Transcripts For CSPAN John 20240705 : vimarsana.com

He comes, order to recognize the gentleman from kentucky flabbiness. I yield 30 seconds to the general lady from indiana. Quick followup from c. J. s according to your report created conspiracy allegations and direct conflict with his reported and the fbi among other things, and you are able to establish his intent. Would you be able to provide to the committee, a quarter of your sea h as on april six, 2021. Four page one 92. Then you have interviews in the possession . Yes or no . Thank you for your like the, providers that come back me provided to the committee, mr. Durham . The piece of evidence that belongs to the fbi. And probably that is a better direction with the fbi. Okay. Reclaiming my time, mr. Durham, this seems to have all started with one person that i dont sees name in your report. I see in muellers report 80 times, who did mr. Papadopoulos meet with that gave him this supposed russet in formation . When mr. Papadopoulos was interviewed by the fbi, he hadnt defied joseph as a person who had provided that information. Did you interview joseph misfit . We attempted to interview him, we pursued every lead that we hadnt talked to a lawyer that he had in europe. But we were never able to actually make contact so we can interview him. Do you think hes a western sources . He associated with western intelligence . It is hard to say to mr. Misfit is associated with. He was tied up with mike university. Mr. Scalia who had involvement in the accounting government and they were acquainted but its hard to say i will yield the remainder of my time to mr. Gaetz hard to say who mifsud is . Hes the guy his personal thing. We have known for years, go and play the video. And he like you guys to . Cant get into. That did you interview it said . Cant get into it. Its miffed said western televisions a russian intelligence . Cant get into that. Well im reading from your report, misled told papadopoulos, papadopoulos tells diplomat, the diplomat tells the fbi, the fbi opens the investigation, july 30, first 2016, and here we are three years later, july of 2019 and the country has been put through this and the central figure who launches it all . He lied to us, and you guys dont tied him down and interview him again. And you dont charge him with a crime. Maybe a better course of action is to figure out how the false accusation start. Maybe its too here is the good news. Here is the good news. That is exactly what bill barr is doing. And thank goodness for that. That is exactly what the attorney general is doing. Mr. Durham, was that what you were doing . Im sorry . Was finding out who mifsud was, was that what you are doing . We pursued that avenue, yes. Right, but was he, this whole thing was an op, mr. Durham. This wasnt like a bumbling fumbling fbi that couldnt get fisa straight. They ran an op. So who put miffed in place, you dont know, do you . I do not know. Four years, you had years to find the answer to what mr. Jordan said was the seminal question. And you dont have it . And it just begs the question whether or not you are really trying to find that out. Because it is one thing to criticize the fbi for their fisa violations, to write a report. They have been criticized in plenty of reports. Some have referred to your work as just a repackaging and regurgitation of what the Inspector General already told us. So if you werent going to do what mr. Jordan said you were going to do in that video and give us the basis for all of it, what is the sovereign about . I am not exactly sure the important question. If your question is that we try to locate and interview mr. Lifted, the answer is yes. Why didnt you subpoena him to a grand jury . I am sorry . Why didnt you send him a grand jury subpoena . After if that, you have to find him before you can serve a cranberries been on the. U. S. Production, italy was you in bill barr looking for authentic pasta over there . Or if that . No, we were looking for information that might help us locate lifted. But you know who i think could probably look at him . The features of western intelligence, and possibly our own government and put him in play. Your report seems to be less an indictment of the fbi, and more of an inoculation, lower case i of course. Like many inoculations, may have worst consequences down the road. We will have some time to discuss this further, but it is just hard, it is just hard to kind of pretend as though this was a sincere effort when you dont get to the fundamental thing that started the whole deal. I yield back. I was away from my family for four years essentially doing this investigation. This might be the fact that you cant find somebody overseas should not come as a big surprise. But you find out reclaiming my time to see is he alive or dead . We dont know. Gentlemans time is expired and the chair now recognizes the gentleman from arizona. Thank you mister chairman. Mr. Durham, isnt it true that then shank oath indicated that information provided in june of 2016 was, quote, rumor and speculation correct. And then jenkins off estimated that he was responsible for 80 of the intelligence and 50 of the analysis in the steel dossier, is that right . Thats correct. Do you agree with this assessment or is it an