▶ 0:15:52>> good morning. We welcome everyone. Our panel features litter a. Tysen duva, assistant attorney general criminal division. Two district court nominees, justice william crain, eastern district of louisiana. Alexander van hook, western district of louisiana.
▶ 0:16:21Senators kennedy and moody will give introductions and a moment. In the meantime I will speak about Mr. duva. He has been a federal prosecutor for nearly two decades in the U.S. attorney's office, middle district of florida.
▶ 0:16:44He has extensive experience conducting investigations, prosecuting a wide array of criminal offenses, including drug trafficking, violent crime, public corruption, fraud, and illegal immigration. Mr. duva has prosecuted hundreds of cases.
▶ 0:17:09He has tried 22 to verdict and received numerous awards for his efforts from the U.S. attorney's office as well as federal agencies, including the department of homeland security, ice, the irs, fbi, and secret service. Mr.
▶ 0:17:33Duva's success at prosecuting difficult cases certainly commands respect and he real-world experience will be an asset to the criminal division. Justice crain has been an attorney for four decades, served as a judge for 15 years across every level of a louisiana state courts, three years as trial judge for
▶ 0:18:03Louisiana second judicial district, then moved into appeals, serving on louisiana's first circuit court of appeals for six years, since 2019. Justice crain has served on the supreme court of louisiana. As a jurist, justice crain has presided over and authored dozens of judicial opinions.
▶ 0:18:33With his extensive experience as a lawyer and judge, he is extremely well qualified to serve on the federal branch. Mr. van hook is also well qualified. He clerked for judges on the U.S. appeals court for the fifth circuit and at the U.S. district court for the western district of louisiana. Since then, Mr.
▶ 0:18:58Van hook has spent 25 years as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. attorney's office western district of louisiana. He served as an assistant U.S. attorney, the deputy criminal chief, and multiple stents as first assistant and acting U.S. attorney in that office. Mr.
▶ 0:19:23Van hook has extensive courtroom experience, litigating hundreds of cases and trying 18 cases to verdict before a jury. He also clearly has the experience to make a fine judge. We will hear more about our nominees in a moment. We look forward to hearing from each of them today.
▶ 0:19:49Before I turned to senator durbin, I will ask everyone to keep their questions to five minutes. I will also announced that act -- announce that after my questioning senator kennedy agreed to preside over the remainder of the hearing.
▶ 0:20:07Sen. Durbin: Today we will hear from two nominees in andrew tysen duva to be the assistant attorney general for the criminal division. Mr. duva, I appreciate you coming by my office this week. They handle some of the most complex cases in this country, including public corruption, child exploitation, and child sexual abuse material, white-collar crime, money laundering, violent crime, the list is long.
▶ 0:20:37Sen. Durbin: This mission used to have bipartisan support, but the trump administration has fired, fired dozens of prosecutors simply because they prosecuted january sixth rioters. And he has gutted the key criminal division components. I discussed this with Mr. duva. Look at the public integrity section, also known as pen, responsible for investigating and prosecuting public corruption cases.
▶ 0:21:05Sen. Durbin: In march of 2025 the justice department struck a corrupt bargain to conditionally dismiss charges against the new york city mayor, eric adams, in exchange for his cooperation with the trump administration on the deportation campaign. In response, several prosecutors resigned from the department of justice, including the U.S. attorney herself. A staunch conservative, she clerked for justice scalia and was appointed to her position by president trump. She quit.
▶ 0:21:38Sen. Durbin: According to public reporting and credible whistleblowers, then acting attorney general beauvais ordered pin prosecutors to sign a motion to dismiss the charges against adams or face unspecified consequences. At the end of the biden administration there were 30 prosecutors in public integrity and now it has two.
▶ 0:22:05Sen. Durbin: There is a long-standing requirement that the prosecution of public officials be reviewed by pin prosecutors to make sure they are not politically motivated. Pam bondi has reportedly eliminated this requirement. At the same time -- is bragging she will use her position as interim U.S.
▶ 0:22:29Sen. Durbin: Attorney in new jersey to "turn new jersey red" while she prosecutes a sitting member of congress. In our meeting you said you found value in collaborating with attorneys on public cases you prosecuted and at least one that was noteworthy nationwide.
▶ 0:22:50Sen. Durbin: I want to hear from you when the questioning starts how you will rebuild this section, public integrity section, and restore authority should you be confirmed. I've heard the common refrain from trump administration and its supporters that purging doj prosecutors will have no effect on fighting crime. The numbers tell a different story. In the first year of the second t trump presidency.
▶ 0:23:14Sen. Durbin: The recent reuters article reported the number of drug prosecutions under the trump administration has dropped to the lowest level in decades. The number of money laundering prosecutions has dropped by 24%. Nor are gun crimes exempt. I want to hear from Mr.
▶ 0:23:35Sen. Durbin: Duva how he will reverse these troubling trends and how he can continue to divert resources from the department of justice to the mass deportation campaign without facing more statistics like these. Where are the justice department resources going if not after narcotics and crimes like that? President trump's mass deportation campaign. This is an about reducing crime.
▶ 0:24:01Sen. Durbin: Despite president trump's claims that he's going after the worst of the worst, you have heard the litany. Rapists, murderers, terrorists, the criminally insane. It turns out just days ago one of my constituents was detained by ice agents despite carrying documentation proving that she was an american citizen. The agents questioned the validity of her passport. Do you know why? She looked hispanic and had the name greeley.
▶ 0:24:30Sen. Durbin: She must not be who she says she is. She said I am latina, a service worker. I fit the description of what they are looking for over and over. Let's be clear about what's happening in chicago. President trump is abusing his power by shifting justice department resources away from keeping american families safe to fuel his mass deportation campaign.
▶ 0:24:54Sen. Durbin: He is deploying federal law enforcement to zip tie children and teargas peaceful protesters and journalists for political theater, not public safety. We need justice department officials who will honor their oath. I hope the three of you if you have the opportunity will do just that. Let me close with a point that has been made repeatedly in this committee.
▶ 0:25:14Sen. Durbin: Some members of this committee believe that violence has a public place for elected officials is inspired by the left. At the outset, I am opposed to violence against public officials and others regardless if it comes from the right or the left and I don't think it is the province of the left to do these excessive and unacceptable things.
▶ 0:25:43Sen. Durbin: Yesterday christopher moynahan was arrested. Christopher moynahan had been prosecuted for breaking into the capitol on january 6. He admitted that he rifled through the desk on the senate floor of senator cruz. What happened was, he was traced by local police to be involved in some threats against the life of democratic house leader hakeem jeffries. This is what Mr. moynahan said.
▶ 0:26:11Sen. Durbin: I can't allow this terrorists to continue. Even if -- hakeem jeffries must be eliminated. That is a man who received a full and unconditional pardon by president trump earlier this year. He had been arrested for his activities on january 6. The point I'm trying to make and want to make clearly, violence, whatever the source, right or left, should not be tolerated by anyone in this committee.
▶ 0:26:37Sen. Durbin: To say that it is simply from one side or the other is naïve and doesn't reflect the reality of the world that we live in. I yield.
▶ 0:26:44Chair Grassley: Before I call on senator kennedy and senator moody, senator cassidy asked if I would say that he is unable to be here this morning because of another hearing in a committee that he chairs, the health, education, labor, and pension committee. He wanted me to communicate that he supports both nominees and that he wishes them well at their hearing today. Senator kennedy.
▶ 0:27:15Sen. Kennedy: , it is my pleasure to introduce justice crain and U.S. attorney van hook. Everybody on this committee, those here and those not here, have read the resumes. Any fair-minded person can look at their resumes and see that they are qualified.
▶ 0:27:42Sen. Kennedy: Justice crain, he has done it all. Finished law school, eventually became partner one of the most prominent law firms in our state. After 20 years he was then asked by the people to serve on the district court bench and he did. He was then asks by people to serve on the court of appeal, state court of appeals. He did that.
▶ 0:28:11Sen. Kennedy: Now, he is a member of the louisiana supreme court. Mr. van hook went to centenary, lsu law school, for a very prominent judge on the fifth circuit, judge stagg, who succeed he will be taking. He finished his entire career, 25 years in the U.S. attorney's office, 600 cases.
▶ 0:28:42Sen. Kennedy: It is impressive -- it's no secret that senators have a lot to say about who the president nominates to these jobs. Especially on the district court. I want to keep it that way, Mr. chairman. I thank you for your courage with respect to democrat and republican presidents, for standing your ground, which I support unconditionally.
▶ 0:29:13Sen. Kennedy: So, it's no secret that we send the names to the white house. I've sent names during the trump administration, I have sent democrats' names to the white house. They didn't pick them but I sent them. I don't really look at politics that much when I pick federal judges. I tell you what I look at. I look at judgment.
▶ 0:29:43Sen. Kennedy: First, you want to make sure that an attorney is qualified. I tried to pick lawyers that everyone in the community will look at and go, well, you know, I don't know him that well, but, man, you know, he is a lawyer's lawyer. That is the way we've always done it on the federal bench in the way we ought to continue doing it. So, that is my initial litmus test. Then I look for judgment.
▶ 0:30:14Sen. Kennedy: That is why we suggested to the president will and alex. You will notice today that they have coolly unflappable demeanors. And underneath those coolly unflappable demeanors is a coolly unflappable demeanor. That is just the way they are. They have seen it all. They have heard it all. They are fair.
▶ 0:30:46Sen. Kennedy: They are just interested in resolving cases. And they are not that interested in politics. To my knowledge, neither one of them are interested at all. They keep the simple stuff simple and they just try to do what they think is right. I am biased because I nominated them, but if you knew them, Mr. chairman and Mr. ranking member wicker and my colleagues, like I knew them, you would agree.
▶ 0:31:16Sen. Kennedy: I'm honored that they are here with their families and looking forward to this hearing.
▶ 0:31:21Chair Grassley: Senator moody.
▶ 0:31:25Sen. Moody: Thank you so much. It's really wonderful to be here this morning. As a former assistant united states federal attorney prosecutor out of jacksonville, florida myself decades ago, I have the unique pleasure of today introducing president trump's nominee to lead the department of justice's criminal division, Mr. tysen duva. He is joined by his family, many who I know from way back when.
▶ 0:31:54Sen. Moody: It's so good to see you today, and I know he appreciates your support. These hearings are challenging sometimes, and they should be, and it's great to know you have people at your back that you love and that support you. And it's very good to see my fellow floridians. Great to see a fellow floridian nominated for this position. He is an example of prosecutorial excellence.
▶ 0:32:18Sen. Moody: He earned his bachelor's degree from the university of north florida and graduated with his law degree from my alma mater, the university of florida college of law, go gators. I'm trying to see in my first year as united states senator I can say go gators on the record. It's looking good and thank you for giving me another opportunity.
