Transcripts For CSPAN FBI Director James Comey Testifies At

CSPAN FBI Director James Comey Testifies At Oversight Hearing October 3, 2016

Conversations]. I want to recognize the Homeland Security and investigations, Caroline Lynch. After 15 years working on capitol hill, caroline has decided to move the back to her home state of arizona to be close to her family and to pursue the next steps of her career. We are very sad to see caroline go. During her time in washington, dc, caroline works for john ofdegg in this chief counsel House Republican policy committee. She came to work for the House Judiciary Committee and in 2008, she became chief counsel of the judiciarys crime subcommittee. She has had an enormous impact on criminal and National Security laws. Few people in washington have done as much to promote the safety of our community. Caroline has overseen the drafting safety. Caroline has overseen the drafting negotiation and passage of critical legislation regarding the foreign Intelligence Surveillance act, the Electronic Communications privacy act and the most sweeping set of reforms the government practice in 40 years the usa freedom mac among many other priority of legislative initiatives. Anyone who has met caroline knows she is immensely intelligent, hardworking, loyal and a discerning chief counsel and of course those people she has negotiated would hav with hd her to be a skillful and formidable but fair advocate. Her team at the subcommittee know her to be a determined leader and a steadfast friend. Id appreciate if carolines deep knowledge of criminal laws, strength of her convictions and courage to speak the truth. We wish her well in her new endeavors and thank her for her dedicated service to the committees u. S. House of representatives and the American People. [applause] this is indeed a unique moment on behalf of the democratic staff and the democratic members of the committee i want to recognize Caroline Lynch for her hard work and dedication the past ten years the chief crying council she worked with her democratic colleagues on a broad range of criminal justice issu issues. The crime subcommittee is legislatively the busiest of all of congress and every crime related though that has been enacted during her time here has had the benefit of her expertise. There are many examples of this, but i would cite her role in helping the members find Common Ground on section 215 of the patriot act so we can enact important reforms in the freedom act. This important law will safeguard the National Security and our civil liberties. And it set a precedent for how we can proceed on such issues in the future work on this legislation was essential to the ultimate success. We will miss her insight on these issues as well as her friendship and friendliness as she meets the committee for other endeavors in her home state of arizona. We wish you all the best. [applause] i think you would agree with me in saying while the work isnt quite done, shes also been very critical to the bipartisan work we have been doing here the past few years culminating in 11 bills so far dealing with criminal Justice Reform and we thank you for the contribution that you have made for that and that work has been very bipartisan, so we thank you all. We now welcome director comey to the fourth appearance before the House Judiciary Committee since your confirmation as the director of the fbi. Needless to say, the past year since the last oversight hearing has been challenging on a number of fronts and we hope to review with you today. I want to begin by commending the men and women of the fbi and the nypd new Jersey Police departments for their action in apprehending the cold cowardly acts of terrorism last week injured 29 american citizens. This was the latest in a string of attacks stretching back to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing continuing through the attacks in San Bernardino, orlando and minneapolis. They share a Common Thread mainly radical islam. The administration including the fbi has claimed this with the euphemism of countering violent extremism. The fbi and the rest of the National Security apparatus continues about focusing on the issues of extremism on the mission to protect the American People will always be one of following up on th the trigger r some aftermath. I look forward to hearing from you about how we are working to combat the terrorism and put an end to this string of violence while it is a malignancy that must be purged, other events have called into question the confidence americans have historically held in a blind and impartial justice system. Secretary of state Hillary Clinton and the investigation into the criminal conduct is a case in point. It seems clear the former secretary of state committed multiple felonies involving the passing of the classified information through her private email server however declined to refer the case for prosecution on some very questionable pieces. This past friday afternoon, the fbi released additional investigative documents from the investigation which demonstrate among other things that more than 100 of the emails on secretary clintons private server contained classified information and emails preserved under federal law were destroyed. Even more weve recently learned president obama used a pseudonym to converse with her on the email server. Why is this relevant . As the top aide when informed by the fbi between her boss and the president president , how is thatt classified . Armed with knowledge of the president s now known to be false claims that he only learned of clintons private email account, quote, the same time everybody else learned it through the