Business Meeting to Consider Judicial, Sentencing Commission, DOJ Nominations

Good morning everybody. We have thirteen nominations. We'll vote on two judicial nominations and a Saint John Court of Appeals fifth circuit. gregory cook us district court northern district alabama also adam kadoob kandoob to serve as assistant attorney general of antitrust as well as four nominees to serve on the us sentencing commission john cornyn jason manion claire murray and louis Rastufr rastrefra um i feel like i'm gonna need to go in there we have two us attorney nominees i'm just gonna john jerry thorpe

uh

just walk through uh southern it's or eastern district oklahoma my money is out there stephen weinhoff i feel like i'm gonna need to go in there southern district illinois yeah i'm gonna need to go in there lastly we'll vote on four us i feel like i'm gonna need to expire this marshals william hardy northern district alabama philip lewis middle district pennsylvania seth reister northern district florida jordan soko uh district of columbia because we have a number of votes today i'll be very short in opening last year chairman jordan and i conducted oversight after high profile instances where judges spoke anonymously to press outlets like the new york times that degrade the supreme court those actions appeared to violate the judicial canons uh contained in the code of conduct for us judges uh they also undermine public confidence in the impartiality of the judicial system in response to our oversight the judicial conference issued an advisory opinion which stated "Judges should always always exercise caution when pressing their personal views to preserve the integrity of the judiciary and to promote public confidence in the courts." The judicial conference recognized that judges may speak about limited topics such as the history and operation of the court, and the importance of the jury system uh but it question judges to consider quote tone context and form concerning the propriety of civic engagement and judicial speech end of quote i'd hope the judicial conference's response would nip this issue in the bud So I was deeply disappointed when I saw last week's publication in the New York Times. More than a half a dozen judges in Minnesota provided comments for an article about immigration enforcement. This included a ninety minute interview by one judge. Obviously the judicial conference's advisory opinion did not identify immigration enforcement as one of the for extra judicial statements to the press. And the tone, context and form of these judges' comments were hardly what you'd call measured. For example, one judge criticized this administration and the Justice Department's efforts as a quote, grave threat to the rule of law, end of quote. in another instance a judge characterized the justice department's action as resulting from quote-unquote incompetence uh these statements are unacceptable when judges publicly criticize government officials whether it be the supreme court then or the executive branch now it undermines public confidence in the court and it destroys the perception of impartiality make no mistake all americans are entitled to disagree with government officials that include judges as well but with great power comes great responsibility judges wield the power of a co-equal branch of government and to faithfully and impartially uphold the constitution with that comes the responsibility to preserve the integrity of the judicial branch. Federal judges should be issuing opinions and orders, uh, in accordance with the law, not giving quotes based on their personal views to the New York Times. I hope the Chief Justice addresses this issue. My oversight will continue. Senator Durbin.

Thanks, Mr. Chairman. Earlier this week, you and I Received a letter from our colleague, Senator John Curtis, Republican from Utah. Senator Curtis made a straightforward request of this committee to investigate the lavish gift of a Russian oligarch to President Trump's son, as well as any wrongdoing by the son of former President Joe Biden.

Mm-hmm.

