00:00Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and welcome, Attorney General.
00:03And I'm sorry I wasn't here for the whole hearing, so it's been addressed,
00:06but I think you really are very sensitive to the possibility of foreign agents
00:12or foreign influence on our government and making sure that we make sure that doesn't happen.
00:18Yes.
00:19Yes.
00:20I want to know if when the President held his dinner for 220 individuals
00:28who purchased the most of his meme coins,
00:31were there foreign interests attending that dinner?
00:36Senator, we're here to talk about the Department of Justice
00:40and my budget for the upcoming year.
00:43I would think that you would want to talk about the leader of the Sinaloa cartel
00:51who was living in Oregon, one of the top leaders.
00:54I would think that that's what you would want to talk about with me.
00:57When we captured him, he had $3 million cash in his home.
01:02Attorney General, I know that you avoided the same question on the House side,
01:07but what we know is that many folks who attended this dinner were buying those coins
01:10because they wanted to influence U.S. policy.
01:13We had Mr. Javier Salgas, the head of Freight Technology, Inc.,
01:17who said, I bought $2 million of these coins.
01:19I plan to buy $20 million because I want a favor from the President
01:23to change the policy regarding freight from Mexico to the United States.
01:28This solicitation of investments in his personal product, his meme coin,
01:34led to many people who were coming from foreign countries attending that dinner.
01:39Don't you think the American people have a right to know?
01:42And you said yourself you're very concerned about foreign influence on our government.
01:47Senator, it is wildly offensive that you would accuse President Trump
01:55of not protecting American interest in our country
01:59when he is the president that has shut down our borders, unlike Joe Biden.
02:04President Trump has done everything to make America safe.
02:07And you asked me the question, and keep America safe.
02:10And you're trying to play a gotcha question at a budget hearing
02:14when you have murders left and right in your state, violent crimes,
02:20and we are doing everything we can to help your liberal state.
02:25Whether you're liberal or not, we're going to do everything we can
02:28to help the citizens of your state.
02:30And you're trying to avoid that because you're trying to play a gotcha question
02:34with the president of the United States, and it's not going to work.
02:37We're here to talk about our budget for public safety.
02:40I do believe that as the leader of the Department of Justice,
02:44you should be concerned about foreign influence.
02:46There was obviously a lot of foreign influence
02:48and individuals who said they were there for that reason.
02:52And so will you appoint a special investigator to make sure
02:56that that foreign influence does not affect the policies
02:59of the United States of America?
03:00I'm not going to tell you what I will or will not do
03:04other than I will do everything to keep the people of your state safe,
03:09even though you don't want to talk about anything to do with your state
03:12because of the crime in your state.
03:14You also voted no on the Lake and Riley Act.
03:17We are doing everything we can to protect the citizens of this country.
03:23You also said that President Trump encouraged protest.
03:26It was the opposite.
03:27He's done everything he can to keep us safe, and he will continue to,
03:31as well as the Department of Justice.
03:33I think it speaks volumes that you won't answer the question about transparency
03:35when the president is asking people to invest in his company and his products
03:41and that foreigners are attending these events.
03:44I think transparency would be appropriate.
03:47Are you going to recommend any ethics guidelines
03:49to make sure that foreign influence does not find a way in
03:52through the doors of the White House?
03:53How do you characterize foreigners, the illegal aliens that have flowed into our country?
03:58Is that who you're talking about?
04:00You don't want to talk about them.
04:01You don't want to talk about the crime that has gone rampant
04:05throughout this country and your state.
04:08Well, you know, these hearings are a chance for us to ask questions,
04:11and I assure you I'm engaged in national security in many, many ways.
04:15But this also I am concerned about.
04:17And let me turn to a different piece of the puzzle,
04:20because the president also has another cryptocurrency called USD1.
04:25It is a stable coin.
04:27There was a request by UAE to produce AI chips that would go to UAE.
04:33The national security advisor of UAE is also the CEO of MGX.
04:39So after that request for those chips occurred, MGX then said,
04:44we will buy $2 billion, billion with a B, of the president's coins.
04:49And then the president went to the Middle East and said,
04:51we will get you those AI chips.
04:53Does this sequence of events in which a foreign government asked for a big favor,
04:58and we had previously banned these chips to UAE
05:01because of the national security concerns,
05:03then they buy $2 billion of the president's coins,
05:06and then the president goes to the Middle East and says,
05:09we will provide those chips?
05:10Does that sequence of events concern you about foreign influence on the United States of America?
05:15The foreign influence on America that I would be concerned about if I were you
05:19was the Mexican that we just, the Mexican national that resided in Oregon,
05:22who we just arrested, who had 384 pounds of methamphetamine.
05:27The foreign individual who I would be concerned about if I were a senator from Oregon
05:32is the Honduran drug trafficker who was residing in Portland for distributing fentanyl.
05:38The foreign national I would be concerned about if I was a Portland senator,
05:42an Oregon senator, excuse me, is a Mexican national leader of a drug trafficking ring.
05:48Another one, fentanyl, firearms, fatal overdoses, all in your state.
05:54You have made your point.
05:55Fifty-seven thousand, seven hundred fentanyl pills and stolen firearms in Oregon.
06:02That's what we should work together on, not gotcha questions during a budget hearing on public safety.
06:06Let me recognize Senator Merkley.
06:08Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
06:10The Attorney General certainly has made the point that she's very concerned about issues
06:14that I'm concerned about as well regarding the security of this country.
06:17But let the record note that in terms of foreign influence
06:20and the sale of foreign influence through the president's coins,
06:23she absolutely refuses to respond and instead turns to a whole list of different topics.
06:29I think it's important for the leader of the Justice Department of the United States
06:33to be very concerned about foreign influence.
06:35And I encourage you to take on that topic and not consider it an offense
06:38that those of us who are concerned here, Democrats and Republicans,
06:41want Americans to make American decisions,
06:44not foreign influence being bought through crypto coins.
06:47Senator Murkowski.
06:48Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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