At today's Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) questioned John Giordano, nominee to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Namibia.
00:00Mr. Chairman, Mr. Giordano, you served for a short period of time as the U.S. Attorney for
00:05the District of New Jersey. The day after you were sworn in, you asked a judge to put on hold
00:13for 180 days a bribery case against a New Jersey company that was accused of paying $2 million to
00:21an Indian government official in order to obtain a construction permit in India. I assume given
00:27that it was your second day on the job, you hadn't had the opportunity to do a full review of the
00:31merits of the case. Am I correct in assuming that you asked for that suspension of the case because
00:36of the President's executive order requesting the suspension of enforcement of the Corrupt Foreign
00:42Practices Act? Thank you, Senator, for that question. And it was an absolute honor to serve as the U.S.
00:50I don't need a full predicate. Is that the reason you asked for the suspension of the case?
00:55Senator, it was the executive order coupled with my experience as a federal prosecutor
01:00in knowing that it's important to have a complete overview, a complete understanding of a case
01:08when moving forward. As it was my second day, I hadn't been read in on the matter and needed to
01:13request that time. Yeah, I understand that, but most U.S. attorneys don't ask for every single
01:18pending case to be suspended while they review it. You move forward with important cases. Let me ask you
01:23about the consequences here because, as I mentioned, Namibia is in the process of potentially ushering
01:30in a really great expansion of their natural resource extraction capabilities. But we are not
01:36currently enforcing the Corrupt Foreign Practices Act. So if a Namibian government official demanded
01:43that, say, Chevron or Exxon pay them millions in dollars in bribes in order to get permits,
01:49would you be okay with that? Or should we have law that is enforced that restricts the ability of
01:59U.S. companies to pay bribes to foreign officials? Thank you, Senator, for that question. Africa,
02:06the government, they understand the need for a strong regulatory framework and stability for
02:13investment in the country. They understand the need for rooting out corruption. In fact, the government...
02:18I don't know, again, I don't know that it is a predicate. Just do you believe that we should
02:23have laws preventing American companies from paying bribes to foreign governments, given that
02:30this is, I think, potentially directly relevant to your post in Namibia? Thank you, Senator, and I
02:36appreciate that. Senator, we do have those laws, and I believe strongly in the rule of law and enforcing
02:42such. But we don't currently enforce the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. So do you believe you can do your
02:48job if we are not enforcing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act? Do you support the suspension of
02:55enforcement of that act? Senator, I do believe that I can do my job, and I will work closely with the
03:00Justice Department on anything that I may see in Africa, particularly in Namibia, that flies in the
03:08face of the rule of law and how U.S. companies need to operate. You don't believe it's critical or
03:12important to have the enforcement of the Corrupt Foreign Practices Act restarted. Senator, as I
03:20mentioned, I've yet to get on the ground there. But when I do, I'll look to see what may fly in the
03:28face of the rule of law and work with the United States Department of Justice. I understand you're in a
03:34tough position here, but you're probably the first nominee to not publicly support the Foreign Corrupt
03:39Practices Act in asking for a position in a key post overseas. Mr. Issa, tell me a little bit about
03:49the importance of the Lebanese Armed Forces. We have a bipartisan consensus on this committee that
03:55this is a very important institution for the preservation of peace. Even though there's not new
04:01funding in the President's budget, my hope is that as we tend to do, Republicans and Democrats will come
04:07together to support the Lebanese Armed Forces. Tell me what you understand is their contribution to
04:12the preservation of peace and the protection of democracy as fragile as it is inside Lebanon.
04:17Thank you, Senator, for this very important question regarding Lebanon. The LAF or Lebanese Armed Force
04:26is now the only maybe institution in Lebanon that still have some notoriety and its multi-sectarian
04:37nation that everybody still consider probably the only savior in what have left from Lebanon as we know it today.
04:47So, and obviously lately they've been working hard and doing a great job by applying, let's say,
04:57by being in the south of Lebanon, trying to work on displacing Hezbollah from the south and taking ground over there to be between on our border.
05:13So, it is important for us to consider the aid that we give for LAF that has been going for a long time still going on because they are doing a great role into creating stability that is very well
05:24needed in Lebanon. So, I agree with you. I know Senator Risch shares that view and I appreciate you sharing those sentiments with the committee.
05:34Thank you. Thank you, Ranking Member Ruffey. Turn to Senator Daines, please.
05:40Senator Hagerty, thank you. I'm going to start with Kazakhstan. I'm pleased to see
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