Listen to what Senator Curtis said, quote, "A toaster is a wedding gift." a private island party paid for by Putin-connected oligarch is something else. Senator Curtis went on to say, Republicans nearly wore out the subpoena machine investigating Hunter Biden's foreign relationships. We should not unplug it now. End of quote. As I told the chairman privately, I support Senator Curtis's request. Corruption at the highest level of our government should never be tolerated under any administration. If we ignore this matter in the Senate Judiciary Committee, we run the risk of being complicit in this cover-up. Hunter Biden, who has already given sworn deposition to Congress on this issue twice, has offered to appear before this committee voluntarily. Some claim that it's too late in the year to investigate. Come on. This is September. Putting together the questions for a deposition of Donald Trump Junior is not going to take more than a week, is it? We're going to have five or six weeks where there's no activity of this committee, plenty of time to do this job. Republicans are about to take a six-week recess from the people's business. Our staff can conduct a deposition of Donald Trump Junior and Hunter Biden, and we can hold a hearing when the Senate reconvenes in November. Yesterday, the chairman tried to justify ignoring Senator Curtis' request by claiming the Democrats failed to conduct oversight during the Biden administration. Not true. When I was chair of the committee, we held regular oversight hearings over the Justice Department, the FBI, and DHS. And I frequently criticized the Biden administration and complied, pardon me, compelled Biden officials to answer for their actions. But to draw, try to draw a moral equivalence between any misdeeds of the Biden administration and the current administration is ludicrous. I'm gonna give you one graphic example. In the first year since he returned to office, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, has tripled his wealth. The first year and his second term. He has made exponentially more money in office than any other president in history. breaking in one point four billion dollars from his family's cryptocurrency business in twenty twenty five alone. Let me give you one specific graphic example. In April, twenty twenty four, Changping Zhao, the founder of the cryptocurrency Binance, was sentenced to prison in order to pay a fifty million dollar fine for a money laundering scheme. He then brokered a deal to channel two billion dollars into the Trump family's crypto business, World Liberty Finance. After that, President Trump pardoned Jiao. Binance accounts have funneled about one point seven billion dollars to Iranian entities linked to terrorist groups. But the Trump family continues to partner with Binance without any fear of an investigation or any legal consequence under this Department of Justice. Attorney General Todd Blanch, Donald Trump's former criminal defense attorney, dismantled the Justice Department's crypto enforcement team and shut down ongoing crypto investigations he said, " We'll leave it up to the states." There are other abuses by this administration our committee should not ignore. President Trump has already taken a wrecking ball to the White House. This week he has taken a wrecking ball to the first amendment, barring several media outlets from the people's house. This is nothing new from this president, who for years has called the press quote, " the enemy of the people". He has done more to dismantle the freedom of press than any president in modern history. As I walked into this committee room, my staff was briefing me, that there was an order of the local federal judge yesterday, that they allow the three news entities to enter the white house today it is reported to me that the white house has refused that and is barring them from entry an emergency order is being brought before this judge how many times have we asked nominees do you think it's important that you follow the orders of a court every one of them has said yes now at the highest level of the trump administration they are defying a court order to allow three news outlets to cover the president of the united states last time i checked The Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate has the uh authority to uh judge whether or not there's been a violation of the Constitution. We should address the President's attack through the news media. While this committee stays silent, others are sounding the alarm. Listen to Judge Patrick Schultz, a staunch conservative in in Minnesota, look to listen to what he found, that ICE violated hundreds of court orders in Minnesota alone, which he said was quote " likely more than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence." This week, Judge Schultz granted a rare interview to make clear what is at stake if we don't stand up to this defiance of the law and court order by this administration. He said quote, "The rule of law to b- democracy is like oxygen to a human body. If you don't have it, you have either anarchy or authoritarianism. You have Russia, you have China, you have North Korea. We would all be wise to heed Judge Hultz's warning. Thank you, Mister President, Mister Chairman.

