▶ 0:19:05Chair Grassley: Good morning. On today's agenda, seven nominations are listed. We will vote today on all seven, including three district judges. Nicholas ganjei, southern district of texas. David fowlkes, western district of arkansas. Aaron christian peterson, district of alaska.
▶ 0:19:35Chair Grassley: We will also vote on darin smith , andrew benson, william boyle, richard price to be U.S. attorneys. I look forward to supporting each of these nominees and I urge my colleagues to do likewise. The legislation that we call the clear path act is on our agenda for the first time today and we will hold it over for further consideration.
▶ 0:20:05Chair Grassley: As we enter this holiday season it is important that we remember someone who isn't with us, specialist sarah beckman. Specialist beckman joined the national guard to protect our country and she volunteered to serve on thanksgiving so other servicemembers could be home with their families. While working to keep us safe, she was killed in an horrific ambush.
▶ 0:20:33Chair Grassley: Staff sergeant andrew wolfe was also injured during the attack and remains in recovery. These two servicemembers were part of an effort to keep our cities and capital safe. Our prayers and gratitude for their service are with them and their families.
▶ 0:20:57Chair Grassley: As we approach the end of 2025, I want to recognize with this committee has achieved this year. So far, we have conducted more than 50 committee and subcommittee hearings. We have held dozens of markups. And we favorably reported 23 bills.
▶ 0:21:20Chair Grassley: The committee has also been quickly and efficacy processing nominations. After this morning's meeting we will have voted for 84 nominees, including the attorney general, fbi director, six circuit judges, 24 district judges, and 36 U.S. attorneys.
▶ 0:21:45Chair Grassley: We have advanced judicial nominees as fast as our committee receives them, and we have confirmed more federal judges at this point than president trump did in his first administration.
▶ 0:22:02Chair Grassley: The heritage foundation recently reported that our committee has held hearings for 96% of the judicial nominations it has received, which is higher than any president since 1980. I would like to process even more judicial nominations, but I'm waiting on the president to get those nominations up here.
▶ 0:22:34Chair Grassley: Likewise, our committee has processed U.S. attorneys weakly and efficiently despite relentless and unprecedented obstruction by members of the senate. We've reported more U.S. attorneys out of committee than the biden administration did at this point, and we are confirming them at roughly the same rate. As with judicial nominees, I would like to process even more U.S.
▶ 0:23:01Chair Grassley: Attorneys, but I am hamstrung, waiting for background investigations and other paperwork from the administration that the committee needs to advance the nominees that we have moved already. So, I'm asking people who are involved in this process, the executive branch of government, to get on the ball.
▶ 0:23:27Chair Grassley: In short, the judicial community has been hard at work advancing quality nominees and getting them to work for the american people. As I have noted before, a recent nonpartisan study found judges nominated by president trump have outperformed those of other recent administrations in terms of productivity, quality, and independence.
▶ 0:23:55Chair Grassley: I look forward to that continued trend to advancing more excellent nominees to the committee. On another matter, I would like to discuss the committee's invitation to secretary noem to appear for an oversight hearing. I invited secretary noem to testify at december 10. She declined both invitations.
▶ 0:24:28Chair Grassley: Her department has failed to provide any alternative dates, but I see on fox news this morning that she is appearing before the house homeland security committee. When is she going to pay attention to the senate? During her confirmation process secretary noem committed to appearing before this committee when invited.
▶ 0:24:54Chair Grassley: I expect better cooperative cooperation -- better cooperation from the secretary very early next year. Next, an update on a classified dhs inspector general report. That report was on covert testing of the tsa's checkpoint security screening at the airports.
▶ 0:25:19Chair Grassley: Originally, dhs restricted access to this report to me as president pro tem. Rand paul, and the speaker of the house of representatives. I demanded that c I demanded that committees of jurisdiction in both houses of congress have access to this report. I've been told that that has been done.
▶ 0:25:43Chair Grassley: That included my democratic colleague, ranking member durbin, and this entire committee. The inspector general report raises serious, very serious, issues. Because of that, I've asked the government accountability office to conduct a review of the tsa security screening process. Today, dhs proper has not granted permission of the inspector general's report.
