Summary
Todd Blanche (Acting Attorney General, Department of Justice) announced DOJ will not move forward with the $1.8 billion anti-weaponization compensation fund.
Blanche requested $41.2 billion for fiscal 2027, citing violent crime reductions, fentanyl seizures, fraud enforcement, and immigration backlog cuts nationwide.
Rep. DeLauro (D, CT-3) pressed Blanche on the IRS settlement barring tax claims against Trump family, which Blanche defended as standard.
Rep. DeLauro (D, CT-3) condemned pardons and alleged self-enrichment while other members praised DOJ's fraud, gun rights, and anti-cartel efforts.
Blanche pledged to deliver overdue appropriations reports as FY27 funding decisions continue amid ongoing litigation over the abandoned fund disputes.
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Hearing details
View on Congress.govHouse of Representatives
House Appropriations
Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
1h 51m
Witnesses1
Acting Attorney General, Department of Justice
Members who spoke12
Transcript
committee subcommittee will be in order without objection the chair is authorized to declare a recess at any time i'll begin by recognizing myself for uh an opening statement and i wanna welcome our witness the honorable todd blanch acting attorney general of the united states to testify before our subcommittee today last month the uh fiscal year twenty twenty seven commerce justice science and related agencies bill cleared the full house appropriations committee and the attorney general's uh leadership of the department of justice comes at a crossroads On the one hand, the subcommittee recognizes the strides taken by the department to make communities safe again across the United States and to address the misguided priorities of the previous administration. On the other hand, the subcommittee recognizes areas for improvement, such as communicating with the subcommittee. and the lack of testimony ahead of our bill moving forward. Additional areas of concern deal with getting appropriated dollars out the door and making progress with already approved projects. From the proposed federal prison in Leicester County, Kentucky, in my district that has been stalled to the delay of several grant programs including the prescription drug monitoring program which i worked to start in response to the opioid crisis and that's vital for many communities like mine it's critical for this department to move with speed and meet congressional intent finally to date we're still waiting on responses to questions for the record from two fiscal twenty-six department hearings while i would have preferred to start the fiscal uh twenty-seven year cycle differently by having this conversation prior to last month's mark-up this hearing is hopefully the start of productive dialogue between the subcommittee and the department under your leadership i look forward to hearing your priorities and vision for the department and responses to our questions regarding the recent announcements. Your testimony will still be valuable to the committee as the fiscal year twenty-seven appropriations process continues. Over the past year, the Department of Justice has made great strides in combating drug cartels and curbing the flow of illicit drugs, including fentanyl. the Drug Enforcement Administration and Department of Justice have taken down some of the most notorious cartel bosses such as El Mayo, the co-fond uh founder of the Sinaloa cartel and Nicolas Banduro, the leader of the cartel of the Sons and former president of Venezuela. While these are significant wins, the department must continue this fight to eradicate the flow of illicit drugs and bring more cartel leaders to justice. While issues such as illegal immigration have been addressed head-on, other issues have emerged over the past year. I applaud the department's efforts to tackle emerging issues, such as fraud, that pits the underworld against American, and their hard-earned taxpayer dollars. And we look forward to hearing more about the department's plans to continue these efforts. I also look forward to hearing about the department of efforts um in supporting state, uh local and tribal law enforcement agencies. Over the past year, from uh Washington to Memphis, Tennessee, the Department of Justice has aided local law enforcement agencies in the surge operations to combat violent crime. American streets are safer now because of the actions of this department and the Trump administration. General Blank, I stand ready to support you in your efforts to ensure that the American public lives in a society that is free from crime and abuse. I look forward to hearing more from you today. regarding areas of progress, areas of need and plans and to continue the department's momentum. While the fiscal twenty-seven appropriations cycle has already commenced, there are critically important funding decisions ahead of us and I hope we gain a better sense of your priorities today so that we can make the uh best decisions on behalf the american people before i turn to mrs. ming for uh opening remarks on behalf of this subcommittee i would like to send well wishes for a quick and healthy recovery to uh former attorney general bonnie let me now recognize the uh ranking member of this subcommittee mrs. ming for any remarks that she cares to make
Thank you, Mister Chairman, and welcome Acting Attorney General Blanch, and thank you everyone for your patience as we finished up the prior hearing with Secretary Rubio uh tens of thousands of public servants at the Department of Justice worked very hard to protect public safety and tried their best to uphold the rule of law however the leadership of the department has greatly damaged it over the past sixteen months. Hardworking Americans continue to struggle with higher and higher costs of gas groceries and other necessities yet the trump administration is doing nothing to help them president trump himself has said that he doesn't quote think about americans personal financial situation at the same time a growing number of trump administration officials and their family members are enriching themselves in the millions of dollars by making personal business deals directly connected to their official government decisions working and middle class americans are paying their taxes but the acting attorney general signed an order two weeks ago directing the irs to permanently avoid auditing past tax returns of the trump family members of the trump family are now off the hook for at least one hundred million dollars in taxes on top of that the trump administration and the justice department are actively working to hand one point eight billion dollars in taxpayer dollars over to insurrectionists and other violent felons hundreds of whom assaulted police officers here in the capital one of the insurrectionists jared weiss openly encouraged fellow rioters to attack and to kill police officers he was hired last year by the trump administration as a senior and counselor at the justice department. There have been many other outrages over the past sixteen months. Under this department's leadership and following an interview by then deputy attorney general Blanch Jeffrey Epstein's closest associate the child the convicted child sex trafficker Julian Maxwell was moved to a cushy minimum security prison and was given special treatment and unique privileges. Hundreds of experienced career agents investigators and prosecutors have been fired or forced out of doj as part of a campaign of political retribution by the trump administration just days before the launch of us military strikes in iran this year at least ten fbi counterintelligence agents and support staff including those specializing in the middle east and iran were fired in retaliation for work they had been ordered to do several years ago in the mar-a-lago classified documents case as the new york times reported in march after a year of continuous firings resignations and other disruptions to work elite counterterrorism and counterintelligence units at the justice department have been stretched thin and left short staffed but the threats to our country are growing as part of their retribution campaign the trump administration and doj also deliberately targeted and investigated numerous current and former public officials for criminal prosecution on extremely flimsy grounds if any doj has also trampled on the first amendment by targeting journalists engaged in investigative reporting including an fbi criminal probe of a reporter from the atlantic magazine after its recent reporting about the fbi director's dereliction of his duties multiple news outlets have also reported on the administration's corrupt practice of receiving pay for pardons or clemency for millionaire and billionaire criminals for example we know that the founder of binance was pardoned last october after the company took actions that enriched the trump family by hundreds of millions of dollars in december president trump pardoned the former president of honduras juan orlando hernandez who had been sentenced forty five years in prison for allowing drug traffickers to export more than four hundred tons of cocaine into the us not only was he pardoned but the bureau of prisons helped relocate him from a federal prison in west virginia to the waldorf astoria hotel in new york city after his release all of this has happened in full public view and the trump administration has simultaneously gutted the doj s public integrity section and shut down the public corruption squad of the fbi washington field office there's more over the past sixteen months the doj s highly respected civil rights division has been gutted the fbi has stopped using a national database that tracks hate crime cases and doj is proposing to eliminate the three grant programs aimed at fighting and preventing hate crimes while hate crimes are at a record high The administration also wants to eliminate the community relations service, which was created by the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty four, to prevent and resolve conflicts in American communities. At the same time, DOJ is seizing state voting records and has sued more than thirty states to access their voter information nearly all of the roughly thirty career lawyers in the voting section of the civil rights division are gone. Last month, Acting Attorney General Blanch stated that he sees no problem with deploying ice officers to polling places even though eighteen us code section five nine two prohibits sending armed personnel to polling places and equally as egregious the justice department has taken steps to allow criminals to own guns and continues to illegally restore the gun possession rights of convicted felons and domestic abusers these actions and much more prove that since the start of this trump administration the justice
chair now recognizes the uh ranking member of the house appropriations committee miss delano for any remarks you may wish to make
thank you very much chairman rogers and ranking member. meng acting attorney general blanche welcome There's much I would like to cover today. Uh, the President's budget proposes steep cuts to important programs that combat hate crimes, protect civil rights, prevent gun violence, along with other changes that I believe will weaken efforts to keep our community safe. In an ordinary time, during an ordinary administration, these are topics, uh, that I would focus on. But these are not ordinary times. And this is not an ordinary administration. No, this administration has engaged in what are perhaps the most brazen acts of flagrant corruption I've ever seen. And you are at the center of many of them, Mister Blanch. I know you do not like it when people bring up the fact that before you joined the Justice Department, you were President Trump's personal attorney. But when you are issuing memos granting the president, his children and their company's immunity from audits or prosecution for tax offensive offenses, your previous role becomes relevant information. When you preside over a deal to take one point eight billion dollars of taxpayer money, to create a slush fund to pay out violent criminals who pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers. You cannot be surprised when people question your impartiality. Federal courts have blocked the fund from paying out any claims for the time being. But I am not at all convinced that this administration has given up. You left yourself a lot of room with your carefully worded statement, Mister Blanch. There is effectively no oversight to this slush fund. You appoint every member of the commission and the president can fire any of them at any time for any reason. There is no definite standard for who is and is not eligible to receive a payout. Quote, " weaponization" and " lawfare" are not legally defined terms. Who does and does not qualify appears to be entirely at the discretion of the people that you appoint. There is no transparency built into the fund. There is no congressional oversight. The public has no way of knowing who has filed a claim of how much or on what grounds. Conversely, we do not know who has been denied a claim or why it was denied. We do not even know the process by which claims will be filed or payments dispersed. All we know for certain is that President Trump's personal lawyer, turned Acting Attorney General, set up a one point eight billion dollar fund with taxpayer money that can be used to pay off just about anyone for just about anything. It can be used to pay out violent criminals, who assaulted police officers and ransacked the Capitol on January sixth. I was evacuated from the Capitol on January sixth. These are the people who were arrested, they were tried, convicted, and then pardoned by the administration. And now he wants to raid the treasury to pay them. It is unconscionable. This sort of a scandal uh, that w- it would ruin any other administration and any other time. But because President Trump has rendered House Republican leadership so completely impotent there will be likely no accountability until the next Congress. In addition to the slush fund, you issued a memo stating that the United States is, quote, " hereby forever barred and precluded from prosecuting or pursuing any and all claims end quote against the president his family or their businesses related to ongoing tax investigations. Retroactive immunity would be a curious benefit to bestow on someone who has done nothing wrong. The president, his associates and family members were innocent of whatever they were being investigated for. The investigation would surely bear that out. But now we will never know. Congress and the American people are left to speculate what could have possibly prompted this unprecedented settlement that exempts the President from any accountability for his actions. This is staggering. I had not planned on using my time during this hearing to raise these issues, but I would be deficient in my duty as a member of the Congress, were I to ignore this extraordinary display of self-dealing, self-service, self-enrichment by this administration, beginning with the president on down. All year on this committee we have seen dramatic cuts to programs that help American families who are struggling with the cost of living. We do not have money for food or for housing, to bring down the cost for utilities or gasoline or health care. The president said there will be no money for daycare, for Medicaid, for Medicare. But by God, we do have one point eight billion dollars for a corrupt payout scheme for the president and his political allies. It is shameful. I look forward to hearing your answers to our questions today, Mister Blanch. Thank you and I yield back.