Well, uh, I'm going to restate what I said forty eight hours ago on the subject you brought up about Kurz's letter. I'm going to expand on it. i know you all are going to agree with me because i can tell from your remarks that you won't in fact i did receive curtis's letter asking for this investigation of trump junior and hunter wanna remind people that when it comes to questioning the trump family uh i've already done that as an example that i'm not afraid to do that uh when i was chairman and senator feinstein was ranking member we jointly investigated matters relating to the russia hoax as part of that bipartisan investigation we interviewed donald trump junior and other republicans we made our work public in twenty nineteen senator johnson and i began our biden family investigation it continues to this very day indeed just last week we made public two fbi documents those documents summarize statements from fbi sources and the alleged biden family criminality ranking member durbin supports another investigation into donald trump junior yet he and my democrat colleagues in the face of years of overwhelming evidence to include authentic bank that do include authentic bank records have ignored every allegation against the biden family in fact my democrats have asked uh many democrats have uh uh attacked and sought to undermine both my and the house investigation by the rankings members definition his side has been complicit in covering up the biden family misdeeds the democrats chaired this committee from twenty twenty one to twenty four they failed to bring hunter biden and donald trump junior for interviews now they want to do the same on the eve of this election uh this is clearly political and not substantive according to the house uh hunter biden provided false testimony many times after that the biden uh president biden pardon his own son it also all it's also already been established that the band biden family had more than questionable associations with communist chinese government my democratic colleagues ignored these issues for years seven years and never joined my investigative request that is of course unless it relates to trump So let's be clear, based on. Track records. My democratic colleagues only want to investigate Trump and his family. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle can't maintain credibility. When they pick and choose for political purposes who to investigate. I've done the bipartisan investigative work as i've. Proven. In uh. Very recent years on some of these subjects. the bipartisan track record i just described dated to twenty seventeen prove that out who wants the floor now uh we um do you wanna give your statement on nominees

i have one separate nominees

yeah

we have to talk about

can you do that now

we don't have the floor

um we need a quorum hey they want a quorum and they're entitled to a quorum

we we have a quorum there's two

not a not a quorum

we need a vote we're not trying to vote

you're

we're we're just trying to have discussion on the that's

they have votes

that's two and a half

typically what's done is you get a quorum for the vote and you call out the nominee and you pick

yeah uh so uh do we have to have a certain number of democrats

is

every every time guys it's not that hard to get we're we're we're we're discussing business not getting them cause it's not getting members in a room and then you get a yeah we we need three minutes to call the votes but i mean i don't see why we can't discuss business the quorum rule doesn't doesn't require anything more than what we have right now to discuss but you are in the majority now

ok well if they don't wanna speak we can't make them speak

yeah

mmm

yeah there is a question yeah well now we have a full quorum for for running a vote anyways yeah there is

we do ok you have uh

good morning good morning yes but don't don't call the vote until we have all our eleven here but if they wanna discuss we have a quarter now for the calling of the vote eleven ok but we have enough for today but we have enough to do

that's true we have enough to debate we have

mmm yeah

we have enough to debate so sure we have enough to debate

ok go ahead

well uh

your statement

mr. chairman one of the nominees is anna st. john to the court of appeals for the fifth circuit her record on the bench is short she began her tenure as a district judge in april of this year she has not yet presided over any trials before this suggestion of a promotion she is being quickly promoted because of her record as a lawyer where she repeatedly challenged class action settlements and litigated In November twenty twenty one, as Congress considered legislation ending forced arbitration in cases of workplace sexual assault and harassment, Judge St. John, this nominee, testified in support of compelling abuse survivors into forced arbitration. The reality is that forced arbitration denies sexual assault survivors a day in court and shields misconduct from public view. Former Fox News journalist Gretchen Carlson, who strongly advocated for the legislation, publicly opposed St. John's district court nomination. Listen to what Miss Carlson said. "While women around the country bravely shared the urgency of eradicating forced arbitration, Judge St. John used her power and influence to gaslight these women and the public. She downplayed their stories and minimized their pain." i will oppose saint john's nomination and i ask my colleagues to join me

i didn't hear your ok uh we we still have to have more members here than we have already so is there anybody else

senator

here don't talk to me

sorry sorry sir sen- senator kyle bichot wants to uh speak on cantonese

oh

you can warm up your statements if you want to

i don't wanna do that but i wanna give him

on the electrons

let me think

we're go ahead and speak we

ok

we've got time for that right now we're we're we're waiting for members on our side

