First of all i should say welcome to everybody particularly our colleagues and nominees and family and friends and citizens here for a very important nominee hearing. Youre welcome. The committee is considering, as you know, the nomination ofChristopher Wray. Mr. Wray, congratulations to you and your family on you nomination. This is an important day for the country considering the importance of fbi and Law Enforcement in america. Importance of fbi and i welcome you, mr. Wray and your family, to the committee. The Ranking Member and i will give omitting and then senator nunn will introduce anybody he wants to and then we will turn to questions. His Opening Statement and introduce anybody that he wants to thats here to support him and people that arent here supporting him, as well and after his Opening Statement, we will turn to questions. As an accommodation to the minoritys request, we will have tenminute rounds for questions during the first round rather than the normal seven. The director of the federal bureau of investigation is charged with running a fast agency with tremendous power. This power, if used appropriately, could threaten the Civil Liberties of every american or if its used inappropriately, i should have said. However, when used appropriately and subject to a rigorous oversight by congress, it protects the nations from terrorists and from spies and from hardened criminals. The attorney general is commonly referred to as the top Law Enforcement officer in our country. The fbi director serves the attorney general as the top cop on the street. It is a very demanding job that requires keen understanding of the law. Sound management skills, calm, calmness under significant pressure and a very level head. From what ive seen so far from meetings when mr. Wray and from looking at his record, he appearses appears to possess these qualifications. He has an impressive legal career, graduating from Yale University and Yale Law School and clerked for a judge of the 4th circuit and also spending many years as an assistant u. S. Attorney and was on the front lines in cases involving Violent Crime, drug trafficking, public corruption and fraud. During his time as a prosecutor he often worked closely with the fbi. While there in that position, mr. Wray received the departments highest award for Public Service and leadership. In 2003, mr. Wray was unanimously confirmed by the United States senate to lead the Criminal Division of the department of justice as assistant attorney general. In that role he led and managed over 400 prosecutors and 900 total employees in nearly all areas of federal criminal law. There, too, he worked closely with federal Law Enforcement on partners with senior officials at the fbi. Of course, its important for the fbi director to be independent. In reviewing his record, ive seen mr. Wrays commitment to this independence. He prosecuted little guys and big guys, as we tend to separate people in our society including a Major League Baseball player, gun traffickers and violators. He prosecuted folks on both side says of the political spectrum including folks working on a Republican Campaign while at the department of justice, he oversaw the task force that investigated enron, this investigation led to convictions to several of enron executives, and the strong bipartisan support of over 100 u. S. Attorneys across the country including former attorney general eric holder and other appointees of president clinton and president obama, and i will enter at the end of my statement letters of support for mr. Wray. The top priority of the fbi is to protect the National Security of the United States. The director of the fbi needs to be effective and needs to be accountable when practicing protecting our nation from terrorism against foreign intelligence threats and against Cyber Attacks in hightechnology crimes. The gravity of this responsibility is clear when we remember the scores of americans and others killed or wounded in many terrorist events on u. S. Soil following the tragic event september 11, 2001. Isis and other International Terror groups have directed or inspired terrorist attacks in fort hood, boston, san bernardino, orlando, st. Cloud, new york city, columbus, and i suppose other places that we tend to and shouldnt forget, tend to forget, but shouldnt forget. Uniformly, these terrorist attacks on the United States soil show the fbi must have the tools it needs to protect against and investigate terrorism and other serious Violent Crimes in the homeland and these tools must preserve Civil Liberties while being adapted to changing threat streams and advances in technology. Chief among these tools is of isis 702 authority. This provides the government the ability to collect the communications of intelligence targets outside of the United States with the compelled assistance of american companies. Section 702 receives the strong support of obama, and now the Trump Administration and is up for reauthorization at the end of the year. Many federal courts, the federal Intelligence Surveillance court and the privacy and Civil LibertiesOversight Board have found section 702 constitutional and consistent with the Fourth Amendment, but the fbi does face questions about its queries of section 702 information and the impact on privacy and Civil