uh now want to recognize our witness uh acting attorney general blanch for an opening statement without objection your written statement will be entered into the record the floor is yours
thank thank you very much chairman rogers and uh ranking member uh ming as well and members of the subcommittee thank you for the opportunity to present president trump's fiscal year twenty twenty seven budget for the department of justice as you all know the request totals forty one point two billion which is a thirteen percent increase over fiscal year twenty twenty six underscoring our department's renewed focus on reducing violent crime combating the fentanyl crisis strengthening the border and immigration enforcement expanding fraud prevention and ensuring that our law enforcement agencies have the resources they need to protect the american people violent crime reduction remains one of the department's highest priorities since january twentieth twenty twenty five the department of justice has indicted more than uh two hundred and sixty tda members crippling leadership and dismantling operational networks across our major law enforcement components the results have been historic federal law enforcement helped drive a twenty percent decrease decrease in the national murder rate in twenty twenty five arrested forty four thousand violent offenders which was double the previous year and seized over two thousand two hundred kilograms of fentanyl last year law enforcement captured eight of the fbi's ten most wanted fugitives located sixty three hundred missing children and arrested more than two thousand child predators the dea has made thousands of fentanyl related arrests and seized millions of fentanyl pills and hundreds of kilograms of fentanyl powder. In an August surge alone, DEA executed over six hundred arrests, seized multi-ton quantities of narcotics, and recovered more than eleven million in drug proceeds. DEA continues to disrupt global supply chains from source to street. The United States Marshal Service, which is one of the smallest federal law enforcement agencies with ru- roughly uh thirty-eight hundred deputies. Arrested more than seventy-three thousand fugitives, conducted three hundred and eight thousand prisoner movements, housed over fifty-five thousand detainees, and provided protection for eighteen federal protectees including Supreme Court Justice's residences. The Marshals also, as you all know, manage over ten point four billion in seized assets, and remain essential to federal judicial security. ATF continues to be a leader, in the federal effort to combat violent crime since january twenty twenty five atf has arrested more than more than eight thousand seven hundred violent offenders and seized nearly forty four thousand illegal firearms including fifty one hundred interdicted before reaching their destination of mexico atf agents also seized two point seven million rounds of illegal ammunition more than twenty eight thousand three hundred illegal explosives and conducted over thirty five hundred arson and explosives investigations. To sustain these historic results, the fiscal year twenty twenty seven budget includes twenty two point two billion for DOJ's law enforcement components and US attorney's offices. This is a sixteen percent increase over fiscal year twenty twenty six. These investments build on our tremendous progress and will ensure continued momentum in violent crime reduction, nationwide. We are also strengthening immigration enforcement efforts. The Executive Office for Immigration Review has reduced the immigration case backlog by more than four hundred and forty-seven thousand cases since President Trump took office. The budget provides almost nine hundred million for EOR to continue rebuilding its workforce and to modernize case processing systems. Across the entire Department of Justice, nearly four billion dollars supports immigration related enforcement activities. And finally, the department launched the National Fraud Enforcement Division to expand federal fraud enforcement and better protect tax-fair funded programs. The budget includes thirty million dollars to hire one hundred attorneys in enhanced data analytics capabilities with a goal of combating large-scale criminal fraud schemes. DOJ is also modernizing the grants process by consolidating COPS, OJP and OVW into the new Bureau of Justice grants. The goal is to provide a unified and simplified approach to federal grantmaking while preserving the missions of each office. The department also faces serious budgetary constraints. Fiscal year twenty twenty six marked the second year of flat budgets for several components. basically equating to a decrease in funding because costs and expenses increase year over year the bureau of prisons remains under-resourced funded at eight point one billion almost three hundred million below fiscal year twenty twenty five it risks insolvency without additional support the president's request of ten point three billion is essential to restore staffing and to maintain safe and secure facilities in closing The fiscal year twenty twenty seven budget reflects our unwavering commitment to public safety, strong law enforcement partnerships, and responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars. With your continued support, the Department of Justice will remain strong, effective, and fully equipped to protect the American people. Thank you, and I look forward to uh answering your questions, Chairman.
Thank you, General. We will now proceed under the five minute rule with questions for the uh witness. i'll begin by recognizing myself we all too well drug trafficking and drug abuse continue to devastate our communities and towns in december of twenty five president trump designated fencedale as a weapon of mass destruction by executive order how has that historic designation aided the department in its fight against illicit fentanyl and please share how your twenty seven budget request reflects that designation
thank you so look i think calling um calling the the men that are sending poison to this country terrorists um is exactly what they are And what it does, w- by President Trump doing that, is not only there's resources that are more readily available because of that designation but it also allows our homeland security task force, um, around the country, there's one in every single state, um, to effectively focus on, on not only the, the narco terrorists that are in Mexico and South America, but the, the, the drug dealers that are on our streets and our communities, rural communities, city communities, um, everybody's affected by fentanyl. it remains a priority of this department, it will be a priority for as long as president trump is in office, and and that's why you see that we have a um an increase that we're asking for more DEA agents, we're asking for for more money, and and it's exactly to combat that problem.
Let me turn to the issue of illicit vape products, uh which is something that is sending children to the hospital, some as young as middle schoolers in my district, and it's true around the country. I'm pleased to see that the department and its components, such as DEA, ATF and others, directing its efforts to tackle this emerging threat, such as last year's Operation Vapor Trail. Uh, please share how the department is uh tackling that issue and outline your plans to continue this effort in fiscal twenty seven.