ok

please go ahead senator over here

so we have to say four words we have to be more careful

thank you very much mr. chairman i just wanted to uh talk briefly about uh what's happening with antitrust and the nominee for that division as you know uh for a long time i uh chaired and was a ranking member of the antitrust committee with senator lee and then now uh have the privilege of working on the tech subcommittee uh with senator blackburn so i care very much uh about who has that job and i think the people of this country do uh given uh what we're seeing with prices and consolidation so just eighteen months ago the senate confirmed gail slater to lead the justice department's antitrust division with a bipartisan vote of seventy eight to nineteen let me repeat that again we don't see that a lot uh right now with nominees seventy eight to nineteen uh because there was broad bipartisan support for antitrust enforcement across the aisle that encourages competition drives down costs and allows small innovative businesses to thrive gail slater had extensive experience in antitrust uh she had worked with vice president vance uh she was someone that people had uh worked with um and had been witnesses at hearings and people felt like she knew her stuff regardless of what party they were in. Unfortunately, today we are voting on a replacement for Ms. Slater because she was ousted from her position after standing up for the very principles that led the senators to vote for her. She refused to sign off on weak antitrust settlements pushed by the White House to favor political allies. and the record is clear for example earlier this year the white house intervened in the case against live nation ticket master after the president spoke with live nation ceo michael rapino about the case after the white house put its thumb on the scale for live nation the justice department entered a surprise settlement that stopped far short of what fans and independent venues deserve. This is a clear monopoly there in Live Nation Ticketmaster. We've had major hearings um on this issue with senators on both sides of the aisle asking for change, many asking for some kind of a breakup of this company. Miss Slater objected to that settlement, as so many of us did, and was pushed aside. and it's simply not up for debate

mmm

for those of us that complained about that settlement that it was in fact bad because what happened later thirty four states thirty four attorney generals democratic attorney generals and republican attorney generals continued the case and won unfortunately this is not the only example After another politically motivated settlement, Ms. Slater's top deputy, who many of us on this committee, he was often called as a witness during antitrust hearings, on the Republican side, Roger Alford, he warned that cases are being resolved based on political connections, not the legal ma- merits. He too was fired. So I am concerned for very good reasons, that mister can do is not the person who's going to be independent when it comes to making these decisions that in fact we're not gonna have that strong experience in fact any experience that we had in gail slater or in jonathan cantor or in nominees from both parties that we have supported across the aisle in this nominee while mister can do served as a general counsel for the federal communications commission the commission abused its authority to investigate and threaten television networks over reporting even satire that it disapproved of reportedly threatening to revoke broadcast licenses but during his confirmation hearing mister can do refused to even address the fcc's actions let alone condemn them We cannot let him bring the FCC's playbook to antitrust enforcement. As costs continue to rise and small businesses struggle to keep up, we need an antitrust leader who will enforce the law to drive down costs and open markets to increased competition. I do not believe that Mister Can Do is that person. I will be voting no.

uh will now vote on anna st. john to serve as circuit judge fifth circuit uh on reporting the nomination circle call the roll

ok mr. cornish

so after this vote hi

mr. lee

hi

mr. cruz

we're after this vote we're gonna

i by proxy

cook we're talking about cooking

mr. holland

hi

mr. tillis

hi

mr. kennedy

hi

mrs. blackburn

hi

mr. schmidt

hi

mrs. britt

hi

mr. cooey miss graham mr. durbin

no

mr. whitehouse

no by proxy

miss klobuchar

no

mr. cooey

no by proxy

mr. blumenthal

no by proxy

miss tarranto

no by proxy

mr. cookart

no by proxy

mr. kudia

no by proxy

mr. welch

no by proxy

mr. schiff

no by proxy

chairman grassley

i

on this vote the eyes are twelve the names are ten

uh the nomination will be favorably reported now we turn to gregory cook uh district court northern district of alabama senator durbin

this chairman this chairman uh this relates to gregory cook while campaigning for a seat on the alabama supreme court justice cook went the extra mile to highlight his hyper partisan conservative credentials he repeatedly identified himself as quote "Trump tough." Following the results of the twenty twenty four election, he expressed quote " wonderful relief" and said quote " the great national nightmare is over." In notes from another campaign speech, Justice Cook wrote all in caps quote " any Republican is better than any Democrat" close quote. I asked him what he meant by these statements. Like other Trump nominees who've been asked to account for their hyper-partisan language, Justice Cook deflected and claimed his statements were taken out of context. That is cold comfort to litigants who have different political views than the justice. They have no reason to believe he will treat them fairly. For those reasons, I will oppose his nomination.

