Join the discussion. Justice Department Officials agentied at the foreign registration act, which requires all to register with the government and disclose finances and recommended changes to the law and how it is enforced. Charles grassley chairs the Judiciary Committee. His is 1. 5 hours all today the committee will examine the Justice Departments enforcement of the Foreign Agents registration act. I want to thank the witnesses here today for working with the committee to schedule this hearing. I know that some of you even had to change your travel plans and i want you to know that the committee appreciates your cooperation. We had to postpone this hearing while trying to schedule two new witnesses and obtain the cooperation of a third who was first invited on july 5. It is unfortunate when uncooperative witnesses cause unnecessary inconvenience for those of you who are easy to work with. After he failed to negotiate to with the committee in good faith, i issued a subpoena in cooperation with senator feinstein to glen simpson for his appearance today. I crew the subpoena after mr. Simpson agreed to a transcribed staff interview about, number one, his involvement in creating the trump dossier and tractions with the fbi and, number two, his alleged work with the unregistered Foreign Agents who met with the trump family and campaign officials. Regarding mr. Manafort, negotiations for a similar agreement that Ranking Member feinstein and i were working on him with him broke down monday night and i issued a subpoena for his appearance. On tuesday night following consultation with the Ranking Member and a document production from mr. Manafort i withdrew the subpoena and we continue in additions for a future transcribed interview. With respect to mr. Trump he agreed early on to cooperate, produce documents and do a voluntary tribed inter edtranscribed interview so no subpoena was needed in that case so these three, then, will not appear on panel two today. Now, todays topic is as important now as it was in 1938 when congress enacted the law. There are two qualifications to be considered a Foreign Agent under the Foreign Agents registration act. The first is working directly or indirectly for a foreign principal. A foreign principal can be a Foreign Government, Political Party, corporation or a single individual. The second requirement is involvement in a political activity to influence u. S. Policy either as a publicity agent or a lobbyist among others. The basic idea is that foreign propaganda should not lurk in the shadows but should be fully transparent. The Foreign Agents registration act does that by requiring agents to register with the Justice Department. People should know if Foreign Governments, Political Parties or other foreign interests are trying to influence u. S. Policy or Public Opinion. Given recent russian and other efforts to influence our elections, this law has never been more important. Unfortunately, it appears that the Justice Department and the fbi have been seriously lax in enforcing the Foreign Agents registration act and for a long time. In the past 12 years the department has only sent 178 letters to people it believes should register as a Foreign Agent. Thats only 15 letters a year. Now, compare those 15 letters with what the Justice Department thinks that i send they happen to think i send more oversight letters than that in one week. Only nine people in the entire Justice Department work full time to enforce this law and monitor potential unregistered Foreign Agents. Its no surprise, then, that only 400 Foreign Agents are currently registered. Does anyone here seriously think that only 400 people in the whole United States take foreign money for pr and lobbying work . The inspector jeb said the fbi investigators and justice Department Officials cant even agree on what makes a good case for enforcement of this law. It is then no surprise that the Inspector General found that there is no comprehensive Department Enforcement strategy on fara, thats the acronym for the law. Between 1966 and 2017 the Justice Department brought only seven criminal fara cases. It has been 26 years since there has been civil injunction to enforce this. Why comply when the Justice Department clearly does not read this law is a priority . In the letter to attorney general holder i wrote about Sidney Blumenthals efforts to influence u. S. Policy by leveraging the relationship with secretary clinton. Mr. Blumenthal transmitted documents to secretary clinton on behalf of a Political Party. Ce did not require her to register. Activities on behalf of foreign interests to not require registration. It should simply say so. Particularly when the trump requiredation has Michael Flynn to retroactively register under the law and in a large part because he wrote an oped for the hill. The administration required paul llc tot, mercury register for their work on behalf of the ukrainian government. There has been a lot of reporting about unregistered Foreign Agents attention to influence u. S. Policy. Of example, a group unregistered russian agents allegedly worked to undermine the magnus the act magnet ski act. Magnitski corrupt government officials and organized crime. He was then arrested by the same corrupt officials and later died us prison under suspicio circumstances. It allows the president to sanction individual russian human rights abusers and freeze their assets in the u. S. The law was passed to a tireless browder. William mr. Ben nitschke was his lawyer and friend. Complaint anded a alleged that a group of unregistered agents were working on behalf of the russian government to get rid of the law named after his late friend. He said these unregistered agents lobbied congress. He said they organize a videoing of a propaganda with hill staffers and state Department Officials. The video smeared mr. Ben nitschke what this video represents is in operation, before and agents also published propaganda to news outlets trying to get bogus stories published by respectable organizations. Hearingarned after this , they apparently even lobbied the Trump Campaign and family. The Justice Department do not require them to register as Foreign Agents. Is glenn simpson, founder of using gps. Fusion gps. I have been asking about the russians who were working with fusion gps to smear him and undermine the act. Is thepsons company same firm that oversaw the creation of the unverified trump dossier. Around the same time fusion helped orchestrate a campaign to eal the magnet ski act magnitski act. There are reports the fbi used the dossier to kickstart the investigation. Did they know that fusion pitched propaganda for the russians even as it pushed the dossier . What would they say about its reliability . If it was represented to any court, should this fact have been disclosed . Two individuals has been in the news a lot. The first is a russian lawyer natalia read her asefer to him russian agent xyz. [laughter] a Russian Company received millions of dollars connected to crime for his uncovering. The other person is a russianamerican lobbyist with reported ties to russian intelligence. The New York Times described him arts. Aster of the dark these were reportedly at the meeting with the Trump Campaign with family members last summer. They offered dirt on the opponent to get a meeting and made their pitch against the acts. Great was i t bait and swtich . Hopefully we will get answers on that point. Pursue details about mr. Simpsons role in the creation and circulation of the dossier that started this whole controversy. Knowing exactly who was acting on behalf of the russian to get to is vital the bottom of the influence in