Care for an ailing parent and were in here wasting time. With that, ill just yield the balance of my time. If theres anything that you think you need to add, that you were cut off and have not had the time to add to this discussion, ill yield the balance of my time to mr. Strzok to do that. Sir, i appreciate that offer. Im struck listening to your statements and i know the history of the fbi. I certainly want the fbi to be something that youd leave to be the defense of. Thats something that were working hard to become. I appreciate the offer. Thank you. When it comes to the fbi i asked years ago to have a hearing on the fact that we dont know or track how many crimes are committed by fbi informants. We havent had that hearing but we spent time on fast and furious because we were putting guns, introducing guns into the hands of criminals. Every day with snitches and informants, they allow people to deal drugs in the African American community, we still have not had that hearing. Lets at least keep our eye on things that are affecting all of our communities and this just isnt one of them. The unfortunate part is, i think, you know, weve been unable to keep tunnel vision on the things that are important around weve allowed ourselves to get distracted by something that the investigation will at the end of its day, the thing will speak for itself. Whether there was collusion, whether people broke the law, well find out. We do know one thing. Theres been indictments and guilty pleas. In my experience, guilty plea dont plea guilty very long the time of the gentleman has expired. Then we know where theres smoke, theres fire. And we ought to allow the process to play out. With that, ill surrender the remaineder of my time. The time of the gentleman has expired. Mr. Ross is recognized. Mr. Strzok, i thank you for being here. I know its been a long day. Were the reason were here and actions by you are the within were here. Representative marino showed you this handbook on ethics issued by the department of justice. It says employees shall protect federal property and not use it to other than authorized activities. As my colleague from the district of columbia, congressman norton pointed out, anything on your official phone belongs to the public. Would you not agree . Its funded by the public in the service of the public and federal property. Yes. According to principle 9 should not be used for anything other than authorized activities. That being said, did you use any other federal property for any reason other than federal activities . Ill tell you fbi policy allows phone for personal use. Fbi its a big bucket, sir. Fbi agents can send one text or a billion and they get billed the same. You testified what you texted was considered political free speech. Your opinions were political free speech. Do you feel that your use of a federally authorized, federally owned cell phone protects your right of exercising your political free speech . Sir yes or no. I think it was bad judgment. Terrible judgment. Lets say you took a federal car. I believe its protected speech. The same way the protected speech if you used your federal vehicle and put a Hillary ClintonBumper Sticker on it. Why not . If you read the ethics guidelines thats what im doing. The use of any Bumper Sticker believe me, after this started, ive been through the ethics and the hatch act. Placing a Bumper Sticker on a bureau government car, any government car, is expressly prohibited. To the contrary, expression publicly or privately of personal political belief is encouraged. And you can use that on any federal property even if its if you quote it out of context mr. Chairman the witness answered the question. The gentleman from florida controls the time. The fbi ethics Integrity Program policy, fbi code of conduct states that employees shall conduct their performance to not tarnish the anybody. You agree with that. I do. And you have blamed the media, you have blamed the washington community, blamed the president , blamed everybody and you say its not you. Do you believe that your personal texts done on i dont think i blamed anybody today. I take responsibility for sending the texts. The texts as have caused you said that earlier. An immense amount of damage has it tarnished the reputation of the fbi . Yes. It has. To take it further, page four of the handbook, it while youre looking for that reference time is controlled by the gentleman from florida. The state department has described the conduct as conduct which were to become widely known would embarrass discreditors or the perpetrator of the and the United States. My concern is that weve seen little or no remorse here other than saying i wish i never sent those texts out because it hurt my family. As an elected member of congress, i have an obligation to make sure that we maintain the quality of trust in our government. After what weve seen today, i understand why the federal has a low level of trust from the American People. My question to you is, having been there, having now been here, how do we reinstate the trust to the American People . How do we make sure this never happens again . First, i dont think the American People have lost the faith in the fbi at all. What the fbi does day in and day out youre wrong, sir. Ive spoken to agents in 56 field offices and i know the work they do day in and day out. Whether its convenient to say here or on some news clip is absolutely not what exists. Second, sir, i would tell you, yes, i i dont know where youre saying i dont have remorse and im not sorry. Ill tell you again, sir its a question if i may respond. Im deeply regretful for those texts. I wrote them. I know it. I know what has been done with them. At the same time the fbi theres an expectations that the texts a private. The bureau allows me or any fbi employee to text my priest, my doctor the time has expired. I had no idea this would happen and if i knew, i never would have done it for sure. Thank you. The time of the gentleman has