news reports did the fbi review why the president was also sending classified information in fact this president and former secretary of state and properly transmit communications were nonsecure channels placing the nations secrets in harms way. The decision to play fast and loose with our National Security concern not only her daughters Wedding Planning work and yoga routine but according to you, send an email chains concerned matters that were classified in the topsecret special Access Program level when they were sent and received. The topsecret special Access Programs contained some of the most sensitive secret information maintained by the government. This is a truly remarkable fact for anyone of lesser notoriety guilty of doing this that person would already be in jail. For americans unsure of what the special Access Program is, it is the kind of information a war planner would use to defeat an enemy or clandestine intelligence operation. The wall street journal explained that the sap usually refers to the highly Covert Technology programs involving weaponry. Knowledge of the programs are usually distracted to small groups of people on the need to know basis. For those wondering whether this kind of information on the unsecured server is a problem, read no further than the Huffington Post which reported february clintons private email server containing tens of thousands of messages from the tenure as the secretary of state with the attempts from china, south korea and germany after she stepped down in 2013. To conclude, let me ask everyone to engage in a thought experiment. One of the signature accomplishments in the war on terror was the raid of pakistan in may of 2011 that resulted in the killing of osama bin laden. That operation was conducted by a team of the special operators and was of course highly classified. Now imagine if you will that classified information was passed through the nonsecure email server with access by nations or individuals, hostile to the United States. Rather than a highly successful covert operation, we might have had a team of dead u. S. Servicemen. Hillary clinton chose to send and receive topsecret information over a unsecured server house in her home and placed in a bathroom closet. These actions without a doubt handpiece communications to thee interception fight the enemies interceptions by the enemies and those who wish america harm. Use facts and not the imagined history ive asked you to contemplate the basis of the investigation by the fbi, and these are the fact that chose to hold on the recommendation to prosecute saying that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case. We as congress and the American People are troubled on how such gross negligence are not published and why there seem to be a different standard for the politically wellconnected. I look forward to your testimony today and at this time im pleased to recognize the Ranking Member from michigan for his opening statement. Thank you mr. Chairman. While both an ican in again dirr your appearance here today. The fbi mission is a complex undertaking to protect the United States from terrorism and to enforce our criminal law and to lead the nations Law Enforcement community. That ought to mirror our own priorities in this committee. In the past few days, for example, we have written this attack in minnesota, new york and new jersey. These attacks underscored the growing fear that individuals can be moved to violence at home and at the propaganda of other terrorist groups abroad even though they have no direct connection to those organizations. To me, this threat is dire. We should be doing all he can in the communities within the constitutional framework to mitigate the danger that while the majority here in the house used hehouseused her time todays these attacks, i suspect they will not be in their focus in this campaign season. In charlotte and pulls out and dallas, right here in washington and other cities across the country, our citizens demand answers to questions about race and policing and the use of lethal force by Law Enforcement. Our police are under siege, often under resourced and in some cases hard pressed to build trust with the communities they serve. Director, your work to foster the lines of communication between Police Officers and the general public is commendable and necessary if we are to keep our citizens safe from harm. But will my colleagues discuss this issue with the director of the fbi for its leadershi his ld Law Enforcement community as paramount . I hope so. I am also afraid the focus may be elsewhere. The fbi is the lead agency in the investigation of th of thise or paste terrorism, online Sexual Exploitation and fraud. We have known for some years about the persistent cyber threat to our critical infrastructure. Now we hear reports of the new threat to the very basis of our democratic process. Twice this summer i wrote to you with my fellow Ranking Members to ask you to look into reports that the state actors are working to undermine in the process. Without objection i ask that both of these be placed in the record. It is now a consensus of the Intelligence Community that the russian government was behind the hack of the Democratic National committee and is not as some suggested somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds. On friday we learned from one report that the United States intelligence officials over to determine whether an american businessman identified by donald trump as one of his former policy advisor is opened up private communications with senior russian officials including talks about the possible lifting of economic sanctions if the republican nominee