The committee will come to order. The chair recognizes the gentleman from arizona. Thank you. Is it the policy of your office to use . Im sorry, im having difficulty hearing. I will get right on top of this thing. Is that the policy of your office for u. S. Attorneys to use prosecutorial quotas . Do you have a quota system and play . No. That would be to your office. It is not a policy. Correct, we do not have quotas. Would it be consistent with that when you have a prosecutor who said he wants to prosecute at least 2000 people who are alleged to have committed a certain type of crime. I think you are referring to the january 6 question. I am just asking, is that consistent with your Office Policy if someone said we will get up to 2000 people on a particular crime. Is that consistent with the policy . I think what that person was referring to was how many cases would be brought because the court had asked how many more people he filed a letter with the court saying we are looking at upwards of 2000, we have 1200 more we think we will get. You do not do that for anything else for like tax fraud, you are not saying we will have so many people we want to get for tax fraud or the court asks us what the likely workload will be based on investigations that are pending. The u. S. Attorney is obligated to respond do you provide reference to the number people who you thought you would prosecute in the riots of the portland courthouse while there were people inside those courthouses. Did you file with the court saying we will have another 300 or 400, whatever it may be . You did not file those charges, did you . Im not following. I believe the number youre asking let me ask you this lets switch topics. Maybe this one will be easier to follow. Is it the policy of the doj to provide advance notice to subjects before conducting a search for evidence . It totally depends on the circumstances. If the circumstance were that you had a guesthouse where the u. S. Attorney, deputy u. S. Attorney is saying we suspect there is a lot of evidence, but we are not going to follow that up. We are going to do a search warrant per it would that be consistent with your policy . I know this is hypothetical and i do not know the facts of the case and i dont know what happened. I believe the events youre talking about that was reported in the press occurred with the previous administration. No. That event did not happen in the previous administration. You keep saying this happened in the previous administration, lets talk about this for just a moment you keep saying i dont know what happened. I am going to opine when it happened. Do you see the fallacy . The inconsistency . I dont know what happened because im not involved. It happened under the previous administration. That is so logically fallacious. Im not following periods i know youre not following. The question is you have a deputy u. S. Attorney calling the attorney on the side saying, we are going to go to these two places, probably in the next couple of days. Of course ultimately the search warrant is called off. I just want to know, is it consistent to call up people, who you know have boxes of information, thats why you got the warrant and why you are going to go look, you give them a heads up so they can move those. Is that consistent with doj policy . You are asking me to comment on allegations from a particular case no, i am not im asking is that consistent with your overall policy. Forget delaware and what they did. Lets just talk about generic policy periods i thought you were talking about maralago. When we are talking about this, your general policy, is it your policy, is that acceptable, when you expect movable items to call up and say we will be there to look . There is no policy on this question or strategy or tactics used to preserve evidence are left up to the investigators and office on the ground. Sometimes it is a serious mistake to call up. Here, once again, you dont know what happened in the hunter biden case because that is somebody else but you can be sure of the timing of when all of this took place that is one of the biggest oddities of your testimony today. I yield back to the gentleman from colorado. Gentlemens time has expired. The chair recognizes the gentle lady from sylvania. Thank you for your decades of faithful service to your our country, to the constitution and the rule of law. Thank you for putting up with us today. The American People are watching, they know whats going on. This is a gross misuse of your time, your teams time and our time. It is a shameful circus. It has a goal, the goal is to spew lies and misinformation and ultimately to tear away the confidence of our independent institutions. In your case, the Important Department of justice. That is the exact ammo of the former president , tear away the confidence of our independent institutions whether it is the, the department of justice, judiciary, independent news media. The American People are watching this sham. It is not just a circus, it is dangerous. You know that and you mentioned that. I believe that these fictions and fantasies are dangerous. Dangerous for you and dangerous for the 115,000 surface with whom you work. Dangerous for national security. Dangerous or community security. Dangerous for the rule of law and our constitution. All at the same time of a looming shutdown. The other side of the aisle cannot govern. They are having this hearing, which was supposed to be oversight, and use it as a big distraction because they are failing to govern. Imagine if we go into a shutdown , what does that say to the members of your department . What does that say to servicemembers . U. S. Troops who would be training, fighting without pay and without confidence in this countrys governing ability. It is a great distraction. Let me pivot the something i care about and i know that you and your Department Care about. It is recovery month. For families like mine with someone in recovery, every month is recovery month. I think you for what youre doing on the fentanyl crisis, the overdose crisis that has claimed 110,000 lives in a single. 