Landmark cases. Director james comey testified before no bright a committee. H this is about two hours and 45 minutes. Good morning. The Judiciary Committee will come to order. Welcome, director komi. We are happy to have you here with us today. Commend your distinguished service and i am confident you will continue to serve honorably. Today, the fbi continues to face the effects of one of the worst National Security leaks in our nation wash history by Edward Snowden two years ago. Was aa freedom act bipartisan law that ended a controversial National Security program. You provided transparency of the american intelligence gathering. The act in chores that federal law appropriately respects civil liberties, while providing the and meet ourls National Security responsibilities. Comey to thank director and the men and women of the fbi, for working closely with the members of this committee to ensure the passage of the freedom act. Events of the past year have deeply violated the worlds moral compass with scenes of theaginable brutality at hands of isis. In particular, the appalling and targeting of anyone refuse to abide by isiss isis stated goals to establish a global caliphate has resulted in the shedding of innocent blood by the most revolting method. As a radical islamic terrorist organization, isis mandates conformity to an ideology which admits no dissent. As americans with a strong history of protecting religious liberty, we stand in total opposition to isis. America is not immune to isis up again. American teenagers have been radicalized part by isis inserted social media efforts promoting milk thats the promoting the killing of fellow americans. Just this past week director only direct the forefront protecting our country from those who recently bought the car. Im interested today about hearing more of the efforts to combat isis. Over three years ago Diplomatic Mission to benghazi was attacked terrorists. Americans, including our ambassador, was killed. As of today, only one subject put on trial. Im interested in hearing about the investigation. Separately, it was revealed that former secretary of state Hillary Clinton used a private email server to conduct her official business while serving as secretary of the. Secretary of state. Classified information was contained within her private email. The matter has been referred to the Justice Department. Apparent lack of transparency related to the use of a private server to conduct the nations diplomatic business is troubling, it raises significant questions. A homebrew setup may afford a Foreign Intelligence Service day today elected official. On the technology front, the issue known as going dark has been a concern of the fbi for years. Encryption technology is exciting and can effectively secure private communication. Over 15 years ago, i led congressional efforts to ensure encryption technology. This enabled the u. S. Encryption market to thrive and produce a legitimate Encryption Technologies for legitimate actors, rather than see the ead overseas. However, it is true this technology can also be used by those who wish to do us harm. The adoption of new Communications Technologies i those intending to harm the American People is outpacing the Law Enforcements capabilities to access those communications in legitimate criminal and terrorist investigations. In light of the administrations recent announcement that it is not currently seeking a legislative solution to its going dark challenges, i am interested to hear your perspective on whether the administrations newly announced approach to work in an ad hoc fashion is an adequate solution. Violent crimes appears to be on the rise across the country. Particularly, around our major metropolitan centers. It is disconcerting to watch the games of the past decade unravel in an explosion of community violence. We have witnessed several incidents in the past year that have led to increased Community Tension with Law Enforcement. This tension will hopefully be resolved through improved communication, accountability, policing practices, and other initiatives. I hope to hear the fbis perspective. The officers and the citizens they serve to coexist in a safe and respectful environment. I appreciate your efforts to keep us safe and the heroic actions consistently performed by the men and women of the fbi. I look forward to hearing your answers on all of this today, as well as on our other issues. At this time, i pleased to recognize the Ranking Member of the committee, the gentleman from michigan, mr. Connors for his opening statement. Connors thank you, chairman. Good morning director comey. For this second appearance before the house Judiciary Committee. Since taking office on september fbis mission is a complex undertaking to protect the United States from terrorism , to enforce our criminal laws, nations lawhe enforcement community. Seems, is this mission think nearly all of the discussion we will have today can be distilled into one word, trust. Trust in the executive branch to respect and secure our privacy and our civil liberties. Fbi as anhe institution. Saving local agencies that police our communities. Think weespects, i agree on this point. For example, you have spoken truthslly about the hard we must keep in mind when we discuss race and policing. In particularly, when we discuss use of force by Police Officers. I am told that he require all new agencies to study the fbi interaction with dr. Martin luther king junior. And to visit