Matthew olson, assistant attorney general for the National Security division of the Justice Department said its investigation of the january 6 attack on the u. S. Capitol is the single largest domestic terrorism investigation in the nations history. During his testimony before the house Judiciary Committee, he also talked about potential domestic extremist threats. This hearing is just under three and a half hours. The House Committee and are judiciary will come to order, without objection the chair is authorized to declare resources of the committee at any time. We welcome everyone to this mornings hearing and oversight of the department of justice and National Security division. Before we begin with i would like to remind members that we have established an email address and distribution list dedicated to circulating exhibits, motions, and other written materials that they want as part of the hearing today. If you would like to submit materials please send them to the email address that has been previously distributed to the offices, and we. I will now recognize myself for an Opening Statement. National security division, or an s day was established was in the department of justice in 2006 with the aim to create counterterrorism and streamline interactions between federal prosecutors, main justice, and the Intelligence Community. The decision operates on the front lines of meteorologist facing our country, including a rise in domestic terrorism, cyber espionage, and threats from foreign governments. Leading the division todays assistant attorney general matthew olson, we are pleased to welcome you to the committee, mr. Olson, and to hear your perspective on the difficult tasks ahead of you. We were created in the years after the september 11th attacks. It has its roots in wet we used to call the war on terror. The decision is integral to the fight against to keep our country safe. Today the nsd faces the on comparable necessity of internal transformation. The face of terrorism has changed, the greatest threat to American Safety is no longer extremism. We can no longer dismiss the threat is coming from other people, other cultures. The threat today is from within. It is right at home in our communities and on our social media feed. Well even see it from time to time on our cable news networks. It has taken root in the rhetoric of certain political leaders, none of us can return to turn a blind eye to the growing danger. The new face of domestic terrorism is farright extremism, which is growing exponentially in the United States. The attorney general garland told our colleagues in the senate just over a year ago that the greatest threat, the greatest domestic threat facing the United States was from racially motivated violent extremists, quote, specifically those who advocate for the superiority of the white race. White supremacists, extremist militia members, and other violent farright extremist groups were responsible for 66 of all domestic terror plot in 2020, and 30 fatalities from terrorism in 2021. 28 were at the hands of radicalized trackers. If the numbers do not convince you we can put the imminence of the threat in practical terms. One republican candidate for senate has aligned his campaign with the website that promoted the hateful actions of the shooter at the tree of life synagogue. They said that jews are not welcome in the connecticut movement and will not be welcome in a christian matchless country they hope to build. Across the country anyone hoping to attend a turning point usa it had to march past a well organized group of neonazis who had a preferred candidate for office. With the easy availability of weapons of war in this country, distance from xenophobic messaging to hateful tots, and from hateful thoughts into terrorist actions has never been shorter. An 18 year old radicalized over social media can walk into a pawn shop and leave with an ar15 that same day. Farright extremists and White Supremacists terror groups present not only a significant threat to the lives of americans, but also relatedly an unprecedented challenge to the National Security division. I applaud the attorney general for the creation of the dojs domestic Terrorism Unit this past january, which would be specifically dedicated to responding to the increasing threats posed by domestic terrorists. To be clear, the Department Already has resources and structures in place to fight domestic chairism, when i hope to hear from mr. Olsen today is how the department will focus these resources where they are needed most. The growing threat of violent White Nationalism and farright extremism. In addition to advancing the fight against domestic terrorism, there are also many other important challenges facing National Security division, as it works to keep us safe. For example, i am interested in hearing how the division is navigating threats posed by hostile actors targeting our system of government. Is this committee recently learned, the federal court system faced an incredibly significant and sophisticated Cyber Security breach, one which has since had lingering impact on the department and other agencies. While the concentration of National Security matters within a Single Division ostensibly allows the doj and executive Branch Overall to respond more effectively to threats facing the United States, they are also presented with opportunities for abuse. That is why i am looking forward to hearing how the division is reforming the governments pfizer processes, to allay our longstanding concerns about the querying of the section 702 database to acquire american information. Im also interested in hearing how the honesty is responding to inspector generals concerns about the divisions plants with the woods procedure, which requires agents to document support for all factual assertions contained in applications. And its the is at the epicenter of programs and policy areas in both where the federal gunner when it comes to protecting Civil Liberties ranging from the warrantless rounds of american citizens to the unfair targeting of black and brown communities, the sweeping collection of private data and communications, the illconceived china initiative, politically motivated investigations of and much more, nsd has found itself on the wrong end of the battle between Civil Liberties and security. I hope that the division will commit to forging a new path and strikes of proper balance. Protecting our citizens from those seeking to do them harm its also a difficult task requiring those at the helm to balance security with liberty. This nuance speaks to the heart of the values that are essential to this nation, and its your responsibility as the divisions leader to protect the ideals along with the people. Thank you for being here today, mr. Olson. I look forward to your testimony. I now recognize the Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee, the gentleman from ohio, mr. Jordan, for his Opening Statement. Thank you. In america, we shouldnt need to say that parents speaking out against their childrens education arent domestic terrorists, or that those raising concern about the radical direction the left is trying to take this country are not domestic terrorists, or that Trump Supporters arent domestic terrorists, but apparently, we do. Because the Biden Administration is bound and determined to demonize everyone and anyone not in lockstep with their farleft agenda. Last september, the Biden White House colluded, colluded with the National SchoolBoards Association to orchestrate a letter to President Biden that portrayed concerned parents speaking out at School Board Meetings a security