▶ 0:32:40Sen. Moody: After law school he spent several years working a private law firms before clerking for the united states district judge, who I also got to practice in front of as a prosecutor, judge timothy corrigan. Once the clerkship ended he joined the united states attorney's office in jacksonville where he has served for 18 years since.
▶ 0:33:01Sen. Moody: His nomination to leave the criminal division at the department of justice is a direct reflection of what attorney general bondi said from the start, doj under president trump and under her leadership as attorney general is going to return to its core mission. That is enforcing the laws and protecting the public. Having a prosecutor with nearly two decades of experience at the helm of the doj criminal division demonstrates trump administration's commitment to making america safe again.
▶ 0:33:32Sen. Moody: It has a solemn duty to at the end of the day protect americans and their safety so we can do our job as a government and protect their rights. It's not a matter of if an american citizen lives in a red conservative town or blue liberal city, everyone deserves protection and people in positions who will work every day with the diligence to do their jobs and enforce our laws.
▶ 0:34:01Sen. Moody: And that is why along that vein, as the doj returns to its core mission, they are putting people at the helm that can help them do that. That is why it's critical that we have lawyers like Mr. duva in positions like this one. One of the highest honors in my legal career was when I was a federal prosecutor and had the privilege of standing up in court and saying, my name is ashley moody and I represent the united states of america. I know Mr.
▶ 0:34:29Sen. Moody: Duva said the same thing and did that proudly and took that responsibility very seriously and will do so again at the helm of the doj's criminal division. From young new usa's to the leader of the department's criminal division to now the attorney general of the united states herself, president trump is doing a fantastic job of bringing in patriots who believe in a rule of law and are
▶ 0:35:02Sen. Moody: Entrusted with the doj's awesome powers and responsibility. It is my honor to introduce Mr. duva, who I know will bring his decades of experience protecting others, standing as a guardian between chaos and order, crime and peace. He will bring that to the helm of doj's criminal justice division, and I cannot wait to see you get started.
▶ 0:35:28Chair Grassley: Thank you, senator kennedy. And senator moody. I would like to administer oath now. Do you swear that the testimony you are about to give before this committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you god? They have all said an affirmative answer to that.
▶ 0:35:56Chair Grassley: Now it is our tradition for you to introduce family and friends and give your opening statement. I will start with Mr. duva.
▶ 0:36:06Mr. Duva: Thank you, chairman grassley and senator moody for that kind introduction. Thank you, ranking member durbin as well. It's an honor to sit before the esteemed senate judiciary committee to answer questions about my nomination as assistant attorney general, head of the criminal division. I never anticipated that I would have this opportunity. I am deeply thankful. First, I want to thank my lord and savior jesus christ. Everything I have above nothing comes from him. I have not always pleased him.
▶ 0:36:37Mr. Duva: In fact, I've stumbled many times. He has always welcomed me back. Many people I must thank and recognize so I appreciate you bearing with me for a few minutes. I think president trump, chief of staff susie wiles, attorney general pam bondi, deputy attorney general todd blanche, white house counsel david warrington, and the head of the personnel office for supporting my nomination.
▶ 0:37:00Mr. Duva: Should I be confirmed by the senate, I will use my experience as a prosecutor for almost two decades to do what I've always done, use my judgment, follow the rule of law, and do good for the american people. I would like to introduce those in attendance. My wife, julie. My brother, brian. I will talk about them in a moment. My friend, charlie meyer, from oceanside, california. Randy jenkins and chad king from gainesville, florida.
▶ 0:37:29Mr. Duva: We are going coast-to-coast before the senate judiciary committee today. For over 49 years I've had the love and guidance of family, mentors, and friends. To my wife, julie. I love you deeply and I am deeply thankful for you. During our years together you have always handled the great times and the challenges, especially over the last few years, with your classic elegance, grace, and iron will. You are the most impressive person I've ever known and the best prosecutor I've ever seen.
▶ 0:37:57Mr. Duva: You served the doj for 27 years with great distinction. Many times you tell me, I wish I could still do it. I carry that with me daily. To our children, they were too busy to be here. They said, dad, you will be fine, just go it alone. To our children, emma, zach, ty, gavin, you are all extremely impressive and uniquely talented . Keep god as your guide posts and never backed down from the challenges in front of you.
▶ 0:38:28Mr. Duva: I'm so proud of each of you. To my parents, tony and diana, thank you for parenting me. This is a fortune that sadly so many do not have. Together, you weathered life's storms and remain focused on your commitment to raising and guiding brian and me. I love you dearly. To my brother, brian, sister-in-law, ingrid, thank you for raising and guiding me. Brian, you are the best older brother and mentor that her younger brother could have.
▶ 0:38:55Mr. Duva: Ever since I could form memories I wanted to be you. I still do. That is the kind of man, brother, mentor you are. I have important mentors to think and I will wrap up. My college baseball coach at the university of north fork, jack dusty rhodes, thank you for taking in a walk on like me and giving me a chance. You taught me the difference between winning and losing and how to take a tough and disciplined approach to baseball and more importantly to life.
▶ 0:39:25Mr. Duva: To george schulz, when I met you I knew that you were truly unique. One of the most elite trial lawyers in the country and importantly a great man. Thank you for guiding me. To the honorable timothy corrigan and career at law clerk suzanne wiseman, you gave me an opportunity as a young lawyer to serve as a law clerk and it was invaluable. You both embody the legal principles of the reasonable jurists for all.
▶ 0:39:49Mr. Duva: To james clint, the united states attorney in the middle district of florida in march 2007, you interviewed me and gave me the opportunity of a lifetime to become an assistant united states attorney. When I started in the office in 2007 I came into an elite culture of professional expectation and opportunity for those who earned it. To the many law enforcement officers and prosecutors who I worked with over the years, thank you for your commitment, experience, skill, and partnership.
▶ 0:40:19Mr. Duva: As a team we made great and impactful cases for the citizens of our country. That is the calling and we answered it. Senators, I said before you today for your consideration as a career public servant in the united states department of justice. I am an experienced federal prosecutor. I've done the job the right way. As I said, it is a calling.
▶ 0:40:41Mr. Duva: Throughout my career, my prosecution teams represented the united states while marshaling complex investigations and charging decisions, litigating in federal court, and trying cases. Through the wins and losses I adhere to the rule of law. The job of a prosecutor is clear. Do the right thing for the right reasons. If confirmed, I will bring that same approach to the criminal division. I look forward to working with its great and many public servants, many of whom I've worked with already.
▶ 0:41:10Mr. Duva: What we public servants have is our prosecutorial integrity. I will protect it. I look forward to answering your questions today. My goal is to earn bipartisan support during this advice and consent phase. Thank you. Mr. kaine thank you.
▶ 0:41:39Mr. Duva: Thank you chairman grassley, wrecking member durban, members of the committee, for holding the skewing and giving us the opportunity to be here today. I want to thank president trump for this nomination. It is truly the professional honor of a lifetime to be nominated to serve my country on the federal district court. I want to thank my hometown, our home state senators, senator cassidy and senator kennedy.
▶ 0:42:10Mr. Duva: Thank you senator kennedy, particularly, for the kind remarks you made, for the assistance you've given, and support you have given throughout this process. I want to thank my father, who is not here today but is watching on tv. My dad was the second youngest judge ever elected in the state of louisiana. He has been a model for me in every aspect of my life. My mother was my greatest offender.
▶ 0:42:41Mr. Duva: I choose that word carefully. I never did anything wrong in my mother's eyes. We lost my mother about a month ago on september 5. I will tell you that there is a feeling with me today, and you would have to have known her, that she has some hand in my presence here today. She would be immensely proud and we miss her very, very deeply.
▶ 0:43:13Mr. Duva: I want to thank my siblings. My oldest sister sheila, my brother wes, and my sister emily for all of the support that they have given me as well. I want to thank a couple of people that I practice law with. My senior partner in the law firm where I practiced for 22 years, bill jones.
▶ 0:43:40Mr. Duva: She taught me how to practice law, the attention to details that he taught me is something that I've used as both a practicing lawyer and as a judge. Two of my closest friends were my law partners, tremendous friends.
▶ 0:44:00Mr. Duva: I also want to specifically give attention to two people on my staff because they have been with me -- one, for just about my whole life. Lee and I grew up together. We were roommates in college. I went on to practice law.
▶ 0:44:24Mr. Duva: He finished law school number 3 in his class at lsu and joined me as a law partner for 17 years. Then has served as a law clerk for me at the court of appeal and the supreme court as my senior law clerk. He is simply the best and I appreciate everything lee has done and been there for me. I want to specifically thank and acknowledge janelle.
▶ 0:44:53Mr. Duva: Janelle was 16 years old and an intern in the law office that I joined. When I got out of law school, a year into my practice, I needed an administrative us -- administrative assistant /secretary. I hired janelle and she has been the only secretary/administrative assistant that I've had through my nearly 40 years of practicing law and being a judge.
▶ 0:45:24Mr. Duva: Last but certainly not by level of importance, I want to acknowledge my kids and their mother, sherry. My children are grown and have successful careers in their own right. William, my oldest, has given me my two grandchildren, parker and collins. Matthew and michael, twin boys. My youngest is elizabeth.
▶ 0:45:50Mr. Duva: Nothing that I do in any endeavor, nothing that I do will I take more pride in that what they do, and I am very grateful and thankful for them. Thank you again, Mr. chairman, for this opportunity, and I look forward to answering questions.
▶ 0:46:14Mr. Van Hook: I would like to thank president trump for this nomination and senator kennedy and cassidy for their support. Senator kennedy, thank you for your kind introduction. I would like to thank chairman grassley, ranking member durbin for scheduling this hearing today and all of you for considering my nomination. With me is my wife of 20 years, trisha, our children, kate and john. I couldn't be more proud of kate and john. They inspire me every day to be a better person.
▶ 0:46:44Mr. Van Hook: I will give all the credit for their good qualities to trisha. Not only my wife of 20 years, but my best friend. She is also a talented lawyer in her own right. She and I both clerked for judge tom stagg. Senator kennedy mentioned that I will be in his court if I am fortunate enough to be confirmed. He was our mentor, friend, and unparalleled judicial icon in louisiana.
▶ 0:47:11Mr. Van Hook: I have some friends here with me today, all of whom I've known for almost 30 years or over 30 years, and one of whom I've known for over 50 and could not be more grateful for them being here with me today. Watching from home are my mother jane and stepfather patrick. They have both sacrificed so much for me. They have given me their unconditional love and support. I appreciate all they've done for me.
▶ 0:47:41Mr. Van Hook: Also, watching from home are tricia's parents. They have been there for our family. They would give you the shirt off their back and support us in everything we do. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the talented men and women of the united states attorney's office for the western district of louisiana. They have helped me develop as a lawyer and are dedicated public servants who get up every day to serve the united states. They help the community be safer and they protect the interests of this great country.