estimate of his participation in the dossier. We have no reason to doubt that, steele, he identified him as the primary sub source, the principal source of the information. Yeah, and that is what i mean. Steele used that rumor and speculation to bills dossier. And we have wandered all over this. There is none of those statements were corroborating at all. But yet, and she goes reputation for ferocity its considered bad. He was considered who had low credibility, great . There was information at the bureau, they had along those lines, yes sir. In fact, when he lost his visa, his work permit, he used a russian business as a front to basically fraudulently get a visa to work in the United States, is that right. Page 1 28 of your report. Yes he werent to work for a company in the United States and steele was paying him through a cut out, through that company in the United States. Yeah most of us who look at that area of the law regularly like i do would say that that is immigration fraud. So, it is also true, we talked about this, it is true that there was an fbi counter espionage investigation into the engine going 2000 and 9 to 11, 2011. And that is going to institution coworker. Trying to essentially solicit espionage on behalf of the russian government. And then even though the question in the field offices is right there, and he loved just a few miles from the Washington Field office, the case was closed on mr. Deng shank, oh that investigation . Right . You dont go investigation was being done by baltimore. The baltimore field office. But that is, right he stayed where he is. Nonetheless, i love, other i know, i love around the corner from there. So, lets take a look at, but spoil the stand. After determining that nothing ventricle told steel could be verified, it was all a pack of lies and innuendos and rumors, to further determine that he had intended to solicit espionage for russia. And he himself had been subject of an investigation by the bureau. And after having committed immigration fraud the fbi hired him on as an informer and paid him 220 grand and proposed additional hundred grand to be paid to him. Now that is all your testimony, that is in the report, it is all there. And that is even after the validation Management Unit had determined that entanglements earn and likely had connections to russian intelligence. That is in your report as well. Correct. Very special agent elsa knew most of these facts but to continue to endorse him recruitment and payment as a confidential human source, right . That is correct. So i am going to give you these things and i think you understand why so many of us are underwhelmed with some of your recommendations from the fbi, but overwhelmed by what is going on here. It defies the application, we have talked about. That where that came from. We talked about that the fbi has conducted millions of unconstitutional backdoor searches. Disparate treatment of hillary rotem clinton, what you discuss in your report. The sweetheart hunter biden plead eel that would send normal american jails to jail for years. He is getting nothing. We have 50 Intelligence Officers planning on to a letter saying they would rather have a job in the Biden Administration and tell the truth to the american people. We have to biden laptop suppression. The doj targeting School Board Meeting parents. A federal prosecutor setting a, quote, essentially an additional two january 6th individuals. That he has got to get 2000 more. That is a quota. That is a bounty. The dhs targeting catholics a church. Hoaxes villainizing Border Agents while the border is still under attack. That is all from this agency. And i understand that your loyalty to your institution, i get it, but miss sparks gave an excellent enumeration of all the things that you found in your report. And that is why people like me, and i dont want to speak for anybody else on here, but we are baffled, just really baffled that more people have not been held accountable for their crimes. These are crimes. What has gone on in this country, the division in this country today, i can trace it back to one thing. It is and trump going down the escalator. It is this steele dossier paid for by Hillary Clinton through the cut outs. And that has caused the division in this country tuesday. I yield back. This can respond. Im not sure, there is a question . Im just giving an opportunity. Gentleman from florida is recognized. Yeah, i agree with mr. Biggs. You have given us testimony today that you are disappointed that the fbi didnt cooperate more, right . That was your testimony . I said that. Yeah, so we are disappointed to. But the difference is when regular folks do things that are wrong and unlawful there is typically greater effort to try to get those people before a grand jury, to utilize criminal process where appropriate. Not for other purposes. And it is just, like oh, well, they precept, the guy who might have said this whole oped motion, he just didnt want to talk to you about certain things. And you are real accommodating to that. And then mr. The person who chooses papadopoulos to create this predicate that you find in proper. I mean, did you ever know his lawyer was and if you talk to his lawyer in europe, i dont know you can find the guys lawyer but you