becomes president. The report cites an unnamed senior u. S. Law enforcement official, which i presume means someone in your order to mr. Director. Without objection i ask for this article be placed into the record. Let me be clear if true, this represents a danger to National Security and a violation of federal law which prohibits this type of negotiation. And i am not alone in describing the nature of the threat. The speaker himself said russia is led by a devious thug and putin should stay out of this. Well the Majority Press you on this problem today instead i believe the focus of the hearing will be more of the same come and attack on you and your team at the department of justice for declining to recommend criminal charges against secretary Hillary Clinton. In recent weeks, this line of attack has been remarkable only for its lack of substance. The character assassination and procedural minutia like the scope in the agreement in your decision to protect the identities of individuals unrelated to the investigation. I consider that an unfortunate waste of time with so many problems confronting the nation and so many of the challenges in your jurisdiction and powers you would think my colleagues would set their priorities different differently. I hope they do and they listen to our conversation today. I thank the chair man and yield back. Without objection all other members Opening Statements will be made a part of the record. We welcome the distinguished witness and if you please rise i will begin by swearing un. Do you swear the testimony you are about to give will be the truth and nothing but the truth so help you god . Like the record reflect the witness answered in the affirmative. Fbi director james comey at the college of william and mary and university of chicago law school. Served as the United States attorney for both the Southern District of new york and Eastern District of virginia hed returned to become the u. S. Attorney for the southern attorney for the Southern District of new york and in 2003 served as the Deputy Attorney general and the department of justice. We look forward to your testimony, the written statement will be entered in its entirety and we ask that you summarized your testimony in five minutes. You may begin. Welcome. Thank you mr. Chairman. Members of the committee is good to be back before you as the chairman said for the fourth time, i have six more to go and i look forward to the conversations each time i know this morning there will be questions about the email investigation and im happy to answer those at the best of my ability. In july when we closed the case i promised the transparency and i think we delivered on that and frankly in an unprecedented way i will do my best to be transparent in every way possible. What i thought i would do because i know we will talk about that quite a bit, i want to focus on some of the other things the fbi has been doing and my objective is to make it clear to you the quality of the people that have chosen to do this with their lives that isnt about money or living but its about the life they make and i just picked for different examples of things that we have been working on that illustrate the quality of the focus of the scope of the work that is extraordinary and the importance of partnerships because it is true that the fbi does nothing allowed to just to pick off for different parts of the organization as the chair and mr. Conyers both mentioned in the last couple of weeks, our folks have been working with their partners of federal, state and local organizations of all kinds to bring to justice very quickly the bomber in the new jersey attacks and that was done in a way that would have been hard to imagine 15 years ago in a time of battles and worry about my jurisdiction coming your jurisdiction. They showed you how it should be and must be done and we should all be proud of them. Second, within the last week, a hacker from kos about that worked for the socalled state on taking the information from American Military employees and then giving it to the islamic states so they could target these people was sentenced to 20 years in jail. Our folks together with lots of partners around the world found him in malaysia and they arrested him and brought him back to virginia where he was sentenced to 20 years. A terrific work by the cyber investigators and as you know through the intelligence investigators to understand just what mistress is russia up to and that his work that goes on all day every day about which i implemented in terms of answering questions but i want you to know that as a part of our work we dont talk about an awful lot that the core of the fbi and last i want to mention two weeks ago, a sixyearold girl was kidnapped on her front lawn in eastern North Carolina and a stranger kidnapping. All of Law Enforcement searched on that case. When he rolled up a team that is a capability we have built around the country to help in these situations they are agents and analysts that are expert at doing what has to be done in the gold in 24 hours you have two try to save a child so we worked with our partners at state and local levels and overnight we found that little girl chained by her neck to a tree of life than goalive togod and she was. The picture they showed me that morning with her wide eyes and hair with a thick chain around her neck is one i will never be able to get out of my head because it is both terrible and wonderful, terrible because of what happened but wonderful because together we found her and saved her. I called the sheriffs and the team to thank them and they said they were rel

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