▶ 0:48:11Mr. Van Hook: Thank you so much to all of you for considering my nomination, and I look forward to answering any questions you may have.
▶ 0:48:21Chair Grassley: Thank you for that testimony to us in your opening statement. We have five minute rounds. After my five minutes are up, as I previously announced, senator kennedy is going to chair this hearing. We will start a question with Mr. duva.
▶ 0:48:47Chair Grassley: You have developed an impressive trial practice and have personally tried more than 20 cases to a jury verdict. Please, tell us how your experience handling the nuts and bolts of criminal prosecution has prepared you to lead this justice department of criminal division.
▶ 0:49:04Mr. Van Hook: Thank you, chairman grassley. Thank you for the time in your office last week. I thought we had a great discussion. I think what you learn 18 years on the line is as you progress into more complicated cases is how to lead teams. And I did that with fbi, dea, hsi, and many other agencies.
▶ 0:49:27Mr. Van Hook: I intentionally stayed on the line because of the specialties that I developed, and I thought I made the biggest difference for the american people in the cases that I prosecuted. In fact, you always want the next one. When you finish a great case and you have someone in the hopper, you can't wait to get to the next one. I can't help but doing the nuts and bolts work, as you mentioned, Mr.
▶ 0:49:51Mr. Van Hook: Chairman, is what will and has prepared me to lead the trial attorneys and their immediate supervisors, their supervisors in the criminal division, because we will focus on doing the best cases we can that will make the biggest impact for american people regardless of who you are or where you live.
▶ 0:50:08Chair Grassley: Justice crain, you got an award from louisiana's largest victim rights organization, crime fighters inc. This is also an issue as chairman of the committee that I tried to advocate for, victims rights. Can you tell us a bit about the role of the judge in protecting victims of crime?
▶ 0:50:36Chair Grassley: And I congratulate you on your judge of the year award from crime fighters.
▶ 0:50:43Mr. Crain: Thank you, Mr. chairman. My first role as a judge and, frankly, the award -- while I was honored to get the award I didn't seek the award. The first role of a judge is to be fair and impartial to all of the parties that come before the court. But you can lose sight. In louisiana we have constitutional provisions that actually protect the rights of victims.
▶ 0:51:11Mr. Crain: So, there are things that many states don't have that we have expressly done in the law to protect victims. I was very proud to get that award. Honored to get the award. I do feel like at times that victims' voices, and maybe it's because they are not typically protected, the defendants' rights are constitutionally protected that come to the court, and often the victims do
▶ 0:51:42Mr. Crain: Not get the same protections. But once again, my job as a judge, my role as a judge, is to be fair and impartial to all parties. Because of the laws in louisiana, we are able to give particular protections to victims.
▶ 0:51:57Chair Grassley: Mr. van hook, you have litigated hundreds of cases. I said in my opening statement and I will repeat, you have tried 18 cases to jury. You have also served as acting U.S. attorney for the western district of your state. On three separate occasions.
▶ 0:52:24Chair Grassley: Tell us how your wide-ranging prosecutorial experience has prepared you for the federal branch.
▶ 0:52:28Mr. Van Hook: Mr. chairman, I has been fortunate. My entire legal career has been in service to the united states. I clerked for two fabulous judges, the fifth circuit and one in the district. The job of my dreams is being assistant united states attorney. In that job I have appeared in federal courts hundreds of times and handled hundreds and hundreds of cases. I have seen some judges who have been absolutely fantastic.
▶ 0:52:59Mr. Van Hook: And I have watched them treat people fairly with the dignity and respect, and move their dockets along in such a way as to provide justice to the parties before them. I believe that front row seat has given me the perspective that I would need to be a united states district judge if I'm fortunate enough to be confirmed.
▶ 0:53:20Chair Grassley: Mr. duva, during your career as a federal prosecutor you have earned numerous awards. You have received honors from the U.S. attorney's office, the department of homeland security, ice, irs, fbi, secret service. What have you learned from collaborating across these federal agencies that you think will best serve you as a leader of the criminal division?
▶ 0:53:47Mr. Duva: I learned teamwork, chairman grassley. The more complicated cases, as I mentioned, as you grow as a prosecutor, you have to take the right steps at the right time and work together with law enforcement agencies. At times I worked with the criminal division, fraud section, public integrity section. Difficult cases are difficult to make. I learned patience, strategy, teamwork, and the proper use of the grand jury to make those cases, but teamwork is the word that I would use most often.
▶ 0:54:19Sen. Durbin: Mr. duva, it was a pleasure to meet you in my office. I had never met you before. You did well. Convincing and sincere presentation of your belief. The responsibility of the U.S. is unique. You acknowledge the authority and power of the office to change lives.
▶ 0:54:44Sen. Durbin: You have been involved in a case that drew national attention on public corruption. We talked about that for some time. The pin section of the department of justice, part of your division if confirmed, has been reduced in number from 30 to two. The two are literally novice political appointees. I was heartened to hear that you believe that the pin plays an important role in making decisions involving prosecution and public corruption.
▶ 0:55:14Sen. Durbin: There is a long-standing requirement that the prosecution of public officials be reviewed by pin prosecutors to make sure they are not politically motivated. Attorney general bondi has reportedly eliminated this requirement. When we met you told me that you thought pin played an important role in the process. Do you believe that pin prosecutors should review public officials?
▶ 0:55:36Mr. Duva: Thank you for the question. I enjoyed our 25 minutes in your office on monday. I appreciate your time and I thought we had a great, honest discussion. I have worked with pin on multiple cases. I tried a case against a former member of congress in 2017 with pin and it was a very good partnership.
▶ 0:55:56Mr. Duva: What I will do if confirmed by the senate is have a discussion with the deputy attorney general about repurposing pin and figure out how to, if there is a lane to build up that section and make it a more robust dissection than it is. I am aware of the news. I wasn't involved in a two of those decisions of it going from 30 to two lawyers. -- involved in any of those decisions of it going from 30 to two lawyers.
▶ 0:56:29Mr. Duva: Public corruption prosecutions have an absolute place in the U.S. attorney's offices and the criminal division. I will have discussions with deputy attorney general blanche. I believe the criminal division should have a footprint in those prosecutions and evaluating cases at the national level.
▶ 0:56:44Sen. Durbin: We have seen reports of the indictments against former fbi director james comey and new york attorney general letitia james. Many of them were hastily brought by a trompe l'oeil list installed as the interim U.S. attorney with other -- when other prosecutors were removed. I said how impressive our meeting was. They said, what will he do when he gets the james comey call?
▶ 0:57:12Sen. Durbin: What will he do as an 18 year veteran of the U.S. attorney's office when a political figure in this administration says, this is what I want you to do. Prosecute this person. Whether it is a member of congress or someone who wrong to the president years ago. You said that you have done the job the right way for 18 years. I have no reason to believe that you have not. The question is whether or not you will stand by that when you are faced with that moment. It could be a call from the white house. It could be a call from the department of justice.
▶ 0:57:42Sen. Durbin: It could be a tweet by the president of the united states instructing you to prosecute an individual that you know there is no evidence against. Let me ask you, what will you do?
▶ 0:57:52Mr. Duva: I will stand by when I was sworn in, took an oath and I took it seriously and to bring a before the committee today. Those cases are not being handled by the criminal division. They are being handled by another U.S. attorney's office, eastern district of virginia. I don't know much about them other than what I've read, so I cannot comment specifically on those cases. I've never met Ms. halligan.
▶ 0:58:17Mr. Duva: What I told you in your office is that I will always do one thing, apply the facts to the law in any case, a public corruption case, transnational drug case, or anything of that nature, because that is what you're sworn to do and that is the only path for a prosecutor. As I mentioned in my opening statement, all we have is our integrity.
▶ 0:58:37Mr. Duva: If I get a call or a referral, the case will go to a line attorney and the public in integrity section, or whatever section, it will be worked out properly by using the grand jury and we will investigate a case and make a charging decision based on the justice manual and the ethics of my office.
▶ 0:58:55Sen. Durbin: Mr. van hook, you have been acting U.S. attorney general of louisiana. I'm sure you are aware that the crime rate in shreveport, louisiana, you may not know the latest data shows shreveport has a higher murder rate than chicago. His violent crime a problem in shreveport?
▶ 0:59:17Mr. Van Hook: Violent crime is a problem anywhere. Any murder, having one victim murdered is too many. Being in leadership at the united states attorney's office in shreveport, I worked very hard with our state and local and federal law enforcement partners to do our best to bring down the crime rate. We have worked with the district attorney there, the police chief. We have formed a collaborative partnership.
▶ 0:59:44Mr. Van Hook: Unlike a lot of places in this world today, we all get along and we have worked very hard together to try to reduce crime.
▶ 0:59:50Sen. Durbin: Do you think you need the national guard to fight crime in shreveport, louisiana?
▶ 0:59:55Mr. Van Hook: I don't think we need them, but I think they would be welcome. I think the chief of smith would welcome their help. I think whatever resources that could be brought to bear to reduce crime in shreveport would be helpful.
▶ 1:00:13Sen. Kennedy: That was a good question. Yes, shreveport has a crime problem. Most of our urban areas do. We had suburban and rural crime, but we do have a crime problem in shreveport. You make a salient point. Senator britt.
▶ 1:00:40Sen. Britt: Thank you to each of you for being here today. Congratulations on your nomination and congratulations to all of your family members who are here in support of you. Mr. duva, I am concerned by the attacks on religious institutions and people of faith that we have seen across our nation.
▶ 1:00:58Sen. Britt: It seems there is a rise or emphasis, whether it is the annunciation catholic church in minnesota or the lds church in michigan, these things have been clearly motivated by religious animus. When I am looking at how we respond to this problem, it is my opinion that it will require engagements from a number of different divisions within doj.
▶ 1:01:24Sen. Britt: Once you are confirmed and leading the criminal division, how are you going to work to ensure that people of faith can practice that faith and worship and gather freely without fear of being targeted for their religious beliefs? Talk to me about your plan and how we will work to hold those accountable, who are responsible for the violence, or those who are responsible for inciting violence?
▶ 1:01:49Mr. Duva: I want to note for the record that I was in your home town of enterprise, alabama on october 11 when I took my son, gavin, a baseball player to a recruiting trip to enterprise state community college for which he received his first offer. Go bow weevils.
▶ 1:02:09Sen. Britt: Congrats.
▶ 1:02:11Mr. Duva: In terms of violence against people of faith or any institutions, that is a serious matter. We live in a time when threats and violence, social media, and carrying those out are all too familiar. It's going to be important for the violent crime section and the criminal division to have a strategy to deal with that. We are living with people with their phones. They say anything.