couldnt find him . We contacted somebody that we knew had represented him and part of the effort to try to look at him. And you got a lawyer . And the now you are sitting here in from the judiciary thing you could find the guys lawyer but you couldnt effectuate the service of the significance because you can find . Well you may or may not know, we wouldnt have the authority to serve a subpoena overseas. The lawyer didnt know where missed it was. He was in communication with him. But he claims not to know where he was. And we were trying to arrange an opportunity to talk to him. Did you take possession of two blackberry phones from assad and anyway . There were phones that were provided to us by so you can find the phones but not the guy. Do you see how silly this looks . You dont, lawyers on the phones, but the actual dude who got ordered by western intelligence to go start this thing, you couldnt find it . It is kind of laughable. It almost seems like more than disappointment. It seems like you arent really trying to expose the true core of the corruption. That you were trying to go out of it another way. As we said in the report and we said in my opening remarks, we pursue the facts as best we could. How about this, mr. Durham. The entire mueller team does a hard reset on their apple phone and synchronization to wipe away other tense. Did you investigate that . I did you investigate it . Who gave the order on the mueller team to wipe the phones . Yeah, that was not something that we were asked to look at. Thats not true, mr. Durham, that is not true. Because i am holding the document that authorizes your activity, and it specifically says the investigation of special counsel robert mueller. Mister chairman, i think unanimous consent to enter into record the order that says that u. S. Was investigate these things. Whether it is the mueller team, if that, how about as rhetoric. What is thats rhetorics real name . Do you know that . It wont be disclosing the name of fbi personnel that otherwise so the fbi sent somebody to go honeypot george copperopolis, who gave the order to do that . I think thats beyond the scope of what is in the report . It is literally in the scope of what your charging orders. Who put it in motion . We get after it was put in motion the fbi did a bunch of wrong and wrap things, totally understand, we are trying to deal with that. But when you are part of the coverup, mr. Durham, then it makes our job harder. Yeah well if that is your thought then theres no way of dissuading from that. I can tell you that it is offensive and the people who worked on this investigation and their lives trying to protect people in this country. And pursue within the law hold on, you tried to cases, lost both of them, and the one guilty plea that youve got, find smith . Lance myths back to practicing law in washington d. C. Today. That is beyond my control, right, but the fact that you allow that plea to occur, right . And the punishment was insufficient you didnt charge andrew mccabe, didnt conflict the investigative side or the mueller probe, even though as we said here today in black letter that was your charge. Have you ever heard the Washington Generals . Washington generals, yes. And they are the team that basically gets paid to show up and lose, right . Well, you know, i am sure that the players who exert blood sweat and tears dont view it that way, but you might. I think they do, i think they do, because the job of the Washington Generals is to show up every night and to play the harlem globetrotters. And their job im sorry, im thinking of a different team. Right, so their job is to lose. And i am kind of wondering. It just seems to officially obvious, it is not within your report that is telling. It is the emission, it is the lack of what you did. The people, like the chairman who put the trust in you and i think you have him down. I think you love the country, down and you are one of the barriers to the truth and ability that we need. Well get to respond to that . Or comment on that . Yeah, well i dont know if you ever investigated a crime. I dont know that you have. You didnt investigate these, mr. Durham. Whether or not how it andrew mccabe, did you charge . When did you investigate . Gentleman, time is inspired. When the scammers rhonda will move on to our last whether or not you have ever had occasion to try to investigate crimes under the rules and regulations. Under the constitution but they were bound by. We can gather evidence and purely lawful ways. Cant charge people because it might its not viewed uncharged gentlemen, gentlemans time didnt investigate the mueller gentlemans time, gentlemans time. You are protecting those people gentlemans time has expired. Gentlewoman from wyoming is recognized. Mr. Durham, in reviewing your report, i sincerely wanted to understand the work that you did and decipher the various investigations that we have been discussing. The origins, the history, backstory, the whose, the wise, but whats. The what ifs and the house. I desperately wanted to figure out what happened to once flagship Law Enforcement agency, the fbi in the doj. To determine what went wrong and to evaluate how we can go forward from here. I have listened with great interest hoping to find some answers to