FBI Opening

The committee will come to order. I would like to welcome our witnesses, director of the fbi, jim comey, and director of the national security agency, mike rogers. thank you, both, for being here today. before we begin, I would like to remind our members and witnesses this is an open hearing. I recognize the challenge of discussing sensitive national security issues in public, however as part of this committee's investigation into Russian active measures during the 2016 election, it is critical to ensure that the public has access to credible, unclassified facts and to clear the air regarding unsubstantiated media reports. to our guests in the audience, welcome. we appreciate you being here. I also expect that the proper decorum will be observed at all times today and disruptions during today's proceedings will not be tolerated. I now will recognize myself for five minutes for the purpose of an opening statement. the putin regime has a long history of aggressive actions against other countries including the outright invasion of two of its neighbors in recent years as well as its brutal military action in syria to defend the assad regime. but its hostile acts take many forms aside from direct military assaults. for example, the kremlin has a disinformation campaign through the rt propaganda network, which traskdz an traffics in anti-american conspiracy theories. Russia also has a long history of meddling in other countries election systems and launching cyberattacks on a wide range of countries and industries. the baltics and other Russian neighbors have long decried these attacks. but their warnings went unheeded in far too many nations' capitals including our own. the fact that Russia hacked u.s. databases comes as no shock to this committee. we have been closely monitoring Russia's aggression for years, a year ago I publicly stated that our inability to predict putin's regime plans and intentions has been the biggest intelligence failure we have seen since 9/11, and that remains my view today. however, while the indications of Russian measures targeting the u.s. presidential election are deeply troubling, one benefit is already clear, it is focused wide attention on the pressing threats posed by the Russian autocrat. in recent year, committee members issued repeated and forceful pleas for stronger action against Russian belith rans, but the obama administration was committed to the notion against all evidence that we could reset relations with putin. and it routinely ignored our warnings. I hope today's hearing will shed light on three important focus points of the committee's investigation on Russia active measures. first, what actions did Russia undertake against the united states during the 2016 election campaign? and did anyone from political campaign -- a political campaign conspire in the activities? number two, were the communications of officials or associates of any campaign subject to any kind of improper surveillance? the intelligence community has extremely strict procedures for handling information pertaining to any u.s. citizens who are subject even to incidental surveillance and this committee wants to ensure all surveillance activities have followed all relevant laws, rules and regulations. let me be clear, I've been saying this for several weeks, we know there was not a physical wiretap of trump tower. however, it is still possible that other surveillance activities were used against president trump and his associates. number three, who has leaked classified information? numerous current and former officials have leaked reportedly classified information in connection to these questions. we aim to determine who has leaked or facilitated leaks of classified information so that these individuals can be brought to justice. I hope that this committee's bipartisan investigation will result in a definitive report on the Russian actions taken during the election campaign. to that end, we encourage anyone who has information about these topics to come forward and speak to the house intelligence committee. I again thank the witnesses for helping shed light on these issues and I will recognize ranking member schiff, he's asked for 15 minutes for his opening statement, so I will go ahead and give him 15 minutes for his opening statement. mr. schiff. >> mr. chairman, I thank you and I also want to thank director comey and admiral rogers for appearing before us today as we hold the first hearing. last summer at the height of a bitterly contested and hugely consequential presidential campaign, a foreign adversarial power intervened in an effort to weaken our democracy and to influence the outcome for one candidate and against the other. that foreign adversary was, of course, Russia. and it acted through its intelligence agencies and upon the direct instructions of its autocratic ruler vladimir putin in order to help donald j. trump become the 45th president of the united states. the Russian active measures campaign may have begun as early as 2015 when Russian intelligence services launched a series of spear fishing attacks designed to penetrate the computers of a broad array of washington-based democratic and republican party organizations, think tanks and other entities. this continued lease through the winter of 2016. while first the hacking may have been intended solely for the collection of foreign intelligence, in mid-2016, the rugs weaponized the stolen data and used platforms established by the intel services such as dc leaks and existing third party channels like wikileaks to dump the documents. the stolen documents were almost uniformly damaging to the candidate putin despised, hillary clinton. and by forcing her campaign to constantly respond to the daily drip of disclosures, releases greatly benefited donald trump's campaign. none of these facts is seriously it in question. and they're reflected in the consensus conclusion of our intelligence agencies. we'll never know whether the Russian intervention was determinative in such a close election. indeed, it is unknowable and in a campaign in which so many small changes could have dictated a different result. more importantly, and for the purposes of our investigation it simply does not matter. what does matter is this, the Russians successfully meddled in our democracy and our intelligence agencies have concluded they will do so again. ours is not the first democracy to be attacked by the Russians in this way. Russian intelligence has been interfering in the internal and political affairs of european and other allies for decades. what is striking is the degree to which the Russians were willing to undertake an audacious and risky action against the most powerful nation on earth. that ought to be a warning to