▶ 0:26:13Chair Grassley: I expect secretary noem to iron this out. Lastly, bringing up --. I announced I activated and authorized four subcommittees as part of senator johnson's investigation. Starting in january we will begin oversight hearings in those subcommittees that will also include at least one full committee hearing on that matter. Now, senator durbin.
▶ 0:26:42Sen. Durbin: Thank you, chairman grassley. President trump campaigned on the promise of deporting the worst of the worst. Rapists, murderers, terrorists, the criminally insane immigrants.
▶ 0:26:59Sen. Durbin: In reality, the president has engaged in a lawless, failing mass deportation campaign that has diverted important resources away from drug trafficking, gun violence, and other threats, and put our nation at security risk. This committee needs to hold him accountable. Consider president trump's extrajudicial killings of alleged drug traffickers. The body count now is amazing.
▶ 0:27:28Sen. Durbin: Since september, the administration has carried out at least 22 attacks, killing at least 87 people. The president and secretary hegseth alleged they were killing "narco terrorists," but the administration refuses to provide any evidence. Any evidence of an imminent threat justifying lethal force.
▶ 0:27:52Sen. Durbin: If these are actually drug traffickers, law enforcement should stop the boats, confiscate and destroy the drugs, and prosecute the traffickers. The justice department's office of legal counsel has tried to provide legal cover for the summary executions into deeply flawed legal opinion, which it refuses to make public to the american people. At the same time, president trump doesn't appear to have received the message on narco terrorism.
▶ 0:28:20Sen. Durbin: His pardon of the former president of honduras who was convicted of orchestrating a massive conspiracy to flood our country with illegal narcotics. This kingpin, Mr.
▶ 0:28:34Sen. Durbin: Hernandez, bragged, "we are going to stuff drugs up the gringo's noses and they will never know it." she was sentenced to 45 years in prison for his role as a drug kingpin and what was called one of the largest, most violent drug trafficking conspiracies in the world. How is he doing now? Well, he's free.
▶ 0:29:03Sen. Durbin: The same president who is dedicated to ending narco terrorism released him with an unconditional pardon. This follows the president's pardon of another drug kingpin. It must have been a good week for drug kingpins in the white house. He created the largest online black market for illegal drugs in the nation's history.
▶ 0:29:29Sen. Durbin: The justice department said it was used by thousands, thousands of drug dealers and other unlawful vendors to distribute hundreds of kilograms of illegal drugs and other unlawful goods answer to more than 100,000 buyers and a longer hundreds of millions of dollars derived from these transactions -- launder hundreds of millions of dollars derived from this transaction.
▶ 0:29:56Sen. Durbin: The president pardon the founder of this entity as well. As this sound like the actions of the president focused on making america safe again? Meanwhile president trump is targeting communities who didn't vote for him, like chicago. Instead of arresting dangerous murderers, rapists, and terrorists, his promise, the trump administration is rounding up tens of thousands of immigrants with no criminal history.
▶ 0:30:21Sen. Durbin: In illinois, a mere 2.5% of immigrants arrested by ice between september 8 at october 15, as reported to the federal court, had been convicted of a violent crime. 66% of the people detained and deported had no criminal history whatsoever. The worst of the worst? The president is making no secret about his true motivation.
▶ 0:30:46Sen. Durbin: I will never forget my 2018 meeting in the oval office when president trump rejected a bipartisan immigration deal because he didn't want anymore immigrants from those "s-hole countries." there was some question if he actually said that for years. He not only said it he bragged about it. At the time the president denied making those comments and two republican senators claimed that I was lying when I confirmed it.
▶ 0:31:17Sen. Durbin: Now, president trump is not hiding his true feelings. In a rally earlier this week you bragged about calling somalia an s-hole country. In 2018, he has called tamale-americans "garbage." this is racism, plain and simple. For the president to say he wants more immigrants from norway, sweden, and afri canners, what do they have in common?
