always done before this congress, is not helpful for publicity stunts. So here we go again. Lets recall the democrats on in committee were at the forefront of the russian collusion hoax for years, they falsely claimed they found secret evidence of trumps conspiracy with russia. They issued memos defending the fisa waurntd to spy on Trump Associates and tried to get nude pictures of trump from russian pranksters. They also touted the credibility of the steele dossier that they had paid for themselves, the Democratic National committee and the Clinton Campaign and read the steele dossier into this committees congressional record during hearings in the past. After a twoyear investigation, however, special Council Mueller filed failed to find the security collusion evidence that the democrats claim to secretly possess and since then weve learned that the steele dossier, was mix of fake stories, rumors, barroom gossip, and jokes. Collected by a suspected russian spy at the behest of the Democratic National committee and the hillary Clinton Campaign. Furthermore, the department of justice Inspector General found the fisa warrant application that the democrats defended for years was riddled with mistakes, omissions, even withheld exculpatory evidence and relied on a doctored email hiding a Trump Associates past cooperation with the u. S. Intelligence agency. The democrats have not called a single hearing to investigate any of these issues even though this committee is supposedly dedicated to overseeing the Intelligence Community and investigating abuses. Theyve held a hearing on global warming. But dont care about documented corruption of the fisa process or suspected russian agents compiling political dirt for the Democratic Party. After mueller testified to this committee and again failed to expose the mythical collusion conspiracy, the democrats suddenly switched tracks and impeached President Trump based on an anonymous whistleblower complaint from a bureaucrat who are coordinated his attack with the democratic staff of, you guessed it, this very committee. Despite the democrats insisting that they had never had any contact with this whistleblower. Although they brought our oversight work to a halt and transformed this into an Impeachment Committee and holding ridiculous secret depositions that were leaked nightly to their media stooged followed by public show trials with the witnesses they found most useful. The impeachment in the house was such a transparent fraud that not a single republican voted for it. After the collapse and the failure to oust President Trump during the impeachment, the democrats suddenly begin a new investigation and forced us into an opening hear and it is certainly amusing that although this complaint is supposed to be handled by the Inspector General first, the democrats have dispensed with the ig as an unnecessary middle man, probably because the i. G. Investigation takes time and the democrats are operating on an election deadline. This all has a familiar ring to it. Almost all of the democrats are following a playbook. I would note that usually you dont follow a playbook from a game that youve lost multiple times. But once again their pushing into the limelight a complaint by a whistleblower. Small world. It may seem that the whistleblower has credibility problems. Furthermore the democrats themselves called him a liar just a few weeks before he filed this complaint. Even threatened to criminally refer the whistleblower. But now suddenly hes their star witness. Nevertheless, i doubt my democratic colleagues will breeze right past these contradictions and that the media mouth pieces wont draw any attention to these awkward problems just like theyll ignore the testimony of multiple career officials delivered during the interviews that weve scheduled and conducted over the last few months which directly couldnt r contradicts. Again believing theyll find the holy grail of scandals that finally gets rid of trump. Without beating him in the election. Of course, foreign threats and intelligence challenges dont grind to a halt while they pursue the sick fantasies. And this is clearly sick. Weve had violence all over the country and it involves a bizarre sympathy for ant eva, burning down many of our countrys major cities. I know some view antifa as an idea. Thankfully the Trump Administration does not. Yield back. Mr. Maurer, the allegations leveled against your office are credible, serious and wideranging. They cover everything from abuse of authority and mismanagement of intelligence programs to the politicization of intelligence. Were going to review these allegations during the course of the hearing. And i want to give you a chance to respond as well to other important issues under your purview. Let me start with a few what should be fairly easy questions. Is russia interfering in our election, yes or no . Youll have to turn your mic on, sir. Yes. Is russia spreading disinformation about our elections. I would prefer to the election interference and there tr is does talk about russias efforts. Well those staples outline that russia is spreading disinformation. Do you have any reason to quarrel with that. I have no reason to qualify with that. And voter ballots and mail fraud. That i dont think i could answer in open question. You have issued a bulletin on this subject. Weve issued a number of bulletins on the Russia Foreign influence and those are usually issued not for public consumption and so we have issued a number of bulletins on foreign influence by russia. Is russia actively trying to denigrate joe biden . Yes. And im sure you saw recently direct wrays testimony, the Intelligence Community consensus is that russia continues to try to influence our elections and weve seen active efforts to influence our elections in 2020. He also said that the russians were trying to, quote, denigrate Vice President biden and what the russians see as a kind of antirussian establishment. You agree with director wray, do you not . I do agree. That makes it hard to explain a september press report that dhs leadership delayed publication of an intelligence bull etdin in july that warned of efforts to denigrate joe biden. The dhs bulletin was at one point during the drafting process, titled, quote, russian influence 2020 election. Do you recall that bulletin . Im familiar with the bulletin, yes. Was the title of that bulletin later changed to remove the word russia. Im not going to discuss internal deliberations but i would tell you that product was issued in Early September and ina stands behind the contents of the product including the vital. So you will not answer th