Liberties. In addition, the fbi must also have the tools it needs to navigate the going dark problem as more and more terrorists and criminals use encryption. I look forward to hearing how mr. Wray plans to handle these National Security issues and protect the American People and uphold the constitution of the United States, in keeping with the fbis mission. Of course, everyone here knows that i care about whistle blowers and whistleblower protections. In december, president obama signed the fbi whistleblower protection bill that senator leahy and i worked together to pass. It clarifies that fbi employees who make disclosures to supervisors are protected. Unfortunately, there are still a lot of problems with the whistleblower protection process. Unlike other Law Enforcement agencies, the Justice Department doesnt allow fbi agents to get an independent judicial review of retaliation claims. It concerns me that the department and the fbi hasnt worked with us on the legislation to fix that. Fbi whistle blowers need the support of their leadership to ensure that there is a speedy and effective way to resolve their cases. I would like the assurance from mr. Wray that whistle blowers would not face retaliation. Some of his predecessors have done a poor job of protecting whistle blowers. At the fbi hearing on may 3, i said a cloud of doubt hangs over the fbis objectivity. The previous director, james comey said that the people at the fbi dont give a rip about politics, but mr. Comey installed as his done director, a man whose wife ran for the Virginia State senate and accepted almost 1 million from the Terry Mcauliffe splitting machine. Thats a lot of money for one state senate seat. Governor mcauliffe is a longtime friend and fundraiser for the clirpts and the democratic party. Mccabe met about his wifes political plans and his official fbi biography was set up using the meeting and the goal was for mcauliffe to close the deal and get his wife to run for office. The office of special counsel is reviewing whether that coordination was a violation of the hash tag which prohibits partisan, political coordination by fbi officials. Then spector general, should have been refuse are khussed from the clinton investigation based on mr. Macabres financial ties to the clinton political network. Mr. Mccabe was named in a sex discrimination lawsuit by a female fbi agent who alleged retaliation. Just last week it was reported that Lieutenant GeneralMichael Flynn wrote a letter in support of the female agent expect that means Lieutenant General flinn is an adverse witness to mr. Mccabe in a pending proceeding and mr. Mccabe supervised that criminal investigation of flynn and alleged lead wanted to pursue it aggressively. According to press reports, three fbi employees personally witnessed mccabe making disparaging remarks about flinn before and during the Russian Investigation, yet mr. Mccabe never recused himself from the flinn investigation. His failure to do so calls into question whether he has handled that investigation fairly and objectively. I have asked the inspect or general to review this, and it is trusted with a tremendous amount of power and that power is unsubject to appropriate checks with the abuse of the Civil Liberties. The directors are accountable to his leadership and to the people elected representatives. Thats yet fbi director has a tenyear term limit and why there are no restrictions on the ability of any president to fire any director as President Trump did former director james comey. The term limit is a sealing and not a floor and while independence from partisan influence is critical and this committee intends to closely examine the circumstances of mr. Comeys firing, history shows that the tenyear term limit isnt there to protect the fbi director from politicians or politics. Its there to help prevent the fbi director from overreaching or abusing power. For more than 50 years, the fbi was run by j. Edgar hoover, arguably, the most independent fbi director in history. The very people charged with constraining his power were targets of his secret files and so were the americans whose Civil Liberties were trampled by the program and hoovers own illegal abuses and yet the fbi building still bears his name just as the bureau bears the weight of his ugly legacy, but in america the people rule. Not the police or the military. Various oversight by elected officials as both the executive and legislative branch is essential to protect that liberty. Ive been doing vigious oversight work of the fbi for my entire career on this committee. As long as im chairman i will continue to ask important questions a questions and have honest answers for the American People. We had a hearing on the crime Sub Committee that demonstrated the long history of congress exercising its Constitutional Authority to do oversight including ongoing criminal and intelligence matters. Sometimes we cannot talk public about all of the details of our work, although we strive to be as open as possible. Some people have argued that oversight of ongoing investigations is somehow interference and this ignores the importance of our work to ensure transparency and accountability, and of course, it ignores history. This committee has received detailed information about ongoing criminal matters