OVERSIGHT OF THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION FEBRUARY 8, 2019 Serial No. 116–3 Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary ( Available http://judiciary.house.gov or www.govinfo.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 36–001 WASHINGTON : 2019 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:42 May 22, 2019 Jkt 036001 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 E:\HR\OC\A001.XXX A001 COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY JERROLD NADLER, New York, Chairman ZOE LOFGREN, California DOUG COLLINS, Georgia, Ranking Member SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, JR., STEVE COHEN, Tennessee Wisconsin HENRY C. ‘‘HANK’’ JOHNSON, JR., Georgia STEVE CHABOT, Ohio THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida LOUIE GOHMERT, Texas KAREN BASS, California JIM JORDAN, Ohio CEDRIC L. RICHMOND, Louisiana KEN BUCK, Colorado HAKEEM S. JEFFRIES, New York JOHN RATCLIFFE, Texas DAVID N. CICILLINE, Rhode Island MARTHA ROBY, Alabama ERIC SWALWELL, California MATT GAETZ, Florida TED LIEU, California MIKE JOHNSON, Louisiana JAMIE RASKIN, Maryland ANDY BIGGS, Arizona PRAMILA JAYAPAL, Washington TOM MCCLINTOCK, California VAL BUTLER DEMINGS, Florida DEBBIE LESKO, Arizona J. LUIS CORREA, California GUY RESCHENTHALER, Pennsylvania MARY GAY SCANLON, Pennsylvania, BEN CLINE, Virginia Vice-Chair KELLY ARMSTRONG, North Dakota SYLVIA R. GARCIA, Texas W. GREGORY STEUBE, Florida JOE NEGUSE, Colorado LUCY MCBATH, Georgia GREG STANTON, Arizona MADELEINE DEAN, Pennsylvania DEBBIE MUCARSEL-POWELL, Florida VERONICA ESCOBAR, Texas PERRY APELBAUM, Majority Staff Director & Chief Counsel BRENDAN BELAIR, Minority Staff Director (II) VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:42 May 22, 2019 Jkt 036001 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 E:\HR\OC\A001.XXX A001 C O N T E N T S FEBRUARY 8, 2019 OPENING STATEMENTS Page The Honorable Jerrold Nadler, a Representative in the Congress from the State of New York, and Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary .................... 2 The Honorable Doug Collins, a Representative in the Congress from the State of Georgia, and Ranking Member of the Committee on the Judiciary .. 9 WITNESS Matthew G. Whitaker, Acting Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice Oral Testimony ................................................................................................. 16 Prepared Statement ......................................................................................... 20 LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING A letter with questions for the record from the Honorable Jerrold Nadler, a Representative in the Congress from New York, and Chairman, Com- mittee on the Judiciary ........................................................................................ 5 A letter for the record from the Honorable Doug Collins, A Representative in the Congress from Georgia, and Ranking Member, Committee on the Judiciary ............................................................................................................... 10 Articles for the record from the Honorable David N. Cicilline, A Representa- tive in the Congress from the State of Rhode Island ........................................ 66 The Constitution of the United States of America for the record from the Honorable Ted Lieu, a Representative in the Congress from the State of California .......................................................................................................... 96 An article for the record from the Honorable Mary Gay Scanlon, a Represent- ative in the Congress from the State of Pennsylvania ...................................... 111 A case in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, South- ern Division from Mary Gay Scanlon, a Representative in the Congress from the State of Pennsylvania ........................................................................... 114 Articles for the record from the Honorable Sylvia Garcia, a Representative in the Congress from the State of Texas ............................................................ 122 Internal Revenue Code for the record from the Honorable Debbie Mucarsel- Powell, a Representative in the Congress from the State of Florida ............... 161 Questions for the record from the Honorable Sheila Jackson Lee, a Represent- ative in the Congress from the State of Texas .................................................. 167 Articles for the record from the Honorable Shelia Jackson Lee, a Representa- tive in the Congress from the State of Texas .................................................... 171 APPENDIX An article for the record entitled, Texas Border Sherriffs: There Is No Crisis and We Don’t want Trump’s Wall ...................................................................... 