our democratic system. Fara must be and forced otherwise it will not be taken seriously. I look forward to discussing the witnesses additional steps. Now it is my pleasure to turn the table over to my Ranking Member. Let me begin with a comment. In q4 bringing everybody up to date on the discussion on the witnesses that were on the schedule here but are not at the present time. That is very helpful so thank you. The Foreign Agents registration act or what our chairman faraectly called far of is at an important issue particularly when we face interference in our democratic process by a specific country, russia. Enacted in 1938, a long time ago, it was in acted to ensure the public was aware of efforts by the German Government and the nazi party to use a network of United States citizens to sway Public Opinion and United States policy in germanys favor. The law requires any individual working on behalf of a Foreign Government or foreign interest to register with the department of justice. It is not prohibit lobbying or other Political Activities area instead, it requires disclosure when those activities are directed by foreign interests. Long overlooked, it has received renewed attention in the last several months because of highprofile cases involving former National Security adviser flynn who registered the turkishy for government. The same time he was advising the Trump Campaign. Inl manafort also registered 470 million for lobbying work on behalf of the prorussian party in ukraine between 20122014. Unfortunately, late are nottions under fara a new problem nor are they limited to these examples you examples. In september 2016, the idg reported that exceed two percent 62 had been filed late. 50 were incomplete. I will let you draw your conclusions from that area that. My conclusion is authorities do not take the law seriously and we need to change that. There appears to be no meaningful penalty for late or incomplete filings. The the past 50 years Justice Department has prosecuted only seven cases. Instead, where violations are discovered, the department encourages compliance, creating a system where there are no consequences for failing to follow the law. I look forward to hearing from Witnesses Today about whether and if what changes should be made and what are the current law whether the current law is accurate. Problemsou for solving with other witnesses and i look forward to the testimony. Beside you thinking me, you have been very cooperative and i appreciate it. Thanking me,e you have been very cooperative and i appreciate it. Adam hickey is Deputy Attorney general for National Security the Division Security division. He manages the efforts to combat fromnal security threats 20132015. Cyberting deputy chief of for the counterintelligence and expert control section of the National Security division. He was also a federal prosecutor. In q4 being here. Thank you for being here. An assistant rector for the Counterintelligence Division at the fbi, he previously served as Deputy Assistant rector of Intelligence Operations Branch in the director of intelligence at fbi headquarters. He has worked at the fbi since 1998. Has been alitz witness before committee. As Inspector General for the Justice Department, he was anfirmed in 2012 and nationwide workforce of more than 400 employees immediately preceding this host, he was in private practice and also previously worked for the public Justice Department criminal division. The mission is to detect and deter waste fraud abuse. It hisses mission to promote the economy and efficiency in the department of justice. We thank you for being here. Would you stand now at this point so i can ask you to do your firm that this testimony will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so have you god help you god . They all affirm. Hickey, five minutes for quetioning. Questioning. Good morning. Thank you for providing me the opportunity to testify on behalf of the department of justice considering the act. The department appreciates the interest in fara. I know the committee has my written testimony. I will cover a few key points about the law, how we enforce it , and how the department has responded to last years report by the Justice Departments Inspector General. Fara requires persons in the United States to engage in specified activities as agents of foreign principles to register with the department. The purpose is to ensure the American Public and our lawmakers know the source of information that is provided. That information may be intended to influence Public Opinion, policy, or laws. It defines who must register and what they must disclose. It exempts certain Foreign Agents from the Registration Requirements and among other things it requires register agents to preserve their books and records and make them available for inspection. Because it is designed to encourage transparency and public speech and Political Activities, not to discourage that, it differs from other provisions of the criminal code. Who punishose espionage. Achievingy means of that transparency is encouraging voluntary disclosure in compliance with the act. The department will, of course, approve criminal prosecutions if there is sufficient evidence of a willful violation of the statute. The high burden of proving willfulness, difficulties including directional control by a foreign principal, and exemptions available under the statute, make criminal prosecution challenging. Despite these challenges, the fourrtment has brought cases since 2007, all of which resulted in conviction. Day to day enforcement is handled by a doj National Security division. A regular part of the work in that involves attempting to identify persons who may be subject but have not registered. On publicly available information and referrals for information provided by the government offices. If credible information success suggests they should register, them of thevise possible registration obligation and request a response. If the individual does not respond or the response seems incomplete or untruthful, we will followup. In some cases we may decide that a criminal investigation is appropriate and involve the fbi. Often recipients of those letters of inquiry will register. Filingsefully review for deficiencies, seek amendments, and conduct inspections to ensure continued complaints. Advisory and other tasks that i have described in my written testimony. How they haveress responded to the september 2016 sport of the in report of the Inspector General. , has implement it, and is working to implement the few that remain. As a result in february 2017 the oig affirmed that six or closed. The next to file Progress Report in august at which time we anticipate it will be in a position to close all remaining recommendations. Thank the committee for providing me this opportunity to discuss these important issues and i am happy to thank answer any questions. Chairman grassley, Ranking Member feinstein, and members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you. My statement for the record has been submitted so rather than restating it i would like to explain why the issue before us is so important. A Foreign Agents registration act is critical because we need all available tools to combat todays counterintelligence threat. Unbeknownst to many americans, the threat posed by our foreign adversaries is growing. Both in volume and complexity. Our country is under Relentless Assault by hostile state actors and their proxies. Adversarial nations are not just using their Intelligence Services to conduct these assaults. They are pursuing their goals on economic, technological, military, diplomatic, and intelligence f