and foreign intelligence in the past and we will continue to seek that information. Thats what oversight and accountabilities are all about. In the past, the fbi has resisted accountability to congress and has been unresponsive to our letters, and i know for sure about my letters. Mr. Wray, you and i have spoken about this problem, and i expect you to change this practice at the fbi. I would like an assurance from you that you would be responsive to my oversight work and that my questions and do you mean request will be taken seriously in a timely and complete matter and some of my questions with you will pursue this point. Once again, i thank mr. Wray for his ability to rush to Public Service and i look forward to a full and candid conversation with him today. Now senator feinstein. Thanks very much, mr. Chairman. I would like to start by welcoming the nominees family to this hearing. I want them to enjoy the day. This is probably as good as it gets, so enjoy it. [ laughter ] i would also like to recognize sam nunn. Its good to welcome you back, sam. You were a beacon of integrity and scrutiny and good logic and strong positions while you served in the senate and it was a great treat for those of us who were able to work with you to do so. So welcome back. The position of fbi director is currently vacant because of a situation, and i want to speak about that. On may 9th of this year, President Trump fired james comey. Although were still sorting out all of the circumstances and details surrounding the president s decision, it does not appear that mr. Comey was fired because the bureau was a mess as originally stated. Nor was there evidence that mr. Comey was dismissed because rank and file fbi agent his either lost confidence in him or because his handling of the Clinton Administration investigation. Rather, we find that rank and file agents of the fbi did and continue to overwhelmingly support james comey. In addition, Deputy Attorney general rosenstein told members of congress that when he wrote his memo, President Trump had decided to remove mr. Comey as fbi director. Based on press reports and the president s own words, the reason mr. Comey was dismissed was because he would not pledge his loyalty to the president. President trump said in a televised interview, for example, i was going to fire comey regardless of recommendation, and quote, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a madeup story, end quote. As the investigation into Russian Election interference and possible coordination with the Trump Campaign progressed, it appears the president became more and more concerned with director comeys unwillingness to cooperate in the flynn matter as well as the russia matter. All of this raises important questions for the next fbi head and particularly for his independence. First and foremost, the fbi is and must remain an independent Law EnforcementOrganization Free from political influence and this starts at the very top. The fbi director does not serve the president. He serves the constitution, the law and the American People. As such, the director of the fbi must be a leader who has the integrity and strength that will enable him to withstand any a toechlts at political interference. Today the Judiciary Committee will verify then teg riddy and independence of the nominee before us. Will mr. Wray and the fbi pursue investigations with independence and vigor regardless of who may be implicated . Will he stand up for what is right and lawful . Will he tell the president no if improperly directed to pursue certain or end certain investigations . These are not abstract questions or hypotheticals and the committee must consider how mr. Wray has handled such situations in the past. According to one press account, for example, mr. Wray expressed his readiness to resign alongside then Deputy Attorney general comey and fbi director mueller in a standoff with the Bush White House about the legality of the nsas surveillance program. Yet john yu has testified that just a year earlier mr. Wray was part of the Senior Leadership in the Justice Department that may have refused an office of Legal Counsel memo excuse me, reviewed an office of Legal Counsel memo justifying the use of enhanced interrogation techniques. This is significant not only because of what it says about mr. Wrays views and independence at the time, but we know there are those that would bring back torture, if i would, but how he would handle this as fbi director is important. In 2009, this Committee Heard important testimony stating that fbi interrogators have traditionally used the informed interrogation approach and ali sufant who many of us know an fbi agent who was a key fbi interrogator for several major terrorism investigations. Testified to us directly about the contrast between the fbis techniques and the enhanced interrogation techniques used by the cia during the Bush Administration. Specifically, he testified that these enhanced techniques were ineffective, slow and unreliable and ultimately harmful to Counter Terrorism efforts. In fact, we learned that back in 2002, thenfbi director bob mueller ended the fbis participation in the interrogation of zubaida and other cia detainees because of the harsh torture methods used and because they were undermining the investigation. I