Thread by @Brandi_Buchman

TODAY at 9AM ET, @HomelandDems convene for its annual worldwide threat hearing. Acting DHS Secy Chad Wolf was subpoenaed to appear but he's on track to defy that subpoena today. FBI director Chris Wray and Christopher Miller, dir of the Nat'l Counterterrorism Center to testify.

Wolf was subpoenaed by chair Bennie Thompson after whistleblower Brian Murphy claimed sr political appointees at DHS directed officials to alter intel & downplay threats to US elections from Russia and threats from white supremacists.
The complaint:
intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/…

Brian Murphy is sr. official within the Office of Intelligence and Analysis at DHS and you can read a little more about the whistleblower complaint here.
Background via my colleague @ErikaKate5 courthousenews.com/whistleblower-…

The hearing is underway. Remarks begin from chairman Bennie Thompson.
The 19th anniversary of 9/11 just passed. Two decades later, we continue to mourn the 3k lives lost. This cmte and DHS were established in the wake of 9/11 to help prevent future attacks on our soil.

Regardless of who was chairman, regular hearings have been held to examine worldwide threats with leaders from the DHS, FBI and Nat’l Counterterrorism Center. And regardless of who was occupying the White House, whether D or R, the cmte has received cooperation in that effort.

.@BennieGThompson: "Today was supposed to be no different. But there is an empty chair where Chad Wolf should be to represent the Dept of Homeland Security."
@CourthouseNews

The cmte engaged with DHS in June to secure Wolf's participation. DHS tentatively offered a couple of dates but could not agree w/FBI and NCTC counterparts for the hearing date in June or July, Thompson says.
In fact, DHS offered today, 9/17, as the earliest opp to testify

The cmte agreed to this. It was not until this week that Wolf informed the cmte he would back out of the plan to testify in anticipation of being nominated for role of Secy of Homeland Security.
But.

Thompson: He’s gone before the media multiple times - like Fox News - since Trump said he planned to nominate him (officially). He’s been in place for 10 mos. Making relevant decisions to the subjects the cmte intends to explore today.

There’s no legal prohibition barring his testimony, Thompson said. He told Wolf that. Wolf still declined. Faced with continued refusal, on Friday, Thompson issued a subpoena and Wolf has now defied it.

That he would refuse to come before the cmte after committing to do so, should appall every member of this cmte, Thompson says.
"This isn’t playing politics," he adds.
Congress is doing its job.
It has an obligation to conduct constitutional oversight.

.@BennieGThompson on Acting DHS Secy Chad Wolf not being at today's hearing: "The empty chair is an appropriate metaphor for the administration’s dereliction."

Republican Rep Mike Rogers defended Wolf, saying:
It is not the fault of the dept or this admin. He offered to testify in July and August.

Rogers: "The majority has refused to make either of those dates work, now due to his nomination he is prohibited from testifying under a policy that has been in place under R and D admins for decades."

Rogers notes that DHS offered to have Ken Cuccinelli testify, he’s the 2nd highest-ranking official and "perfectly qualified"
Instead of having a productive hearing with Cuccinelli, D's chose to subpoena and empty chair Mr. Wolf. It’s a political stunt, Rogers says.

Thompson: "The cmte does not want to hear testimony from the dept. "
They want it from Wolf. Specifically.
"Therefore after Wolf declined, we issued a subpoena. The so-called standard practice by which the dept says Wolf cannot testify is the admin's own self-imposed limitation"

Thompson: "And I note this is an administration whose respect for so-called precedents and even laws is highly situational. If the minority wanted to hear testimony from Cuccinelli, they had every right to invite him to appear as a witness at the hearing today."

You can catch a live-stream of today's hearing here:
And I will have a full report later for @CourthouseNews.

Thompson to FBI dir. Wray: Identify what organization poses the greatest threat from a domestic standpoint here to the homeland? Is it right-wing extremists or left-wing?
Wray: We assess the greatest threat to the homeland, to us here domestically is not 1 org or 1 ideology...

Wray: "But rather lone actors, largely self-radicalized online who pursue soft targets using readily accessible weapons. Those include both domestic violent extremists (a variety) & homegrown extremists motivated by foreign jihadist type sources."

Wray: "Those two categories provided the greatest challenge and threat to us here at home."

Wray explains, The ability to connect the dots was vital to stopping terrorist activity sooner. He notes if you compare the threat of al Qaeda sleeper cells of old, that's a group that is "colluding, conspiring, fundraising, planning, preparing, communicating"

"Theres a lot of dots out there to connect if intel knows where to connect them & it occurs over long periods of time. The domestic and homegrown extremists don’t have a lot of ppl working with them. They can go from radicalization to mobilization in a matter of weeks if not days

Wray: "There’s less time to connect the dots.
The time, as the experts say, from flash to bang is that much more daunting."