▶ 1:02:40Mr. Duva: Often times it is a vile and disgusting and attacking to people of faith. Regardless of whether it is the catholic church or any other church or any religion, none of it is appropriate. I have prosecuted threat cases, not against churches or people of faith, but against judges, against lawmakers. We will go through and we will go about those investigations as we always have.
▶ 1:03:04Mr. Duva: We will identify the threat, evaluate it based on the existing statutes, and make a prosecution decision. Violence against our institution, churches, government, it must stop and we must beat it back with appropriate investigations and prosecutions.
▶ 1:03:19Sen. Britt: What about those on our law enforcement officers, like we've seen happen to so many of our ice agents across the country? Particularly in dallas? I think that is an example. We want to make sure that doesn't happen again. Talk to me about your approach in protecting our law enforcement officers and holding those accountable who incite violence on them.
▶ 1:03:41Mr. Duva: Assault on any law enforcement officer is improper. Regardless of how it is motivated, where it is motivated, far right, far left, whatever we are talking about. I've prosecuted those cases. I have prosecuted drug dealers who assault dea agents when they execute a search warrant. The same principles of those statutes apply in all cases. That is something that the U.S. attorney's offices take very seriously.
▶ 1:04:11Mr. Duva: I've done those cases in the criminal division as well. Violence against law enforcement is illegal and it will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
▶ 1:04:19Sen. Britt: Thank you so much. Turning to our two judicial nominees. In the spirit of our chairman, who always has the best lines of questioning in these hearings, I wanted to prepare and have some questions that would make him proud. My question to you, Mr. van hook, is can you explain how litigants establish smj in federal court?
▶ 1:04:46Mr. Van Hook: A litigant in federal court, on the civil side, to file a complaint that would set forth the cause of action that would be recognizable in federal court.
▶ 1:04:58Sen. Britt: Ok. Can litigating parties waive their s their subject matter jurisdiction?
▶ 1:05:11Mr. Van Hook: No.
▶ 1:05:13Sen. Britt: The current state of the lemon test. Can you talk a little about the understanding of the lemon test and its role historically that it has played in the supreme court establishment clause jurisprudence?
▶ 1:05:28Mr. Crain: The establishment clause I can talk about.
▶ 1:05:32Sen. Britt: Let's go.
▶ 1:05:34Mr. Crain: There is a first amendment right. The government cannot establish a religion. That comes in many, many forms. So, you have both an exercise a right and establishment right under that first amendment.
▶ 1:05:53Mr. Crain: I mean, I've dealt with the establishment clause in some context, but generally speaking the government cannot establish a religion. And we have the right to free exercise of our religion under the constitution.
▶ 1:06:14Sen. Britt: Thank you so much, judge. I hope I did well, Mr. chairman.
▶ 1:06:19Sen. Kennedy: You were awesome. Senator blumenthal, who used to be a U.S. attorney himself.
▶ 1:06:33Sen. Blumenthal: , thank you. I was a united states attorney for four point five years in connecticut. Mr. duva, your nomination has a special significance. I think that it ought to have enormous meaning to the entire committee and to the nation because you will have enormous power over people's lives.
▶ 1:06:59Sen. Blumenthal: I was impressed by your statement that essentially your ethic is to do the right thing for the right reason. Unfortunately, what we have seen is prosecutions based on personal animosity or political affiliations of two prominent individuals, james comey and attorney general james, where
▶ 1:07:29Sen. Blumenthal: Career prosecutors resigned because they thought that it was the wrong thing for the wrong reasons, in fact, based on improper considerations. Instructions from the president contain, among other places, in a post that he used to issue instructions. So, I want to probe a little on that question.
▶ 1:08:00Sen. Blumenthal: Would you agree that no one should be prosecuted for their political beliefs or because they are a person or political adversary of the president?
▶ 1:08:13Mr. Duva: Thank you for the question, senator blumenthal. I cannot speak for those cases --
▶ 1:08:19Sen. Blumenthal: I'm asking you in general, and I think it is yes or no.
▶ 1:08:23Mr. Duva: Yes. I think individuals are prosecuted based on the facts, and of those facts as applied to the law. For 18 years I wrote --
▶ 1:08:33Sen. Blumenthal: I will interrupt you with apologies because I have limited amounts of time. I will take that as a yes, that they should be based on the facts and the law not the president's personal feelings of animosity or political opposition. Let me follow up, because you will be in this position.
▶ 1:08:54Sen. Blumenthal: If you are pressured by someone in the white house, including the president, to bring criminal charges that you believe are unsupported by the facts and the law, would you resign?
▶ 1:09:14Mr. Duva: We will evaluate every case that we receive based on the facts and the law. We will have processes. I mentioned the prosecution memorandum that I will evaluate at the highest level of the criminal division and I will consult with the deputy attorney general. My decision will be based solely on the facts and law in every case.
▶ 1:09:33Sen. Blumenthal: I'm asking what you would do if you are instructed to bring an indictment, seek an indictment from a grand jury that you believe is lacking in facts and legal support. Would you resign? Would you stand up? Would you be counted? Is not enough to say we will review it on a process and so forth.
▶ 1:10:01Sen. Blumenthal: Now is your time to tell this committee that you will have the backbone to stand on conscience and conviction.
▶ 1:10:05Mr. Duva: I don't think I will be in that position, senator. I will do what I've always done based on the justice manual and the ethics of my office, evaluate cases based on the facts and the law and make decisions. They will not be based on personal animus. They will not be based on tweets. They will not be based on anything but the facts and the law in each case.
▶ 1:10:26Sen. Blumenthal: I'm disappointed in that response, because I think it is less than the american people deserve by way of a commitment to the rule of law, but you did mention the justice department manual.
▶ 1:10:39Sen. Blumenthal: I have a proposal, and I'm hoping it will be supported on a bipartisan basis, that would, in effect, among other things, codify the justice manual's prohibitions on political considerations in charging decisions, and prohibit the white house from intervening or interfering in specific charging decisions.
▶ 1:11:08Sen. Blumenthal: In addition, it would create a statutory right of action for people who are selectively or maliciously prosecuted. It would give them rights, much as they have in state court. I don't know about louisiana, but in many state courts there is a cause of action for malicious prosecution, and it would enact some key reforms in
▶ 1:11:39Sen. Blumenthal: The grand jury process to ensure that the government isn't abusing its power. Would you support those kinds of reforms, Mr. duva?
▶ 1:11:45Mr. Duva: I would be happy to work with the office of legislative affairs and legal policy to have those discussions with the committee and the senate. Many of those protections do exist in the hyde amendment, a federal statute that addresses malicious prosecution or prosecutions that are not based in fact and law. So, those protections do exist on the federal level.
▶ 1:12:06Sen. Blumenthal: My time has expired.
▶ 1:12:09Chair Kennedy: Senator blackburn.
▶ 1:12:12Sen. Blackburn: Thank you, Mr. chairman. Thank you for being here. Mr. duva, I want to come to you. I find it so curious that my colleagues across the deists are so concerned about weaponization , but under jack smith they were not concerned at all. Indeed, some of us were targeted by jack smith as a special counsel and with arctic frost.
▶ 1:12:42Sen. Blackburn: End t end ing two tiers of justice is something ag bondi has talked about. Having one tier of justice and equal treatment is something that has been discussed. Here looking at this new role in the criminal division, I want you to talk for a moment about what you will do to end weaponization of our legal system.
▶ 1:13:09Mr. Duva: Thank you, senator blackburn. Thank you for taking time to speak with me yesterday. I enjoyed our meeting. The term weaponization is used quite a bit. I think as a career prosecutor and in the criminal division are litigating components with trial attorneys that you do what we talked about, and every referral, every matter brought in by a law enforcement officer, it starts somewhere.
▶ 1:13:38Mr. Duva: To begin a public corruption investigation or nationwide fraud investigation, or international drug traffic investigation, you have to have articulable facts and predication. You can't just start it because you feel like it. You don't just start it on a person because you don't like them. You start on facts. We believe we have articulable facts that have occurred. You go to the statutes and you begin your grand jury process with your grand jury subpoenas. You work your way up to probable cause.
▶ 1:14:08Mr. Duva: Whether it be a search warrant for electronic devices or whatever the case may be, a physical location. So, there is a process that you go through. I become an expert in handling grand jury investigations. There is so much value. You learn so much about your case from the grand jurors. Every grand jury that I have presented before, at the end of it they have thanked me for the scope and the breadth of the investigations I've been involved in.
▶ 1:14:36Mr. Duva: We will do with the tried and true way and apply the facts to the law and make charging decisions.
▶ 1:14:41Sen. Blackburn: I hope that will provide some solace to my friends across the dais, because that is not what took place under the biden administration. We saw it time and again. Some of us are living it. Thank you for that approach. I want to talk about memphis.
▶ 1:15:02Sen. Blackburn: We have memphis safe task force that is in place, and I'm very grateful to director patel, ag bondi, and president trump for the way they have approached dealing with crime in memphis. Since the start of operations with the task force in september, we have had nearly 1200 arrests.
▶ 1:15:33Sen. Blackburn: They have seized 200 illegal . 63 missing children have been rescued. And use gang members that are now off the street, which is great. One of the things we are focused on now is making sure that we get these cases into court.
▶ 1:15:56Sen. Blackburn: So I would like for you to talk a little bit about what you can do to ensure that we have rigorous prosecutions in these cases that are coming to us out of memphis.
▶ 1:16:11Mr. Duva: Senator blackburn, I have lived that, but I have lived that in florida, as a d.a. In gainesville for 10 years. There was a task force, a strike force. Task forces are important. Often, those state and local officers have excellent performance. You start there to build your multi defendant cases. I have always said this.
▶ 1:16:40Mr. Duva: Multi-defendant drug cases solve gun violence and homicide problems. They go hand in hand. The tools of the drug trade our firearms. I'm glad to hear there has been great success in memphis. I look forward to working with the dangerous drug section, the monday -- the money laundering section, to partner with districts in tennessee and throughout the country to evaluate and solve those problems. I have done it myself. I have seen the results, and the communities are very thankful when that occurs.
▶ 1:17:10Sen. Blackburn: I have one other question, but in the interest of time, I will submit that to you as a q f r. We talked briefly about romance scams and the money that is being taken from many of our seniors, about 1.3 billion dollars a year. Thank you, Mr. chairman.
▶ 1:17:29Chair Kennedy: Thank you, senator. Senator hirono?
▶ 1:17:34Sen. Hirono: Mr. chairman, I always ask these questions to engage fitness to serve. I will start with Mr. duva and go down the line. Since you became a legal adult, have you ever made unwanted requests for sexual favors or committed any verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature?
▶ 1:18:06Chair Kennedy: -- Mr. duva: no, senator.
▶ 1:18:12Sen. Hirono: Have you entered into a settlement related to this kind of contact?
▶ 1:18:17Mr. Duva: No, senator. >> no senator.
