Was Trump Hit By Bullet? FBI Directors Casts Doubt During House Testimony | US News LIVE

Memphis recognizing population growth and the threat environment we have instead uh taken if you look across the state instead of having two field offices in Knoxville and Memphis we're creating a Tennessee division headquartered in the middle in Nashville but we are keeping we are keeping the offices in Knoxville and Memphis uh and in fact when it comes to Memphis specifically not only will it not result in any decrease in the number of Agents there to work actually strange as it might sound it's going to allow us to increase the number of agents who will be assigned to the Memphis office uh including to tackle things like violent crime which I know is of huge concern uh and the reason for that is really the effect of this reorganization is to be able to reduce administrative roles that will be more Consolidated in the middle in Nashville but it allow us to increase the operational roles the agent roles uh the number of them in Memphis so I think not only are we not leaving Memphis we're actually increasing our investigative presence in Memphis as part of this and we're going to be able to continue to collaborate closely with our great Partners there um without skipping a beat thank you that's reassuring one of the questions was asked over here was about uh previous assassination attempts on presidents and obviously I I know you're a lot younger than me but you probably did did you ever watch The Untouchables I I have watched they had a one of the programs was on mayor surmac you don't know mayor surmac I'm sorry I couldn't hear you mayor surmac do you know who he was I did not he was the mayor of Chicago and in February of 1933 there was an assassination attempt on Franklin Roosevelt in Miami Florida and mayor SAR s CAC Cermak was killed uh and said I'm glad it was me and not you allegedly he said that but anyway that was an attempt and it failed and that was Untouchables brought it into my Consciousness but thank you for your work I appreciate appreciate it very much and uh and I appreciate you're not looking into changing our Democratic nominee that's something we normally do thank you director um I'm I'm still not clearing my mind when did the counter snipers um the good guys when did they first get eyes on the bad guy the the would be assassin um on the on the on the roof of the AGR building uh I'm not certain but I'll I'll take my best effort here I I guess I'm I'm sorry interrupt but yeah did they have eyes on him before the local law enforcement was looking up on the roof and engaged with the the bad guy shooter I don't know the answer to that I will look into that and get back to you I believe we have the answer I just don't know that I have it I want to make sure I answer accurately because we thought from the briefings that uh Mr uh abot abot gave us or baate gave excuse me aate gave us U and the briefing you gave the Congress that they did but I I I it wasn't clear from your Testament so if you can get that answer to us that that would be helpful I want to Circle back just a third time if I could to the Iranian uh uh threat to president Trump and and some others uh former members of our government um the reason I want to go back to that because we now know that the Secret Service and and Homeland Security denied resources to president Trump's detail that they had asked for and it seems to me if that all happened after you guys knew about the Iran threat and had briefed the Secret Service on that real threat that's an even bigger problem and that's why I was trying to get that timeline down when you knew about it and when you brief the Secret Service on the Iranians threat to kill President Trump so again I really want to be careful to uh both be accurate but also not to kind of stray into any kind of classified information or confirm the existence of classified information um so let me see if there's a way for us to get back to you on that question I understand why you're asking it may be easier to answer than I think but at the moment in an open hearing I'm not sure if I can see the right way to do that fair enough we we'll we'll expect answers to both of those questions and you get get back with this that'd be great finally anything else you want to tell us that that we didn't ask you you you came today and you told us some things that weren't even prompted by questions and I just want to make sure if there's anything else you want to tell us um regarding July 13th and what you've discovered you know Now's the Time well again we're going to continue to engage with the Congress um I think we've covered a lot of the the points that I really wanted to make sure um that uh I got across and just as I'm looking at my list uh in one way or another through the course of today's questioning I think we've gotten through most of it that concludes today's hearing we thank our witness for appearing before the committee today without objection all members will have five legislative days submit additional written questions for the witness or additional material for the record without objection the hearing is adjourned wow lamp from the and private jets really beautiful Heritage P from jur there are only five in the world [Music] menra home just like everything else handpicked by masaba I think election quote it's going to take a civil war to save the country and it will be saved the president of the Heritage Foundation taxpayer dollars addressing even one aspect of the political violence vience that now threatens our country perhaps had this Republican majority lifted a finger to help a nation that is a washing guns the Assassin and Butler would not have had such easy access to the weapon he used to fire on that crowd director Ray your agency is responsible for addressing some of the most serious issues of our time the bureau fights gun violence which claims the lives of 40,000 Americans every year it protects election security from growing threats for mign foreign actors who are working tirelessly to influence our elections it protects against domestic terrorists and violent extremists who have been a growing threat in recent years and have carried out horrific mass shootings and deadly events around the country and so so much more I apologize to you director that instead of supporting you in these missions in the 118th