During a House Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) spoke about the ATF's decision to conduct a no-knock raid on Bryan Malinowski's home despite knowing he owned firearms.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 I recognize myself now.
00:02 Director, you accused a dead man of a crime of illegally selling in the backseat a weapon.
00:11 Would I hear that correctly?
00:13 Respectfully, what I did was talk about the public search warrant affidavit that was filed
00:19 and proved by the judge.
00:20 No, no, no, I understand, I understand, but you're standing by your search warrant.
00:23 You're standing by the fact that in the search warrant you're alleging that he had committed
00:27 a crime.
00:28 Is that correct?
00:29 Chairman, respectfully, I was making the point that a federal magistrate—
00:33 No, no, no, you're not being respectful.
00:35 Answer the question.
00:36 The question is, did you allege that he had committed a felony, a crime, in your affidavit?
00:44 The judge did find that.
00:46 Okay.
00:47 Well, I'll take that as the judge found it because you alleged it.
00:50 So you alleged a crime, but you didn't seek to arrest him, did you?
00:55 Did you have an arrest warrant for Mr. Malinowski?
00:59 My understanding—
01:00 That's a yes or no, Director.
01:03 My understanding is that there was not an arrest warrant.
01:05 I don't have the full investigative file, but that is my understanding.
01:08 You came here, you knew we were going to ask, you saw yesterday, and now you're playing
01:13 one of the games that the chairman and I didn't like during Fast and Furious, we don't like
01:17 it now.
01:18 If you want to be back here again because you can't seem to know what you should know,
01:24 what Mrs. Malinowski deserves to know, if some group of ten carloads of people showed
01:32 up and kicked in a door in the dark of night and somebody came and shot at them, we wouldn't
01:39 be talking about somebody getting shot in the toe.
01:42 We'd be talking exclusively about a planned murder of somebody who may or may not be armed,
01:50 but who had every right to have weapons in their home, an expectation they had weapons
01:54 in their home, an expectation that they might use it.
01:57 All of that you don't have to be ATF to know.
02:01 So let's go back on track here again.
02:05 If you had a belief that he had committed a crime, and if your intent was to arrest
02:12 him, then that would explain why a week earlier you called off an already authorized search
02:21 because you were only going to search for the weapons, you weren't going to search for
02:25 him.
02:26 Isn't that correct?
02:27 Respectfully, Mr. Chairman, I am not able and will not, it's not fair to do this during
02:36 the pendency of a criminal investigation.
02:38 But it's always, I'm sorry, but DOJ and you guys, it's always, you can go on forever.
02:45 Hunter Biden's over.
02:46 Why didn't you do a no knock on him at his home with the vice president?
02:51 To be clear, this isn't our investigation.
02:53 We in the Little Rock police asked an outside investigation be conducted by the Arkansas
02:59 State Police.
03:00 It's their investigation.
03:01 The district attorney's going to review that.
03:03 And I hope they appropriately find that in spite of qualified immunity, that you blew
03:10 it badly enough that in fact criminal charges should be considered.
03:16 I hope they just find whatever the truth is.
03:18 What is the penalty for the crime alleged on the affidavit for selling a weapon not
03:25 as a licensed dealer?
03:26 What's the penalty?
03:27 Oh my Lord.
03:28 I, Mr. Chairman, I believe it's a 10 year felony and there are two different crimes.
03:33 There might be a five year and a 10 year felony.
03:34 I want to get back to you to make sure that there's a, there's a series of statutes that
03:38 run all in a row there.
03:40 I want to make sure I'm not mixing up the steps.
03:41 Five years or it's 10 years.
03:44 It's not a death penalty.
03:45 Is that correct?
03:48 There is not a death penalty for that statute.
03:50 No.
03:51 Okay.
03:52 So Mr. Malinowski was not in any danger of being executed for what he is alleged to have
03:58 done and no longer can defend himself because he's dead.
04:03 But he was killed doing what any normal citizen does when people enter the home in the dark
04:10 of night and they don't know who they are.
04:13 If he had body cameras, maybe, maybe Mrs. Malinowski didn't hear right.
04:19 Maybe you said police and identified yourself.
04:23 Maybe he said, I don't care.
04:24 And maybe he fired the shots.
04:26 I don't believe that.
04:28 And I don't think you do either.
04:30 I believe he had every real belief that he was defending his wife and family.
04:37 He fired warning shots, a ricochet hit a police officer or an ATF agent and you killed him.
04:45 Those are the facts.
04:47 I have been investigating ATF for many years and ATF agents have rightfully so and you
04:55 know, with great trepidation, I'm sure come forth and been our whistleblowers.
04:59 And we've consistently seen there are two ATFs, the one we need and want and deserve
05:06 and the one that plays fast and loose like 10 cars going in deliberately with a warrant
05:12 that did not entitle an arrest when in fact if you wanted to arrest him, it would have
05:17 been reasonable to arrest him at work and simultaneously go into his home.
05:21 If you had done that, he'd be alive today and we'd be talking about other things, including
05:25 whether you acted legally.