Look we this is an example of an all of government approach to tackle this problem. It means working with with other agencies outside of DOJ. It means working with state and local partners to to combat this very serious um problem that that affects the youth, it affects um a lot of our most vulnerable and and it's a it's it's been a priority for the past fourteen months, it will remain a priority. and and part of it is not only enforcement but it's also education and making people understand the the importance of and the dangers associated with this and and and look we're gonna we've been doing that for the past year and we'll continue to do it going forward
as i mentioned in my opening statement i applaud the department's efforts to take an aggressive stance on those who defraud the american taxpayer in recent weeks we've seen several examples of charges brought guilty pleas entered and successful convictions of those who have committed fraud tell us about the department's new national fraud enforcement division and highlight some of the division's early successes
this is a look this is this is one of the most important things we're doing at this at the department of justice um we stood up a new fraud division not because we we haven't prosecuted fraud for for a long time but because we wanna make sure that there is a renewed focus out of washington d. c. and every us attorney's office to combat fraud and and these are individuals the the the the the people that we're targeting are literally stealing from this country so they're signing up for programs where they're not entitled to it whether it's daycare centers whether it's um whether it's snap benefits and and the the focus will be not only on the on the big big players but on the small
the national fraud enforcement division established uh after the passage of the fiscal year twenty six commerce justice appropriations act uh for this uh current fiscal year tell us how the department plans to fund and staff that division that seems to be hitting the ground running
so a couple of different ways we move prosecutors from the criminal division that were doing fraud work to the new the new um division um a different prosecutor from every us attorney's office has been designated to work within this division although they'll stay obviously in their us attorney's office and then and then with the expected money that we're getting um we're going to hire and so it's a combination of existing talent within the department and and and then bringing more talent in over the next um over the next year or so
how does this new division interact with other parts of the agency
so it um closely and so it's a partner it's it's gonna it's working with with not only fbi and hsi and state ags and state inspector generals but also us attorney's offices and and um and again this is not a new thing to tackle fraud but it's a a renewed effort by the department of justice to to combat what has become a a very big problem in this country with with a lot of people just stealing um from from the money from the generosity of the american taxpayer
that's mine
thank you mister chairman um mister attorney general i wanted to ask a few questions about the anti-weaponization fund uh we know that the department has agreed to pause this effort until at least june twelfth uh i wanted to ask what your plans were for the fund after june twelfth
so thank you so look we're not moving forward with the fund you you're right that there's a that um in in the case in the eastern virginia in in june but we are not moving forward with the fund period um we we the the reasons for the fund is something that president trump talked about for a long time um which is the the fact that there were a lot of people in this country who had their government weaponized against them um the reasons for the fund i think were were were uh remain as important as they were before but um we are not moving forward with the fund
not moving forward ever
correct
oh there's no more fund then
well to the extent there was a fund i remember the fund wasn't set up yet there were no commissioners may name there was no um so we're not moving forward mmm no claimants brought anything in front of um there there was no claims made yet so yes um we're not moving forward with the fund
um you and associate attorney general woodward signed earlier documents regarding the settlement and this fund would both of you now sign and release documents reversing the doj s position on the fund
i'm not uh we're not moving forward with the fund i'm not sure what that means to sign documents reversing there's nothing to reverse we're not moving forward with the fund not yet
we we know about the the court case the decision um when we've heard press reports obviously um but is there any way that you could put this in writing i i don't know if there are other ways that you could use uh another vehicle to move forward with a similar fund or similar intention and we just wanna reassure the american public we've heard from both republicans and democrats constituents and americans across the country uh about this fund um and i think they would love to be reassured that this fund will not progress
i'm i'm telling you it's not uh i i guess i'm not sure i'm not i'm not trying to be flip up with you i'm just saying i'm telling you it's not i'm not i'm not um the there is a a we put out a statement yesterday um there's been a um an injunction a temporary injunction filed in edda there's litigation in d. c. there's litigation in the southern district of florida um but not withstanding what we do in those litigations and and defending our rights and making sure our rights are protected um we're not moving forward with the fund
ok uh yeah the statement i thought was just about until june twelfth um so if it won't progress after june twelfth that's great to hear and we hope to to see this um in writing
will this problem be solved
yeah
it was just an interesting thought i mean i think there'll be a transcript of what i say here so that that will be in writing
ok ok well we will work with you and hold you to it thank you very much um i wanted to quickly ask uh with my remaining time about uh hate crimes um we are concerned about the president's budget request eliminating three largest sources of federal support to local law enforcement for hate crimes responses and prevention uh legislation passed in a bipartisan basis to bar a higher no hate shepherd bird hate crimes prevention and community-based approaches to prevent and address hate crimes grant programs um why is the proposal why are we proposing to eliminate the very programs that are helping our law enforcement uh in targeted communities
well look there's a there's a lot of money that we have asked for to combat violent crime to combat this type of crime a lot of overlap includes hate crime i am um i i'm happy to have my team work with you to make sure that we're we're getting money where it needs to be that's uh an important issue to president trump and it's an important issue to the department of justice as well
right can you describe or name the areas of overlap
well there is yes i mean sure there is there is billions of dollars and we asked for twelve billion dollars to combat violent crime in grants and things like that a lot of those grants will go to programs that at least part of it includes combating um hate crime and so and there's other individualized grants some of which are are earmarked along the way that that that we're certainly we funded for a long time and and that we will continue to work with you on on on on making sure that we're addressing that
yeah i just wanna make sure that we're working together as we have seen and worked together here in congress uh bipartisan bicameral ways that hate crimes combating hate crimes isn't just not isn't just about prosecution but also about prevention and working with community organizations as well so uh i don't have time left but i would love to continue to work together on this issue
i agree with that
i yield back thank you
i agree with that
judge carter
thank you mr. chairman and i thought you know thank you for being here
thank you
you know appreciate very much hearing from you i've gotta ask you about something that's dear to my heart i authored the justice served act while back and it was allowed to eh it's purpose was to help law enforcement use advanced dna technology to solve crimes and lot of them don't have advanced today is forensic the forensic generic genealogy is the next generation of capability the fbi has already used it successfully in cases like rachel morin and brian noblesberger however many unsolved violent crimes remain at state and local levels these agencies lack the funding to scale uh for these investigations can you can you discuss the doj's j doj's version of forensic generic genealogy whether you can support the carly walker act which would help state and local enforcement solve violent crimes
uh we very much support it sir and uh i think that we have it's extraordinarily important to federal law enforcement and to state and local law enforcement we have i think uh over dozen doj grant programs that are designed to further the research and further the technology in that space i think that's an important place for us to be spending our money because it does solve crime
and uh in turn local people are gonna get the opportunity to petition you to get help on that
correct
on their crimes that they consider very important as i think you may know i was a former district judge in texas and i see the damages caused by lenient policies in judicial overreach i think that creates damages and it uh not only in moving cases along but also in in the people's view of justice and whether it's being justice is being served how is the department responding to the activist judges who issue nation nationwide injunctions against president trump's immigration and national security actions and what is your strategy for defending executive the executive authority in the courts
look we are we are fiercely fighting for what we believe the law is and and when we have judges that disagree with that at a at the district court level we we are um appealing um constantly and we have had extraordinary success at the appellate level even in places like the ninth circuit but in other circuits as well because we're right we're not violating the law we're we're complying with the law that you all passed when it comes to immigration and and the way that we're we're handling the immigration enforcement we will continue to do that when we lose at the district court level which we do um specially with some of these judges that we think are just not following the law um we fight and we go back and we go back and we appeal and that's what the system suggests we do and that's exactly what we're doing
at least where i come from judges don't may make new law or avoid the law that is written but they follow the law and uh it's a it's a dilemma as far as i'm concerned uh as a district judge i swore to apply the law fairly i appreciate the department's effort to restore just uh equal justice under the law the president's executive order ending weaponization of federal government was an important first step. Under the prior administration the DO DOJ challenged several state laws restricting gender transition procedures for minors. What steps has the department taken to ensure the DOJ's decisions are guided by the constitution the public safety and equal application of the law rather than politics.
Look, we're, it includes both active investigations in the civil space when there's hospitals or, um, institutions that we believe are not complying with the law, and - and those are ongoing. We - we have multiple investigations going on in the civil space. It also includes, um, active litigation, um, against individuals or states that - that we believe are - are violating the constitution. And we've been doing that, um, almost since we - we - we came in a year - a little over a year ago. And we're having - again, it's, you know, we're - we're having success. and we're having success because we're right on the law and even if it's not at the first step with the district court when we appeal we're we're having success and and we our appellate lawyers our civil lawyers are very busy um but they're doing a good job
thank you thank you mr. chairman
thank you judge mr. laroll
thank you mr. chairman if i could just follow up on uh on on my colleague congresswoman mengs uh questions uh i i i i have here um this is the um uh the order on the settlement the one point eight billion dollars and then this is the addendum uh to the order which is about tax immunity and this is a copy of the the settlement agreement and the associate attorney general signed this these two documents were signed by by by by by by yourself now this is all in writing this is all our can you tell us here today that you are going to uh disavow this that you're gonna rescind um uh what you eh eh said to miss meng in writing with these efforts both these three documents are in writing is that a yes or a no
uh so so i can't answer that yes no do you want an answer
yeah
ok so not yes or no you gave me three documents the only document i said we're not moving forward on today is the first document identified which is the which is the anti-weaponization fund there was still a there's still a settlement agreement
one point eight
and there still the the the second document i signed is not an addendum it's a separate attorney general order
ok ok so so but you're not you're not gonna rescind the addenda the not an addendum the second order
no this
the only thing you're talking about here so the blanket immunity is is not something that you're gonna move back on
it's a blanket immunity that's not true
it is
no it's not
read it
ok united states releases waves acquits and forever discharges each of the plaintiffs from and is hereby forever barred and precluded from prosecuting or pursuing any and all claims counterclaims causes of actions appeals requests for any release i mean this is this is a this is an order for from you but you're not prepared you are prepared to say that the president and his family
yeah it was
will be uh uh barred uh uh uh uh are immune uh from that's a yes
no it was not a yes i had not answered the question i can answer if you want me to
what are you doing with this
ok so there was a settlement which is one of the documents you showed ok
yes
part of the settlement included the the the second order that you just held up
right
and that is still nothing has changed with that what i said today what i've said a couple of times today as what we talked about yesterday is we're not moving forward with the anti-weaponization um the fund
ah ok but you are moving forward with this second order
it's not moving forward there's a settlement there's a settlement that the irs entered into with president trump and others his his family and his companies as part of that settlement as is customary in irish settlements
your turn
um there is a separate ag order
friends listen to what is being said here uh uh uh uh today here this is really pretty extraordinary um that we are going to forever barred and precluded from examining or prosecuting the present his son's and the trump organization's current tax filings. Simply put, you just gave the president and his family a tax immunity to the tune of about a hundred million dollars.
Not true.
Well, yes, you have, my friend.
No, that's not true.