Congress some of my colleagues have instead hindered your work maligned your agents and called to abolish in and defund your agency all for political gain it is Despicable especially from the party that claims to quote back the blue and I know that you and your many agents and employees have paid the price for these baseless attacks I know you have faced a barrage of threats distrust and vitriol from the public as a result of these wild politically driven conspiracies I know it has become even more dangerous and difficult for you to come to work each day I may not agree with you on everything but I sincerely thank you and every employee in your agency who continues to protect our country the FBI is vital to keeping America safe and I pray that today we can focus on the real substantive work of the agency it is the least we ow our country in these times I yield back gentleman yields back without objection all other opening statements will be included in the record we will now introduce today's witness um The Honorable Christopher Ray has been the director of the FBI since 2017 he previously served as the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice the principal associate Deputy attorney general an Associated Deputy attorney general and as assistant us attorney for the Northern District of Georgia again director way you've been here many times we appreciate you being here today and uh look forward to your testimony and answering our questions we will Begin by swearing you in would you please rise and raise your right hand do you swear or affirm under penalty of perjury that the testimony you're about to give is true and correct to the best of your knowledge information and belief so help you God let the record affirm uh let the record reflect that the witness is answered in the affirmative uh thank you and please be seated we we have votes coming in about 10 minutes but we we definitely want to get through your opening statement as far as we can and this is going to be an interesting day on Capitol Hill with the prime minister of Israel here as well so director Ray you're recognized for your opening statement good morning chairman Jordan ranking member Nadler members of the committee uh I want to begin by offering my condolence uences on the passing representative Jackson Lee who served the people of Texas in this body and on this committee for so long thank you all for your support of our efforts to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution I am proud to be here today representing the 38,000 special agents intelligence anals and professional staff who make up the FBI men and women who every day work relentlessly to counter the most complex threat environment I've seen in my tenure as FBI director maybe in my entire career in law enforcement before I go any further I also want to acknowledge and offer my deepest condolences to the victims of the horrific assassination attempt in Butler County to the friends and family of Corey comparator who by all accounts lost his life protecting others from danger to the other victims two of whom were critically wounded and of course of course to president Trump former president Trump and his family as I've said from the beginning the attempted assassination of the former president was an attack on our democracy and our Democratic process and we will not and do not tolerate political violence of any kind especially a Despicable account of this magnitude and I want to assure you and the American people that the men and women of the FBI will continue to work tirelessly to get to the bottom of what happened we are bringing all the resources of the FBI to Bear both criminal and National Security now there's a a whole lot of work underway and still a lot of work to do and our understanding of what happened and why will continue to evolve but we're going to leave no stone unturned the shooter may be deceased but the FBI's investigation is very much ongoing to that point I also want to acknowledge that I recognize both the Congressional and the public interest in this case and the importance of this investigation to the American people and I understand there are a lot of open questions so while the investigation is very much ongoing and our assessments of the shooter and his actions continue to evolve My Hope here today is to do my best to provide you with all the information I can given where we are at this point I have been saying for some time now that we are living in an elevated threat environment and tragically the Butler County assassination attempt is another example a particularly heinous and very public one of what I've been talking about but it also reinforced is our need at the FBI and our ongoing commitment to stay focused on the threats on the mission and on the people we do the work with and the people we do the work for every day all across this country and indeed around the world the men and women of the FBI are doing just that working around the clock to counter the threats we face just in the last year for example in California the FBI and our partners targeted an organized crime syndicate responsible for trafficking fentanyl meth and cocaine all across North America we charged the mexican-based suppliers who brought the drugs into the United States a network of canada-based truck drivers who delivered the drugs and the distributors in the United States who spread the poison into our communities staying on threats emanating from the border I have warned for some time now about the threat that foreign terrorists May seek to exploit our Southwest border or some other Port of Entry to advance a plot against Americans just last month for instance the bureau and our joint terrorism task forces worked with ice in multiple cities across the country as several individuals with suspected International terrorist High were arrested using Isis immigration authorities leading up to those those arrests hundreds of FBI employees dedicated countless hours to understand the threat and identify additional individuals of concern now the physical security of the border is of course not in the FBI's Lane but as the threat has escalated we're working with our partners in law enforcement and the intelligence Community to find and stop foreign terrorists who would harm Americans and our interests as concerning as the known or suspected terrorists encountered at the