Clerk will call the roll. Mister Cornyn. Thank you. Yes. Yeah. Mister Lee. Aye. Mister Cruz. It's the right vote. Hmm? Is that the right vote? OK. Aye by proxy. Mister Hawley. Aye. Mister Tillis. Aye. mr. fennig aye mrs. blackburn mr. smith aye mrs. grigg mrs. cooley no miss brandt aye mr. durbin

no

mr. whitehouse

nobody proxy

miss klobuchar no mr. coos

nobody proxy

mr. blumenthal

nobody proxy

mr. runoff

nobody proxy

mr. booker

nobody proxy

mr. piglia

nobody proxy

mr. welch

nobody proxy

no no no mr. schick

nobody proxy

jeremy grassley

aye

on this vote the ayes are twelve the nays are ten

uh the nomination will be favorably reported now we go to uh adam kandub uh uh to be uh uh assistant attorney general antitrust senator durbin

this chairman i ask to put a statement on the record opposing this nomination

uh without objection it will be reported start your call of the roll

mr. cornish

aye

mr. lee

aye

mr. crood

aye by proxy

mr. hawley

aye

mr. tillis

aye

mr. kennedy

aye

mrs. blackburn mr. smith

aye

mrs. griff mrs. moody

mrs. cood

mrs. grant mr. durbin

no

mr. whitehouse

no by proxy

mrs. klobuchar mr. coons

no by proxy

mister blumenthal

no by proxy

missus mr. cronall

no by proxy

mister booker

no by proxy

mister peter

no by proxy

mister wells

no by proxy

mister schick

no by proxy

jimmy grassley

aye

uh miss sophie either twelve then the eight or ten

uh the nomination will be favorably reported now we turn to the nomination of john cronin to serve uh us sentencing commission uh call the roll

i

i said this one

mr. cornyn

aye

mr. reed

aye

mr. cruz

i bear privacy

mr. holly

i

mr. tillings

i'm assuming

aye

mr. k

i thought you

uh-huh

were who thought you were said my name

this is not your i

no but it's in the first two cause there are parts

this is

there you did

uh this is brick

and then the second i assume

this is movie this is brandon

people can pronounce that

mr. durbin

no probably

mr. whitehouse

mr.

no by proxy

is he the first

miss klobuchar mr. coos

no by proxy

mr. blimencough

no by proxy

mr. roano

no by proxy

mr. booker

no by proxy

mr. padilla

no by proxy

mr. mel

no by proxy

mr. schiff

yeah

no by proxy

jeremy grassley

i

and if both the i's are twelve and the a's are ten

john cronin will be reported to the floor

yeah absolutely

uh now we'll call the roll uh jason mansion uh member of the us sentencing commission the clerk will call the roll

mister cornish

aye

mister lee

aye

mister cruz

aye by proxy

i by proxy

mister hawley

aye

mister tillis

aye

mister kennedy

aye

missus blackburn mister smith

aye

missus bris missus moody miss graham

aye

mister nervin

no

mister weibach

no by proxy

miss clokester

no

mr. coos

no by proxy

mr. blumenthal

no by proxy

mr. runoff

no by proxy

mr. booker

no by proxy

mr. kundia

no by proxy

mr. welch

aye

no by proxy

oh i'm sorry

mr. schiff

no by proxy

chairman grassley

aye

i'm just go the either twelve the nays or ten

yeah um jason mandin i will be reported to the floor now we go to claire murray member of the us sentencing commission clerk will call the roll