You know, um, uh, uh, look, and I just wanna say this. The Save America PAC, you paid you dear nearly ten million dollars between March of twenty twenty four and December of twenty twenty four to service the president trump's personal defense attorney
i'm sorry what is he saying
my god don't you not find there's any conflict of interest in what you are doing here as the acting attorney general of the united states
i i didn't what are you saying is a conflict i don't understand what you're saying
you
hmm
listen
the fact that i used to have a job and i have a current job
the i i i'm gonna you know i got less time left but i
i i just wanna return my point because i think if you really answer
ok
when you're done
on what you're doing on this is that you've taken one piece and you said ok we have had a ton of backlash on this uh uh uh on on this one point eight billion dollar slush fund uh however so we'll we we're not move on that but as part of the settlement which you've said which is this uh uh immunity for the president and his family and his business etcetera
that stands thank you for that
it's not it's not immunity ma'am it's it's it's
it's thank you thank you it's immunity
it's a promise it's it's not a it's not a it's not immunity ok so it's not immunity, it is immunity my friend it's not what it says is like like anytime the irs settles with an individual tax parent or or another company, as part of the settlement, it's standard it's typical for to to to get rid of past ongoing audits it's not a forward looking document, it's nothing that gives any sort of immunity in the future, to the president or his family or his organizations and so by you saying that it just it's not true
by you saying what you've said it is not true so thank you and i yield back
time of the gentlelady has expired mr. clive
thank you you're an attorney i never got to do this please do
thank you mister chairman um and thank you uh acting attorney general blanch for being here today uh i wanna commend the department of justice's work in protecting american's second amendment rights your fiscal year twenty seven budget requested one point four million to establish a second amendment rights section within the civil rights division and i was proud to lead an amendment in the fy twenty seven cjs appropriations act uh to codify it this section monitors state and local laws for unconstitutional infringements and pursues enforcement where necessary unlike the biden doj which sought to charge service disabled for using stabilizing braces, the trump department of justice has already sued multiple jurisdictions over unconstitutional gun laws and i look forward to ensuring that this office has the resources that it needs. congressional republicans and president trump also delivered the biggest second amendment victory in over ninety years by eliminating the nfa transfer and manufacturing taxes on short-barreled firearms and suppressors in the one big beautiful bill. For ninety-one years the NFA subjected gun owners to these unconstitutional infringements. Removing these taxes is a major step towards restoring those freedoms. However, Congress's intent was to remove both the taxation and the registration requirements, as they are inseparably linked. Without the NFA tax, there is no foundation for the registration requirement, since as I understand it, the registration exists solely to account for the taxes paid literally by the serial number of the firearm yet the department of justice is currently not following this congressional intent so sir do you agree that the national firearms act codified in the internal revenue code and originally part of the treasury department is a tax law
yes although my disagreement respectfully is is on the intent of congress if that's the congressional intent i uh welcome it uh it's not a an objection the department has to to the goal you're talking about it's just understanding the congressional intent when it comes to whether the tax is extended
well if it's a tax law and you eliminate the tax then you know then the registration in my opinion has no foundation and i wrote it so
well that's pretty good intent i suppose
ok if the nfa registry no longer records the payment of a tax on the zero tax firearms and it exists solely to register them then this appears to be in direct conflict with the firearm owners protection act of nineteen eighty six which explicitly prohibits any federal database or system that tracks firearms or their owners and i would like to um uh to repeat that for you and it says in nine twenty six section uh us uh c eighteen nine twenty six it says no such rule or regulation prescribed after the date of the of the enactment of the firearm owners protection act may require that any system of registration of firearms firearms owners or firearms transactions or dispositions be established. That's the uh FOPA of nineteen eighty-six. So um in your view, is the Department of Justice complying with the FOPA's prohibition against a firearm registry for these zero tax firearms?
Look, I think I I am familiar with this issue, I know it's under active litigation, so I wanna be careful um i will tell you that that that is something that we're that we're working on get into a a good answer to
ok well um i encourage you to have a great answer and that is to eliminate the registration for those things that are not taxed when the database is indeed a tax database uh thank you now i was happy to see that uh this committee
understood
to take action on this very important issue by issuing uh by prohibiting the registration of zero tax firearms in the f y twenty seven c j s appropriations bill and i look forward to continuing this fight moving forward so i'm gonna give you some ammunition there ok
ok
alright thank you
thank you
um now acting attorney general blanchett i also want to applaud the fantastic work the trump administration and your doj have done in curbing the waste fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars vice president vance's task force to eliminate fraud is already leading to results uncovering billions of dollars in fraud specifically your department has created the National Fraud Enforcement Division to lead the federal government's efforts to investigate, prosecute and remedy rampant fraud. My constituents want accountability for the fraud that has siphoned away their hard-earned tax dollars. So I certainly welcome the click of handcuffs on those stealing from the American taxpayers. So, can you elaborate on some of the most egregious cases that your department is prosecuting or has already prosecuted?
yes so so the there's a couple of examples the most egregious cases are when individuals create completely fictitious organizations whether it's a daycare center whether it's a an autism center and so this is money our tax dollars going to completely fictitious entities and it runs through the state and what we found in some states is there's virtually no compliance there's no check on the system and so it's it's in some ways a very easy crime to catch once we identify it because completely made up and so this isn't an example of a doctor putting the checking the wrong box but is actually performing a service this is pure theft and and we've seen that unfortunately um too much in this country and so that's again one of the main reasons why we started the the new fraud division is because um we we will save um hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars um through this effort
thank you very much mr. chairman i yield back
mr. raffaei
thank you mr. chairman uh to the ranking remember i did wanna follow up on um ranking member meng's uh questions about binance um which frankly looks to me like a blatant pay for pardon scheme so let me walk through some of the facts um that lead me to that conclusion in late twenty twenty three binance and ceo zhao agreed to pay a penalty of four point three six billion a US judge approved the guilty plea uh for multiple federal crimes and a civil settlement for anti-monday laundering and sanctions. And that was in uh uh twenty twenty three. Donald Trump is elected president November twenty twenty four. December twenty twenty four, mister Zhao and mister Witkoff meet in Abu Dhabi at a Bitcoin conference. Uh in March of twenty twenty five, couple months later uh you're confirmed as deputy attorney general march twenty fifth twenty twenty five world liberty financial announced that it would launch a stable coin called usd one world liberty financial is a family owned business by the trump uh uh trump family two of his sons are in it mister woodcoff's uh got interest in it as well one month later in april twenty twenty five binance's founder mister zhao is sentenced to federal prison for money laundering and other federal crimes That included funding to terrorist groups like ISIS, Al Qaeda, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. On May one, uh, World Liberty Financial announces that an Emirati company called um MGX, that also has ties to Mister Woodcough, would use two billion dollars on the stable coin I just mentioned, USD one, to invest in Binance. This gave President Trump and his family a revenue stream that could be worth tens of millions of dollars according to the Wall Street Journal. Uh, Binance took steps that catapulted the Trump's family's ventures into stablecoin product, enhancing its credibility and pushing its market capitalization up from a hundred and twenty seven million to over two point one billion dollars. Now, on May fifth, Mister Zhao publicly stated that he had applied for a presidential pardon for the crimes that he'd previously pled guilty to. and had been sentenced to jail for. And the uh, the uh, restitution amount of four point three billion plus was put in place. Few months later on October twenty one, twenty twenty five, President Trump grants him a full pardon, with no explanation, by the way, in the document at least that I saw. So. This looks like a, a pay to play kind of scenario. You've got the meeting that takes place. you've got the money that's transferred to a f- an entity that's owned by the Trump family. I don't think the president's actually divested his interest there necessarily, but I could stand corrected on that. But certainly his family still has interest in it, as does Mister Whitcoff. And then a few months after that he issues a pardon. So why haven't you just pointed a special prosecutor to take a look at this? This looks on its face, it just looks like a quid pro quo scenario. that should be investigated. Why haven't you taken that step?
Well, to be, look, the the power to pardon in our Constitution is given to the President of the United States. The Constitution does not require him to provide any explanation for who he chooses to pardon or not pardon, or commute or not commute. And so I I don't I very much reject the idea that this, the the the the premise that this looks like something, um, is is a basis for me to appoint a special prosecutor.
Well, let me let let me reclaim my time. The Constitution gives it does not give power to pardon in exchange for payments. Clearly. And a two point one billion dollar payment to his family, and we'll set aside the fact that he should have divested from all of those interests anyway, but the fact that he gave the two billion, that he gets the two billion dollar piece, and then a few months later pardons the guy who was guilty of money laundering and providing money to or helping to finance the money laundering operation for ISIS and al-Qaida and the guys we're fighting in Iran right now the Iranian Revolutionary Guard
i i just i don't
that's not a problem
i it the the who he chooses to pardon is not a problem period and you're saying all these things that are just not true i mean
that's what's the legal basis for that statement
uh the constitution of our united states
the constitution does not give you the authority to pardon in exchange for payments it does not permit bribery
yes it does yes it does what what does that mean in exchange for payments you have you just told me nothing about exchange for payments you said there's
well i just told you
you just put a bunch of facts together and you do a conclusion
well that's why you need a special prosecution Shouldn't somebody take, clearly you're not gonna do it. Shouldn't somebody be appointed a a truly experienced prosecutor to take a look at this and conduct the investigation?
To look at what the president did,
And then if he reaches the conclusion that you're right,
something he is full of authority.
that's fine, but if he finds that there's a problem
But
with what the president did or his family,
you want a special prosecutor.
then he should he should move forward with with uh prosecuting that.
I'm a gentleman who has expired. I very much disagree. Mr. Strong.