border are perhaps even more concerning are those we do not yet know about because they provided fake documents or because we didn't have information connecting them to terrorism at the time they arrived in the United States staying ahead of today's threats demands that we work together and for the FBI that means doubling down on our Partnerships especially with state and local law enforcement whether it's working through our hundreds of joint terrorism task forces uh to build Out Source networks to identify those who slip through the cracks or targeting the worst of the worst responsible for the violence that still plagues far too many communities through our Safe Streets task forces or taking the fight to the cartels responsible for trafficking the dangerous drugs like fenel pouring into our country and claiming countless American lives staying ahead of the threat also means continuing to disrupt the Cyber criminals ravaging businesses large and small and confronting nation states like China targeting our Innovation and our critical infrastructure at the bureau we're proud to work side by side with our brothers and sisters in federal state and local law enforcement our partners in the intelligence community and others around the world to fulfill our commitment to keep Americans safe now on Friday the FBI will celebrate its 116th anniversary 116 years of protecting the American people and upholding the Constitution 116 years of working with our partners to safeguard the communities we serve 116 years of innovating to stay ahead of the complex evolving and very real threats out there I am proud of the Legacy the men women of the FBI have built and all they have accomplished for the American people so if I may as we approach this week's anniversary I would just like to say to all those who are part of the FBI family from our current employees to our forers and to our partners across law enforcement and the intelligence Community thank you thank you for dedicating your lives to this country and to his people it is both humbling and an honor to serve alongside you and I look forward to the work we're going to continue to do together and with that thank you again for having me and I look forward to our discussion thank you director Ray excuse me we'll now proceed under the F minute rule the gentleman from um North Carolina is recognized for five minutes thank you Mr chairman uh director Ray I'm way down here I appreciate chairman give me this because I've got to leave but let me ask this question why doesn't the f FBI disclosed to the American people all of the investigative detail and evidence that you are gathering as it is gathered well we have tried to be transparent uh with both Congress and the American people as we're going along in the investigation frankly unusually so for an ongoing investigation given the sheer nature uh of it uh we have provided a lot of information I expect to continue to provide information I expect to a to provide some additional information here today uh in response to your questions and your colleagues uh but part of the issue uh is that as like in any investigation as we proceed facts evolve our understanding of what somebody said turns out to have more context that we didn't have before uh we have additional leads out there so part of our goal is not just to respect the ongoing investigation process but also to make sure that we don't prematurely provide information that then two days later turns out to be different than what we told people because that's very much uh you know kind of a natural part of any investigation so did Crooks Fire eight shots we have recovered uh eight cartridges on the roof why was Crooks allowed to get off eight shots well that I think is something we're still digging into um again maybe this is a good place for me to make clear uh the different investigation that are going on so because certainly I understand I and I given that I've only got three minutes left and I know other members I'm I'm really interesting because I I appreciate your invitation you said you're prepared to disclose things as questions are asked so I don't want to waste time sort of I just want to get to the questions that might in as many members as can ask questions that you'll answer I actually think you I'd be glad for you to go on Soliloquy frankly and and tell us what you know I think the American people want to know why was President Trump not kept off the stage we don't know the answer to that but I want to be clear and this is important because I think it goes to questions that I can and cannot answer our investigation the FBI's mandate is focused on the shooter and all things related to his attack now obviously I understand very much the intense interest and focus on the secret Services performance actions decisionmaking Etc there are two separate after Action reviews that the DHS Inspector General and the outside independent panel it's been convened to focus on that now our inves over corre here's the problem we're out 13 days and you say we've been disclosing you know we had the director or the colonel from the PS Pennsylvania State Police in front of Homeland yesterday he was quite candid he disclosed to us that Butler Emergency Services Unit Personnel were posted into the windows on the second floor of the AGR building that they left there to go pursue the person that they spotted Crooks that they texted a photo of crooks to the P to the uh uh PSP representative in the command center that information was relayed to the United States Secret Service they asked that it be texted to someone else that was many minutes before president took Trump took the stand what we don't know is why did he not why did he why were they not keeping him off the stand and to the extent you know that I know we always hear when there's a criminal investigation you got to wait for that to develop but the do you have any reason to are you do you have any other Target of your criminal investigation other than crooks who's dead we are investigating the shooter both to determine his motive U and his preparations and activities before the shooting but also to make sure uh whether or not there are any co-conspirators accomplice at this point Have You developed any evidence to so suggest that there are any complies or or Cooperators or sisters not at this time but again the investigation's ongoing so