▶ 1:18:23Sen. Hirono: Would you oversee the public integrity section of the department of justice? Are you familiar with that section?
▶ 1:18:32Mr. Duva: I am. I tried cases with the public integrity section in florida.
▶ 1:18:40Sen. Hirono: The public integrity section targets corruption. Let me ask you, as an incoming member of the government accepts $50,000 in cash for future government contracts, would that be a possible sign of bribery, or public corruption?
▶ 1:18:58Mr. Duva: I will answer that with any case that comes to one of our trial attorneys will be evaluated based on the facts of the law. I think you are referring to some recent news.
▶ 1:19:12Sen. Hirono: Would you consider paying $50,000 -- would that be a bride? I think it is a bribe. What do you say? What do you think?
▶ 1:19:20Mr. Duva: It depends on the facts and the law. I know you are talking about a specific investigation that has been declined by the attorney general and the fbi. It is not just one thing that happens. It is basically you have to evaluate --
▶ 1:19:37Sen. Hirono: I think there was no bribery evaluation by the attorney general. We still don't know what happened to that money. Let me ask you another question. The number of government complaints that they do not have an airplane, and the foreign government offers to donate an airplane to them. With that be a possible sign of bribery and public corruption?
▶ 1:20:02Mr. Duva: I think you are talking about the emoluments clause. It is the first I have heard of that because in the news in the last six months or so. That is not something the criminal division would weigh in on. That is an office of policy question.
▶ 1:20:20Sen. Hirono: You can sit there and tell me it is an issue that will go to some other entity, but you will be running a department that concerns public corruption, so I would like to know and the government would like to know whether something like that, where a president accepts a plane that is worth $400 million, whether that is bribery or public corruption. You are not responding, so let me ask you another.
▶ 1:20:47Sen. Hirono: If a member of the government wants to build a new government building and big tech billionaires jump in line to pay for it, would that raise concerns about bribery or public corruption?
▶ 1:20:57Mr. Duva: Senator, I know what specific -- I don't know what specific incident you are talking about. I'm not familiar with that.
▶ 1:21:07Sen. Hirono: The demolition of the east wing of the white house to build a ballroom.
▶ 1:21:13You Are Aware Of Mr. Duva: That. I am aware of that.
▶ 1:21:18Sen. Hirono: Does that indicate corruption or bribery?
▶ 1:21:20Mr. Duva: I don't know how that came about, the procurement or who is involved.
▶ 1:21:25Sen. Hirono: Companies are jumping in line to try to curry favor with him. I am running out of time. Thank you very much. These are not answers.
▶ 1:21:42Sen. Hirono: Justice crane, when you were running for the supreme court in 2019, a news article stated crane has become the favorite choice of big oil and other industry and statewide business groups, viewed as a sympathetic ear for an industry facing pending litigation by coastal parties and landowners seeking payment for decades of alleged damage to coastal lands by oil
▶ 1:22:13Sen. Hirono: And gas companies. Justice crane, did chevron and louisiana oil and gas association and coke industry donate to your campaign?
▶ 1:22:26Mr. Crane: -- crain: senator, I don't know. Campaign contributions and louisiana go through the campaign committee.
▶ 1:22:39Sen. Hirono: So you don't know who contributes to your campaign?
▶ 1:22:42Mr. Crain: I don't know specifically whether those entities --
▶ 1:22:49Sen. Hirono: By the way, they did donate to you. If you have no awareness of them donating to you, so that it matters that relate to them, or they come before you -- you would not know whether to recuse yourself. Is that the situation?
▶ 1:23:03Mr. Crain: That actually is, I think, one of the rationales and motivations for the prohibition for us being able to solicit or participate.
▶ 1:23:15Sen. Hirono: You favored these industries, and a case came before the louisiana supreme court. You dissented from the majority to support the oil and gas industries. Thank you very much. I have some other questions that I will submit for the record, Mr. chairman.
▶ 1:23:32Chair Kennedy: Thank you, senator. Senator moody?
▶ 1:23:37Sen. Moody: It is great to be here with some great people. I appreciate you and your family showing up today to support you. This panel, I believe, reflects some of the very best among our american legal profession. Mr. van hook, you spent years prosecuting all sorts of cases for the western district of indiana. Justice crain, you served from the trial court to the court of last resort. Mr.
▶ 1:24:02Sen. Moody: Duva, you have made an entire career out of doing justice, going after the bad guys from drug traffickers to fraudsters, public figures. You got up each day, put on the white hat, and worked to defend the rule of law in this country. I am an attorney. Attorneys often get bad raps.
▶ 1:24:25Sen. Moody: I think it is so important that we remind americans that there are lawyers like you that use their law degree for good and just causes, to serve their fellow americans. We thank you for that. We need more like you. Unfortunately, we often see bad examples in the legal profession. I always like to highlight when we are seeing remarkable work by remarkable men and women.
▶ 1:24:53Sen. Moody: So thank you very much for being here today. I want to start off with Mr. duvall. I have noticed that president trump, and I commend him for this, and leadership in many combinations, and not just within the department of justice, but in other agencies -- people are being brought in from across america that might not have worked in agencies before.
▶ 1:25:22Sen. Moody: They might have been working in the details of what that agency is seeking to accomplish in their day-to-day work, but in other states, in other ways. Certainly, that is you. You are being plucked from the great free state of florida and being asked to serve in a leadership capacity in washington. I for one think that is great. It brings fresh eyes, perspective.
▶ 1:25:44Sen. Moody: It gets away from someone maybe that was raised in the petri dish of the swamp, and brings in someone to focus again on what is the mission of the agency, and how do we remain true to that. In that vein, if you are confirmed in this position, you will be asked to do a lot of hiring, filling out your ranks to complete the goals of that mission.
▶ 1:26:07Sen. Moody: I would like to hear from you, and I know the committee would, what type of attorneys will you be looking for to fill the ranks of your mission?
▶ 1:26:16Mr. Duva: Thank you, senator moody. You and I came into the same culture in florida. We were hired by the same U.S. attorney, you were hired by paul perez and I by jim clint, his assistant. We both came into an office of the elite culture and opportunities for those who deserved it, no matter where you came from. It did not matter whether you went to harvard or florida coastal. That is the attitude I am going to have.
▶ 1:26:45Mr. Duva: I am a sports fan, so I sometimes call lawyers players. I'm looking for great players. I look at myself as a general manager trying to field the best possible players I can, and I'm looking for trial lawyers. I'm looking for men and women who have been at the end game, try difficult cases, and know what that feels like, because it is really difficult. Being inside the courtroom gives you an experience like no other.
▶ 1:27:11Mr. Duva: It is not just basic cases, but as you develop complicated cases, because that is what the criminal division is going to do. I always tell a usa's that you are only as good as your best 10 cases. If it is the same topic, probably not great. If it is a diverse topic working with teams of agents, working with state and local agencies, your husband was a dea agent, you investigated and prosecuted complicated international drug cases -- I have lived that life.
▶ 1:27:43Mr. Duva: Those are the lawyers I'm going to be looking for, people that get up and are ready to fight, that have tried cases. I want them in supervision and I want them as trial attorneys. Also those in the appellate section. They have done the appeal work. They have been in other parts of the department of justice. That is what I am looking for.
▶ 1:28:05Sen. Moody: I am obviously one of the newest senators here. One of my concerns is watching the american trust of our judiciary erode. We have to have confidence that our judiciary is fair and impartial. District courts uniquely interface with litigants. Higher courts, court of appeal, the U.S. supreme court -- you interface in trial courts with litigants. How can you use that unique role to shore up trust in the judiciary?
▶ 1:28:37Sen. Moody: Either one. I'm sorry. I was directing it to crain or van hook. I love your enthusiasm, Mr. duvall. -- duva.
▶ 1:28:47Mr. Crain: I join you in that. We have to be confident every day that our strength in the position comes from public confidence in what we do. I am a firm believer that one of the ways we do that is to fairly and impartially plot -- apply the rule of law. There should be some predictability. If you read the law, you ought to have some idea of what you were going to be faced with when you go to court.
▶ 1:29:14Mr. Crain: I think that is important for public confidence. The other is to treat all of your litigants, all the parties, with dignity and respect. I think that you have to treat them the way you want them to treat you and the institution -- with dignity and respect. So those would be the things that I would say would be important to foster public confidence in the judiciary.
▶ 1:29:41Chair Kennedy: Thank you, senator. Senator whitehouse?
▶ 1:29:47Sen. Whitehouse: Thank you, senator kennedy. Good to be with all of you. Mr. duva, thank you for the time in my office. I want to ask you a question. I know from personal experience about what used to be called the U.S. attorney's manual. It is now called the justice manual. Will you adhere to it and enforce the procedures and processes of the justice manual?
▶ 1:30:11Mr. Duva: Senator whitehouse, thank you for your time yesterday in the office. I enjoyed our conversation. I thought it was open and honest. And yes, I will do this.
▶ 1:30:25Sen. Whitehouse: There has been a policy driven by pressure from this committee going all the way back to when senator hatch chaired it, that limits the people who can talk to each other about criminal cases to a very few at the top of the white house and a very few at the top of the department of justice.
▶ 1:30:48Sen. Whitehouse: And as we discussed, the obvious reason for that is to protect the department and indeed the white house from junior g men squirrels in the white house and the department of justice from cooking up mischief that the seniors, the people who are publicly accountable, are not aware of. That is perhaps the most dangerous if it is coming through criminal prosecutions that have not followed proper process and procedure.
▶ 1:31:17Sen. Whitehouse: What is your understanding of the current contacts policy of the department of justice? Will you adhere to that and make sure your staff adheres to that?
▶ 1:31:24Mr. Duva: Senator, I believe that policy is being evaluated by the attorney general. I believe at the beginning of the administration there was a blanket memo that rescinded prior policies including the contacts policy. I think that was part of it. There is going to be one forthcoming. I will abide by the policy. And I will expand on that. As cases rise up through the criminal division for my evaluation, I will be speaking with my counterparts at the law enforcement agencies at my level about those cases.
▶ 1:31:55Mr. Duva: If there are inquiries from the white house to the criminal division, I will be following the policy, which I'm sure will be along the lines of what you are talking about. Very few people in the doj talking to very few people at the white house about specific cases.
▶ 1:32:12Sen. Whitehouse: I would urge your doj handlers here to be sure to let the committee know as quickly as possible when that forthcoming thing comes forth, because frankly, I don't think this committee was aware officially until now that this was a lapse in many decades of a contacts policy under -- it lapsed under attorney general gonzales, and that did not work out well for him.
▶ 1:32:39Sen. Whitehouse: You mentioned earlier that as we discussed you have prosecuted or investigated cases of threats against judges. As you know, there have been a plague of threats against judges. I want to make sure that you will commit that you will follow the evidence where it leads, which includes potential orchestration of those threats.