Thank you Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Main. for convening this hearing. Uh, Acting Attorney General Blanch, thank you for being here with us today. Uh, I appreciate you and the department for your work supporting law enforcement, addressing uh, evolving threats across this country. As you know, North Alabama and Redstone Arsenal have uh become a premier hub for the DOJ and FBI operations, supporting critical work in counter-terror terrorism, explosives and ballistic analysis, emerging um, UAS threats and uh, coordination. federal agencies. North Alabama has repeatedly demonstrated it can support the nation's most critical missions with a highly skilled workforce state of the art facilities and room for continued growth the um the funds this committee approved last month include a planned investment um in advanced training and operational support at Redstone Arsenal as part of the department's broader efforts to strengthen the FBI's readiness and capabilities as acting attorney general How do you plan to ensure that these investments uh support Redstone Arsenal's continued growth as a center for FBI training and operations?
Look, I think it's, you're you're absolutely right that that the facilities that the FBI and ATF have in in in in that area is key to our um to protecting our borders and key to to um everything from from our drone um anti-drone um capabilities that we're working on and so we're doing things like getting fbi personnel out of d. c. and down there where they should be working and same with atf and and look there's a very um it's an important law enforcement um priority of this administration and of me to continue that to continue that effort so i expect that you will see um not infrastructure which we're we've asked for money on which we're spending money on but also getting more of our talented personnel there to continue the the mission of the fbi
Thank you. I also want to echo what my colleagues have said and commend the department uh for the DOJ's recent aggressive work to combat fraud. For years, bad actors have uh treated taxpayer fund pro- uh funded programs from pandemic pandemic relief loans to Medicaid and SNAP benefits like their own personal piggy banks in Minnesota defeating our future scheme alone in um involved more than two hundred and fifty million fraud tied to federal children's nutrition and pandemic error programs. And just last month the DOJ announced charges against fifteen defendants accused of participating in more than ninety million in Medicaid far- uh fraud schemes. Um, what steps uh does the department uh in taking to ensure that we are not just pro- uh prosecuting these ki- criminals but actively clawing back every single stolen taxpayer dollar possible.
Yeah, it's a it's a great it's a great question and I will tell you every single indictment that you have seen from this department includes meaningful forfeiture efforts whether it's freezing accounts uh the day of the arrest or in the time leading up to the arrest or going after the assets that have been purchased by the defendants as part of our criminal forfeiture efforts it's it's as important as arresting the the bad guy as trying to recover the assets that they stole from from the American taxpayer. Um, it's it's every sing- like I said, every time we make an arrest, every part of our investigation is focused on not only identifying the bad actors, but recovering our assets.
Thank you. Hardworking Americans go to work every day and follow the rules. Um, you know, they're sick and tired of the the seeing their tax dollars stolen by scammers and non-U. S. citizens. Uh, the time is uh past due um to make sure that we do what needs to be done, and I think that's what America's looking for. I was pleased uh to vote with the committee to provide the full request of thirty million dollars uh for the department to hire one hundred more attorneys to more effectively combat fraud targeting government programs and the American public. Um, Attorney General Blanch, how will you uh the additional uh attorneys help insure the large fraud investigation does not stop with first round of indictments but continue until every individual who knowingly participated has been identified and where appropriate and they're appropriately prosecuted.
Yes, and thank you for the the vote on the funding, those prosecutors will help lead that effort and and what we're doing is we're working, uh this is again an all government approach, so we're working with HHS, with our other federal partners to identify uh bad actors, we're we're working with um Inspector Generals from all these locations and and working those cases with FBI, HSI, um state and locals and the states that are willing to help us. And that's the whole point of the, of the new fraud division is to leave, whether you have committed a one thousand and one dollar fraud, or whether you've committed a, a hundred million dollar fraud. You should face a felony in this country for stealing from the American taxpayer, uh, payer and, and that's what we're committed to doing, um, uh, uh, as, you know, n- we started it a year ago and we're not stopping.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Chairman, you yield back. Mr. Morelle.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for convening this thank you to ranking member Mangan and ranking member Deloro uh as well and thank you to the attorney general for appearing um i wanna associate uh myself with the remarks by uh the chairman uh just to say i'm deeply frustrated that the department uh is appearing and and the attorney general is appearing here nearly three weeks after the subcommittee and full committee have marked up commerce justice and science appropriations uh it's it's deeply troubling this is not how the appropriations process is expected to work and uh we would love to hear from you in the future and i think we should ought to uh your budget priorities question your leadership um what the leadership believes about these so i i just deeply frustrated i hope it doesn't uh uh hope next year we don't repeat this uh so i just wanted to associate myself with that i i was just curious uh just as a follow-up to mister ivy's line of questioning is it your testimony that if someone paid the president of the united states a million dollars that that would not violate federal law
mmm uh that is not my testimony
what is your testimony about
my testimony is that the power to pardon in our constitution is not limited so what i mean by that is is there he doesn't the president doesn't have to say why he is pardoning and not pardoning ok
no i didn't say that i'm asking you though so if someone wrote in the memo of a check for a million dollars to the president of the united states any president said for issuance of a pardon would that be a violation of federal law
um yes potentially i mean i mean i i would even under the under the facts i mean i i think there would be a a a
it would under what section of law you just said it was
violation of the bribery law yes
bribery law even though the constitution gives you unlimited power as president
the person that paid the bribe would would be for the president himself who accepted the money i think you would need to impeach him in that case
ok just gotcha
at least under the my reading of the constitution
uh just wanted to uh make sure i understood what you were saying um uh i wanted to ask you completely different topic i serve as the ranking member of the committee on house administration which is jurisdiction over federal elections as you know federal law prohibits the deployment of military personnel or armed federal law enforcement officers from polling places
yes
federal also prohibits intimidating threatening or coercing any person for the purpose of interfering with the right to vote violators of either either of these laws are subject to criminal penalties as you know under federal law the president has continued to talk about an issued rhetoric which suggests that he might be willing to deploy military personnel or federal agents perhaps even fbi at polling places and i'm just um want your assurance that uh you will not uh allow department of justice personnel around election places polling places uh this november
i'm sorry that i won't allow
you're part like you you
do you allow personnel around election place we will we will comply with the law ok it's true
no in polling you will comply with the law with the federal law
i i yes
and will you commit to investigating and prosecuting individuals who violate those protections or otherwise interfere with an american's right to live
we we will we will definitely comply with the law and the law enforcement will investigate alleged violations of the law
thank you sir um just weeks ago changing topics atf announced thirty four regulatory changes affecting the agency's efforts to combat a violent uh gun crime at that announcement you said what we're doing today will actually help law enforcement and then director i think it's cicada added we believe that these rules will not negatively impact public safety those are your words um your regulations tell a different story in the rule that allows a potential prohibited purchaser to skip a second background check the department warns a prohibited person who obtains a firearm under the proposed rule and uses that firearm to inflict mass casualties would have been prevented under the current requirement which the department is asking be taken away and in the rule restricting law enforcement from effectively tracing guns the department again in the in the body of the the regulatory reforms warned that the change that you are asking for could delay or hinder federal state and local enforcement officers track and stop violent offenders those are the department's warnings your own analysis acknowledges the changes could make it easier for prohibited individuals to obtain firearms and harder for law enforcement to track violent criminals so i i you're the nation's chief law enforcement you talked a lot about violent crime why is the department pursuing actions when the department analysis states it would potentially create a much higher risk of violent gun crime for the public
that the the analysis you're talking about is not that is not true right so that is when we talk about potentials with the new regulations that includes a variety of of possibilities when it comes to the regulation you're speaking about directly the the the problem that existed that we were trying to fix with that is making it more efficient and make it easier for um for law enforcement and for FFLs to make sure the only people who could have guns have guns and so the the regulations that exist now that we're that we're changing don't do that they're actually um outdated and they're not the the the the systems are not up to date and that's what the regulation that you're speaking about i believe is designed to fix.
But I would just suggest that the analysis by the department in issuing these uh the elimination of these regulations actually identifies threats and potential harm to the public by doing the regulatory reforms you're suggesting. Um I'd ask you to look at it further and I know my time is out and I wanna yield back,
Thank you.
Mister Chair.
Mister Sri
Thank you Mister Chairman, um uh uh, mister attorney general, um, it's encouraging, it's encouraging to see overdose deaths decline over so much of our country, including in my home state of Indiana. And yet, fentanyl remains the leading cause of death for Americans between ages eighteen and forty five. We've made progress, but we haven't knocked it down. So communities throughout my district continue to feel the consequences of this epidemic. Too many families are still grieving from the loss of loved ones from fentanyl-related overdoses. I commend the administration for the actions, uh, it, you have taken to secure our southern border for aggressively prosecuting drug traffickers and for holding China accountable for its role in supplying the precursor chemicals that have in part fueled this crisis. Those efforts are crucial, and I appreciate your leadership on this. However, despite the stronger enforcement measures here at home, Fentanyl continues to reach across our borders, too oftentimes through Mexico, where the cartels use these precursor chemicals I've described, um, to manufacture and traffic these drugs into the United States. Mister Blanch, would you update us on what the DOJ, under your leadership, is doing to strengthen interdiction efforts real time this year, over the year ahead, through coordination in particular with foreign law enforcement partners.
Yes, thank you.
Serve as a major transit hub.
So Thank you. Look, the biggest thing I can say is the Homeland Security Task Force effort, which is is focused um, it's it's priority is stopping the flow of illegal narcotics, especially fentanyl. into our communities and and you're right that we've made progress but we are nowhere near our goal and i and and with dea with hsi with the fbi we are now um every federal law enforcement agent is is targeting and and working with state and local law enforcement agent and also international partners including in mexico in um ecuador and columbia even in venezuela to to stop not only the flow from south america and mexico but also to the extent there's there's in our communities, we're also completely focused on on ridding the drug dealers and the fentanyl out of the communities as well. So, this is not a problem that gets fixed um overnight. It is such a a crisis in this country, that I promise you the next time that I'm before you, um, we will still be talking about it. But that doesn't mean that we're not making extraordinary progress, and that we're not getting fentanyl off the streets, and we're putting bad guys in jail who are dealing it. And I I commit to you that that President Trump all the way down um to to every federal prosecutor in this country and every FBI and DDA agent is is is is focused on it.