here's the thing while we wait maybe for months and I hate to say this just I'm not trying to take a pot shot but we the country went for years with the understanding that the hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation as offered by respected former Intel officials and the whole time the FBI had the laptop and then let that happen in public until finally offering testimony in a case to the degree we wait to hear as a country and as a congress what has happened in this event because the FBI is Con conducting an investigation it provides quarter for the US Secret Service not perhaps to reckon with the problems that are obvious to everyone so just get a couple in while I I've got 13 more seconds one more question perhaps uh Senator Grassley says that the records of the day show that there was a counter unmanned aerial surveillance operator on site was there and why did that person not prevent Crooks from being able to use a drone so again questions about the secret Services perform performance are better directed to those other reviews what I can tell you when it comes to drones is that Kooks himself had a drone and I'm prepared to answer questions here today about the shooter and his use of the Drone for example my time's expired gentleman yields back to ranking members recognize for five minutes thank you Mr chairman as I said my opening statement political violence is a scorge and entirely unacceptable no matter the source or the target last October a far right conspiracy theorist broke into Nancy Pelosi's home and bludgeoned her husband prominent Republicans mocked the attack and promoted conspiracy theories about it last August an armed Utah man who threatened to kill President Biden was killed as FBI agents attempted to serve a warrant on him hours before President Biden landed in his State some on the right claimed that the man was simply a quote Second Amendment Enthusiast in recent weeks and months those on the right have repeatedly called for quot civil war with an Ohio state senator saying that if Republicans lose the election quote it's going to take a civil war to save the country and it will be saved the president of the Heritage Foundation likewise said that quote we are in the process of the second American Revolution which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be close quote director Ray it's obviously important that we respect First Amendment protections but there is clearly a point to which some violent RoR crosses over into threats of violence or leads to actual violence would you describe how the FBI looks at this relationship between rhetoric and action and what you are seeing around the country so I appreciate the question and this is an issue that I've been talking about for some time uh you know in our view there is a right way and a wrong way under the First Amendment to express your views no matter how passionate or even angry you are and violence and threats of violence is not the right way and we don't care what you're upset about or who you're upset with when from the FBI's perspective when it turns to violence and threats of violence that's when we have to draw the line that's when we get engaged uh and there is an alarming phenomenon that we've seen over the last several years uh of that kind of passion and heated rhetoric turning into actual violence and threats of violence we've seen it uh against public officials of all sorts we've seen it against law enforcement the number of officers shot and killed in the line of duty in this country is frankly outrageous and alarming uh and I know that because every time an officer is shot and killed anywhere in this country since the day I started as FBI director I personally call the chief or the sheriff to express my condolences uh and to talk to them about the the victim's family uh and the number of those shootings that are Ambush related meaning somebody is targeting law enforcement because they're law enforcement is particularly alarming I have made around 400 of those phone calls it's almost every five days that a law enforcement officer is killed in the line of duty and that is an example of the kind of ways in which uh passions and heated rhetoric can bubble over into violence thank you members of Congress their families and their staffs have witness and alarming Rising threats against it I appreciate the work your agency has done to investigate and address these threats but I'm concerned that we do not seem to be steming the tide what is the FBI doing to ensure that members of Congress their families and their staffs are safe so we have a very close relationship uh with the Capitol Police um and we have members of the Capitol Police for example who are on some of our task forces we share intelligence information uh about things that we're seeing trends that we're see seeing with Capitol Police and others in law enforcement obviously if we have specific information about uh an effort to Target a member of Congress then we're getting with Capitol Police in a much more specific way uh but those are some of the things that we're doing thank you now director your office is leading the investigation to the attempted assassination of Donald Trump republicans in Congress including members of this committee have repeatedly called for defunding the FBI what impact would defunding or even just limiting your funding have on the FBI's ability to conduct this and other investigations so I understand that there are heated views opinions about us just like there are about every institution in today's America but cutting our funding is incredibly shortsighted and the people it really hurts our state and local law enforcement and the American people were all sworn to protect thank you during my remaining time I want to turn to a different matter in recent days Republican members of Congress have attacked presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Cala Harris as a quote de EI Dei candidate which presumably is code for women and person of color it's not a new theme for them in May chairman Jordan wrote to you claiming that because of Dei initiatives the FBI is no longer hiring quote the best and brightest candidates to fill the position of Special Agent with remaining time with my remaining time director can you please answer the following questions is it true that hiring women and people of color means that FBI