'You've Seemed To Whine Quite A Bit Today': Harriet Hageman Clashes With AG Merrick Garland

6 months ago

At today's House Judiciary Committee hearing, Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) questioned Attorney General Merrick Garland.

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Transcript

00:00 Mr. Attorney General, are you above reproach?

00:04 I'm not above criticism. I'm not sure what you mean by reproach, but of course you're totally free to criticize me and I expect you will.

00:13 Yeah, as American citizens we can criticize you. We can criticize all of our government employees, can't we?

00:18 Absolutely.

00:19 Because you seem to whine quite a bit today about being attacked or people challenging the decisions that you've made.

00:24 I actually think that Daniel Greenfield, a contributor to Front Page Magazine, may have said it best when he said that a justice system can survive those who challenge the prosecutors,

00:34 but it can't survive those who prosecute the challengers, which is kind of the situation we're in with the Biden administration and you at the helm of the Attorney General's office.

00:45 Attorney General Garland, in March, Chairman Jordan and I sent you an oversight letter requesting documents and information following the release of an undercover video

00:54 indicating that the DOJ was working with the IRS to use artificial intelligence to surveil bank accounts of Americans in a clearly unconstitutional manner.

01:05 The undercover video featured an IRS official privately admitting that the IRS had been using AI to spy on Americans' bank accounts en masse in real time.

01:15 The IRS official further stated that the Department of Justice and Inspector General controlled this AI-powered, warrantless surveillance system, not the IRS.

01:27 Attorney General, would you agree with me that if the federal government were operating this form of financial surveillance program,

01:33 there would be serious Fourth Amendment as well as other statutory and civil rights implications,

01:39 considering that there is no individual probable cause and no search warrants are being obtained?

01:45 I would be stunned if the Justice Department has the kind of AI capabilities that you're talking about.

01:50 Would you agree with me that if they were engaging in that kind of surveillance,

01:56 it would have serious Fourth Amendment implications?

01:59 I can't understand the kind of surveillance that you're talking about.

02:03 Fourth Amendment prevents unreasonable searches and seizures without a warrant, if that's what we're doing.

02:08 And of course, that would violate the Fourth Amendment.

02:11 Okay, so I would request that you go back and read the letter that Jim Jordan and I sent to you.

02:15 That might clear up your confusion just a bit.

02:17 I'll be happy to do that.

02:18 Now, while the committee has been following up with the Department about this matter for months now,

02:22 the Department only replied with a formal response to the committee late last week.

02:27 In the Department's response letter, a DOJ spokesman, the Assistant Attorney General, Carlos Iriarte,

02:33 stated that the Department is "not aware of the Department using any AI program that reflects the description in our March 20th letter."

02:43 But saying that the chief AI offer is "not aware of the Department coordinating with the IRS to use AI

02:50 to unconstitutionally spy on Americans' financial records" is very different from saying unequivocally that the Department is not doing so.

02:59 Why won't the Department just give us a clear answer as to whether it is actually using AI to spy on American citizens' financial records?

03:08 I'll be happy to take your letter back.

03:11 Apparently, you already have received a letter.

03:13 I'll take it back, and we'll see whether we can get you a clearer letter for you.

03:17 I would appreciate that.

03:18 I want to turn to another serious issue, the infiltration of our tribal communities by the Mexican cartels because of Joe Biden and Mayorkas' open border.

03:29 As chair of the Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs, I have heard from tribes across the nation about this issue.

03:36 In your written testimony, you actually mentioned how the Department is working with tribal partners to disrupt cartel supply chains

03:43 and that the Department is zeroing in on the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels.

03:48 However, in April, the president of the Fort Belknap Indian community testified to the Department's failures, stating,

03:55 "We don't have help from the FBI, the Border Patrol, the DEA, that has jurisdiction on federal lands, which are reservations."

04:03 Attorney General Garland, his testimony comes from a tribe where the Sinaloa cartel operates with near impunity in its region.

04:12 Drugs have devastated the community, reservations have become part of the cartel supply chain,

04:17 and the Mexican cartels are intimidating Americans testifying before Congress.

04:22 Yet the FBI and DOJ are largely absent.

04:27 The tribe's experience runs in direct contrast to your testimony.

04:31 Have you been in contact with any of our tribes about the impact that mass illegal immigration, human trafficking, and drug smuggling are having on their members?

04:43 Not only have I been in contact with the tribes, I've been on the reservation in Montana and Alaska.

04:47 The answer to your question is Congress is not giving us money for FBI agents to go into the reservations.

04:54 So this is Congress's fault that you won't do your job?

04:57 This is Congress's fault?

04:58 This is Congress's fault that you won't protect our reservations from the consequences of the Biden and Mayorkas open border policies.

05:09 That's Congress's fault, not theirs?

05:12 If you give us money for more FBI agents to go into the reservations, they will go into the reservations.

05:16 How about if they just enforce the border? How about if you ask them to enforce the border?

05:21 The time of the gentlelady has expired.

'You've Seemed To Whine Quite A Bit Today': Harriet Hageman Clashes With AG Merrick Garland

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