300 souls a day every day, souls who have died while we are in this hearing, every day. What is the department doing to combat the trafficking, to combat the amount of fentanyl on the ground. As dea said theres enough fentanyl on the ground to kill the entire population multiple times over to tell us about your important work. Congresswoman, let me begin by saying i share your personal concern and grief over this. I met with the families of children, teenagers, elderly people who have become addicted to fentanyl and who have died from fentanyl. Everything you are saying is correct. It is a catastrophe for the country. As a consequence, the Justice Department has poured resources, particularly from dea with fbi assistance and with fugitive arrests by the Marshall Service and with gun tracing by the atf and the entire process by which fentanyl reaches the United States. We have sinks sanctioned precursor companies and china. We have indicted some of them for their violations. We have arrested some, as far off as fiji brought them back to the United States. We have traced this to mixico where they are made into fentanyl pills, that no cost about . 10 to make it can be sold on the streets of the United States between 10 and 30 you can see what the profit motive is. We must stop the cartels themselves. As i said, i have traveled to mixico twice in order to work with our counterparts in the military and Law Enforcement. I thank you for that. I want to pivot ones i want to do anything i can to partner with you on this issue. I traveled recently with the Foreign Affairs committee two, met with extraordinary folks, the top prosecutor and his team. They were complementary of the department of justice and your work. Tell us about your Important Role or americas Important Role in war crimes, especially in light of your powerful history. I am happy to. I have traveled to ukraine twice to meet with the prosecutor general there. I will meet with him again this week here. He has met with me several times. The Justice Department is pursuing the war crimes from russia unlawful and unjust invasion of ukraine. To help investigate war crimes which we have jurisdiction, to help the prosecutor general investigate those prosecutions. I believe the first cabinet member ever to visit the International Criminal court of justice, to meet with, who is the chief prosecutor, to talk about our cooperation with respect to the investigations that they are doing. I assigned a Justice Department prosecutor to the investigatory body that has been set up for the crime of aggression. She is now working with the icc and i have assigned a prosecutor to our embassy in kyiv to work with our ambassador there and work with the Prosecutor Generals Office periods that is critically important. America is indispensable and your work is indispensable. Time has expired. Gentlemen from wisconsin is recognized. Do you support the consent that i believe was put in place in the city of minneapolis . Do i support the . Do you support the dissent decree that was put in place with the Police Department minneapolis periods the one that was put in place by the federal government . Yes periods you support fewer cops on the street . Do i support . Fewer cops on the street. No i dont. That is what is happening as a result. I dont think that is a consequence of the consent decree. They have been losing Police Officers for many years periods do i support more crime . No i dont. There was a hearing in minnetonka minnesota, a suburb of minneapolis, just this last week where they are beside themselves with the amount of crime that continues in minneapolis since the riots of 2020. I would point out to you, i had an officer in my district, i live right across the border in wisconsin, thats for my district begins. A Police Officer was shot to death as a result of a week on crime prosecutor in st. Paul, minnesota. Do you think that is a problem . The officer was shot to death . That certainly is not an appropriate sentence, that is outrageous. Let me be clear, we are doing all that we can to assist minneapolis. We have a very aggressive u. S. Attorney that has brought a number of cases and has been excellent and successful. I have a short. Of time. In regards to disrupting drug networks, why is there so much fentanyl coming in . Because it cost . 10 to make and it can be sold for 30. So the sheriff from arizona set where you are a few months ago and he said the reason why there is a drastic increase of fentanyl coming into the country is because on january 20 of 2021, open border policy was announced by President Biden. Have you expressed concern about the open border policy that has led to this rapid increase in the amount of fentanyl coming into the country . I cannot associate myself with the conclusion reached by the sheriff. Although i can commiserate. The sheriff is incorrect . That cartels in mixico are causing this drug to be transmitted in the United States we are doing what we can to eliminate it. You are not doing that. Mr. Chairman, this is the same answer we received from secretary mayorkass a couple of months ago when he was in denial about a sheriff, one of the most reparable sheriff that you will find in the United States of america, sitting down there on the southern border, he sees this every day, he saw it working at 2020 because he told me when i was there. He said it is not working