189 An article for the record entitled, Mueller’s investigation of Trump is going too far .................................................................................................................... 196 (III) VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:42 May 22, 2019 Jkt 036001 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 E:\HR\OC\A001.XXX A001 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:42 May 22, 2019 Jkt 036001 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 E:\HR\OC\A001.XXX A001 OVERSIGHT OF THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2019 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY Washington, DC The committee met, pursuant to call, at 9:30 a.m., in Room 2141, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Jerrold Nadler [chairman of the committee] presiding. Present: Representatives Nadler, Lofgren, Jackson Lee, Cohen, Johnson of Georgia, Deutch, Bass, Richmond, Jeffries, Cicilline, Swalwell, Lieu, Raskin, Jayapal, Demings, Correa, Scanlon, Garcia, Neguse, McBath, Stanton, Dean, Mucarsel-Powell, Escobar, Collins, Chabot, Gohmert, Jordan, Ratcliffe, Roby, Biggs, McClintock, Lesko, Reschenthaler, Cline, and Armstrong. Staff Present: Perry Apelbaum, Staff Director; David Greengrass, Senior Counsel; Susan Jensen, Parliamentarian; Arya Hariharan, Counsel; Aaron Hiller, Oversight Counsel; Lisette Morton, Director of Policy, Planning and Member Services; Elizabeth McElvein, Clerk; Rosalind Jackson, Professional Staff Member; Brendan Belair, Minority Staff Director; Bobby Parmiter, Minority Deputy Staff Director/Chief Counsel; Jon Ferro, Minority Parliamentarian; Carlton Davis, Minority Chief Oversight Counsel; Ashley Callen, Minority Counsel; Ryan Breitenbach, Minority Chief Counsel, Na- tional Security; Alley Adcock, Minority Chief Legislative Clerk; Ella Yates, Minority Director of Member Services and External Af- fairs; and Jess Andrews, Minority Communications Director. Chairman NADLER. The Judiciary Committee will come to order. Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare recesses of the committee at any time. We welcome everyone to this morning’s hearing on Oversight of the Department of Justice, and we wel- come our witness, the Acting Attorney General of the United States Matthew Whitaker. Before we turn to the business at hand, I want to take a moment to comment on the passing of our friend and former colleague Chairman John Dingell of Michigan. Representative Dingell was elected to Congress in 1955 and went on to become the longest serving Member of Congress in the history of the United States and, by virtue of enduring accomplishment, one of the greatest. He was a presence in the hearing room, a determined investigator, and a true believer in congressional oversight. He loved the House of (1) VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:42 May 22, 2019 Jkt 036001 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 E:\HR\OC\A001.XXX A001 2 Representatives. We remember him for his humor, his charm, his unshakeable integrity, and, of course, his fantastic Twitter account. Our thoughts are with our colleague Debbie Dingell and the entire Dingell family. Chairman Dingell will be missed. Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Chairman, can I just echo that as well, and you know, for Mr. Dingell’s service and also with our colleague Debbie during this time. Our thoughts and prayers are with them, and the service that he rendered, I will agree with you on that. Chairman NADLER. I thank you. I will now recognize myself for an opening statement. Mr. Whitaker, I want to begin my remarks by commending the tradition of independent law enforcement at the Department of Justice. As you and I both know, it is the career officials at the De- partment, the FBI, and the U.S. attorneys’ offices whose commit- ment to the rule of law protects our democracy. Given the focus of this hearing, I therefore feel compelled to single out for praise the career ethics officials who helped you transition into your role as Acting Attorney General. On December 20th, in a letter from the Department meant to justify some of the decisions we will examine here today, Congress learned the following, quote: In a meeting with the Acting Attorney General’s senior staff, ethics officials concluded that if a rec- ommendation were sought, they would advise that the Acting At- torney General should recuse himself from supervision of the spe- cial counsel investigation because it was their view that a reason- able person with knowledge of the relevant facts likely would ques- tion the impartiality of the Acting Attorney General, close quote. In other words, even though you apparently did not ask for their advice on this topic, these career officials went out of their way to tell you that your many past public—many public past criticisms of the special counsel’s investigation were grounds for you to step aside. They insisted that your recusal would have