Grassley Opens Senate Judiciary DOJ Oversight Hearing

Prepared Opening Statement by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa

Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee

Oversight of the Department of Justice

Tuesday, October 7, 2025

Good morning.

I'd like to welcome everyone to the Judiciary Committee's annual Justice Department oversight hearing.

Attorney General Bondi: since your confirmation, you've now had the opportunity to face the federal bureaucracy that you must reform to better serve the American people.

As I said to Director Patel, your charter is no simple task.

You were left with a Justice Department in free fall. And Democrats have tried their best to deny you leadership personnel.

We still haven't been able to confirm your Assistant Attorney General for Congressional Affairs. It's now been almost seven months - all the while, Democrats complain they can't get answers from the office they've blocked.

Since your confirmation, you've taken steps to institute needed reforms.

Under your leadership, the Justice Department has cut funding to politicized programs to reinvest into core policing activities.

Focusing on crime and getting tough on criminals is a welcome change after four years of Biden Administration soft-on-crime policies.

During the Biden Administration, the Justice Department failed to collect billions of dollars in criminal fines and penalties from corporate offenders. That money should've been placed in the Crime Victims Fund. And much of the money the Biden Administration did collect went into a Justice Department slush fund, instead of aiding victims of violent crime.

My Democratic colleagues have shared concerns about funding agencies and law enforcement, but generally haven't supported funding programs.

Under Democrat leadership, the COPS Reauthorization was held over in Committee at least 8 times before the 118th Congress concluded. It never received a vote in this Committee.

More recently, Democrats have refused to support fundamental Justice Department programs, like Project Safe Neighborhoods. And last week, Democrats again blocked most of the Police Week bills from passing the Senate, even though they passed out of Committee unanimously.

In contrast to these indefensible positions, the Judiciary provisions in the Republican reconciliation bill make hundreds of millions of dollars available to the Justice Department to combat crime.

Attorney General Bondi, you've also created task forces to attack the problems left by your predecessor.

You've created a team to review the overwhelming evidence of political weaponization by federal law enforcement, including the discredited Crossfire Hurricane investigation.

Your Weaponization Working Group has worked with my staff to bring forward resolutions for whistleblowers. I commend you and your staff's efforts to find solutions for these patriots.

I understand the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias has done an investigation into how the Biden Administration weaponized the government against people of faith.

I look forward to your next report.

Now, you've also shuttered a certain task force that was a stain on this country.

The Foreign Influence Task Force. Democrats have cried about closing this misleadingly named unit.

That task force was involved in undermining my and Senator Johnson's Biden family investigation.

Instead of rooting out foreign influence, that task force became a political weapon.

And speaking of political weapons, I'm now going to address examples of political weaponization by the Biden Administration.

Most recently, I and Senator Johnson made public information relating to Arctic Frost's expansive targeting of Republicans.

And on Monday, because of our investigative work, the FBI disclosed that the Biden administration used Arctic Frost to target Republican senators, including senators on this very Committee!

This is an outrage - an unconstitutional breach - and ought to be immediately addressed by you and Director Patel.

It's also another clear example of why the Justice Department has had to fire personnel, who you hear Democrats defending.

While on the taxpayers' dime, these now fired employees not only weaponized law enforcement, but some of them also retaliated against patriotic whistleblowers. These are indefensible acts.

Now, I've obtained additional weaponization records thanks to brave whistleblowers that pre-date Arctic Frost.

I've obtained a document created by then-Supervisory Special Agent Thibault dated March 2, 2017.

The title of this document is "Trump," and it appears to relate to matters different than Crossfire Hurricane.

This document discusses a rumor at FBI headquarters that the FBI's Washington Field Office was leaning toward opening a case on the Trump campaign.

Thibault noted they weren't close to opening an investigation, but did say:

"What we are doing: Aggressively seeking out open-source information, Human Intelligence info that could predicate a case."

You see, less than two months into Trump's first presidency, the partisan Comey FBI was hard at work trying to manufacture another case against Trump.

Thibault and the FBI eventually got their wish in April 2022 with the opening of Arctic Frost.

This was a political fishing expedition to get Trump at all costs - just like Crossfire Hurricane - and it's a disgrace to the taxpayers.

Whistleblowers have provided me with another document.

This document is a 2017 case update also drafted by then-Supervisory Special Agent Thibault.

This is a case update for CR-15, the now-disbanded and discredited public corruption squad at the FBI's Washington Field Office, which says:

"McAuliffe case - Steven Sullivan, Chief Financial Officer of Teneo was interviewed in New York City. Info provided seemed to confirm, Teneo was used as a pass through for Doug Band to pay former President of the United States."

Doug Band was a Deputy Assistant to then-President Clinton and continued working for him post-presidency. Therefore, it's pretty clear the reference to "President of the United States" is Bill Clinton.

The document further notes additional interviews the FBI planned to conduct as part of the case.

This information confirms there was an FBI case on McAuliffe, and it indicates the Clintons and their associates were relevant to it.

Did the FBI throw its resources behind this matter just like it did against Trump and his associates? Or did they sweep it all under the rug?

Attorney General Bondi, I expect you to provide me with all records relating to these matters for further verification.

Lastly, whistleblowers have provided me additional records relating to the Biden FBI's political conduct against Peter Navarro.

The first document is a request for physical surveillance on Navarro the day the FBI arrested him. The second document is a timeline of that surveillance.

With Navarro, the FBI didn't arrest him at his house, which was literally right next to FBI Headquarters.

Instead, they surveilled him and his fiancé all morning, starting at his home, following them to the airport, and then arrested him in public at Reagan airport.

The way Navarro was treated was unnecessary. I expect you to provide me all records relating to this matter.

Attorney General Bondi, this Congress I've made public one document after another, one whistleblower disclosure after another, one example of weaponization after another.

All evidence of your predecessor's total failure. It's time for accountability, and I look forward to hearing about your success in that regard.

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