▶ 0:31:48Sen. Durbin: Kristi noem has echoed the president calling for a full travel ban on every country that has been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies. After her call, federal agents began pulling immigrants who were already approved for citizenship out of their naturalization oath ceremonies. These are immigrants who follow every rule who were ready to swear in oath of allegiance to our country. Does anyone still believe that this effort by dhs is going after the worst of the worst?
▶ 0:32:19Sen. Durbin: I want to thank chairman grassley for committing to bring secretary noble for the committee -- secretary noem before the committee before the end of the year. Unfortunately she has refused to commit to a hearing date. Mr. chairman, you have the power to issue an subpoena. It will be bipartisan because I will sign it with you. It is time for secretary noem to end her gallivanting across this country and come before this committee and be held accountable by the american people.
▶ 0:32:55Chair Grassley: We don't have our people here yet. I hope that the republicans will soon get here, because one of our members has to leave pretty soon. I have asked -- senator graham and senator hawley have asked to speak while we are waiting for everyone to get here.
▶ 0:33:17Sen. Graham: Yesterday, the effects of social media's extortion -- social media sextortion and all of the horrible things happening to young people is very moving. I want to let the committee know a couple of things.
▶ 0:33:33Sen. Graham: I have a letter I would like for you to sign onto if you could urging the leadership, senator thome and senator schumer in february, the 30th anniversary of the creation of section 230 social media leak. Senator blackburn, so many of you have bills that would help the problem in terms of empowering consumers and the accountability to people who push the stuff. Hopefully that will give us a month or two to get ready to let the country know we are doing more than just having hearings.
▶ 0:34:05Sen. Graham: We are going to finally vote. When we vote, these things turn out pretty well. When you don't vote, we know how that turns out. Putting section 230 on the clock 30 years ago, he may have made sense to have section 230 which absolves all of the social media companies of any liability for the garbage they put on their platforms and the money they make from advertising. I would like to put that on the clock.
▶ 0:34:30Sen. Graham: A year, two years, whatever the committee wants to do. Durbin, hawley, blumenthal, I would like to get as many cosponsors as we could. The media companies are never -- social media companies are never going to deal with this committee or any committee in congress until they are on the clock.
▶ 0:34:55Sen. Graham: Once we let them know these protections are going to come to an end at a date certain in the future we may be able to get them in here and find a solution that is good for us all. Very quickly, as to seizing the oil tanker, good. More. We've done it in the past.
▶ 0:35:17Sen. Graham: I believe the tanker was full of sanctioned oil products, and I'm glad we are trying to clean up our backyard in terms of narco terrorist states. I don't consider maduro a legitimate president at all. In 1989, president bush 41 invaded panama want to take down president noriega of panama because he was a drug kingpin. Not a legitimate president.
▶ 0:35:45Sen. Graham: I want to applaud the administration for getting these votes and going after the revenue sources. The committee is united, congress is united around the idea we should go after russian customers, people who buy cheap russian oil. I hope they will look at seizing some of the shuttle fleet of ships, making it harder and more costly to sell russian oil so we can end this war. Thank you very much, Mr. chairman.
▶ 0:36:13Chair Grassley: Senator hawley.
▶ 0:36:15Sen. Hawley: I want to say a brief word about matt price, who has been nominated by the president to be the united states attorney for the western district of missouri. We will be voting on him in a few minutes. I just want to say what a fantastic nominee I think he is. In two decades, two decades he graduated from law school in st. Louis, matt has experienced the full range of legal practice from the legal academy to representing major companies and now he is ready to return to his roots as a prosecutor.
▶ 0:36:44Sen. Hawley: He started as a jefferson county prosecutor, local prosecutor in the st. Louis area. That he joined the st. Louis circuit attorney's office. Then he went on to become an assistant united states attorney. He has been a local, federal prosecutor, and also worked on the business side of things. The litigators on this committee and former prosecutors on this committee will like this.
▶ 0:37:06Sen. Hawley: He has personally tried 20 cases to verdict and has led complex prosecutions based on vast investigations and cooperation between as many different -- as many as 10 different states and federal agencies. He understands how to keep the people of missouri safed, which will be his number one priority. He knows how to lead the U.S. attorney's office. He was an ausa for five years.