expired. The chair recognizes the gentleman from california for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chair. Let me start by saying this is a stupid and ridiculous hearing for two reasons. The Judiciary Committee has jurisdiction or immigration. Its july 12, 2018. Theres nearly 3,000 babies and kids that have been ripped away from their parents by the Trump Administration and were not doing a hearing on that. Were doing a hearing on the investigation into Hillary Clintons emails in 2016. Thats just dumb. Second, before this hearing today, my republican colleagues could not point to a single act that you took, agent strzok in an official capacity that showed bias in in any of these investigation, now more than eighth hours later, they cant point to an official act that you took bias in these investigations. Theres a famous book i read called all i really need to know. It hope more members on this Committee Read that book. Its one thing all of us are taught in credit card. Actions speak louder than words. Your words show you didnt nod like donald trump. You wanted donald trump to lose. The one thing you could have caused him to lose is disclose the Russian Investigation of july of 2016. Did you do that, sir . I did not. Did you disclose it in august of 2016 . No. November of 2016 . No. What you did is what we expect every fbi agent to do is check the personal beliefs at the door and do your job. Thats what you did. You showed by your words that you wanted Hillary Clinton to win. The i. G. Investigation found that you advocated for more aggressive investigative measures to the clinton investigation, including use of grand jury subpoenas and search warrants is. That true . Yes. You did that because you checked your political beliefs at the door and when you did your duty as an fbi agent, you applied the law to the facts. Thats what we expect you to do and prosecutors to do and judges to do. Im a foreign prosecutor. Theres defendants that i despised. Services that i was okay with. Didnt matter. All that mattered was could we prove a charge beyond a reasonable doubt. If we could, we went forward. If we couldnt, we didnt go forwards. Thats what we expect everybody to do theres some allegations by one of my colleagues about political donations. That might show bias. Lets talk about fbi director chris voray. Hes a republican nominated by a republican president , confirmed by a republican controlled senate. Im going to ask you to accept the following fact. That he gave over 39,000 in political donations to candidates. I still trust fbi director wray to do his job because i think he will do his job while on duty. Do you still trust fbi director Christopher Wray . Implicimplicitly. And if theres a case involving a democrat or republican or independent on somebody that voted for jill stein, Jeff Sessions could look at the facts and apply it and do it in an unbiassed manner. Do you trust Jeff Sessions . I dont know him and nearly the same capacity that i know the director. Hes taken an oath as an attorney general and i trust him to discharge that. Thank you. Let me conclude by saying this. Were going to know at some point what the Robert Mueller investigation. We already know about the Hillary Clinton emails because theres been an investigation and the i. G. Report. What were seeing now is an attack on Law Enforcement. When i was prosecuting cases, i know when defendants dont have the facts on their side, they resort to attacking Law Enforcement. Thats what we see happening now. I just thought i end on a quote from Sarah Huckabee sanders. She said basically when youre attacking the fbi, youre losing. The chair recognizes the gentleman from north carolina, mr. Walker for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Strzok, you have mentioned i think to my count over 30 times about your personal beliefs when it comes to your texts. Thats just your opinion. One of the texts, you said we will stop it, referring the trump campaign. Mr. Strzok, thats not a personal belief text. Thats a plan of action. Who is the we . Thats not a plan of action. The we, as i have stated and reason im stating it so many times ive been asked twice as many times, the reason i said that, i dont recall that text. When i look at the context of it, in the middle of the night, i can tell you im certain it is not a suggestion that me or the fbi take any action i can also if i can reclaim my time. You dont recall it. Under oath, there was no plan of action. Yes. Well, my eighth great english teacher used to teach me that stop was an action verb so i believe it sounds it. Let me get away from the context of the text as despicable as they were. Lets talk about the volume of texts, if we could, please. 50,000 texts over this time frame. Is that the number that you understand . A number that i heard. Several hundred pages. 10 to 12. A lot of texts. It was a tax payer phone. Because of the great of volume you testified under oath theres many more on your personal phone that blows me away. Over 100 texts a day while youre supposed to be doing your job. On friday, 2016, there were 73 exchanged texts. Did you leave your desk to send these 73 plus texts on that single day . I do not recall where i was when i sent those texts. Im sure if you look at those texts, the huge majority are related to work minutia and administrative things. There may be a lot but a lot more. I dont get to text with my friends and family until we finish the work in the day. Obviously you had enough time being the second lead investigator that youre supposed to be doing your work. 50,000 text. Thats impressive the bulk james comey talked about how the mid year Investigative Team was the a team spend every moment completing the investigation. How does this square with the team texting lisa page on working days . The majority of those texts were workrelated matters. Of the many things that ive been accused of, one of them is not being lazy. So i can assure you that those texts and what they represent