Shocking Testimony: FBI Director admits he left government hearing early for luxury vacation

Senator Hawley you recognize for your questions thank you very much Mr chairman thanks to the witnesses for being here director Ray let me start with you if I could I think the last time that I got to visit with you was back in August August 4th of this year you were at the Senate Judiciary Committee you remember that ISO we had to cut that hearing short we were supposed to do two rounds of questions you said you had to be somewhere so we cut it short Republicans were not able to ask a second round as we had been informed we would the Press reported shortly thereafter that the reason that the hearing had to be cut short is because you were flying on a Gulfstream jet for a personal vacation in the Adirondacks please tell me that's not accurate Senator the hearing was cut was not cut short from my experience we had agreed beforehand on the time and and uh and length of it and my I was very surprised to find that the any mountain committee was surprised as to how I uh fly I am required not only permitted but required to fly on an FBI plane wherever I go that's so you were going on vacation I was yes so you left a statutorily required oversight hearing in order to go on a personal vacation in the Adirondacks I took a flight to go visit my family as had been previously arranged in conjunction no no leadership of the committee the ranking member Chuck Grassley asks you during the hearing he said I assume you must have other business you said yes he then said If you have a business trip you've got your own plane can't it wait a while he then said Chuck Grassley we only just heard half an hour ago that now you have to leave we were going to have a seven minute round followed by a three-minute round I've got seven people on my side of the aisle that included me who are waiting for this additional round is there any reason we can't accommodate them for 21 minutes and you said you had a plane to catch you had somewhere to go and now we find out it was for vacation the reference to other business was not a reference to that day was a reference to the following week where Senator Grassley and I were going to see each other in Iowa when I had other business in Iowa and I did in fact see him wait you had to leave the hearing early because you had it you're going to see them later in Iowa and a week no I had to leave when I said I was going to have to leave as had been previously organized with the leadership of you you left an oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee required by Statute so you could vacation with your family I find that absolutely unbelievable and frankly indefensible now is it your practice to use government planes you say you do this all the time you flew in a Gulf Stream 550 I think that was originally purchased for counter-terrorism purposes you were using it to go to what is it Saranac Lake is that how I say it I've never been there is that is that the right pronunciation Saranac Lake that was your destination yes so did you enjoy the flight I mean did you pay for it yes I paid for it will you turn over all receipts and reimbursement to this committee Senator we will be happy to comply with oversight requests related to the use of the plan as I said and it's important for people to understand I want to just give me a yes will you turn over the receipts like information related to Committees of the plane the use of the plane I am required not just permitted required even for personal travel to use the FBI plane how convenient for you and I pay every single time that I use the plane I'm glad it's available for you to Jet away from your statutorily required hearings and oversight before this Congress where you denied the ability of members of Congress to ask you questions because you had to go on a personal vacation using a government plane let's just look at some of the things while you've been vacationing that your FBI has been doing according to numerous whistleblowers who have come forward to members of this body to members of the House the FBI has been sending more than in one instance a dozen armed agents to a rural Pennsylvania home of a Catholic pro-life demonstrator to arrest him at gunpoint in front of his children in early morning hours despite the fact that he posed no risk of violence or threat and had previously offered to turn himself in numerous whistleblowers field agents have alleged that D.C your headquarters has pulled them off working on child sex abuse cases working on human trafficking cases in order to work on January 6th matters for this reason to give the appearance they say they say that there are hundreds of new domestic terrorism cases in the country when in fact there are not whistleblowers field agents have also said that DC has ordered the use of SWAT teams on non-violent suspects who may have attended a January 6 rally and they have been ordered to conduct surveillance and knock on doors of people who were not even in DC on January 6th and again all of this according to the whistleblowers these are your agents all of this in order to make it look as if there's a mass surge in domestic terrorism all across the country when in fact the stats are being padded by political directive in your office they also say these whistleblowers the D.C leadership deliberately suppressed investigations into Hunter Biden contrary to FBI procedure and have also retaliated against FBI agents and whistleblowers who have contacted Congress which by the way they are protected by Statute to do so this is what's happening at your FBI while you are evading oversight hearings Mr director do you think you're still up to this job I absolutely think I'm still up to this job and I think our Workforce feels the same way well I don't and frankly I think you should have been gone a long time ago and given your behavior recently I think it only makes it more clear are there any travel plans today that we should be aware of that you have we're supposed to have a second round will you be here for that yes thank you Mr chairman

Channel: Senator Josh Hawley

Views: 786,210

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Id: K2SchsEilDI

Length: 6min 8sec (368 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 17 2022