▶ 0:37:34Sen. Hawley: He knows how to make sure we continue our recruitment, retention, and keep morale high and remain the best prosecutors -- keep getting the best prosecutors in the country to serve as ausa's. He volunteers with the knights of columbus, a leader in the community, and in short, Mr. chairman, model of public service, he has been a terrific prosecutor, I know he will do a terrific job this time as the U.S. attorney for the western district.
▶ 0:38:03Chair Grassley: Senator cruz, senator kennedy, senator britt, senator moody will get here soon, because we are not going to have enough republicans soon if we don't have everybody here. Senator whitehouse.
▶ 0:38:18Sen. Whitehouse: I won't be long, I just want to associate myself with senator graham's remarks with regard to, at long last, proceeding to file a bipartisan section 230 repeal. We have been working on that for a long time, and I think it's time now to make the decision. People on this committee who want to join the bipartisan bill can join and people who don't want to don't have to. But waiting any longer I don't think serves any useful purpose. I thank senator graham for proceeding that way.
▶ 0:38:46Sen. Whitehouse: I also would like to endorse his view that taking a good, hard look at rush's shadow fleet and seizing some of those vessels -- russia's shadow fleet and seizing some of those vessels would be a way to push towards actual peace in ukraine. >> Mr. chairman, since we are waiting for members to arrive, I would like to make a comment about the U.S. attorney nominee for the district of wyoming.
▶ 0:39:13Sen. Whitehouse: I just listened to the senator from missouri tell us about the record of richard price, which included 20 cases tried to verdict, assistant usa for five years. In contrast darin smith, I commend all of my colleagues to take a good look at the nomination record which has been brought before us. Mr.
▶ 0:39:37Sen. Whitehouse: Smith and wyoming is not remotely qualified -- in wyoming is not remotely qualified to be U.S. attorney. He has no criminal or federal court experience, nor has he ever tried a case to verdict, judgment, or final decision. We asked him to list significant legislation he had been involved in. He left it blank. He can't name one case. This nomination makes a mockery of the nomination process.
▶ 0:40:06Sen. Whitehouse: Apparently, his only qualification is his loyalty to maga orthodoxy. He happened to be on the capitol grounds on january 6. As my colleagues remember, violent mob assaulted police officers, destroyed government property, and attempted to thwart our democratic process. Mr. smith baselessly claimed that hundreds of capitol police officers, who risked their lives that day, were guilty of "massive incompetence." those are his words.
▶ 0:40:36Sen. Whitehouse: Without evidence he claimed friars who breach the capital were victims of entrapment -- rioters who breached the capital were victims of entrapment. His claim that vice president vance should not have certified the results of the 2020 election because there were "imperfections in the process." Mr.
▶ 0:40:54Sen. Whitehouse: Smith falsely claimed the fbi agents who interviewed him regarding his presence at the capital were sent by former representatives liz cheney and her goons after he demanded she be censored by the wyoming republican party. I'm also concerned Mr. smith will not enforce federal laws if confirmed. Alarmingly, he told the committee that the supreme court -- lgbtq+ employees are protected against discrimination under the civil rights act of 1964 was wrongly decided.
▶ 0:41:26Sen. Whitehouse: Mr. smith would not affirm the fifth amendment applies to noncitizens, despite long-standing supreme court precedent. I'm troubled by his stunning lack of judgment. He falsely accused vice president harris of being a murderer and refused to retract slanderous statements.
▶ 0:41:44Sen. Whitehouse: He attacked senators for finding credible sexual assault allegations made by multiple women against alabama republican senate candidate roy moore, who claimed again without evidence that the allegations were "probably false." I urge my colleagues, for goodness sakes, there has to be some standard of qualification to get this kind of power to an individual who has no background, none whatsoever, when it comes to criminal or federal court experience. There is no excuse. Please vote no.
▶ 0:42:15Chair Grassley: We still need at least one more republican. I would like to enter into the record a letter supporting the nomination from william johnson who is the executive director of the national association of peace organizations. Mr.