▶ 1:33:07Sen. Whitehouse: In some cases, it is not enough to simply investigate the individual who uttered this threat. In some cases, the evidence suggests that somebody is behind a pattern of threats, either as an enterprise or as a conspiracy or in some other fashion.
▶ 1:33:28Sen. Whitehouse: I have been unable to get any reassurance from the department of justice that they will investigate orchestration of threats where there is predication of that orchestration. Will you?
▶ 1:33:44Mr. Duva: Go where the evidence takes you. I have prosecuted threats against judges, whether they are so low threats or otherwise. And you evaluate where the case takes you. Threats from any group toward judges, legislators, executives, anybody, is inappropriate, no matter where the orchestration occurs. You follow the evidence just like you would in a drug case, just like you would in a corruption case.
▶ 1:34:13Mr. Duva: You follow the evidence where it leads. That is not just in those kinds of cases, but all cases.
▶ 1:34:21Sen. Whitehouse: My concern is that there is a ban on investigating. That the marshall service is being discouraged from pursuing cases with the fbi, to which the marshall service usually hands off cases. Keep an eye out for that, because that would be highly improper.
▶ 1:34:40Sen. Whitehouse: Last, and I hope this is something we can work together on, senator graham and I support a piece of legislation that allows for what you and I would call in rim -- rem proceedings against assets. As you and I both know, right now, under U.S.
▶ 1:35:06Sen. Whitehouse: Law, asset seizure up to $500,000 can be prosecuted against the asset in rem. That is why we have cases all over the place with weird names like united states versus $40,000 from the trunk of a 1979 chevelle. The asset is the target.
▶ 1:35:36Sen. Whitehouse: Notice goes to the world and anybody can come in and challenge the seizure of that asset. You do not have to go through enormous effort to show ownership. You do it the other way around. Where this really comes to bear is when we are dealing with corrupt foreign criminals who have huge assets but have spent a lot of time hiding those assets behind all sorts of different legal screens --
▶ 1:36:08Sen. Whitehouse: Dakota trust, cayman islands fake corporations -- all of that. So I will ask you and I will follow up with a question for the record because I am going over my time now -- I will ask you to take a good, hard look at whether the work of the marshall service seizing these very expensive assets would not be simplified quite a lot by letting the proceedings be pursued in rem, and ask for an expedition of why a foreign
▶ 1:36:38Sen. Whitehouse: Criminal or technocrat should have more rights in the U.S. court system for a billion-dollar asset than a regular, ordinary american does with respect to their property up to 500,000 dollars. Take that under advisement. You have a chance to reflect on it. We would like to pass that bill. We would like to get technical assistance from the department in support of it. Thank you.
▶ 1:36:59Chair Kennedy: Senator hawley.
▶ 1:37:03Sen. Hawley: Thank you, Mr. chairman. Congratulations to the nominees. Thank you for being here. Mr. duva, you have been asked a number of questions about hypotheticals about political interference. What would happen if so and so tried to interfere in an investigation? What would happen if you were supposed to pursue a political motive or launch a politically motivated investigation? So let me just ask you about a non-hypothetical, just to get your response.
▶ 1:37:35Sen. Hawley: Something that actually happened. Like, for example, the united states department of justice seeking to track the cell phones of eight members of the united states senate without any criminal predicate, without any notice to any senator -- multiple of whom sit on this committee, including myself -- without any legal process to the senator targeted whatsoever.
▶ 1:38:01Sen. Hawley: They tracked all incoming calls to our phones, all outgoing calls to our phones, all metadata associated with the calls, including location, the duration of the calls. Does this sound appropriate to you? Does this sound like appropriate behavior for the department of justice to be involved in?
▶ 1:38:18Mr. Duva: I am noticing the panel is asking me a lot I am happy to share with my colleagues as we keep going in this discussion. Sir, what I think you are talking about is issuing a grand jury subpoena for cell phone records. In any investigation, you better have some specific and articulable facts about why you are doing that.
▶ 1:38:41Mr. Duva: If you do not have that and you cannot articulate those facts under 18 usc 2703, that subpoena does not get served.
▶ 1:38:50Sen. Hawley: I appreciate your answer. The records they sought to track and trace and tap, the devices that they saw it, are in the possession of senators pursuant to their constitutional duties. Usc section 2668 a specifically says that those records do not become the possession of cell phone companies. They do not become the possession of verizon or at&t. They are retained by the senator's office. Why?
▶ 1:39:18Sen. Hawley: Because these devices are used pursuant to the speech and debate responsibilities of senators. Yet the justice department did not inform senators, did not seek from our offices these records. They went instead, x partake, to the telephone companies, got the records, with no criminal predicate that we know about, no process whatsoever. It is a grotesque violation of statutory law, and also the separation of powers, particularly the speech and debate clause.
▶ 1:39:48Sen. Hawley: Here, you have an executive branch directly spying on members of the legislative branch while they are performing their constitutional duties. Let me ask you, does this sound like something we want to normalize? Is this something you would like to see the current justice department doing on a regular basis? Should they be tracking the cell phone numbers of the people on the left side of the dais? Would that be a good thing for the country?
▶ 1:40:12Mr. Duva: Clearly no, sir.
▶ 1:40:17Sen. Hawley: It is hard for me to stomach sitting here listening to you be asked about these various hypotheticals. This is not a hypothetical. This happened. It happened. And so far there have been exactly zero repercussions for it. And I just want to say that if my colleagues are serious about stopping political weaponization of the justice department, why don't we start with this right here? Why don't we find out who authorized this? Why don't we find out what laws, if any, were broken?
▶ 1:40:47Sen. Hawley: Why don't we appoint a special prosecutor to get to the bottom of it? I will reiterate my calls to this committee to do full oversight hearings on exactly what happened as part of this weaponization, as part of this illegal and unconstitutional targeting of united states senators in their constitutional responsibilities at the same time the same justice department was also targeting, we now know, thanks to whistleblowers, 90 two separate conservative organizations, including charlie
▶ 1:41:18Sen. Hawley: Kirk's turning point usa, a campus organization. Why? I guess because it was conservative. I mean, this is the most unbelievable abuse of the justice department that I have not only seen in my lifetime -- that I have ever read or heard about in our country's history. It is not one little thing. It is an entire pattern. This is the same justice department that set a swat team to the home of a pro-life demonstrator.
▶ 1:41:44Sen. Hawley: This is the same fbi that tried to recruit informants in catholic parishes. This is the same justice department that targeted the chief political opponent of the then sitting president for prosecution to try to keep him off of a ballot. It is unbelievable and I hope that my colleagues agree. I hope we can all agree we cannot allow this to become the norm.
▶ 1:42:05Sen. Hawley: I hope that when you are confirmed he will do your part to make sure that the resources of this powerful, powerful agency are used for good, to protect the american people, protect the rule of law, to put violent criminals away -- not to prosecute the political agendas of some politicians.
▶ 1:42:22Mr. Duva: I will, senator. Thank you.
▶ 1:42:28Sen. Welch: Thank you very much, Mr. chairman. Mr. chairman -- I like that. I'm amazed at how quickly it went to your head.
▶ 1:42:38Chair Kennedy: You should not be. You know me well.
▶ 1:42:43Sen. Welch: That's true, but I wanted to keep it on the down low so you could at least maintain the appearance of a reasonable person. [laughter] judge crain, in louisiana, the state of louisiana, judges have to run for election, which I think has some unfortunate consequences. If you want to be a judge, you have to run.
▶ 1:43:10Sen. Welch: I guess in one of your campaigns, you needed to get $1.2 million. And I know you get legal contributions, and that will include from the oil and gas industry, which often does have litigation in front of the court. And I know that one of the controversial cases you had to make a decision on involved chevron and hess.
▶ 1:43:40Sen. Welch: The dispute was about building and operating oil and gas wells on a property and those companies were accused of failing to follow state environmental laws for the pits that created a lot of environmental damage.
▶ 1:43:58Sen. Welch: I am questioning your decision on that, but I just wonder if you could give me your thoughts about the obvious question that people would see who were not involved, that this could create a conflict of interest. They would say that about us as well. I am not singling you out.
▶ 1:44:18Sen. Welch: Where you are a jurist, you have the responsibility of making fair and impartial decisions, yet in order to get elected under the law of louisiana -- not your law -- you have to raise money. And these companies that have litigation before you make contributions to your campaign. Do you think it makes sense to have judges have to run for election and raise money from the people whose cases are going to be brought before you?
▶ 1:44:51Mr. Crain: Senator, first of all, a huge acknowledgment that that is the rule we have in louisiana. We have been electing judges in louisiana, as far as I know, since it's inception. We believe in the electoral process. Is it perfect? No. Could some people suggest that it creates the appearance of partiality to one side or the other?
▶ 1:45:21Mr. Crain: I think that is a fair assessment that it could. I will say that we have tried, or the legislature has tried -- we at the supreme court, with the rules we put in place have tried to inoculate ourselves as much as possible by being prohibited from soliciting contributions. But you get to access our campaign finance reports.
▶ 1:45:52Sen. Welch: Just a question of whether that makes sense. You will be in a different situation. Mr. duva, I had a nice visit with you. I appreciate the foreign corrupt practices act. I'm very concerned, to be candid, that the trump administration seems to be taking the position that we really should not enforce it. Of course, that is the provision that says our companies cannot bribe foreign officials in order to get business.
▶ 1:46:23Sen. Welch: I notice that the criminal division has recently declined to prosecute liberty mutual insurance company after the company itself disclosed that it paid $1.47 million in bribes for officials at state owned banks in india in exchange for them referring thanks to the company. My understanding of the trump position is that everybody does it. That is the way the world works. I disagree with that.
▶ 1:46:50Sen. Welch: It may be that a lot of people do it and it may be the way a lot of the world works, but I think one of the things we are proud of is that our companies make their case on the basis of quality of product, service, and price. What is your position on vigorous enforcement of the foreign corrupt practices act?
▶ 1:47:11Mr. Duva: Thank you for the question and for the visit yesterday. I really enjoyed our discussion. I'm aware that there was a stay on cases based on an executive order in february. There is now a deputy attorney general memo from june of this year, and it set parameters for these cases going forward. I will abide by that. The focus will be on transnational criminal organizations were bribes are involved, and scams.
▶ 1:47:40Mr. Duva: Now, the criminal division has charged I believe eight or nine of those cases this year, and just successfully concluded a trial for the foreign corrupt practices act where there were guilty verdicts by the criminal division in that case. I look forward to abiding by that memo and progressing the good work of the men and women in that section.
▶ 1:47:59Sen. Welch: Thank you. My time is up, but I gave a lot of time to the chairman, so I have just one more question. The public integrity section has been decimated. People have been sent from where they were working to other locations. It is down from -- there were only two attorneys and one paralegal, and that is in contrast to 36 full-time career attorneys and 12 paralegals.