is no longer hiring the best and the brightest to serve as law enforcement officers is there any evidence that women and people of color are less effective in law enforcement roles and what message does it send to prospective applicants when the leaders demean them and make judgments about them based solely on the rcio agenda witness May respond so any notion that we have lowered our standards our hiring standards is just not accurate uh in fact the our standards are as competitive and selective as ever we have tens of thousands of people applying and our selection rate is about 3.1% which is more selective than just about any University in the country uh and most of our applicants I think something like 50% of them are coming from military or law enforcement backgrounds about 50% of them also have advanced degrees uh the average age is around 31 which means they're bringing a wealth of personal and professional experience when they arrive and to suggest that those people because of efforts related to diversity or anything like that uh are less qualified frankly is not at all consistent with what I see having visited all of our field offices and seen these young people in action I think is an insult to those hardworking men and women who've signed up to dedicate their lives for this country thank you director I yield back gentleman y's back uh director let me go back to where Mr Bishop was tell me about the Drone you act like you wanted to fill us in on that fill us in so uh we have recovered a drone uh that the shooter uh appears to have used uh it's being exploited and analyzed by the FBI lab uh the drone was recovered uh in his vehicle so at the time of the shooting the Drone was in his vehicle uh with the controller uh in addition our investigation has uncovered do you know what time of day he flew it and if he flew it on the day I'm Sor so in addition it appears that around uh 3:50 p.m. 4:00 in that window uh on the day of the shooting uh that the shooter was flying the Drone around uh the area about 11 minutes I want to be clear but when I say the area not over the the stage and that part of the area itself I would say about 200 yards give or take away okay from that we we think but we do not know so again this is one of these things that's qualified because of our ongoing review that he was live streaming you know viewing the footage from that again about 11 minutes in around the 3:5 4:00 p.m. range 2 hours before he's flying a drone in the in the vicinity of of the r about 200 yards away yard okay that's that's important information what about the bombs that we heard about in in the in the shooter's car so again uh the FBI lab is exploiting those uh explosive devices there were uh We've recovered three devices two uh in his vehicle and one back in his residence um are these are these what you would call your experts would call sophisticated operations or this I mean I think I I don't know I that's what I've been told by people who have some understanding of this area yeah I I I think it's um we've seen more sophisticated and less I would say these are relatively again keyword relatively crude devices themselves but they did have um the ability to be detonated remotely and so to that point uh in addition to the two uh devices that we recovered out of his vehicle um there were uh receivers for those two explosive devices with the device and then on the shooter himself uh when he was killed by law enforcement uh he had a transmitter with him now I do want to add one important Point here is at the moment it looks to us again ongoing review and I can't say that too many times at a moment it looks like because of the uh onoff position on the receivers that that if he had tried to detonate those devices from the roof it would not have worked but that doesn't mean the explosives weren't dangerous I'm sure we're going to get into all these subjects a little bit later as well uh tell us tell us what you can about the encrypted platforms we've heard about so um one of the things that we're drilling into hard with the shooter um in an effort to try to learn more about his State of Mind his motive his ideology his context everything else is to look at all of his devices any social media accounts he had Etc and uh one things we've learned in finally getting into his phone which was also a significant technical Challenge from an encryption perspective but in addition once we got on the phone it turned out he was using some encrypted messaging applications and again the same question uh relative to the bombs is this was this pretty sophisticated or is this this is the kind of the norm you see with folks like you know similar situation how would you on this on this subject I would say this has unfortunately now become very commonplace and it's a real challenge for not just the FBI but State local law enforcement all over the St tell me exactly the scope of does the scope of your investigation include what I what I call that critical five minutes from when the 609 when this is based I think on information you've given to Congress 609 when the shooters identified on the roof and 614 when President Trump is ultimately escorted off and all that happens the shots that take place in between there do you have access to the communications that were going on at the time in that critical 5 minutes so uh our our investigation when you say scope our investigation includes that time frame although focused again on the shooter himself and invol he's obviously involved in that time frame correct and as part of that as part of our focus our investigation of the shooter and and the attack uh of course we are interviewing law enforcement from the scene because those are some of the most significant Witnesses and we're obviously getting access to their materials and that kind of thing and the Secret Service fully Cooperative you you have access to the communications that exist there that exact question I don't as I sit here at the moment I don't know the exact answer to that question but I know that secret service has been Cooperative with us the Congress would like access to those Communications as well I mean not just that five minutes although I think that's the critical time frame there's lots of communications we'd love to have access as well I see my time is up and they have called votes on the floor I think there are about six minutes