And and in your view, your budget will reflect
Look.
that increased prioritization toward working with
Correct. Hundred percent.
our foreign law enforcement partners.
Yes. Yes.
Right? Uh, effective information sharing across our federal, our state, local and our tribal law enforcement agencies is one of the key tools that we have. uh programs like the regional information sharing systems the the risk are key to supporting criminal investigations um and i see that back in my home district i was in columbus indiana this past week a police department city of fifty thousand people is using risk technology to enhance audio and video evidence leading to the identification arrest and prosecution of armed robbery suspects these programs deliver results from my constituents and the constituents of everyone else uh that i serve with up here today i appreciate the work that congress and doj continues to prioritize information sharing across all levels of law enforcement uh mister blanch what is your department how is your department prioritizing information sharing this year going into the next year with these partnerships that are so crucial uh to bringing in these results.
so we we work with um at the at the at the basic level in the districts around this country we work with our state and local partners um in every single case um that that whether it's a a state case or a federal case we're working with them and you're you're totally right that includes sharing information and making sure the systems can talk to each other uh that costs money and upkeep there's we have multiple grants that are designed to go to state and local law enforcement to make sure they're able to continue to um to have information technology that allows it to be effective with the federal government and and i i agree with you that we cannot solve violent crime we cannot solve the drug problem we cannot help with murders and and and violent and narcotics trafficking without um strong information sharing and and we spend a lot of money on that and it's money that we should be spending
right Uh, thank you and I yield back.
Yes, dame.
Thank you, Chairman Rogers. Uh, thank you to our ranking members. Uh, welcome, Acting Attorney General.
Thank you.
Uh, I wanna speak about justice for the Epstein victims and survivors. And I'm gonna begin with the closing words of Virginia Roberts Giuffre. In her book, it's literally the last paragraph. She writes, "I hope for a world in which predators are punished, not protected." Victims are treated with compassion, not shamed, and powerful people face the same consequences as anyone else. I yearn too for a world in which the perpetrators face more shame than their victims do, and where anyone who's been trafficked can confront their abusers when they are ready, no matter how much time has passed. We don't live in this world yet. I mean, seriously, where are those videotapes the FBI confiscated from Epstein's houses? And why haven't they led to prosecution of any more abusers? That's from Virginia. It was printed, as you know, posthumously after her death. Uh, Mister Blanch, you and I had a chance a couple of weeks ago at the Department of Justice to speak about these cases. We discussed three things in connection with this monstrous decades-long crime spree. Number one, your failure to fully redact survivor information. Number two, your failure to follow the law and release the remaining files. And number three, your refusal to prosecute anybody else. Mister Blanch, let's continue that inane conversation, but this time it's public. This time, and more importantly, it's under oath, you're speaking to Congress. So let's get into it. When will you comply with the law and release all of the files?
Um, as - as I said, you only spoke before um we have complied with the law we have reviewed
there are three million more documents and you know what you said to me they're all duplicative and they include another guy named epstein nobody is buying that's what you said
no i didn't say that i did not say that
that's what you said
so look
reclaiming my time
can i answer can i answer the question
no you may not i just gave you the answer you gave me
ok telling no that's not
no actually it's my time mister chairman i think those are the rules of this committee i told him the answer he gave me and now in public he is trying to say something else Please stop the clock. Can I get that time back? May I have twenty seconds back? Mister Chairman? Thank you, I very much appreciate that.
Do you want me, you don't want me to answer the question.
Mister Blanch. Mister Blanch, as you know, I've visited DOJ three times for as much as ten hours and I'll be going back. Does the Epstein File Transparency Act say that the files should be available to members of Congress with a minderate DOJ where you're in a secure room, you can't uh write on uh any of the binders you can take your own notes is that what the transparency act says
it it doesn't require we allow you to come to do j at all we did that on our own
what does it say in terms of transparency
we do that
it says that they should be made publicly available am i am i correct
and they were they were and they were and they were
publicly available oh let's talk about that
ok
time of the journal id has expired
i
no i'm not
i beg your pardon
just two minutes
and i i'd actually like to get twenty seconds back how do i get cut off two minutes into this
two minutes and ten seconds left
yeah
time of the gentlelady has expired
no no no that's not true i beg your pardon mister chairman
no that's not right that's
what rules are we operating under
ok that's that's not right
because he is under a little bit of heat for not prosecuting anyone in these monstrous crimes i've been in the room i have been there this is what we i had to do to transcribe to show what is true What is true is that the president has lied about being on Epstein's Epstein's plane, and the unredacted files prove that. There's a lot in here. I am I am shocked at this. There's also this set of files in the in the file. This is investigation into the potential co-conspirators of Jeffrey Epstein. I almost used up all the blank ink in the hallway because it's all covered up. It's all covered up. The American people are not stupid. They know that when members of Congress have to go in and actually un-redact, try to find the truth for these victims, something is corrupt. Something is corrosive. You were paid ten million dollars to represent the President. You hang a thirty-foot banner of the President's menacing face over the entrance to the Department of Justice. you said that if you were terminated or not moved forward as Attorney General you would say to the President " I love you, sir". So I have one question for you. Is your obligation to the victims and survivors of Epstein's heinous crimes and all his perpetrators or is your first obligation to the President of the United States?
So, without a doubt we want to bring justice to every victim.
When will you bring that justice?
Can I please finish
Excuse me.
can i finish
it's been decades when we bring
can i finish
when will you bring the justice
so as i was saying when you oh
when will you prosecute and who will you prosecute
can i speak
please allow the witness to answer the question you told me in our conversation you blamed the victims
so i'll tell you so every victim every victim of mister epstein
let the record reflect he told me that the victims didn't give good names
of of of let me let me be crystal clear that this department of justice will always will always protect victims and we'll always prosecute anybody we can ok full stop no ifs ands or buts ok what you are showing in a game of showmanship are redactions because of victims because that prosecution memorandum talks about
perpetrators
excuse me
perpetrators too
how do you know that go ahead
talk to the victims
exactly so they they're victims they're victims' names which we are required to redact
talk to the victims
required by law to redact which we did OK. So so I I take umbrage to the idea.
Mr. Mr. Chairman, I realize I'm over time, I uh thank you for that indulgence. Uh I have uh I wanna ask for unanimous consent to enter records into the uh onto the record. May I do that now?
Without objection.
Thank you. Uh the first
Time of the gentlelady has expired. Mister Alford.
I I would like to enter these records. May I please list what they are, sir?
You you had your chance. Mister Alford.
You're denying me the chance to list what these records are?
Mr. Alford.
Thank you, Chair. Uh, Mister Attorney General, would you like to respond to any of these allegations?
Well, look, I think that that um the idea that this Department of Justice does not stand up to victims,
Oh, I see.
and does not do everything we can, stand up for victims rather, do everything we can to prosecute anybody who harms our most vulnerable, ignores the facts. Um we we will always protect victims. We have said from the beginning, anybody, whether it's their lawyer, whether it's a victim who wants to meet with the fbi or who has information they don't have to come in they can use their lawyers they can use nonprofit groups i've spoken to nonprofit groups my leadership team has spoken to nonprofit groups and victims when we released the epstein files earlier this year i spent the whole weekend on the phone with with many of of epstein's um victims lawyers and and and director patel has said the same thing and so i will say again if there is a lawyer or a victim who has information please come forward and it doesn't mean coming forward to a congressman's office, it means coming forward to the FBI and if there's nervousness or if there's something that um that uh it's a difficult thing to do, we will work with you. That's what we do, that's what the FBI does. And and and and that's what we've said for months and months, and it remains as true today as it was the first time we said.
I had no intention of asking about Epstein, but there were three allegations made of failure to fully redact victims' names. Have you done that?
So we we um the the we were required by law to redact victims names we did not get to choose victims so what the judge told us in new york was if somebody identified themselves as a victim we had to redact that and um and that's what we did um and as
has there been a failure to prosecute perpetrators
never and if there's a if we learn of a of a bad guy that we can prosecute today we will prosecute him today
has there been a failure to release all the files
no so there's we reviewed more than enough we over collected on purpose to make sure we comply with the law and so necessarily by over collecting some of the materials we collected were were not responsive they had nothing to do with, with the upstate files or the transparency act.
I wanna dramatically shift gears now and talk about what's going on in New Jersey. Our federal officers are being assaulted by people who are funded we believe from outside sources um one man was arrested recently death threats on ice officers it's no no wonder they don't wanna wear a mask. I mean, they want to wear masks to protect their identity, to protect their families, to protect their lives while they're trying to deport criminal, legally, illegal aliens and protect this detention center, which is legally there. What is going on in America? Who is funding uh these uh people, Antifa and these other groups that are are causing these issues, uh criminals, uh that are causing chaos in our country and what is the department of justice doing about it
so thank you for that question look if you look at the people who were arrested in new jersey very few of them were from new jersey there was one that was from as far away as portland there were a ton from new york a ton from further out west and so you you do have a concerted effort by national organizations to disrupt and and really just try to create chaos because you also have a a a ice run facility that um that is completely compliant with the law and and and the the men and women that are defending that facility are just doing their jobs and what we saw until earlier this this week was was unfortunately a local government didn't let their cops come and and and help even though i'm sure every one of those cops would have loved to and so until we had that happen um there was there was chaos but we have it under control and there is we we will always defend ice um we will always prosecute anybody who touches an ice officer and and that's what we can do
Mister Attorney General, that is great. How is the investigation going into finding out this illegal funding of these illegal groups that are committing illegal activities?