Wray: We don’t really think of threats in terms of left or right. We’re focused on the violence not the ideology. Our domestic violent extremists include everything from racially motivated violent extremists all the way to antigovernment, antiauthority violent extremists and...

Wray: "That includes people from anarchist violent extremists who subscribe to antifa as well as to militia type [ideology]."

Thompson: We hear from time to time, this org. by name and that we need to investigate. Wolf asked for an investigation of antifa because they were 'the greatest threat to the homeland.' But if im hearing you correctly, you're saying its really not an org. as it is an ideology?

Wray: We look at antifa as more of an ideology or movement than an org. To be clear, we do have quite a number of properly predicated domestic terrorism investigations into violent anarchist extremists, any number of whom self identify with antifa movement. That's only one part."

Wray continues: "We also have racially motivated extremists, militia types and others."

On the threat of Russian interference in the 2020 election, FBI director Wray says the intel community consensus is that Russia is still at it and trying to manipulate U.S. elections through "malign foreign influence" and "less targeting of election infrastructure" like in 2016.

Rep Sheila Jackson Lee, D-TX, asks FBI director Wray how the agency characterizes QAnon.
"We view QAnon as less of an org and more of a sort of complex set of conspiracy theories."

Wray continues, saying "and certainly" the FBI has seen and explored "properly predicated cases involving violence where people are motivated by some of those conspiracy theories."

Wray says, again, "but we don't investigate the ideology or conspiracy theory itself" and then he says he "doesn't think we've seen lethal attacks involving that kind of motivation."
Jackson: So investigations are driven upon any violent act?

Wray: We look at violence or the threat of violence, whether there is a federal crime and then, the motivation that fuels it. We have to have those three things to investigate.

Rep J. Lee: Do you see BLM as an extremist group, socialist group intending to destroy America?
Wray: We don't express a view on political orgs. itself or BLM. If there were ppl following that, adhering to that ideology & who commit violence based on that, they will investigate.

Rep J. Lee: But you're no longer pointing to black identity groups as a threat?
Wray says they are not.
This is a reference to FBI action from 2017 to 2019 which created a threat category of "Black Identity Extremism"

Rep J. Lee asks if FBI has identified any violent cases where BLM was attributed. Wray says they have seen "racially motivated extremist cases involving African American defendants, who have pursued violence against, say, law enforcement." but if they involve BLM, he can't recall

Later Rep. Cedric Richmond asks Wray for clarification on how the FBI is assessing violence and agitation and Richmond mentions -- without calling Higgins by name -- this ⤵️ comment by the Republican on FB who aid he would "drop 10" protesters
businessinsider.com/clay-higgins-f…

"My example would be posting on social media, a comment that 'if armed black people come to my city, I will drop 10 of them,' - that is dangerous rhetoric. Especially when we see ppl exercising their right to carry arms that are white and Black." - Rep Cedric Richmond

"For people to assume the ones who are Black are a threat and that they can publicly say, 'I will drop 10 of you' is concerning," Richmond says to FBI dir. Wray.

Wray: We're concerned about violence of any kind, incl. violence that deprives citizens of their constitutional rights and civil liberties.

Wray:"One of the concerns we have amidst the current unrest is a growing trend of protest begets counterprotest begets violence against one side against the other. There’s an increasing phenomenon of individuals attacking each other plus law enfrcmt & that’s not good for anybody"

Going to wind down live updates. Report for @CourthouseNews to come.

.@RepAlGreen at today's hearing brings up Michael Caputo and his warning of armed insurrection should Trump lose before he stepped down;
Why have you not pursued his comments, Green asks the FBI director.

Wray says if they have a situation where they have facts, law and credible evidence of violent criminal activity that is a federal crime, they'll pursue it.
Rep. Green pushes back and says Caputo's comments should at least warrant an FBI interview.

Green: "What would it take to investigate someone in this administration who makes these kinds of comments? This seems very serious to me. I will likely be at the inauguration and we have a person within the admin saying that bullets are going to fly and 'shooting will begin.."

Rep. Green continues: "Those are his words," he says of Caputo. "It would seem to me, this should be sufficient. I am asking as a member of Congress that the FBI investigate this."
Green asks Wray report to him directly if the cmte doesn't want the info specifically.

STORY: In testimony where he held out self-radicalized loners as the greatest threat to nat'l security today, FBI Director Christopher Wray also told Congress not to discount Russia’s active disinformation campaigns working to undermine @JoeBiden.
courthousenews.com/fbi-head-tells….