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Source: Congress.gov
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The committee will come to order without objection. The chair is authorized to declare recess at any time. We welcome everyone to today's hearing on oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This is the first occasion for the committee to get back together since the tragic death of Charlie Kirk. Charlie was a good man, a happy warrior who fought for principles and values that I think make our country special, and certainly was a strong proponent of defending the First Amendment, something this committee cares deeply about. I said this over the weekend. I think Charlie lived that scripture verse, 2 Timothy 4, 7, fight the good fight, finish the course, keep the faith. Charlie certainly lived that, and he did it with a smile on his face. And so the tragic killing happened a week ago while we were in Mark up here in the committee. And I know everyone, I know the Our witness was a friend of Charlie's, and I know many people in the dais were as well. So I know we're all praying for Charlie's family. And I would extend a moment to the ranking member if you wanted to say something.
thank you mr chairman for for saying that the whole country reacted with horror and shock to the brutal assassination of charlie kirk in cold blood and there is never any warrant for political violence in america and just as we all recoiled together at the shocking assassination of melissa hortman and others who died in that Minnesota attack, we all stand together categorically against political violence in America and determined to end these cycles of political violence that have traumatized the country. Well said.
Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Kansas, Mr. Schmidt, to lead us all in the Pledge of Allegiance. As is customary, we will begin with opening statements. Five weeks ago, because of the work of Director Patel, we learned that the former chair of the House Intelligence Committee and current United States Senator leaked classified information. We learned this because a whistleblower came forward. Whistleblower with 23 years experience in the intelligence community, a Democrat staffer on the committee, said this. They were pressured to leak classified information, which sort of raises the obvious question. Why would the head of the Intelligence Committee, the chair of that committee, who's supposed to be guarding our secrets, why would he be encouraging the leaking of classified information? Whistleblower told us that answer as well. The leaked information was supposed to be used, the leaked information, false information was gonna be used to indict President Trump. Now the former chairman wasn't the only person leaking information. Jim Comey was also sharing things he wasn't supposed to share. Again, don't take my word for it. The inspector general told us this. In his report, he said, quote, James Comey violated FBI policy by disclosing classified information. And what was Comey's motive? Same as the senator from California, to sabotage and undermine President Trump's first term. And we know that Mr. Comey's not been shy about what his objective was. In fact, four months ago, he told us, remember this? 86-47, Jim Comey told us, just four months ago.
Now, how'd they do it? How did the former chair of the intel community, the former FBI director, and others in our government attempt to undermine President Trump's first term? Seven weeks ago, because of the good work of the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, we learned from another whistleblower, a second whistleblower, that in the closing days of the Obama administration, the intelligence community assessment was changed. On December 5th, 2016, they had one assessment. That assessment said Russia didn't try, or excuse me, did not impact the election vote count. There was a meeting at the White House on December 9th, 2016, where it was decided, no, no, no, we're not going to have that. We're going to come up with a new one. And the new one said Russia was trying to influence election and did influence election, which just wasn't accurate. And that new one is published on January 6th, 2017. Let's just show you a few things that took place. I want to show you first this email from Admiral Rogers, the head of the NSA. You can see it was December 22nd. Says to Jim, John, and Jim, Jim Clapper, John Brennan, Jim Comey. And he says, I asked my team if they've had sufficient access to the underlying intelligence, sufficient time to review that intelligence.
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