▶ 1:48:28Sen. Welch: I believe that it is an incredibly important unit within your division. What are you going to do and what is your position about how that has been decimated?
▶ 1:48:39Mr. Duva: Thank you. Ranking member durbin asked that question out of the box and I have answered it a few other times. I'm happy to answer here. We are going to evaluate that section. I have tried cases with the public integrity section. They have had very good lawyers over the years. I want to evaluate how that section is going to exist and how we might have a nationwide approach, because I believe the criminal division should have a footprint in nationwide public corruption cases.
▶ 1:49:09Mr. Duva: That is something I did as an ausa, investigating at the state and local level. I look forward to that discussion. Thank you very much.
▶ 1:49:21Chair Kennedy: Senator lee?
▶ 1:49:24Sen. Lee: Thank you to each of you for being here. Mr. duva, congratulations on your nomination to be assistant attorney general. Your experience as assistant U.S. attorney in florida will serve you well. You have done a number of things, including going after major international drug defendants and people who have done our country harm.
▶ 1:49:53Sen. Lee: Over the last few years, we have seen a massive set of gains by international drug cartels who have a shocking degree of permissiveness shown to them as they have trafficked millions upon millions of people into the united states, illegal immigrants.
▶ 1:50:19Sen. Lee: Who also trafficked an unprecedented amount of harmful drugs, including enough fentanyl to kill a lot of people in this country. How will you work, if confirmed as assistant attorney general over the criminal division, to dismantle the international cartels and their drug trafficking and human trafficking exploits?
▶ 1:50:48Sen. Lee: Do you think that is a battle we can win?
▶ 1:50:50Mr. Duva: I appreciate the opportunity with your staff, your general counsel and chief of staff. We had a great meeting yesterday. That is a great question. I have been doing that for much of my career. The U.S. attorney's office in florida, you build those cases from the mid level up. It is a fight we are always going to fight.
▶ 1:51:10Mr. Duva: I have seen firsthand in cartel-related cases and also following the take back america memo of deputy attorney general blanche -- that is going to be a foremost obligation of the criminal division to prosecute trans -- -- transnational drug crime. The cartels will do anything for money. They will trafficked people. They will traffic fentanyl. They will take money from people operating legitimate businesses in their space.
▶ 1:51:38Mr. Duva: They will internationally launder money in any way possible. They are very good at it. But that is a fight we are never going to give up. We are going to work hand-in-hand with the U.S. attorney's office, the dangerous drugs section, the money-laundering section, and we are going to investigate those cases with vigor. It is something I did for well over a decade in the central part of the state. It is not just buying drugs off the corner and simple car stops. Those are minor tools and those investigations.
▶ 1:52:06Mr. Duva: You build them by your informant base, by cooperating defendants, by charging minimum mandatory's, by flipping defendants, putting them on the grand jury, seeking indictments of other individuals. I did that in the ocala division, the jacksonville division. You go south to miami. You go north to atlanta. Those cases take you to the border and the end in mexico and colombia and other countries throughout the world.
▶ 1:52:32Mr. Duva: I have worked with oia to extradite defendants from colombia to mexico, and that is a fight we are never going to give up because it is critically important. At the other end, I tried one of the most difficult cases I tried -- a 19-year-old girl in jacksonville who had just graduated from high school and enlisted in the united states army. Before she was going to enlist, she had a summer job at a cracker barrel restaurant. She got in with the wrong crowd. She was dating the wrong guy.
▶ 1:53:01Mr. Duva: He and another guy got heroin leist with fentanyl. First time drug user. Dead. I sat in her parents house and I told her I would bring them to justice. We did not just make the first case. We made the next level and the next level, and we tried the last level of the case. It did not bring their daughter back, but I have seen that at that end and at the 100 kilo end.
▶ 1:53:25Sen. Lee: It is a strange market, isn't it? They will inject into their product another substance that is even more deadly than the product they are selling. Ordinarily, wouldn't that be a poor market decision, to poison your own customer base? If so, why does this happen in this industry?
▶ 1:53:44Mr. Duva: Cartels will sell anything americans and other citizens throughout other countries will take. Unfortunately, there is a demand for fentanyl. You see numerous overdoses with the same individuals. It creates a horrific toll on them and their families that often leads to death. And the cartels don't care. They know there are 360 5 million americans. If they kill some, frankly, that is their goal in many instances.
▶ 1:54:13Mr. Duva: But they will traffic whatever americans will take. That is why as the department of justice criminal division, the U.S. attorney's office, that has to remain at the forefront of the investigations and prosecutions. It is disgusting. It is vile. It ruins lives.
▶ 1:54:28Sen. Lee: I spoke to a man whose daughter had passed away under similar tragic circumstances, and I asked him a similar question. I asked him, why would the dealer not see the business dry up after that? The answer was stunning. There are some dealers who almost regarded it as a plus and a selling point. They have strong product. We have seen this assumption being made.
▶ 1:54:57Mr. Duva: Hundreds of times.
▶ 1:55:01Sen. Lee: Tragic. Thank you for your willingness to serve.
▶ 1:55:03Sen. Schiff: First of all, thank you for taking the time to meet with my staff. I appreciate that. I served in the U.S. attorney's office in los angeles. I was also in the public corruption and government fraud section. I prosecuted corrupt government officials, fraud cases, and an espionage case against anna fbi agent who spied for the russians.
▶ 1:55:29Sen. Schiff: In all the time I was in the office -- I was in the office for about six years, so considerably less time than you were. Nevertheless, never had any political figure contact me to tell me "you should bring a case against so-and-so," or "you should refrain from bringing a case against so and so." I never had that experience. I worked predominantly under republican attorney general's until the end of my tenure. Was that your experience as well?
▶ 1:55:59Sen. Schiff: Did you ever have a figure tell you who you should prosecute or that you should refrain from prosecuting someone?
▶ 1:56:05Mr. Duva: I enjoyed the meeting with your staff yesterday. We had a great discussion. I thank you for the opportunity. And the answer to your question is no. Nobody has ever told me to prosecute a specific person or not to prosecute a specific person.
▶ 1:56:21Sen. Schiff: How would you handle a circumstance where someone did tell you to prosecute someone, or that conversely, you should drop a case against someone for political reasons?
▶ 1:56:29Mr. Duva: Those who are responsible for my nomination, I'm confident that they know my background. I'm confident that they know I have never done that and never will do it. I'm confident they know that I will only follow the facts as I apply the law. As I said before to ranking member durbin, any kind of public corruption investigation -- you know this from your six years in the attorney general's office -- you cannot just investigate somebody to investigate.
▶ 1:56:58Mr. Duva: There have to be specific and articulable facts that predicate and investigation. I evaluate that even to start an investigation. When I have work hand-in-hand with the fbi, done local public corruption cases, state-based and nationwide public corruption cases, if you don't have it, you don't start it.
▶ 1:57:17Sen. Schiff: I heard you make a similar response to senator durbin in terms of you don't think you will be put in that position. It calls to mind a conversation I had with Mr. blanche prior to his confirmation. He expressed the same view. I'm not going to be put in that position. We have heard that from any number of nominees in this administration. I don't expect I will ever be put in the position you are describing. And yet they almost all have.
▶ 1:57:47Sen. Schiff: I am grateful for your optimism. But I think it probably is only a matter of time before you are put in that position. As my colleagues have indicated, I think the question is how will you respond when you are put in that position, not whether it will ever come up. So let me ask you this.
▶ 1:58:08Sen. Schiff: Ever since watergate, there has been a strong norm, guardrail, that has maintained the independence of the justice department from pressure from the white house. This was part of the post watergate reforms. And it served our country remarkably well in insulating the department from political pressure.
▶ 1:58:33Sen. Schiff: Presidents over the course of years have set general policies -- I want to see more prosecution of drug cases. I want to see more prosecution of corruption cases. I want to see more prosecution for the illegal immigration cases. But since watergate and until now, we have not seen a white house identifying individuals they want prosecuted. This goes beyond anything I think we saw during watergate.
▶ 1:59:02Sen. Schiff: So let me ask you as a general matter -- what is your view of the desirability -- I think necessity -- of maintaining the independence of the justice department from political pressure emanating from the white house?
▶ 1:59:14Mr. Duva: I look forward to -- my direct report will be deputy attorney blanche. I have had multiple interactions with him. I believe he is doing a great job. I look forward to working with him to do what we have always done. He was an ausa in the southern district of new york just like you, just like me. I really don't believe we will be put in that position.
▶ 1:59:41Mr. Duva: When you look at the criminal division, what we do, these are nationwide impact cases for all americans. Should buy it -- should I be tasked with evaluating a public corruption case, whatever that case may be, I can assure you I will do it the way I have always done it, based on the facts and the law and the independent decisions of the justice department to make those charging decisions. That is exactly how I will operate, sir.
▶ 2:00:06Sen. Schiff: I appreciate what I would describe as a triumph of hope over experience in your testimony, but I hope your experience is commensurate with your hope. I fear it will be otherwise and I yelled back.
▶ 2:00:19Chair Kennedy: Sen. cruz:?
▶ 2:00:24Sen. Cruz: Gentlemen, congratulations on your nominations. You have been nominated to serve as assistant attorney general and the criminal division. The criminal division sits at the heart of the department of justice mission to protect the public. Your nomination comes at a moment where americans are looking for one simple thing -- keep our cities safe. Keep our families safe. Over the last five years, we have watched a dangerous pattern take hold in american cities.
▶ 2:00:53Sen. Cruz: From 2020 220 25, so-called peaceful protests left behind more than $2 billion of property damage. Blue cities. Minneapolis, portland, seattle, chicago, new york, st. Louis, atlanta, and los angeles. In some instances, entire downtowns burned. Police precincts overrun.
▶ 2:01:23Sen. Cruz: Small businesses destroyed overnight. 19 people were killed directly during the black lives riots. Hundreds more died in directly because ambulances could not get through and police were overwhelmed. After the october 7, 20 23 attack on israel, antisemitic mobs took over college campuses, threatening jewish students, seizing buildings, and spreading hate. And it did not stop there.
▶ 2:01:56Sen. Cruz: In 2025, coordinated riots once again engulfed los angeles and portland before spreading across the country. Do you believe that these were spontaneous riots, or do you believe they were organized and financed?
▶ 2:02:10Mr. Duva: Thank you for the question, senator cruz. All of those incidents you talked about were a real dark mark on our history during that time. I watched it on tv. There is no place for rioting, burning buildings, assaulting law enforcement officers. There did seem to be coordination behind those. I agree with you. In any case that comes across the criminal division, we will be evaluating that.