his memorial. Keepalso advised that you on your desk a copy of Robert Kennedys approval of j edgar request to place a wiretap on dr. King. These are powerful reminders of a troubling and not too distant history. It is not difficult to draw a line from that era to recent events in ferguson, baltimore, new york, and cleveland. Builds why your work to trust between police and our communities is so important. Effort morehat apparent than in your call for better data on the use of force by police. Although the fbi is the national statistics, crime that data is reported voluntarily and inconsistently. You have been honest in your assessment that official statistics in this area are so incomplete as to be embarrassing and ridiculous. We need a better understanding of what drives the polices use of force. We cannot study the problem without reliable data. Press you to continue to your state and local partners for consistent and accurate reporting through the national incidentbased reporting system. Trust ine must rebuild certain state and Law Enforcement units, we will look to your testimony today to reassure us about a number of programs and activities at the fbi. Public this year, the noticed a small plane flying in a tight pattern directly over the site of unrest in west baltimore. From other parts of the country, including my own district in detroit, raised questions about the presence of similar aircrafts. Confirmed thence existence of its aerial surveillance program. On june 3, 15 members of this committee wrote you to ask for more information about this program. Your Team Provided our staff with the briefing soon thereafter. Still has many questions about aerial surveillance and you said that there is a great deal of misinformation about this program. I would like you to use your testimony and presence here today to explain, from your perspective, how this Program Works and why we should trust the bureau to operate it. We would, i think benefit from a full or description of encryption and what you have called the going dark problem. Over the past year, you have called for a congressional mandate to give the fbi special access to otherwise encrypted data. I have a difficult time understanding this proposal. Every technical expert who has spoken on this issue has concluded it is technically impossible to provide this access without also compromising our security against bad actors. Even if it were technically feasible, it would cost our Technology Sector perhaps, billions of dollars to implement the scheme. And perhaps ilions more from loss of business overseas where the United States government surveillance programs have already taken a toll on the industry. And even if it were technically feasible and easy to implement, a new rule for United States would not succeed in keeping that actors are amusing unbreakable encryption. Which is open source, free, and from companiese based overseas. We had this debate in 1999. Only by allowing the use of , not onlyryption an domestically, but internationally as well, can we hope to make the internet a safe and secure environment. I agree with that sentiment and you have made similar public statements. I hope you can help us to whatcile that view with you you call special access. Because rigorous oversight is necessary for public trust, i hope that he will commit today to full compliance with the the Inspector General of the department of justice is to have timely access to every document he requires to carry out his duties. Noncompliance has real consequences. This committee waited until february of this year to receive a report about the f. B. I. s use of section 215 orders from 20072009. The public waited until may for the unclassified version. In the middle of a National Debate on government surveillance, we waited six years for critical information. This delay is unacceptable. I understand that there are other interpretations of the law. Congress will soon clarify the the matter, likely it overwhelmingly bipartisan fashion. But in the meantime, director comey, i hope that the bureau will step away from its litigating position and give the office of the Inspector General the access it requires and deserves. Your job is a complex and demanding one, director. We appreciate you being here today and i look forward to your testimony. I thank the chairman and yield back. Thank you, mr. Conyers. Without objection all other members Opening Statements will be made a part of the record. We welcome our distinguished witness today. If you will please rise, we will begin by squaring you win. Do you swear the testimony you are about to give shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god . I do. Thank you. Let the record reflect the witness has responded in the affirmative. On september 4, 2013, director comey was sworn in as the seventh director of the f. B. I. He began his career as an assistant United States attorney for both the Southern District of new york and the Eastern District of virginia. After the 9 11 terrorist attacks, director comey returned to new york to become the United States attorney for the Southern District of you ne new york. In 2003, he was appointed Deputy Attorney general under United States attorney general john ashcroft. Director comey is a graduate of the college of william mary and the university of chicago law school. We welcome you again today to your second appearance before the house committee. Your written statement will be entered into the record in its entirety and