left in votes so we will committee will stand in recess until approximately 10 minutes after votes conclude on the house floor e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e things physical evidence in the person's resonance you might see a Manifesto things like that we're not seeing that yet um but we are digging in heart because this is one of the central questions for us what I can say is that uh the shooter appears to have uh done a lot of searches of public figures in general but so far we're seeing kind of news articles and things like that and so the images that have been reported about really what we're talking about there are when you when you do a news search of an article I see the image appears in the cash as opposed to like a search for that specific individual uh but again I really want to be clear that that's a place that we're doing a lot of work right now uh and so more to come on that well I thank you for that clarification we're interested also in um the role of access to weapons when it comes to this terrible crime the shooter used a semi-automatic rifle really a weapon of war that sadly has also been used in mass shootings around the country including in my own District it seems to me that the assault weapons ban that was once in place has to be a part of the national answer to curbing the epidemic of gun violence in America I wonder uh if you could with your help director Ray understand a few aspects of the investigation it's my understanding that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco firearms and explosives ATF was quickly able to trace the gun the gun uh the guns purchaser using records from an outof business gun store records that the government is re re required to correct some of my colleagues on the other side of the a have suggested that collection should stop there have been efforts to digitize it which have been resisted can you tell us about how the the origin of this gun purchase was discovered and uh the technology used what I what I guess what I can say is um the uh we located a number of firearms uh associated with the shooter and his family uh I think it was a total of I think 14 in the house um the uh weapon that he used uh for the attempted assassination uh was an AR style rifle uh that was purchased legally uh that he um is my understanding uh acquired I think bought actually from his father who was the one who originally bought it uh again legally thank you Mr chairman my time is expired so I yield back gent lady yields back gentlemen from California is recognized thank you uh director I'll try to ask questions that that are answerable too I think that's been done pretty well on both sides uh you do the advanced threat assessment and deliver that information as to the general threat and then specifics as to protected people to the Secret Service is that correct well sort of uh the Secret Service does a threat assessment but they're doing that based on intelligence that they receive from a number of sources including of course the FBI so we share whenever we have thread information related to a particular individual or protecte and we share it with the secret service at a number of levels so you're a participant But ultimately the responsibility for threat assessment as to these individuals belongs to the Secret Service well again the threat assessment for the individual belongs to the secret service but we are an important part of that because we share thread information if we have any uh they get threat information from a variety of sources so and and you get them from that same variety of sources they've got no sources that are ex excluded from the FBI do they well not I don't know I'm not aware of any that are excluded from the FBI but they may receive information that comes directly to them that didn't come to us sure okay uh director do you believe that former president Trump was a a high-risk threat under your assessment I I believe that former president Trump uh can really frankly like like any president or former president is a very high profile figure and attracts a lot of unfortunately the kind of threat' been talking about it's fair to say not on a scale of one to a million with little nuances but on a scale of 1 to 10 president Trump's risk was very similar to a current president very similar to because he was the presumptive nominee and uh leading in the polls and so on that that uh that he was a high risk by any standard is that correct certainly there's a reason why he has so much protection around him okay uh Robert F Kennedy Jr the son of assassinated Senator and the nephew of an assassinated President would you say he was also as a presidential candidate at significant risk again I think any presidential candidate raises some level of risk it might vary from candidate to but it's clearly a risk okay um so uh in nutshell the day before this attack president Trump was documented not to have gotten on multiple occasions from the Secret Service what they asked for the day after it looks like they're getting more the day before RFK had been denied by the president multiple times Secret Service protection the day after he now has it so now my question is is the actions of a 20- yearold red with a a lone gunman on a roof sufficient to change the risk assessment in your mind for president Trump and RFK or are we just realizing the threat that was always there and being more appropriate in matching it and and I know that's a little vague but but you've been at this for a long time hindsight is 2020 now that we have hindsight is it fair to say that giving Robert F Kennedy Jr security upping the security including drones overhead support for the president former president these are all things that in hindsight should have been done the day before well let me try to answer your question this way of course as I said you know the assessments of the level of security to be provided to individual protection no I understand it's a secret service decision but what I would say to you uh is that and I've been saying for quite some time uh including in front of Committees of this Congress that we are in an elevated threat we have been for some time uh and that comes from a variety of quarters uh it is a it is quite frankly a dangerous time to be a prominent public and in in regards to that the other side has spent a lot of time talking about what