It's um, we we have multiple investigations and they're ongoing and we will find them.
And do what?
Well, prosecute them, because what they're doing is is absolutely a violation of the law. So the money they're raising is being used for, without a doubt, They're not telling the IRS, for example, that they're gonna spend their money on um on on on umbrellas to hand out at at at at um at riots, right? And so that's the kind of information that that they're lying about and that they're raising money to do and they
Are they, is this outside money from from overseas coming in or is this funded within our borders?
I think both. Um, our investigation today is is ongoing so so but certainly a lot of it's from in our borders. A lot of it unfortunately is from here. But there's no doubt that there's also foreign funding involved. Well, thank you for the work you're doing, and uh, Mister Chair, I'll yield back fifteen seconds.
Thank you, Mister uh Alford, uh Mister Klein.
Thank you, Mister Chairman, Attorney General, welcome. I wanna discuss a troubling development in my home state of Virginia and in states across the country, and uh that's uh crimes committed by illegal immigrants who are released back into communities like Virginia um to continue to commit crimes, not uh deported to their countries of origin. Uh for years under the leadership of Gl- Governor Glenn Youngkin, Virginia law enforcement agencies partnered with the federal government under a two eighty-seven G agreement. Uh these agreements allowed trained law enforcement officers to work federal immigration authorities to identify and remove criminal illegal aliens who had already been involved in the criminal justice system. Now, Governor Spanberger has chosen to revoke these agreements and move Virginia in the direction of a sanctuary Commonwealth. Uh, at a time when Americans are demanding secure borders and safer communities, Virginia is walking away from one of the most effective cooperative tools available to law enforcement. Uh, the result is that dangerous individuals who could have been transferred to federal custody may instead be released back into the communities, and we heard from the uh inept commonwealth's attorney of fairfax county uh steve discono in judiciary committee two weeks ago who was confronted with crime after crime committed by illegal immigrants who were released back into the community because they were not prosecuted or held to account by his office so from the doj s perspective uh does this lack of cooperation between uh federal government and state law enforcement agencies make it more difficult to identify and remove criminal aliens
i mean more difficult and a lot less safe it puts everybody at danger not only the community but the federal law enforcement that have to then go and arrest the person um who should have been just picked up in jail when they were there and the best way to know that it's not working is because when you go to the jurisdictions where it does work where there is um law enforcement working local law enforcement working with federal the federal government it's safer it's efficient and it's complies with all the laws and so the best the best way to know that which way works is to just do a compare and contrast
one of the things we have in this committee is the power of the purse and there is a lot of money flowing through cops grants and other federal support for our local law enforcement agencies we support our local law enforcement agencies we stand with uh our men and women in law enforcement we back the blue uh but uh in those jurisdictions where you see a refusal or a to enter into these types of two eighty seven g agreements um could it be uh encouraged through the tying of these cops grants to these two eighty seven g agreements could that be a productive use of of the funds
yes and and look the the problem is or the challenge is that we love our cops and we want them to have funding and it's uh it's usually not them it's usually the the leadership in in in the local jurisdictions and so we do wanna be sensitive to taking away the money that they need uh because it's not their fault but yes the power of the purse is exactly that it's power
well it's hopeful i'm hopeful that the legislation i've introduced which would do just that uh will move through the uh legislative process uh i also wanna discuss your department's data security program administered through the national security division for years congress has become increasingly concerned that foreign adversaries like the uh have been acquiring vast quantities of americans personal information through data brokers corporate acquisitions commercial relationships and other means um in the hands of a foreign adversary this information can be used to identify intelligence targets facilitate surveillance support cyber operations and strengthen artificial intelligence capabilities the department's data security program represents an important step
mmm
toward addressing these vulnerabilities and protecting americans from exploitation by foreign adversaries uh since implementation of the program can you answer what the doj has learned about the scale of foreign efforts to obtain us data through commercial channels
yeah i mean it happens everyday um and and and it's a constant um effort by not only department of justice but uh lot of the a lot of the federal government to combat that because um the the foreign actors are trying or spending a lot of money lot of resources and they're smart to try to get our our data and so You're right, the the the money that we've put up in these agencies, NSD and other places, um, it's it's it's because we we have to s- make sure that we're not only stopping it, but also putting preventative measures and measures in place so it's not worth it for them to try.
And have you, has the DOJ identified any gaps in current law that make it difficult to prevent sensitive US data from reaching these foreign adversaries?
I don't think gaps is the right way to say it, but I think that it's we need to make sure that we're constantly robust and and and that we we remain strong in in in our regulatory um efforts to stop it
thank you you're back
that uh concludes the regular uh hearing however there is a request for uh a second round the attorney general uh has important matters to attend to so we will attempt to shorten what would normally be a a second round and keep it to two minutes per member if that's ok with you miss ming
yes thank you
alright well that case i'll recognize myself for two minutes let me ask you general about the surge operations that the department uh has conducted on cities across the united states um our state and local partners uh have mixed feelings about the success of that program can you share the impact these operations have had on officer morale for example uh in large cities with historically high crime rates uh and is the department planning to continue these efforts and if so what resources are needed to continue those efforts
So, the surges have been um extraordinarily successful from Aug- August twenty-five, Aug- sorry, from August of last year to April of this year, um we directed almost forty-four million dollars and over eleven hundred agents to these surge efforts. And and in DC and in Memphis, um you see a remarkable reduction in crime, but you also see a community that's appreciative. In in this city we work very well with with local leadership and including the mayor. because the results of the surges is exactly what you expect it to be which is is we're taking bad guys off the streets we're letting people um feel comfortable walking around and and that's the same thing we did in d. c. and and in memphis um we expect to spend another hundred million doing that over the next fiscal year because it's working because it's a good thing to do in this country and so we we um sending a lot of law enforcement into a crime ridden area um works
thanks man
thank you mr. chairman um mr. attorney general i wanna thank you for verbally committing to not moving forward with the so-called um anti-weaponization fund i just wanna make sure are you going to issue a new memo in writing uh rescinding that may eighteenth memo
i i i i'm not committing to putting anything in writing i'm gonna set it to day over and over again i mean i i don't know
nothing in writing ok
the purpose of a putting something in writing i'm telling you what we're doing meaning like what's the why do i need to put something in writing if i'm telling you what we're doing
well you it you you you started it you established it in writing so it just makes sense to rescind it in writing
well trust would verify
i think a lot of americans both sides of the are concerned about it and it would restore a lot of trust about this issue
ok i'm no i'm not committing to doing anything in writing no
you're not committing ok
ok thank you
i mean i'll take it under advisement
i'm just concerned cause you're not under oath and i wanna trust you and i wanna believe you we we all do um but putting it in writing would thank you would settle that issue um i have one minute left still want to ask uh in writing but um every year the committee reports and the joint explanatory statement accompanying the appropriations act direct the department to provide to the appropriations committee various reports on various subjects these reports assist the uh committee's work and help insure transparency and accountability numerous reports from your department have not yet been sent to us and are now overdue uh are you aware of this issue and will you please work to deliver these reports to both the house and senate appropriations committees
uh i will
thank you i yield back
so the lady yields back mister uh judge carter
thank you very much mr. chairman this settlement that you entered in that was entered into that started off to be a a lot of conversation about everybody who was involved as a litigant was they were represented by competent lawyers
yes so
so so this wasn't just one lawyer doing this thing this was there's a whole bunch of lawyers doing this thing right
yes that's correct
and when you when you have a a lawsuit for anything and you decide to settle it you wanna make sure nobody is coming back on the facts that that lawsuit was based on and trying to go forward again so that's why you have to put something like the what the lady read in the in the the the the the agreement and say you did now they if they wanna break the law pass that set of facts and do it again they're not covered
correct
and protected by that
that's correct
they're only protected if that's what your lawsuit was about
correct
and all the lawyers signed off on it and all the lawyers agreed for all the litigants who were involved in that case
hundred percent that's great
so nobody was forcing anybody without a lawyer to make a settlement they all had a lawyer they all probably had good lawyers cost a lot of money and they settled for the facts that we have before us you're stating that you're not gonna continue the the the way to pay it
funds correct
at this time or at any time for that matter
correct
in your in your knowledge
correct
i don't see where the fault is as you're buying
mr. laroll
Thanks, Mr. Chairman. I just want to run through uh some questionable uh uh transactions of uh Mister S- Secretary, uh President received a luxury jet from the Guatari government valued at hundreds of millions of dollars in apparent violation of the emoluments clause of the constitution. Jared Kushner's real estate and financial deals with the Saudi royal family raised serious questions related to kickbacks and bribery that could be in violation of federal bribery laws and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. white house advisor peter navarro a friend of donald trump junior got the pentagon to loan more than six hundred million dollars to vulcan elements a small north carolina startup founded just two years earlier and donald trump junior's venture capital firm has a stake in this company estimates of the company's valuation grew tenfold after the deal was announced aafs infrastructure and energy which is on the cusp of securing a waiver of one billion dollar contract to build an operated pipeline across the Balkans has ties to former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and a lawyer, Jesse Benal, that defended the president and Donald Trump Junior against a lawsuit that sought to hold them responsible for January sixth. This company would be allowed to ship fossil gas of from the United States to replace Russian uh uh fuels. My question is, uh, and we know that the administration, you gutted the public integrity section uh for the last fifty uh years, investigated prosecuted crime related to government integrity and they prosecuted both democrats and republicans simple yes or no question what i have just mentioned do you believe that what i have talked about is enough here for the next attorney general to open a criminal investigation yes or no
