Sen. Tom Cotton: "Thank God you are not on the Supreme Court. You should resign in disgrace, Judge."

courageous directive sicking the feds on parents at school boards across america when you crafted that october 4th memo did you consult with senior leadership at the fbi my understanding was that the memo or the idea of the memo had been discussed with the fbi before did anyone at the fbi express any doubt or disagreement or hesitation with your decision to issue that memo no one expressed that to me no one to me no one expressed that to me no because a lot of them have contacted us and they said they did judge i'm sorry a lot of fbi officials have contacted my office and said that they oppose this decision well i doubt any of them spoke to me about it because i didn't speak to no one all right all right uh judge you've repeatedly you've repeatedly disassembled this morning about that directive for instance about the national security division chuck grassley asked you a very simple question why you would sick the national security division of the department of justice on parents john cornyn asked you the same thing you said it wasn't in your october fourth memorandum it was in another office's memorandum it was another office's memorandum judge it was in a press release from your office right here in front of me october 4th 2021 for immediate release you're going to create a task force that includes the national security division what on earth does the national security division have to do with parents who are expressing disagreements at school boards nothing in this memorandum or any memorandum is about parents expressing disagreements with their school boards the memorandum makes clear that parents are entitled and protected by the first amendment to have vigorous debates we don't uh uh the justice department is not interested in that question at all okay so even in that case what is the national security division judge the national these are the people that are supposed to be chasing jihadists and chinese spies what does the national security division have to do with parents at school boards this is not again about parents at school boards it's about threats of violence okay let me let me turn to that because you've said that phrase repeatedly throughout the morning threats or violence and threats of violence violence and threats of violence we've heard it a dozen times this morning as senator lee pointed out the very first line in your october fourth memorandum refers to harassment and intimidation why do you continue to dissemble in front of this committee that you are only talking about violence and threats of violence when your memo says harassment and intimidation senator i said it in my testimony that it involved other kinds of criminal conduct and the and i explained to senator lee that the statutory definitions of those terms and the constitutional definitions of those terms involve threats of violence okay let's look at one of those statutes you cited section 223 that statute covers the use of not just telephones but telecommunications devices to annoy to annoy someone so are you gonna sick your u.s attorneys in the fbi on a parent's group if they post on facebook something that annoys a school board member the answer to that is no and the provision that i was particularly uh drawing to his attention was 2261a which was to engage i wasn't talking about 2261 and i know you mentioned that you also mentioned 223 that's what i mentioned yeah but okay judge you also tell you also told senator klobuchar that this memorandum was about meetings and coordination meetings and coordination well i have in my hand right here that i'll submit to the record a letter from one of your u.s attorneys to all of the county attorneys to the attorney general to all sheriffs to the school board association of his state in which he talks about federal investigation and prosecution it's not about meetings not about coordination about federal investigation and prosecution did you direct your u.s attorneys to issue such a letter i did not i have not seen that letter it's got three pages it's got three pages a spreadsheet about all the federal crimes that that a parent could be charged with to include the ones you cited did my memory did main justice make this spreadsheet judge i don't have any idea uh my memorandum speaks specifically about setting up meetings and i'll just read it again convene meetings judge we we've all read your memorandum we've also heard you dissemble about your memorandum i have i have in the record now shows one of your u.s attorneys sending out a letter about federal prosecution investigation and list in detail the federal statutes for which you could be prosecuted judge you've talked a lot about intimidation and harassment have you issued a memorandum like your october 4th memorandum about the black live matters rights from last summer you're talking about the summer of 2020 in the summer of 2020 there's a lot of crimes committed people haven't been in maryland institutions and they were under the previous administration okay judge what about this process it is no doubt your your even though parents at school boards aren't within federal jurisdiction there's no doubt that federal officials are you keep saying senators have you started an investigation into the harassment of senator kirsten cinema in a bathroom in a bathroom because she won't go along with the democratic party's big tax and spend agenda that is a sitting united states senator being harassed in a bathroom i don't know whether the senator has referred the matter to the justice department or not you've cited as the basis for that directive the national school board association's letter of september 29th was that directive being prepared before september 29th before the school board association letter was issued i don't believe so certainly i didn't have any idea so it was only prepared okay i think that answered the question already answered so you keep citing the school board letter and news reports news right one of the news reports signed in that letter which you presumably mean is from loudoun county virginia no that's not that is not um what i was talking about well you keep citing news reports and that's the most prominent news report that anyone in america has seen that refers to scott smith whose 15 year old daughter was raped she was raped in a bathroom by a boy wearing girls clothes and the loudoun county school board covered it up because it would have interfered with their transgendered policy during pride month and that man scott smith because he went to a school board and tried to defend his daughter's rights was condemned internationally do you apologize to scott smith and his 15 year old daughter judge senator anyone whose child was raped as a most horrific crime i can imagine and is certainly entitled and protected by the first amendment to protest to their school board about that but he was cited by the school board association that's fine he's a domestic terrorist which we now know that letter and those reports were the basis for your this is senator this is that's wrong judges is shameful this testimony your directive your performance is shameful okay that's nice thank god you are not on the supreme court you should resign in disgrace judge general garland do you want to complete your answer on okay i wasn't sure there was a question there but let me be clear the the news reports i'm talking about were not the news reports in that letter there were other news reports that everybody here has heard about subsequent reports that everybody has heard about we are there is nothing in this memorandum and i wish if senators were concerned about this they would quote my words this memorandum is not about parents being able to object in their school boards they are protected by the first amendment as long as there are no threats of violence they are completely protected so parents can object to their school boards about curriculum about the treatment of their children about school policies all of that is a hundred percent protected by the first amendment and there is nothing in this memorandum contrary to that we are only trying to prevent violence against school officials

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Length: 8min 12sec (492 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 27 2021