Expert witnesses tell senate threat from foreign governments is growing

Record ID: 904206

  • Title: Expert witnesses tell senate threat from foreign governments is growing
  • Date: 26th July 2017
  • Summary: WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A. (JULY 26, 2017) (UNRESTRICTED POOL) VARIOUS OF SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE MEETING (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHUCK GRASSLEY, REP-IOWA, CHAIRMAN OF SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE, SAYING: "Regarding Mr. Manafort, negotiations for a similar agreement that ranking member Feinstein and I were working on with him broke down Monday night and I issued a subpoena for his appearance. On Tuesday night following consultation with the ranking member and a document production for Mr. Manafort, I withdrew the subpoena and we continued negotiations for a future transcribed interview. With respect to Mr. Trump, he agreed early on to cooperate, produce documents, and do a voluntary transcribed interview so no subpoena was necessary in that case. So these three then will not appear on panel two today." SENATORS LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (English) E.W. "BILL" PRIESTAP, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF THE FBI'S COUNTERINTELLIGENCE DIVISION, SAYING: "The threat posed by our foreign adversaries is growing, both in volume and complexity. Our country is under relentless assault by hostile state actors and their proxies and adversarial nations aren't just using their intelligence services to conduct these assaults. They are using a whole of government approach, pursuing their goals on economic, technological, military, diplomatic and intelligence fronts. They use people from across their governments and from all walks of life in pursuit of their desire to gain strategic advantage over the United States in whatever ways they can." SENATORS LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (English) E.W. "BILL" PRIESTAP, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF THE FBI'S COUNTERINTELLIGENCE DIVISION, SAYING: "But make no mistake: Our economy, our national security and our way of life are being actively threatened by state actors and their proxies today and every day." WITNESSES TESTIFYING (SOUNDBITE) (English) GENERAL MICHAEL HOROWITZ, JUSTICE DEPARTMENT INSPECTOR, SAYING: "We found that the number of FARA registrations has declined significantly over the last two decades and that criminal prosecutions and civil enforcement actions are rare. Additionally, we determined that over half of the initial FARA registrations we reviewed were untimely." SENATORS LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (English) MAZIE HIRONO, DEM-HAWAII, MEMBER OF SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE, SAYING: "During the 2016 Republican convention, the Trump campaign insisted on a change to the National Republican Platform, making U.S. policy to Ukraine much more favorable to the Russian government. At that time, Paul Manafort was the Trump campaign chair and at that time, he had been paid 17.1 in unreported payments from the Party of Regions, the pro-Russia party in Ukraine. He had also had extensive business dealings in the Ukraine and with wealthy Russian oligarchs. Yet he did not register under FARA until this year and never disclosed his work." WITNESSES LISTENING SENATORS DURING HEARING (SOUNDBITE) (English) DEPUTY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL ADAM HICKEY, SAYING: "We have advised, we had previously advised Mr. Manafort we believed he had an obligation to register and he has registered." SESSION ENDING AND SENATORS AND WITNESSES STANDING UP
  • Embargoed: 9th August 2017 18:28
  • Keywords: Manafort Donald Trump Jr. Foreign Agents Registration Act Russia Trump campaign national security
  • Location: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES
  • City: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Lawmaking,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA0016RCUTDZ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The threat from foreign countries is growing, more diverse than ever and current laws lack teeth to compel full and timely disclosure, expert witnesses told the Senate Judiciary Committee that held a hearing on Russian meddling in the U.S. election.
    The committee, that had originally expected to hear from Donald Trump Jr. and Paul Manafort, former campaign manager for President Donald Trump, said the president's oldest son has cooperated and will submit a transcribed interview. Manafort is still discussing this possibility with the committee, Chairman Chuck Grassley said.
    The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which requires people working for a foreign country, to register, does not prohibit lobbying, but does require disclosure. According to General Michael Horowitz of the Justice Department, their investigation into compliance found that registrations have declined, there was poor cooperation among government agencies and there were few prosecutions, leading to many late registrations.
    A rarely-invoked two-hour limit to the session was invoked, causing the hearing to end midday. They will resume the hearing on Thursday (July 27) with testimony from Hermitage Capitol CEO William Browder.
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