▶ 2:02:40Mr. Duva: I answered questions along those lines from senator britt. Whether it is religious violence, violence against law enforcement officers, the jewish community, or what have you, we will prosecute those cases to the fullest extent of the law and follow the facts where they lead. If they lead to coordinated attacks, financing, things of that nature, we will evaluate those cases through grand jury investigations and prosecute them.
▶ 2:03:07Sen. Cruz: Federal law right now criminalizes rioting under 18 usc section 21 01, the antiriot act, which makes it a federal offense to travel or use interstate facilities to incite, organize, promote, or participate in a riot. The biden department of justice refused to enforce that law. Will you commit under your leadership the department of justice will once again enforce section 2101?
▶ 2:03:34Mr. Duva: The best way you do that is to partner with the U.S. attorneys offices. That is what I intend to do is the head of the criminal division. We will contact people, let them know. We do not want to operate on our own. The U.S. attorney offices do that at times, but it is best when we work together. And we will do that to prosecute that statute.
▶ 2:04:00Sen. Cruz: Unfortunately, enforcing the antiriot act is not enough to combat the 21st century leftist riots that have burned our cities. Like the mafia of old, today's agitators are part of a layered enterprise. The foot soldiers on the ground and the financiers and masterminds who plan and bankroll the operations. The antiriot act can reach the writers in the street.
▶ 2:04:24Sen. Cruz: But it has difficulty reaching the konsyl you ares and the -- the consiglieres and the dons. That is why we have rico to pierce the veil of coordination and hold every level of a criminal network accountable. Rico was one of the most powerful tools ever enacted. It helped break the back of organized crime in america.
▶ 2:04:49Sen. Cruz: Do you agree that that same model would be helpful in fighting today's politically funded violence?
▶ 2:04:56Mr. Duva: You have to have evidence of the primary crime set forth in the rico statute. Those are tools I'm familiar with from my time in a, used in our tampa and jacksonville division. They are appropriate to evaluate in those circumstances.
▶ 2:05:17Sen. Cruz: That is the logic behind legislation I have introduced called the stop funders act. It adds rioting as a predicate offense under rico, empowering the prosecutors to follow the money, to trace the network, and indict not just the writer who throws the brick, but the donor who paid for it and put the writer in position to carry out that act of violence.
▶ 2:05:41Sen. Cruz: It would give doj the tools to dismantle the financial architecture of political violence. In your judgment, would adding rioting to the list of predicate offenses under rico aid in enabling the department of justice to fight and stop political violence and organized violence and rioting across the country?
▶ 2:06:01Mr. Duva: We will take all the tools we think that, senator. I look forward to those discussions with the office of senate affairs on legal policy.
▶ 2:06:12Sen. Cruz: Thank you very much.
▶ 2:06:18Chair Kennedy: Justice crain, we elect judges in louisiana, do we not?
▶ 2:06:26Mr. Crain: We do.
▶ 2:06:28Chair Kennedy: And we have elected judges, our people have decided to elect judges, for a long, long, long time.
▶ 2:06:39Mr. Crain: As long as I can research, yes.
▶ 2:06:43Chair Kennedy: Are you responsible for that system of choosing judges?
▶ 2:06:48Mr. Crain: Not at all.
▶ 2:06:50Chair Kennedy: When you run for judge, can you solicit campaign contributions?
▶ 2:06:57Mr. Crain: You cannot.
▶ 2:06:59Chair Kennedy: You have run three times.
▶ 2:07:02Mr. Crain: I have.
▶ 2:07:05Chair Kennedy: Have you ever solicited a campaign contribution?
▶ 2:07:09Mr. Crain: I have not.
▶ 2:07:11Chair Kennedy: You have to go through a committee, do you not?
▶ 2:07:14Mr. Crain: That is correct.
▶ 2:07:17Chair Kennedy: Now come up one of my colleagues -- not senator welch -- suggested that you live in the left front pocket of the oil and gas industry. Is that true?
▶ 2:07:37Mr. Crain: That is absolutely not true, senator.
▶ 2:07:41Chair Kennedy: Do you live in anybody's left front pocket?
▶ 2:07:44Mr. Crain: The only pocket I live in is the rule of law, senator. I think my record reflects that.
▶ 2:07:52Chair Kennedy: That has certainly been my experience. I just wanted to clear that up.
▶ 2:07:57Mr. Crain: Thank you, senator.
▶ 2:08:00Chair Kennedy: Mr. duva, you have heard the expression "lawf are." what does that mean?
▶ 2:08:10Mr. Duva: The alleged weaponization of the justice department.
▶ 2:08:14Chair Kennedy: What does that mean?
▶ 2:08:17Mr. Duva: It is a term that has been used quite a bit. It means the justice department becomes the tool of a sitting president or congress or whoever to do its bidding, and that only, and not follow the law. Not follow the facts as applied to the law. What we will do is not do that. We will do the converse of that.
▶ 2:08:38Chair Kennedy: Why is that dangerous?
▶ 2:08:41Mr. Duva: Because it leads to bias. It leads to improper prosecution. It leads to messes in courtrooms. There is a reason there is a justice manual. There is a reason there is rule 60. -- 6e.
▶ 2:08:59Chair Kennedy: I don't want to talk about the manual. I want to talk about common sense.
▶ 2:09:03Mr. Duva: It erodes faith in the justice system from our citizens. The end result -- citizens become jurors. We need jurors to have confidence in the justice department and the prosecutions that it brings, and to fairly evaluate cases.
▶ 2:09:21Chair Kennedy: Let me put it this way. Our judicial branch does not have an army, does it? The judicial branch depends on its legitimacy for enforcement. I mean, people have to believe that justice -- even if they disagree with the result, people have to believe in the integrity of the system, do they not?
▶ 2:09:49Mr. Duva: They do, because if they don't and are selected on a jury, they are not going to follow the judge's instructions to evaluate the case is based on the facts and the law. It depends on the citizens to help us with the end result. If that is eroded on the front end, it is eroded on the backend.
▶ 2:10:07Chair Kennedy: If I am a candidate for district attorney and I run for district attorney saying if you elect me, I'm going to prosecute joe blow, a well-known political figure -- is that lawfare?
▶ 2:10:26Mr. Duva: It is. That's inappropriate.
▶ 2:10:29Chair Kennedy: That undermines the integrity of the criminal justice system, doesn't it? It suggests justice is not blind.
▶ 2:10:38Mr. Duva: It sure does.
▶ 2:10:40Chair Kennedy: Nobody is blameless here. I remember when this nonsense started under president biden, and I remember thinking they have unleashed spirits they cannot control. This has got to stop. Now, I'm a united states senator. I'm also on the appropriations committee. I have influence over your budget, don't I?
▶ 2:11:10Chair Kennedy: Let's suppose I tweet out I'm really mad at joe blow, and I think the justice department ought to prosecute him. Do I have the right to do that under the first amendment? I'm not asking you whether it is wise. I'm asking you whether I have the right.
▶ 2:11:29Mr. Duva: You do. As long as it is nonviolent, you can tweet whatever thought you want.
▶ 2:11:37Chair Kennedy: You have the right to ignore me, don't you?
▶ 2:11:40Mr. Duva: Absolutely.
▶ 2:11:42Chair Kennedy: Let me ask you about being a prosecutor. I have never been a prosecutor. As a prosecutor, you have a moral obligation to yourself and to the criminal justice system not to bring a criminal prosecution unless you think the defendant is guilty. Is that accurate?
▶ 2:12:08Mr. Duva: Yes, in the justice manual --
▶ 2:12:11Chair Kennedy: I don't care about the manual. I'm talking about common human decency.
▶ 2:12:16Mr. Duva: Yes, you have to know.
▶ 2:12:20Chair Kennedy: Is that a principal you agree with?
▶ 2:12:23Mr. Duva: Yes.
▶ 2:12:25Chair Kennedy: You not only have to believe the defendant is guilty. You have to believe you can prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. Do you not?
▶ 2:12:33Mr. Duva: You have to have the facts. Without the facts, you have nothing.
▶ 2:12:38Chair Kennedy: Is that a principal you possess?
▶ 2:12:41Mr. Duva: I do, and that is how I have operated for 18 years.
▶ 2:12:46Chair Kennedy: You also have to believe that the prosecution is in the public interest.
▶ 2:12:51Mr. Duva: You do.
▶ 2:12:53Chair Kennedy: If one of your superiors came to you -- well, let me answer the question, how I would do it. If one of my superiors came to me and said, look, you've got to prosecute this case, and I looked at it, and either I did not believe that the defendant was guilty, or I did not believe I could prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, or I thought
▶ 2:13:24Chair Kennedy: It was not in the public interest, because it would undermine the integrity of the criminal justice system, I would resign.
▶ 2:13:35Mr. Duva: You would decline the matter.
▶ 2:13:38Chair Kennedy: Sir?
▶ 2:13:39Mr. Duva: You would decline the matter for sure.
▶ 2:13:42Chair Kennedy: If my superiors said, look, kennedy, what planet did you just parachute in from -- you don't have a choice. I'm the boss and telling you to do it. I would resign. How about you?
▶ 2:13:56Mr. Duva: I would have no problem doing that. I would first say we are not doing this case and here are the reasons, and the discussion could go from there.
▶ 2:14:04Chair Kennedy: If you were told to do it or quit, what would you do?
▶ 2:14:08Mr. Duva: I would quit.
▶ 2:14:11Chair Kennedy: Would you ever advise a client not to file a federal court order?
▶ 2:14:20Mr. Duva: No, sir.
▶ 2:14:22Chair Kennedy: I appreciate that. I appreciate you not qualifying it. It is ok to disagree with a federal judge ruling, isn't it?
▶ 2:14:38Mr. Duva: I often have.
▶ 2:14:41Chair Kennedy: It is ok to appeal it.
▶ 2:14:43Mr. Duva: The appellate section is one of the best sections of the criminal division.
▶ 2:14:49Chair Kennedy: Within the bounds of legal ethics, it is ok to criticize it.
▶ 2:14:53Mr. Duva: Yes, internally.
▶ 2:14:55Chair Kennedy: But you have to follow it. Because that is called the rule of law.
▶ 2:15:00Mr. Duva: Without that, we have anarchy and no confidence in the justice department.
▶ 2:15:05Chair Kennedy: I appreciate it and I appreciate the frank answers. All right, gentlemen. This hearing is concluded. Thank you to the -- I've got to read this, folks. Thank you to the nominees for your testimony today. Written questions for the record may be submitted until october 29 at 5:00 p.m.
▶ 2:15:35Chair Kennedy: Justice crain, how many times has your dad texted you during this hearing?
▶ 2:15:40Mr. Crain: Quite a number.
▶ 2:15:43Chair Kennedy: I served with justice crain's father, who was one of the best judges I have ever seen. Thank you for your patience today, and thanks for everybody. Thanks to all of y'all and audience members for sitting through this. This hearing is adjourned.