'Who Was Responsible For That?': Tom Tiffany Grills Wray On 'Trump Questionnaire' Within FBI

3 months ago

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing last week, Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) questioned FBI Director Christopher Wray about a 'Trump Questionnaire' within the agency.

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Transcript

00:00Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:02I think it was when you were here December of last year, Mr. Wray, that you said blinking

00:08lights were going off in regards to the southern border and what is happening down there.

00:14Has the border situation improved in terms of your assessment with the security of Americans

00:20since you were last here in December?

00:23Well, I guess a couple things, and I appreciate the question.

00:27So first, the blinking lights comment that I made refers more broadly to the threat environment

00:34that I'm seeing as FBI director across a wide range of threats.

00:39Contributing to that in a variety of ways are the threats that emanate from the border.

00:44So it's not a comment just on the border issues, it's the threat environment that we face more

00:48broadly in my experience in law enforcement.

00:52I am increasingly concerned that foreign terrorists could seek to exploit vulnerabilities

01:02at our southwest border or at other ports of entry or in other aspects of our immigration

01:08system to facilitate an attack here in the United States.

01:13I think that is something we have to be concerned about.

01:15There's been a lot of focus on numbers, numbers of this, numbers of that.

01:19And I understand that, but as I think was referenced in an earlier question, it doesn't

01:25take very many foreign terrorists to be a real problem.

01:30We had 19 hijackers responsible for the 9-11 attacks, and we just not that long ago had

01:37a case, some of the members of the committee will remember, where we charged an individual

01:41for trying to smuggle individuals in to assassinate former President Bush.

01:47Are you concerned that the Border Patrol Chief, former Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott,

01:52said that he was concerned about very, very minuscule data that they're receiving.

01:57So there's all this, we are told that illegal aliens are vetted against databases, but oftentimes

02:07they're doing biometrics as they come into this country, but not looking behind it in

02:11their home countries.

02:12Does that concern you, when there's not a review done in the home country?

02:18Well, we certainly need as much help as we can get from the countries of origin of these

02:22people.

02:23When I say origin, not just where they come from originally, but countries they've come

02:25through.

02:26And the biometric enrollment piece is, of course, an important one.

02:30We have situations where even if...

02:32Are we doing a thorough enough job of reviewing them, their actions, and their lives in their

02:38home countries before they came here?

02:40Well, I mean, we need more help from our foreign partners.

02:45There's no question about that.

02:47And I think that's an important part.

02:49How about our domestic partners like the CIA and others that are supposed to protect us?

02:53So there's been a lot of discussion, of course, over the last several years about the pivot

03:01to what's called the hard targets, right?

03:03The understandable focus, which I support, of focusing on the threat posed by China and

03:10Russia and Iran.

03:12But with that comes, if you look at, for example, the withdrawal from Afghanistan, we start

03:17to lose sources of information about foreign terrorist threats from overseas.

03:23And that is a concern to me.

03:25Yeah, my time's running out.

03:27Has Vice President Harris met with you in regards to the border?

03:31Well, I've been in meetings that have included the Vice President that have, in different

03:38ways, touched on border issues.

03:39Has she specifically asked you for a meeting in regards to the threat that is at the border?

03:45You know, I'm not going to get into sort of specific meetings, but I can tell you that

03:48I've been in meetings that have included, among other people, the Vice President that

03:52touch on border security issues.

03:54Did she ask you questions about what you thought needed to be done in regards to reducing this

04:00threat to the American people?

04:02You know, I really can't get into specific conversations.

04:06Is support for President Trump a security concern within the FBI?

04:10I'm sorry, I couldn't hear.

04:12Is support for President Trump a security concern amongst your employees?

04:16No.

04:18Is objection to the COVID-19 vaccine a security threat?

04:23Not from my perspective.

04:26Who approved what is termed the Trump questionnaire within the FBI that was done by SIIS?

04:32Dina Perkins, Jeffrey Ventri were behind it.

04:36Who was responsible for that?

04:38And did you know that there was a Trump questionnaire out there?

04:42So the document you're asking about is an interview outline that we only recently learned

04:49about and that, in my view, is completely inappropriate.

04:52I asked my team to get to the bottom of what happened and to ensure that doesn't happen

04:56again.

04:57We have learned that it's not an FBI form, that its use was isolated, that it was created

05:03not by an FBI employee, but by an outside contractor.

05:07And that individual is no longer affiliated with the FBI, but we are sending what we have

05:12found to the Office of Inspector General and we'll cooperate, of course, with anything

05:17they say.

05:18Mr. Chairman, I'll just close with this.

05:20We keep hearing about these isolated examples, whether it's Richmond Catholics, this instance.

05:26When is it—isn't it a pattern?

05:30I yield back.

'Who Was Responsible For That?': Tom Tiffany Grills Wray On 'Trump Questionnaire' Within FBI

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