is started january 20, 2021. You can pretend youre dealing with fentanyl, you are not. The borders are wide open. Im going to shift to combating gun violence. Do you believe a prohibited person that required acquires a gun illegally and disposes it in a dumpster where a criminal or innocent child can gain access to it should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law . This is no longer hypothetical question youre referring to a case which is now in judicial determination before a court of law. It is inappropriate for me to comment. For the record, lets understand, the same prosecuting attorney, who is now the special counsel gave a sweetheart deal to that person, and yes, you are correct, we are referring to the president s son. He got a sweetheart deal and the judge was smart enough to smell a rat when she saw it and she said you guys go back to the drawing board. That same special counsel is in charge of this investigation, isnt that correct . Absolutely. I will close real quickly with this. There is a world Naked Bike Ride in Madison Wisconsin a couple of months ago and i sent you a letter two months ago asking if you had a problem with that because it exposed a 10yearold girl, by the race organizer, the bike organizers to paddling pedaling around Madison Wisconsin naked. You think that is a problem . Why did you not answer our letter from two months ago . I am sorry, i will have to ask the office of legislative affairs to get back to you periods does it take two months to get back on answers about this . It sounds like youre asking a question about state and local Law Enforcement. We get hundreds and hundreds of letters. I will ask legislative affairs where that letter is. State and local Law Enforcement would not act we were hoping you would. Of is you will not periods the gentleman from North Carolinas recognized. Thank you attorney general for joining us and for your patience. I am honored to represent a Diverse Community in North Carolina. Wake county has worked to welcome people of all backgrounds, ethnicity and religion. The growth and success of my district in the Research Triangle park depends on our commitment to celebrating the many cultures that contribute to our community. Unfortunately, over the past few years, these very communities that have contributed so much to my state and district have found themselves under attack. Jewish leaders in my district have received threats to themselves and their synagogues as recently as last month. Hbcus across the state have locked down in response to bomb threats. Asian americans in North Carolina, and throughout the country have found themselves facing slurs and threats spurred in large part by the racialized language about the covid19 pandemic. The Southern Poverty Law Center reported in late 2020 that the number of White Nationalist grew 55 between 2017 and 2019. Noting that the rise in hate based attacks coincide with the growth of the White Nationalist movement. The antidefamation leak relatedly found that white supremacist propaganda incidents occurred over 14 times per day on average in 2020 with a total of 5125 reported cases. Nearly twice the number of cases reported in 2019 and the highest number the adl has ever recorded. This dangerous trend has continued the last few years and has recently included as active clubs have been increasing in their number and prominence. These active clubs started popping up in late 2020 and are a network of White Nationalist groups that see themselves as fighters in training for an ongoing war against a system they claim is deliberately plotting against the white race. As attorney general, i am deeply interested and concerned about the rise of these clubs, threats of violence and actual violence. I wanted to know if you are familiar with these activities, and what your department is doing to counteract them. I am not familiar with the specifics of those clubs. I will certainly look into what the department is doing. Very soon after i came to the department i saw a spike in hate crime threats that were being made and acts of violence. I directed the department to develop a strategy for responding to that. 30 days later that was pretty much with congresses passage of the covid no hate act. We have now fulfilled, i think, all of the obligations under that act. We have taskforces set up to investigate and prosecute hate crimes. Where they satisfy their requirements as Domestic Violence extremism or domestic terrorism. We have brought dozens of cases against people who have made these threats as well as those who have attempted to carry them out. As you know, we have a prosecution pending in buffalo with respect to the horrendous killing of black americans in the tops Grocery Store by a valid white supremacist. Thank you very much for your thank you for your efforts in this regard. On a different subject with my last 45 seconds, North Carolina also saw the impact of cyber crimes with the colonial pipeline. I would like to know how your office is counteracting any Cyber Attacks and dealing with people who perpetrate them. We are vigilant to the risk of these kinds of Cyber Attacks. These were criminal gangs affiliated in russia. Unfortunately we had intelligence from section 702, which we discussed earlier today. I have to say that is one of the principal sources is our ability to fight these kind of attacks. Whether they are criminal or whether they are launched by nationstates. Whether they are attempting to get around somewhere, whether they are simply trying to infiltrate our information, whether they are trying to prevent our computers from working at all, the Justice Department has established a Cyber Task Force for this purpose, a ransom where task force and we are working on cryp