no you just read a bunch of a bunch of random unsourced news articles and reports no that's not what that's not the basis to open a criminal investigation i mean you're looking around but it's not
this is not the basis on which to ask
it is not just reading something that's just a hypothetical off a news article it's not
it's not a hypothetical it is real did the president get a a guattari i i i do you read the press do you are you knowledgeable about anything
not the same press you do
apparently not my friend apparently not did the president receive a luxury jet from the
promise me
guattari government valued at hundreds of millions of dollars which is a violation
the united states of america did
of the emelianment clause of the constitution
it is not it is not
while you do not belong in this job mister attorney acting attorney general you should always and recuse yourself from these issues because you are the president's lawyer you are not the lawyer for the united yes you are
i am not the president's lawyer i am not
thank you mister chair
mr. clive
thank you mister chairman um first uh mister acting attorney general i'm sorry to hear that the weaponization fund is not moving forward uh you would have my full support uh when our government is weaponized so as to steal money from innocent law abiding citizens whether by making the process into the penalty or forcing citizens to spend their resources on legal fees for their defense or by acting or by actually seizing their bank accounts through civil asset forfeiture when there is no criminal prosecution it is only right and fair to make these citizens whole and as a victim myself for which every solitary member on this committee who is eight years or more in congress voted for the bill that has my name on it the federal law that has my name on it against the irs people need to be made whole when the when the government has been weaponized against them but what i'd like to talk to you about other than that is in in eighteen seventy three congress enacted the comstock act eighteen usc section fourteen sixty one which prohibits the mailing of abortion inducing materials in the united states although the statute has been amended numerous times including as recently as nineteen ninety four congress has never repealed these criminal prohibitions and as justice thomas recently noted the comp stock act remains valid federal law and is fully enforceable so my question to you is how will the department of justice ensure that this federal law prohibiting the mailing of abortion inducing drugs is properly enforced and i wish i had more time to really go through this because we in the state of georgia have a have a heartbeat bill and we prohibit this type of of drug alright inducing abortions and yet it can come across from other states alright and kill innocent unborn children how how will the department of justice ensure that this federal law is enforced
so it's that's a that's an an important law and an important question and i will tell you that that there's a lot of effort um within the department and and it's not just at the department of justice it's other agencies with in in in the federal government in into how the best way is to make sure that we're protecting the rights of of georgians and and other individual states but also the rights of every american and um you're right i i wish we had more time to discuss that because it's a a complicated issue on the on the first question that you asked um i i could not agree with you more that this department of justice was was was weaponized unfortunately against many many americans and we're trying everyday to to fix it and we've made a lot of progress but we we have a lot more to do
well thank you and and and by the way i had a apology for mister lewis the ranking member of that subcommittee you all remember him alright he said i want to apologize to you for what the a piece of my government what the irs did to you i wish you well i thank you and i yield
Mr. Riley.
Thank you, Mister Chairman, I wanted to ask you, it's a follow-up actually to a letter that I think fifty-seven of of my colleagues and I sent this is about the shootings of um Alex Priddy and Miss Good in Minneapolis. The issue there is the Attorney General for the state uh and I think some local prosecutors have said they're they haven't been able to get access to the evidence related to those shootings so they can make their own independent judgments about whether they should move forward with cases or not. uh the letter we sent I don't think it's been answered but um are you gonna be committing to sharing that information immediately to the state and local prosecutors why not
No no that's not what we do in in criminal investigations
uh I I disagree
well I'm right you're wrong
I well let me let me say this your predecessor Murad Rosenstein and I when he was US Attorney of Maryland I was the state prosecutor
yeah
we shared evidence in these kinds of cases all the time and then we made a determination about which would go forward but the refusal to share evidence is highly un-
No no that's not what I said. I didn't say I refused to share evidence, sir. You said do I will I will I will right that's what I said no to.
I mean immediately sh- we shared evidence. We shared we shared the evidence immediately and then made yes we did,
We had to process. No you didn't. I no that's not look it's in the integrity
yes we did. But on to the next thing. Uh you you mentioned that um it's important to make sure that bad guys don't just get arrested but they pay back their victims.
Mm.
And that struck me as ironic given the number of pardons that this president has issued
they go around and
uh with respect to um i'll come back to you later devon archer suenation sixty million dollars forty three million in restitution was wiped away by the pardon uh carlos watson uh thirty six point seven million was wiped away by the restitution the chrisleys twenty one million was wiped away by the restitution mister schwartz i don't have i don't remember what that number was in his particular case but over and over again victims have, of fraud. So if they personally lost the money, it was taken out of their pockets, issue a pardon, they don't get paid, they don't get made whole, will you commit to trying to find a way to make those people whole, who've been denied this access to the information,
As As I said to you earlier,
to the money?
sir, the Constitution of our United States gives the President the power to pardon. That is not a decision for me to make or you to make. It's a pres- it's a decision for the President of the United States to make.
could i have just one more question mister chairman
without a budget
with respect to civil liability for these people which they're not pardoned for would you and the department of justice can pursue civil remedies in cases that involve fraud
depends on the case right depends on the case
well if they've been convicted for criminal liability already certainly they can be convicted or pursued civil
hey i mean it depends on what the crime they were convicted of
why just read them off to you they were fraud convictions
well you didn't read off the Crimes. No, I mean, it just depends. I appreciate what you're saying, and you're right that a a pardon doesn't cover civil liability.
Well, you pursue civil liability in these cases where these people have been left.
I I'm not gonna commit to pursuing civil liability right here, no.
Time with this gentleman who has expired. Uh, Mister Strong.
Thank you, Mister Chairman. Uh, Attorney Ben, uh, General Blanch, the National, uh, Children's Advocacy Center located in my district was the original model for the CAC approach nationwide and continues to play a leading role in training and best practices. How does the DOJ view the role of the national center uh in strengthening child advocacy center's uh capacity across the country?
Yeah, look, it's extraordinarily important. Um, that that's a that's a, you know, the the the work that they're doing and they've done for, I mean, at least many years now is um is key to the partnership and the future success of of making sure that they're on the right path so look, the DOJ plays a small role in that. It doesn't play as important a role maybe as others, but um that type of education and and and and work is is important.
I understand that the victims of Child Abuse Act fund uh funded programs include the training and technical assistance for child abuse professionals. Grants are coming up for competition this year. How does the DOJ uh you know, thinking about ensuring continuity so that the training pipelines and services
That's what our grant folks do very well and they'll continue to do so and I definitely will, happy to have my folks work with you to make sure that there's continuity there.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, you're back.
Yes, Dean.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for the second round, uh, I did wanna explain what I held up here.
OK.
Uh, for the viewing public, what you do as a member of Congress is you go in, you r- release your phone, you release anything. uh that uh would have electronics uh and you go in and you attempt to capture some redacted material so i took a look at this uh email from jack goldberger wednesday october fourteenth two thousand and nine uh the subject is trump it is to jeffrey epstein and the the language here that is not redacted reads spoke to alan garten trump's attorney garten arranged a twenty minute phone conference with trump and brad in lieu of a depo deposition following was discussed the blacked out box is what was discussed a regurgitation of that i'll read to you what was what i was able to see underneath uh it's as i say it's it's shorthanded it's clipped as a regurgitation of what took place je never expelled from mar-a-lago no he was not a member may have been a guest never asked to leave mark epstein said trump on je plane is that true Answer, I've been on a lot of planes, may have been on his plane, no young girls on plane. What do you know about allegations against J E? Only what I read in the paper. Trump ever at J E house? I may have been there with my wife. Any young girls there? No, may have been some children have guessed, but that's it. Trump specifically asked, Garten, to advise us of the interview. Brad had also talked to Manager of Mar-a-Lago, Bert Lemke. Lemke confirmed, J. E. Never asked to leave Mar-a-Lago. I say that to say what a silly exercise that members of Congress have to go through. To find out what actual conversations were taking place. Uh, with the President in lieu of a deposition. This has nothing to do with redacting victims' names. My only point, my only, I don't have a question for you, my only point is you are gravely conflicted. It is so obvious you are gravely conflicted.
Uh-huh.
these survivors deserve prosecutions they deserved them years ago and now it's in your lap as pan bandi told us they need an independent prosecutor i hope you will do that
so if i may i briefly respond um
wait yeah
the the law the the the epstein transparency act requires us to redact victims we also have other laws that apply that require us to apply other redactions that's not my law that's your law and what what was just read the reason why that was the reason why that was redacted is because that's um a a privileged communication between counsel so the fact that it was read is is is fine but that wasn't redacted because of our victims names that was redacted for another purpose which we're legally um obligated to do
i'd i'll just take a look at the uh the features that are on
that concludes uh today's hearing i wanna thank our witness uh acting attorney general blanch for being here and giving us his opinion over a great stretch uh without objection members may have seven days to submit additional questions for the record the committee stands adjourned
thank you ok awesome
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