people on the right have said but there was an attempted assassination on the Supreme Court Justice we have had the highest ranking Senator on the other side of this body uh saying that there were actions that they were accountable we have had multiple members of Congress in both the house and the Senate uh berating the the character of uh members of the Supreme Court as a result of their uh uh their their decisions made both you know sometimes 63 sometimes unanimous whatever are those comments not any one of them but are those comments and the generation of that sort of oh this guy's bad for democracy this this Supreme Court Justice is a threat to democracy is that the kind of thing that raises the Threat Level and would you caution against that well I I do believe that uh we've seen an increase in threats of violence which again that's the FBI's Lane not rhetoric no matter how Despicable or heated it is but violence and threats of violence we have seen an uptake in threats towards judges among other prominent public officials including as you say a case that we helped investigate involving a threat to a sitting Supreme Court Justice um an attempt an attempt thank you right um and uh I think it's a reflection of a broader phenomenon than we are seeing in this country uh where people again very passionate I respect that very angry I respect that but there's a right way and a wrong way to express yourself when you're angry and and violence and threats of violence just just can't be it and that's where we fit in we it's not my role as FBI director to call out you know particular people's rhetoric there's a place for that um but that's that's not my role as FBI director but but when it turns to violence and threats of violence that is has to be treated as unacceptable and that's the way we look at it thank you Mr chairman I yield back director when the FBI learned that Iran was threatening president Trump's life so I want to I want to be a little bit careful here not talk about specific classified information but um we have been for quite some time uh and I'll stick with what's in the open record we for some time and I in particular for some time have been calling out uh the efforts by the Iranian government to attempt to retaliate for the uh the killing of solomani by going after uh current or former prominent us officials and we've even had an indictment against it and I think that we need to recognize the brazenness of the Iranian regime including right here in the United States and I expect that we're going to see more of it and I expect there'll be more coming on that I'm not aware of any threat information uh related to protes that wasn't you know passed in a timely way but I can't really get into specifics here it's it it's minority's time here but I I just felt that was a question the committee need to understand and understand and it sounds like you've known that for a long Secret Service any information related to threats against uh the former president which again as we've sort of talked about is um happens all too often is something that we have a whole process that we routinely share with secret service at a number of levels in a timely way and to my knowledge that has consistently been followed gentleman from Georgia's recogniz thank you Mr chairman uh thank you for being here director Ray um director Ray the FBI is the independent law enforcement agency under the Department of Justice is that correct yes and does the FBI director currently uh report to [Music] anyone director Ry What specifically is the FB FBI doing to reinforce that such decisions are in fact for the private companies to make and not the administration so uh I think the best way to summarize it is that the guidance uh makes uh all kinds of additional steps to underscore that the FBI has no interest in participating in any way whatsoever in the company's decision-making that companies are completely free to take any actions on their own that we are simply passing information onto them uh for them to do whatever ever it is they want to do independently uh consistent with I should say uh I very much appreciate the Supreme Court's finding that no evidence that FBI coerced platforms to take content down well I don't believe that that's what the Supreme Court found what the Supreme Court found was that the parties involved didn't have standing but I think there's a whole body of evidence and legal analysis demonstrating that in fact this Administration was violating the First Amendment rights of of folks through social media companies I'm just going to ask one very one final very quick question if the FBI was involved in the removal or restriction of speech of Americans do you agree that this would be a violation of the First Amendment well again I'm not going to engage in hypotheticals my understanding and my strong view from everything I've seen is that we did not violate the First Amendment G lady y's back gentleman from Texas is recognized thank you director i' I've just got two easy questions for you in February Donald Trump Jr received a letter containing a white suspicious powder that read quot Lee Harvey Oswald's grandson must complete his contract end quote the United States Secret Service and the FBI said they would investigate the matter and five months later no more information has been released I've also visited with Mr Trump and he has not received any information either why is that so as I sit here right now I'm not familiar with the specific investigation but I do know that we uh have had unfortunately quite a few investigations of uh um threatening mailings and white powder letters and things like that so I'm happy to drill into it and have us Circle back to you and see if there's more information we can share about it thank you and would you maybe Circle back to the Mr Trump Donald Jr I think they'd like an update as well uh short let me again I don't like I said I'm not familiar with the specifics but I'm happy to have us look into it and get back to whoever we need to get back to thank you uh next question the Pittsburgh field office now handling the assassination attempt investigation is that right uh well there several there Pittsburgh field office is the lead office we obviously have lots of I think it's about half maybe over half of the FBI's field offices are working on this including almost every headquarters division