chairman

yes

as chairman congress created the sentencing commission in nineteen eighty four charged with the critical task of promoting transparency and consistency in federal criminal sentencing during the biden administration i helped to lead the effort to reestablish the commission's quorum with a full bipartisan slate of nominees so it could continue its work i appreciate that two of the sentencing commissioners confirmed as a part of that slate have been re nominated by president trump while i have concern about miss murray's record i will support her and judge of stepho's nominations which is consistent with how this committee has historically handled bipartisan packages of sentencing commission nominees

ok clerk will call the roll

mr. cornett bye mr. lee bye mr. cruz

i'm at proxy

mr. hawley

aye

mr. tillis

aye

mr. kenneby

aye

mrs. blackburn

aye

mr. smith

aye

mrs. grigg

aye

mrs. moody

aye

miss graham

aye aye

mr. durbin

aye

mr. whitehouse

no by proxy

miss klimatar

no

mr. coons

aye by proxy

mr. blumenthal

no by proxy

mr rodo

aye by proxy

mr booker

no by proxy

mr peter

no by proxy

mr welch

no by proxy

mr schiff

no by proxy

jenry drasley aye on this vote the ayes are fifteen the nays are seven

k uh mister uh claire marie will be reported to the floor now we go to louis ristripo uh member of the us sentencing commission protocol role

mister cornish

aye

mister lee

aye

mister cruz

oh i by proxy

mister hawley

aye

mister tillis

aye

mister kennedy

hi aye

mrs. blackburn mister schmidt

aye

mrs. bryant

hi

mrs. moody

aye

miss brent

aye

mr. durbin

i

mister white house

aye by proxy

miss o'grady

aye

mister goon

aye by proxy

mister blumenthal

aye by proxy

sorry is that an eye please run up

aye by proxy

mister booker

aye by proxy

mister pivia

aye by proxy

mister wells

aye by proxy

mister schiff

i by proxy

jeremy grasley

aye

on this vote the ayes are twenty two

uh mister uh step out will be reported to the floor now we go to uh joey thorpe us attorney for the eastern district of uh oklahoma clerk will call the roll

mister cornick

aye

mister lee i mister cruz

i by proxy

mister hawley i mr. tillis

aye

mr. kennedy

aye

miss blackburn

aye

mr. smith

aye

mrs. griff

aye

mrs. cooney

aye

miss grant

aye

mr. durbin

no

mr. whitehouse

no by proxy

miss klobuchar

no

mr. coons

no by proxy

mr. blumenthal

no by proxy

miss serrano

no by proxy

mr. booker

no by proxy

mr. pidea

no by proxy

mr. welch

no by proxy

mr. schiff

no by proxy

chairman grassley aye on this vote the eyes are twelve the knees are ten

jerry uh will now be reported we go to steve uh weinhoff uh senator derby

mr. chairman i wanna speak briefly on this he's mr. weinhoff has been a federal prosecutor for nearly two decades he has held several senior level positions in us attorney's office for the Southern District of Illinois, including currently as acting US Attorney. Senator Duckworth and I have a nonpartisan Southern District of Illinois screening committee that evaluated Mister Weinhof's record and recommended we support him. Mister Gilmour's, uh pardon me, Mister Weinhof's nomination is example of how this process should work. The White House working with home state senators to put forward a well-qualified career prosecutor committed to the rule of law. i hope we continue this approach thank you mr. clark we'll call the roll

alright

mr. cornish

aye

mr. seyfried

aye

mr. cruz

aye bert broxey

mr. holly

aye

mr. tillis

aye

mr. kennedy this is blackburn

aye

mr. smith i'm sorry yes

aye

this is bert

aye

this is moody

aye

this is brev

aye

mr. jimmy

soylentrol

soylent

aye

mister white house

i by proxy

miss klobuchar

hi

mister kuz

i by proxy

mister blumenthal

no by proxy

sorry

mr roto

i by proxy

mister booker

no by proxy

mister vivia

i by proxy

mister welsh

hi bad proxy

mister schiff

no bad proxy

chairman grashley

hi

i'm miss sophie i are the next and the names are three

stephen reinhoff will be reported to the floor favorably now we go to william hardy uh marshall northern district alabama clerk will call the roll