threat. Flutter urges the president to use the patriot act to go after americas moms and dads. Just five days later, the attorney general issued a memorandum directing the fbi and u. S. Attorneys offices to address a, quote, disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence at School Board Meetings. If you remember, when we have the attorney general in front of this committee, we ask him about where did they get this where did they learn about this disturbing spike in intimidation . Where did they learn about . And his response was from the School Board Letter that they helped coordinate and put together to send to the white house. The press release that accompanied that memorandum said that mr. Olsons division, the National Security division, would be involved in a Department Wide effort to target parents. Thats right. The division that is supposed to be prosecuting terrorists, protecting us from terrorists, the kind of the kind that want to hijack planes and bring down the lisa side of that a priority of this division of the fbis parents at School Board Meetings. Yes what . We find out that this whole situation was coordinated. Thats right, like i said earlier, the letter was a pretext for the memorandum. The letter was instigated by the white house. Documents released by the National SchoolBoards Association showed that the white house knew that the letter would urge the administration to invoke the patriot act and the white house raised no objection. In fact, the National SchoolBoards Association admitted that President Biden telephoned the then nsba president to say that he was appreciative of the letter. When this all came to light, and americas parents rightly became outrage, the National SchoolBoard Association apologized for its actions. The nsba wrote to its members, quote, we regret and apologize for the letter. Thats a lot more than the attorney general of the Biden Administration did. As far as we know, the memorandum is still in place. Thats, right as far as we, know the attorney generals directive to the National Security division two targets moms and dads, it remains in place. If this was it, if it was just a political stunt, that would be bad enough. But its actually much worse. Because of whistleblowers who came forward, we know that the fbi created a threat tag specifically targeting parents, a designated we know that the fbi opened over two dozen investigations into parents merely because they stood up to speak on behalf of their children. We say in count letters to the doj, trying to get answers, but have gotten virtually nothing back in response. Im sure we will have some pointed questions for mr. Olson today, and i hope that he is prepared to give us answers on our the answers our constituents deserve. We also hope hes prepared to talk about the department of justice is refusal to address people trying to intimidate Supreme Court justices at their homes and their childrens schools, and we have great concerns about the terrorist attacks targeting prolife facilities in groups around the countrys. This year, there have been dozens of attacks on these facilities, but the Biden Administration seems preoccupied with other politicallycharged investigations. We would also like to know why the doj is ignoring all the facts coming to light regarding the business dealings and illegal activities of hunter biden. In fact, a troubling pattern has come to light recently that indicates the biden Justice Department seems more focused on politics than it is on fighting crime. Dont forget, this is the division of the department of justice that we interest with immense surveillance powers. The chairman mentioned, within the National Security division, is the office of intelligence, which is responsible for preparing and filing all applications pursuant to fisa, as well as appearing before surveillance court. We all know about the fisa abuses over the past several years, and how the department of justice and the fbi misused finds it to target the campaign of president trump. Mr. Olson has been intrusted with a great deal of responsibility, its our hope that today, hes come prepared to answer a great deal of questions this committee has about the department of justice. Thank, you mister chairman, a yield back. Thank, you mr. Jordan. Without objection, are there i will now introduce todays witness. Matthew olsen is the assistant attorney general for the National Security in that capacity, he leads and department of justices mission to combat terrorism, espionage, cybercrime, and other threats to the National Security. [inaudible] mr. Olsen served as the director of the National Counterterrorism center. Prior to leading and ctc, he was the National Council for the National Security agency. For 18 years, mr. Olsen work at the department of justice as a career attorney, and a number of leadership positions, including as an associate Deputy Attorney general of special counselor to the attorney general. In 2006, he helped establish the National Security division and served as the first career Deputy Assistant attorney general for National Security. Mr. Olsen began his Public Service career as a Trial Attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the department of justice. He later held positions as a federal prosecutor in the u. S. Attorneys office for the District Of Columbia and special counsel to the director of the fbi, supporting the post 9 11 transformation of the fbi. Previously, mr. Olsen clerked for judge Norma Holloway johnson in the u. S. District court for the District Of Columbia. He graduate from Harvard Law School in the university of virginia. We welcome our distinguished witness, we thank you for participating today. I will begin by swearing you in. I asked that you raise and raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm under penalty of perjury that the testimony you are about to give is true and correct to the best of your knowledge, information, and believe, so help you god . I do. Let the record show that the witness has answered in the affirmative. Thank you, and you may please be seated. Please note that your written statement will be entered into the record in its entirety, accordingly i ask that you summarize your testimony in five minutes. To help you stay within that time, there is a timing light on your table. When the light switches from green to yellow, you have a minute to conclude your testimony. When the light turns red, it signals your five minutes have expired. Mr. Olsen, you may begin. Thank you, chairman nadler, Ranking Member jordan, members of the committee. I appreciate the opportunity to be here today to testify about the important work of the Justice Department on National Security. As you know, as you noted, chairman, congress created the National Security division in 2006. The goal was to unify and prioritize the dojs National Security efforts. The National Security division has a wide range of responsibilities, you touched on them. We prosecute terrorists and spies, we protect the nation against cyberattacks, we provide legal and policy support to intelligence operations and oversight. And we review Foreign Investments in u. S. Companies for National Security risks. This morning i would like to focus that my Opening Statement on one of our top priorities, that is counterterrorism. The country faces a persistent and dynamic threat from terrorism. This threatening compresses multi foreign terrorist groups that seeks to carry out attacks against the United States, as well as domestic violent extremists, they are often mobilized to violence by racism and Anti Government ideologies. International terrorism