uh so we have lots and lots and lots several hundreds of of employees working on it Pittsburgh's the lead okay this is the same office that botched the hunter Biden laptop case and they in my view and my constituents and many Americans displayed a clear reluctance qu that's a quote reluctance to really do any tasking quote effectively failing to investigate according to the US attorney on the case my question is how can we trust this office and why does it keep reappearing in critical election related investigations or is that just dumb luck so I want to be a little bit careful on what I can say here because some of what you're talking about relates to an ongoing investigation being led to by the special councel uh Mr Weise but what I can tell you is that the the Pittsburgh field office's involvement in the matter you're talking about was uh the choice to by the attorney general attorney general bar to have the US attorney and the FBI fi office in Pittsburgh handle that particular matter as to your summary or characterization of what uh us attorney now former US attorney Brady actually said I'd have to see the whole context I'm not quite sure that's what he said but I I think as to your overall question about confidence what I would tell you is we have that's the point I'm trying to make about the sheer breadth of our investigation yes the Pittsburgh field office is the office on the ground that's where the the attempted assassination happened but we are using the full might of the FBI criminal and National Security that's why I'm pointing out that multiple field offices over half of our field offices almost every headquarters division several hundreds of employees these are people uh who are working around the clock to deal with this historic attack uh and I have the utmost confidence in those hundreds of employees agents analysts and professional staff and the American people should too I yield to Mr Jordan I I preed the gentleman yielding uh uh director I guess I'm not clear exactly where all you said there were eight shell casings on the roof so eight bullets were fired we obviously know that Mr compor lost his life two other two other rally goers were injured seriously injured and then the one that hit hit president Trump um does that account for was were some of these individuals hit multiple times where did all eight bullets to go is I guess my question uh I don't have that in front of me I'm happy to Circle back and get that to you uh it's assuming we have that information yet um uh as I said I think with uh with respect to former president Trump um there's there's some question about whether or not uh it's a bullet or shrapnel that you know that hit his ear so it's it's conceivable although as I sit here right now I don't know whether that bullet in addition to you know causing the grazing could have also landed somewhere else um but I believe we've accounted for all of the shots and the cartridges so let us it's my understanding that the very first one was the one that hit the president is that very first shot or is that not accurate I I don't as I sit here right now I don't know the answer to that I believe we know the answer to that I just don't have it in front of me okay okay um is there any chance this this I mean it seems to me that this bad guy this shooter was was focused on President Trump but you indicated that he purchased 50 rounds of of ammunition I believe earlier that day do you have any indications thus far in your investigation that in addition to going after and trying to assassinate the former president he was also looking to do a lot more damage to other individuals that's a hard question to answer what I would would say is I I agree with you that um his Preparatory activity uh is what we've seen so far the limited information that that has been relevant and interesting about his Preparatory activity does seem to be that he had settled on former president Trump as a Target and this rally as his moment to try to take a shot um but uh in addition to the 50 rounds of course you have the issue of these explosive devices right um and so what else he may have had in mind is is something that I think is very much of an open question um on the one hand you have these explosive devices including the one still back in his home uh that wasn't in quite the same stage as the one in the vehicle vehicles uh ones in the vehicle but uh he clearly had those explosive devices for some reason um and so we're trying to figure that out as I've said before you know sometimes in these kind of situations you find like a Manifesto or something like that it's frustrating to us and I'm sure frustrating to you and the American people that we haven't found anything quite like that it we'd love to have a road map that tells us exactly what he was thinking we haven't found that yet doesn't mean we won't we're looking all over the place and we're going to leave no stone unturned thank you gentleman from Texas is recognized thank you Mr chair thank you director for being here today I know it's been a very long day busy day on Capitol Hill and also I want to apologize in advance if there's any uh repetitive questions uh for me uh but I have to ask uh giving that our sitting president resigned from The Campaign on Sunday and the Secret Service director resigned yesterday you don't plan on resigning anytime soon do you sir no sir good to go uh earlier today uh you told this committee that you recovered eight bullet cartridges from the roof next to the shooter and given that testimony I have two questions for you uh how many shots were fired at president Trump and how many shots were fired in total of the entire day I know I keep hearing eight but were there any more that that were unaccounted for uh the best information I have right now is eight shots uh as to the sequence uh I'm not sure I have that sitting here right now as I said to the chairman I'm going to go back to my team and see if if we've got that nailed down yet and if we have I'm happy to share it with with you and the rest of the committee please do sir thank you very much for that uh you also mentioned that that the shooter used encrypted messages to uh to to communicate specifically do you know what apps or what what apps he was using to commun communica can you confirm if he was communicating with any foreign Nationals through the encrypted messages