is work and work that was going on frequently from 5 00 a. M. Until 11 00 p. M. At night. So i would encourage you, if you want to read through the 50,000 and catalog 600 to 700 per work. Dont give me they were not all the other point here, this is an integrity issue. Thats part of the problem here. We talked about the texts. Youre right. Theyre not all on official time like making fun of the trump people at the walmart. Youre right. Some of those were in your spare time. I believe theres a credibility issue and probably one of the reasons that mr. Mueller decided to take you off of this particular case. I believe you cannot sit there and tell us as you testified earlier today, you didnt know why he did but its obvious to the American People that you have so discredited the fbi that you were removed from that case. From that, i yield the balance of my time to mr. Jordan. May i respond . The time is controlled by the gentleman from ohio. At the conclusion of his time, the gentleman will be allowed to briefly answer anything that was left unanswered by mr. Walker. Mr. Jordan controls the time. I want to do back to where we were before the votes to leave the committee. You said when i was asking you about documents received from the fbi from mr. Ohr, you said you didnt receive documents from mr. Ohr but the fbi did. Thats correct. And you said the fbi got documents from a different source in mid september. Different source than whom . Mr. Ohr. It wasnt the same documents. So mr. Ohr did not hand you the dossier. He provided information to the fbi that included material for what everybody is calling the dossier. Say that again. Mr. Ohr provided what . He provided some elements of reporting that my understanding is originated from mr. Steele. So bruce ohr did give the information information relative to the dossier . Yes. And another source in mid september gave you personally information no. You the fbi information relative to the dossier . I never received dossier information. The fbi in mid september, the first time im aware of the fbi having that information, the first time i saw it was in mid september. My understanding is that was that came into the fbi. Thats when i became aware of it and when i first read it. One more time. Bruce ohr gave the fbi documents related to and supporting or part of the dossier . Is that accurate . Mr. Ohr gave the fbi documents which included material that i believe originated from mr. Steele. Thank you. The gentleman may briefly answer the question that the gentlemen felled he didnt have an opportunity to answer. I wanted to address, when you bring up an integrity issue and you and the gentleman from texas raised this that approaches its insulting. The gentleman may answer the question. Sir, what im saying, im here under oath. Im not lying. I never lied under oath and i never will. So the direct comment that you somehow say that you have an integrity issue is insulting. I take offense. Its incorrect. Nothing i i never mentioned your personal life. I simply said the amount of time you spent on the taxpayers dollars wasting it when you were supposed to be doing your job what im saying the gentleman answered that question. So the now the gentleman from maryland is recognized for five minutes. We have more than 2,500 kids in america separated from their families. No hearings from judiciary or oversight. We have thousands of people slain in gun violence from park land to las vegas to San Bernardino county. No hearings on universal background checks favored by 97 of the people. The president plunged us to trade wars and insulting our democratic allies and flattering autocrats and dictators around the world and done nothing to stop cyber attacks. But our colleagues dont want to do any hearings on the kays yo chaos set lose in the land. No, they want to talk about your texts. The purpose is to derail and discredit the investigation by the special counsel that has obtained 19 indictments and five convictions of flynn and papadopoulos and so on. When their names come up, notice our colleagues maintain a silence on the other side of the aisle. Theyre outspoken about this. They say, mr. Strzok, youre at the heart of a deep state conspiracy to oppose donald trump. To make this claim, they have to ignore the fact that youre an equal opportunity insulter. You called Bernie Sanders and idiot. Hillary clinton and Martin Omalley that you called a freak show. Theres a First Amendment here in america. You can still insult government officials without being thrown into jail or held in contempt of congress by our side of the aisle. Theres no kings here and we have freedom of speech. The right that is cherished by the people and feared by tyrants. Theres a couple of facts they cant get around. Number 1, the i. G. Found no bias affecting the official investigation. Number 2, attorney general sessions is a republican appointed by donald trump. Rod rosenstein is a republican appointed by donald trump. James comey is a republican appointed by donald trump. Director wray is a republican appointed by trump and Robert Mueller is a lifelong republican. All i can find are statements that youve have been arraigned on today. I want to ask you about the statements. In the spring of 2016, senator ted cruz called donald trump a coward, a pathological liar and a serial flanderer. Is this attack on trump by senator cruz a part of a deep state conspiracy that you organized . No. On april 8, august 8, senator rubio said that trump was unworthy of being our president. Were you a part of it . No. Speaker paul ryan said im not going to defend donald trump, not now or not in the future. Is this part of a deep state conspiracy that you organized . No. Former secretary of state Rex Tillerson called him a moron. Scott pruitt said hes an empty person. General mcmaster referred to him as a dope and an idiot. Karl rove call him an idiot. Duncan hunter said hes an ahole but hes our ahole. The director of the National Council called him as an idiot sur