us that if we thought the Russians would not dare to so blatantly interfere in our affairs, we were wrong. and if we do not do our very best to understand how the Russians accomplished this unprecedented attack on our democracy, then what we need to do to protect ourselves in the future we will only have ourselves to blame. we know a lot about the Russian operation about the way they amplified the damage, their hacking and dumping of stolen documents was causing through the use of slick propaganda like rt, the kremlin's media arm. but there is a lot we don't know. most important we do not yet know whether the Russians have the help of u.s. citizens including people associated with the trump campaign. many of the trump's campaign personnel including the president himself have ties to Russia and Russian interests. this is, of course, no crime. on the other hand, if the trump campaign or anyone associated with it aided or abetted the Russians, it would not only be a serious crime, it would also represent one of most shocking betrayals of democracy in history. in europe, where the Russians have a much longer history of political interference, they use a variety of techniques to undermine democracy. they employed the hack and dumping of documents and propaganda as they clearly did here. but they also used bribery, blackmail, compromising material and financial entanglement in order to secure cooperation from individual citizens of targeted countries. the issue of u.s. person involvement is only one of the important matters that the chairman and I have agreed to investigate and which is memorialized in the detailed and bipartisan scope of investigation that we have signed. we'll also examine whether the intelligence community's assessment of the Russian operation is supported by the raw intelligence, whether the u.s. government responded properly or missed the opportunity to stop this Russian attack much earlier and whether the leak of information about michael flynn or others is indicative of a systemic problem. we have also reviewed whether there is any evidence to support president trump's claim that he was wiretapped by president obama in trump tower and found no evidence whatsoever to support that slanderous accusation. and we hope that director comey can now put that matter permanently to rest. today most of my democratic colleagues will be exploring with the witnesses the potential involvement of u.s. persons in the Russian attack on our democracy. it is not that we feel the other issues are less important, they are very important, but rather because this issue is least understood by the public. we realize, of course, that the witnesses may not be able to answer many of the questions in open session. they may or may not be willing to disclose even whether there is an investigation. but we hope to present to you directors and the public why we believe this is a matter of such gravity that it demands a thorough investigation, not only by us, as we intend to do, but by the fbi as well. let me give you a short preview of what I expect you'll be asked by our members. whether the Russian active measures campaign began is nothing more than an attempt to gather intelligence or was always intended to be more than that, we do not know. and it is one of the questions we hope to answer. but we do know this, the months of july and august 2016 appear to have been pivotal. it was at this time the Russians began using the information they had stolen to help donald trump and harm hillary clinton. and so the question is, why? what was happening in july, august of last year? and were u.s. persons involved? here are some of the matters drawn from public sources alone since that is all we can discuss in this setting that concern us and we believe should concern all americans. in early july, carter paige, someone candidate trump identified as a security adviser travels on the trump campaign. while in moscow, he give a speech critical of the united states and other western countries for what he believes is a hypocritical focus on democratization and efforts to fight corruption. according to christopher steel, a british -- former british intelligence officer, who reportedly held in high regard by u.s. intelligence, Russian sources tell him that paige has also had a secret meeting with igor sechin. he is reported to be a former kgb agent and close friend of putin's. according to steel's Russian sources, paige is offered brokerage fees by sechin on a deal involving a 19% share of the company according to reuters the sale of a 19.5% share of the company later takes place with unknown purchasers and unknown brokerage fees. also according to steel's Russian sources, the campaign is offered documents damaging to hillary clinton, which the Russians would publish through an outlet that gives them deniability like wikileaks. the hacked documents would be an exchange for a trump administration policy that de-emphasizes Russia's invasion of ukraine, and instead focuses on criticizing nato countries for not paying their fair share. policies which, even as recently as the president's meeting last week with angela merkel, have now precioussciently come to pass. paul manafort, the trump campaign manager and someone who is long on the payroll a pro-Russian ukrainian interests attends the republican party convention. carter paige, back from moscow, also attends the convention. according to steel, it was manafort who chose paige to serve as a go between for the trump campaign and Russian interests. ambassador kisslyak would later be expelled also attends the republican party convention and meets with carter paige and additional trump advisers. it was jd gourden whordon who approved the trip to moscow. sessions would later deny meeting with Russian officials during his senate confirmation hearing. just prior to the convention, the republican party platform is changed, removing a section that supports the provision of lethal defensive weapons to ukraine, an action contrary to Russian interests. manafort categorically denies involve by the trump campaign in altering the platform. but the republican party delegate who offered the language and support of providing defensive weapons to ukraine states that it was removed at the insistence of the trump campaign. later j.d. gordon admits opposing the inclusion of the provision at the time it was being debated and prior to its being removed. later in july, and after the convention, the first stolen e-mails detrimental to hillary clinton appear on wikileaks. a hacker who goes by the moniker gucifer 2 claims responsibility. it is concluded with high certainty it was the work of apt 28 and apt 29 who are known to be Russian intelligence services. the u.s. intelligence community also later