the burning questions of the day. And i have reached a few conclusions that i do not believe are subject to dispute or debate. Now i truly appreciate your regard for the agency we have dedicated your career to. I am sure that as you are investigating you must have been truly saddened by what you found. What do you have exposed however is that we are dealing with something so corrupt and so rotten that no amount of face paint, deflection, or whitewashing can fix this. You have enough lots of questions about predicates, protocols, the steel dossier. The australian connection. Mr. Papadopoulos, mr. Carter, the hurricane, among others. A responses have been in lightning. But lets get to the brass tacks. None of those people were documented reports relevant to the identify when they identified donald trump as public enemy number one. What do i mean . The accuracy and bureaucracy of the steele dossier was irrelevant to the fbi. The accuracy and veracity of the reports coming from the Australian Embassy were irrelevant to the fbi. The fact that the russian experts and the cia, fbi, and its a, and other agencies had no evidence of any kind of relationship between mr. Trump, putin, or russia was irrelevant to the fbi. The fact that there was no verifiable evidence such as testimony, documents, videos, a recordings of russian collusion was relevant to the fbi. Nothing, i repeat, nothing, that the fbi did was designed to show that Donald J Trump with a russian asset. That wasnt the purpose of the entire charade. How do i know this is true . Because they told us though. The very people who cooked this up. The ones who ran this entire operation. Lisa page, andrew mccabe, the dnc, perkins. They never had the purpose to prove russian collusion. In fact, from the very beginning, they knew that no such thing actually existed. They knew that the entire russian collusion narrative was fabricated by the Clinton Campaign to protect from her mishandling of classified and destruction of official emails. They didnt need to prove russian collusion. They just had to keep the investigation alive. So long as they had a complicit press and they had people in this very body who have been here, one of the gentleman who have been here much of the day, going on tv every night and lie about the smoking gun. They could further their personal and political agendas. The purpose of crossfire hurricane wasnt approve russian in collusion it was to destroy Donald J Trump. They told us that with the Text Messages that fourth and page 49 in 51 of your report. 49 and 50 of your report. Then, if they failed a blocking mr. Trump from being elected the president , they had a backup plan. The insurance policy to use your terminology, making it impossible for him to govern. To use whatever tools were available to taint his presidency. The legitimacy of his election. His ability to work with foreign leaders. Making everything about russia, russia, russia. How has this corruption and roth manifested itself into our everyday lives . International culture. Into our ability to solve the problems we are facing. It has destroyed some of the key foundations of this country. A foundation built on equal protection in the belief that justice is blind. On the believe that youll be held accountable if you commit a fraud of the magnitude that we have been discussing here today. On the belief that due process, justice, and Constitutional Rights are more than mere words. It has left a smoldering hot volcanic mess for the soul of this country used to be all because a few people in the fbi decided they wanted to destroy a political candidate ultimately a president and anyone associated with him. These folks sent out to destroy a president ial candidate in the fact is they detroit so much more that will be their ultimate legacy one casualty is americas faith in our institutions and the other is the erosion of a Justice System that is supposed to apply equally to all americans but has been weaponized to protect their favorite fuel eat the clintons the bidens while targeting political enemies that is the current legacy of the fbi in the doj mr. Durham here is my question mrs. Chairman, your time has expired. You cannot ask a question . A two tier Justice System that can prosecute people based on their political beliefs. The witness may respond. The gentleladys time is expired. I have time to respond . Sure. I dont think we can do much further with the view that Law Enforcement, particularly the fbi or the department of justice rounded two tiered system of justice the nation cannot stand under those circumstances. Well said the gentlelady yields back this concludes todays hearing mr. Durham we thank you could i could, with unanimous consent, put two documents for the record take that back. The herrings not over. The gentlelady may do not miss the damning durham fine. And six documented evidence of systematic pro democrat fbi corruption. Without objection, so ordered. Again, mr. Durham. Thank you. Thank you for your work. Thank you for being here a long time. Six hours, almost six hours is a lot of work. We appreciate that. Without objection all members will have five legislative days to submit additional question for the witness or just materials. Without objection, the hearing is adjourned