we ask you to summarize your testimony in five minutes. With that we welcome you again to the committee. Thank you chairman. Its good to be back before you and the members of the committee for my Second Annual oversight hearing. I expect to be back for eight more during my 10 year term, which is look forward to very much. What i thought i would do is just explain to the committee, in very short form, how we at the fbi think about ourselves and a couple of the things that are prominent in our work today. I think the fbi can best be described in a single sentence. We are a National Security and Law Enforcement organization that uses, collects, and shares intelligence in everything that we do. That sentence captures us in two different ways. First the first half of that sentence, we are a National Security and Law Enforcement organization. There is great strength for the American People and having our criminal responsibilities and our National Security responsibilities in the same place. Perhaps no more better example is the strength gained from that combination than the rule of law as the spine of the fbi. It is a great thing i think, for this country that the people responsible for counterintelligence, counterterrorism, and the criminal work all have as part of their being, the rule of law and the bill of rights. The second half of that sentence, we use, collect, and share intelligence in everything that we do, is the description of what i think weve always been but what weve tried to get so much better at since 9 11. That is being thoughtful about what we know, what we need to know, and who needs to know what we know. So we can all be more effective in protecting this country. I want to start with National Security. The threat posed to us from isils crowd sourcing of terrorism using social media is a significant feature of our work. It was an especially taxing threat the f. B. I. Dealt with earlier this summer when all over the country in hundreds of investigations we were trying to evaluate where people are from consuming isils poison to acting on it. Through the internet is the socalled Islamic State has been pushing a twinprong message to troubled souls all over the world and all over our country. The first prong is come to the socalled caliphate and live a life of glory and if you cant calm, the second prong says, killed. Kill where you are. Kill anyone. If you can kill people in uniform, military or Law Enforcement, best of all. That message has gone out since the summer of 2014 aggressively in a very sophisticated way to thousands of consumers on twitter. And twitter works to sell books or movies or magazines. It works to crowd source terrorism. And so in every state we have investigations trying to understand where people are on the path from consuming to acting. And this is a very different paradigm from the traditional al qaeda paradigm because this is not about National Landmarks and sophisticated, long surveilled events. This is about trying to motivate murder anywhere, by anyone. Unfortunately, it is a message that resonates with troubled souls seeking meaning. Earlier this summer especially in may, june, and july, we were faced with the prospect of a lot of people acting out on this inspiration or direction from isil. Thanks to great work by the men and women of the fbi, and our partners in state, local, and federal Law Enforcement, we disrupted a whole lot of efforts to murder innocent people in the United States. That work, though, continues, and it is made particularly difficult by an issue both you and mr. Conyers touched upon. Our mission is to find needles in a nationwide hay stack and we have hundreds of investigations aimed at doing that in all 50 states. But increasingly what isil does is move the real live ones who might be willing to kill on their behalf off of twitter to a mobile messaging app that is endtoend encrypted. At that moment the needle we may have found becomes invisible to us even with court orders. Which is how the f. B. I. Does its business. So thats the challenge we face called going dark in real, living color. We are trying to interdict, trying to stop, trying to understand people on the cusp of acts of violence and increasingly a tool that the American People count on us to use is less and less effective. I dont know exactly what to do about that, frankly. But i think my job given the responsibility have is to tell people theres a problem and we need to talk about it. So i look forward to a conversation about it with you. Our Law Enforcement responsibilities, the second thing i want to touch very briefly obviously we do public corruption work. We protect children. We fight fraud. We do a lot of work with our partners around the country to address Violent Crime. Something very disturbing is happening in this country right now in Law Enforcement and in Violent Crime. I imagine two lines. One being us and Law Enforcement and the other being communities we serve and protect , especially communities of color. Those two lines over the last year or so have been arcing away from each other and that continues. Each incident that involves Police Misconduct or perceived misconduct bends one line away. Each time an officer is killed or attacked in the line of duty bends the other line farther away. And in the midst of the arcing away from each other, maybe because theyre arcing away from each other, we are seeing a dramatic spike in Violent Crime especially homicide in cities all across the country. In comm