'Why Won't You Answer?': Ron Johnson Grills FBI's Christopher Wray Over Michael Sussmann Indictment

senator carper senator johnson you're recognized for your questions director ray have you read the michael sussman indictment uh i've had a chance to glance up i haven't had time yet to read through it i i would suggest you and everybody else read that because it really does lay out exactly what happened to create this political turmoil for two or three four years early during the trump administration it lays out how the hillary clinton campaign paid for through michael sussman completely false allegations that trump was cooperating with the alpha bank uh planted that story had an audience with james baker fbi so that the fbi would open up investigation so that they could report that news same exact uh dynamic in terms of the fall steel dossier that also has contained russian disinformation which the fbi knew about is certainly is no later than january 2017. uh you worked at the justice department as did michael sussman did did you know michael sussman uh to my knowledge i've never met the man but do you know did you know him by reputation uh not particularly okay what do you think james baker knew michael sussman i really can't speak to whom james baker knew do you think it's credible that james bacon james comey uh j uh andrew mccabe lisa strzok repeat peter struck lisa page these individuals had no idea who michael sussman was and who his clients might be uh senator i certainly understand why you're asking the question but even that but if i could just finish given that this is a an ongoing criminal case being brought by the special counsel with whom we are actively cooperating i want to make sure that that's why i know i won't get answered but let me just make the final point here so either the fbi was completely clueless or corrupt but they didn't check into whether michael sussman might have been working for the hillary clinton campaign before they opened up the investigation to split to the press which put this nation through three four years of political turmoil there needs to be a political accountability i hope john durham has a whole lot more that he's going to be revealing because i got virtually nothing out of view based on subpoenas in i mean it was interesting listening to your exchange with senator paul you said it was unacceptable what happened that's good i'm glad to hear that but you were confirmed in august of 2017 in february 2018 the senate intel committee was briefed by bill's pre-staff and the bottom line of that is bill prestab of the fbi continued to say the steele dossier was credible even though the fbi knew in the in january 2017 that contained russian disinformation now that was under your watch do you have an explanation on that senator as i said we've been working very closely with special counsel durham and i want to be careful not to start talking about things that may be okay that's fine so another non-response in february 2020 senior democrats produced a false intelligence product had it classified leaked it to the press accusing senator grassley and i of soliciting russian disinformation to 70. completely false but i can't tell you many news stories were written about that fast forward to august of 2020. by the way i held a hearing on russian disinformation as part of my foreign relations committee responsibilities in 2015 i'm well aware of the problem of russian disinformation so i didn't need a briefing that the fbi requested to give me so i didn't ask for this briefing in august 2020. when i went to the briefing there was absolutely no relevant information it was a completely bs hearing and i asked the briefers who directed you to give me that briefing and all they could say oh you know interagency well you know there are people in the interagencies um i wrote a letter immediately asking first of all what was the what was the the backing backup material for the briefing i asked who directed it i knew as a setup i knew it would be used just like the the false intel product was used previously so i wasn't happy and of course then lo and behold in late april early may it was leaked that briefing was leaked to the washington post again accusing me of you know disseminating russia disinformation nothing could be further from the truth it's false so i got a number of questions which remain unanswered i sent you a similar letter what backed up the august briefing who directed that briefing to this day i have gotten no response now how how is it so difficult to respond by the way senator grassley former president pro tem of the senate former chairman of the senate judiciary committee is asking the same questions why is it that we can't meet with you why is it you will not provide us that basic information of who directed a briefing to two u.s senators it was in leaked for political purposes used against us false why won't you answer that very basic question so senator uh i want to be a little bit careful of what i can say well i can imagine you want to be careful yeah yep go ahead i want to be a little bit careful about what i can say in this kind of setting about getting into specifics i understand this is important topic to you before we deliver a defensive briefing like the one that you're describing here we follow a standard defined process that involves interagency discussion deliberative process to figure out whether a defensive briefing is even warranted just to take a step back though because it's important the entire purpose of defensive briefings to an individual listen listen you're just describing a process and i understand the process great the process obviously broke down there are all kinds of processes putting in safeguards in the fisa court that were obviously violated in that corrupt investigation so again i'm just asking a simple question why won't you tell me in detail who's engaged in that process but i'm not going to get so i'm asking you to provide that answer i'm providing i'm asking you to give me a briefing meet with me and senator grassley we deserve to know the answers quite honestly the american people deserve to know the answers secretary marcus real quick in my 30 seconds left you said you've gotten some numbers on the border are you uh willing to finally share them like for example like out of the 1.3 million people have been apprehended again i get the complications there have been multiple arrests the same individual fines so the relevant piece of information would be how many people have you dispersed in america out of those 1.3 million people how many people been released in the into the interior either with the nose to appear or even worse a notice to report and again you have to live in a fantasy world to think that they're going to report but go ahead how many people have been released senator i apologize i do not have that data i was reciting the data of encounters apprehensions use of title 42 and use of title 8 expedited removal i will provide the data you have requested i do not have it at my disposal okay i'll be expecting that information very soon okay thank you senator johnson senator langford you're recognized for your

Channel: Forbes Breaking News

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Keywords: Sen. Ron Johnson, FBI Director Christopher Wray, Michael Sussmann

Id: oOlW9Q95b7A

Length: 7min 37sec (457 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 21 2021