confirms the documents were stolen by Russian intelligence and gucifer two acted as a front. in late july, candidate trump praises wikileaks, says he loves them and openly appeals to the Russians to hack his opponent's e-mails telling them that they will be richly rewarded by the press. on august 8th, roger stone, a long time trump political adviser and self-proclaimed dirty trickster boasts in a speech he has communicated with assange, and that more documents would be coming including an october surprise. in the middle of august, he also communicates with the Russian cutout gucifer two and offers a piece. then later, in august, stone does something truly remarkable. when he predicts that john podesta's personal e-mails will soon be published. trust me, he says, it will soon be podesta's time in the barrel, #crookedhillary. in the weeks that follow, stone shows a remarkable prescient. payload coming, he predicts, and two days later, it does. wikileaks releases the first patch of podesta e-mails. the release of john podesta es's e-mails would continue on a daily basis up until the election. on election day, in november, donald trump wins. donald trump appoints one of his high profile surrogates michael flynn to be his national security adviser. michael flynn has been paid by the kremlin's propaganda outfit rt in the past, as well as another Russian entity. in zes michael flynn lies about a secret conversation and the vice president unknowingly then assures the country that no such conversation ever happened. the president is informed that flynn has lied and pence has misled the country. the president does nothing. two weeks later the press reveals that flynn has lied and the president is is forced to fire mr. flynn. the president then praises the man who lied, mr. flynn, and castigates the press for exposing the lie. now, is it possible that the removal of the ukraine provision from the gop platform was a coincidence? is it a coincidence that jeff sessions failed to tell the senate about his meetings with the Russian ambassador, not only at the convention, but a more private meeting in his office and at a time when the u.s. election was under attack by the Russians? is it a coincidence that michael flynn would lie about a conversation he had with the same Russian ambassador kislyak about the most pressing issue facing both countries at the time they spoke? u.s. in position of sanctions or Russian hacking of our election designed to help donald trump? is it a coincidence that the Russian gas company sold a 19% share after former british intelligence officer steel was told by Russian sources that carter paige was offered fees on a deal of just that size? is it a coincidence that steel's Russian sources also affirmed that Russia had stolen documents hurtful to secretary clinton that it would utilize in exchange for pro Russian policies that would later come to pass? is it a coincidence that roger stone predicted that john podesta would be a victim of a Russian hack and have his private e-mails published and did so even before mr. podesta himself was fully aware that his private e-mails would be exposed? is it possible that all of these events and reports are completely unrelated and nothing more than an entirely unhappy coincidence? yes. it is possible. but it is also possible, maybe more than possible, that they are not coincidental, not disconnected, and not unrelated and that the Russians used the same techniques to corrupt u.s. persons that they employed in europe and elsewhere. we simply don't know. not yet. and we owe it to the country to find out. director comey, what you see on the dais in front of you in the form of this small number of members and staff is all we have to commit to this investigation. this is it. we are not supported by hundreds or thousands of agents and investigators with offices around the world. it is just us. and our senate counterparts. in addition to this investigation, we still have our day job which involves overseeing some of the largest and most important agencies in the country, agencies which, by the way, are are traintrained by the way to keep secrets. I point this out for two reasons, first, because we cannot do this work alone. and nor should we. we believe these issues are so important that the fbi must devote its resources to investigating each of them thoroughly, to do any less would be negligent and the protection of our country. we also need your full cooperation with our investigation so that we may have the benefit of what you know, and so that we may coordinate our efforts in the discharge of both our responsibilities. and second, I raise this because I believe that we would benefit from the work of an independent commission, that can devote the staff and resources to this investigation that we do not have, and that can be completely removed from any political considerations. it should not be a substitute for the work that we and the intelligence committee should and must do, but as an important complement to our efforts just as was the case after 9/11. the stakes are nothing less than the future of our democracy and liberal democracy. because we're engaged in a new war of ideas, not communism versus capitalism, but authoritarianism and democracy and representative government. and in this struggle, our adversary sees our political process as a legitimate field of battle. only by understanding what the Russians did can we inoculate ourselves from Russian interference we know is coming, only then can we protect our european allies who are enduring similar Russian interference in their own elections. and finally, I want to say a word about our own committee investigation. you will undoubtedly observe in the questions and comments that our members make during today's hearing that the members of both parties share a common concern over the Russian attack on our democracy, but bring a different perspective on the significance of certain issues or the quantum of evidence we have seen in the earliest stages of this investigation. this is to be expected. the question most people have is whether we can really conduct this investigation in the kind of thorough and nonpartisan manner that the seriousness of the issues merit or whether the enormous political consequences of our work will make that impossible. the truth is, I don't know the answer. but I do know this, if this committee can do its work properly, if we can pursue the facts wherever they lead, unafraid to compel witnesses to testify, to hear what they have to say, to learn what we will and after exhaustive work reach a common conclusion, it would be a tremendous public service and one that is very much in the national interest. so let us try. I thank you, mr. chairman, and I yield back.