▶ 0:42:42Chair Grassley: Johnson writing on behalf of of approximately 250,000 law enforcement officers nationwide, praising Mr. ganjei's work prosecuting organized crime and other things. Now that we have everybody here we can call the roll. I will put the rest of the statement in the record.
▶ 0:43:05Chair Grassley: We now have the nomination of david clay fowlkes, western district of arkansas district judge. I am favorably reporting the nomination. The clerk will call the rule. . >> [clerk calling the roll]
▶ 0:44:09Chair Grassley: Pa
▶ 0:44:14Chair Grassley: The nomination will be favorably reported. Now we have nicholas jon ganjei to be the district judge for the southern district of texas. Call the roll, clerk. >> [clerk calling the roll]
▶ 0:45:05Chair Grassley: The ayes are 12, the nays r 10. .
▶ 0:45:13Chair Grassley: The nomination will be favorably reported. Now we will go to the nomination of aaron christian peterson for it district judge for the district of alaska. The clerk will call the roll. >> [clerk calling the roll]
▶ 0:46:00Chair Grassley: The ayes are. 14. The nays are patient 8.
▶ 0:46:10Chair Grassley: Will be reported to the floor. Andrew benson to be united states attorney for the district of maine. The clerk will call the roll.
▶ 0:46:24Chair Grassley: >> [clerk calling the roll] on
▶ 0:47:09Chair Grassley: This vote the ayes are 19, the nays are three.
▶ 0:47:20Chair Grassley: William boyle to be united states attorney for eastern district of north carolina. The clerk will call the rule. >> [clerk calling the roll]
▶ 0:48:03Chair Grassley: The nays are 10, the ayes are 12.
▶ 0:48:13Chair Grassley: Mr. boyle will be reported to the floor. Now we have richard price, united states attorney for the western district of missouri. >> [clerk calling the roll]
▶ 0:49:00Chair Grassley: The nays are 10, the ayes are 12. >> Mr. chairman, I would like to make a statement about this nominee.
▶ 0:49:24Chair Grassley: Please, go ahead. >> Mr. smith, in my view, lacks the experience to service the chief law enforcement officer in the state of wyoming. He has never tried a case before a judge. Never handled a criminal investigation. Never appeared before a grand jury. Never all 30 search warrant -- authored a search warrant. I'm especially alarmed about his role in january 6. He was present at the U.S.
▶ 0:49:54Chair Grassley: Capitol on january 6 coming in from wyoming to the capitol. The committee rejected the nomination of ed martin to serve as U.S. attorney for the district of columbia due to his ties to january 6 and other things. And, of course, it's shocking to me that we are in the process of forgetting that 150 officers were injured that day. We are rewriting history about january 6. It was horrible. People attacked a officers.
▶ 0:50:23Chair Grassley: Now we are considering the nomination of an individual who was involved in the activities of that day. Not that I'm accusing him of being one of the assailants. He didn't go into the capital, but he was here in support. Here are some of the things he said. His words. Everyone who received criminal charges related to january 6 should be pardoned. I categorically reject that cop beaters should be pardoned.
▶ 0:50:53Chair Grassley: That includes folks who beat police officers with sticks, clubs, shot bear spray at them, or tried to stab them with flagpoles. Of those police officers, Mr. smith said they were guilty of "massive incompetence." the people who protected us he said were guilty of massive incompetence. Seriously, what are we doing? Afterwards, Mr. smith said, these are his words.
▶ 0:51:23Chair Grassley: It was so obvious what was going down. We all had set up entrapment from the get-go. He's blaming the police officers for what the assailants did. Everyone of us in my view should condemn that language. His lack of experience, his words, his support january 6 are disqualifying for him to serve as U.S. states attorney.
▶ 0:51:49Chair Grassley: The clerk will call the roll. >> [clerk calling the roll]
▶ 0:52:29Chair Grassley: On this vote the ayes are 12, the nays are of10.
▶ 0:52:39Chair Grassley: Darin smith will be favorably reported. The meeting is adjourned. [gavel falls]