▶ 0:18:15>> good morning, everybody. Before we begin, I would like to take a moment to mention an outrageous attack that took place yesterday, outside of the U.S. capital at the jewish museum in washington, D.C. the shooter killed two israeli embassy staff members who were leaving -- leading an event for young jewish professionals who worked in foreign policy. It was a display of senseless and cowardly violence.
▶ 0:18:45One is in custody. -- once in custody, as you can imagine, the shooter yelled "free palestine." and opened up with some words about what's going on in gaza at this point. Our hearts go out to the young victims of this tragedy. Obviously, to their families and to the israeli people.
▶ 0:19:12This sort of hate is not acceptable in our society. Almost unbelievable but I suppose I shouldn't use the word unbelievable. I commend attorney general bondi for quickly responding to the scene and I know our department and law enforcement will do their job and find justice for the victims.
▶ 0:19:40Today's agenda, we have the nominations of terrance cole to be administrator of the drug enforcement administration. And Mr. serralta to be director of the marshals service and david waterman to be united states attorney for the southern district of iowa. Mr.
▶ 0:20:03Waterman is listed to be held over and we will vote on him for the next meeting. We will vote on the other two nominees today and I will be supporting both. Mr. cole is a career dea officer who worked on some of its most challenging posts.
▶ 0:20:28He knows the challenge facing agents in the field and he's -- challenges facing agents in the field and he's prepared to face these challenges. He said his number one priority if confirmed would be to combat crisis with urgency and resolve. Mr.
▶ 0:20:46Cole knows the role that the cartels play in pumping poison into our country and he knows this isn't a fight that the dea wages alone.
▶ 0:21:02His experience with governor youngkin shows he knows the importance of working with state and local governments and that he will build strong partnerships to save american lives. Mr. serralta is very familiar with the job that he's about to assume. He has been marshall for the southern district of florida -- marshal for the southern district of florida for the last two administrations.
▶ 0:21:33He has let highly successful projects including some that resulted in over 100 arrests and seizures of narcotics and firearms. He's also overseen an investigation into threats against federal judges and multiple members of the marshall staff, which resulted interests. What is most clear is that Mr.
▶ 0:21:58Serralta is deeply committed to the marshals service value of justice, integrity and of service. Mr. cole and Mr. serralta will be assets to the agencies that they are set to lead. I look forward to getting them to work. Now, senator durbin.
▶ 0:22:19Sen. Durbin: Thanks, Mr. chairman. Let me join the chairman in extending my thoughts and prayers to the two individuals who were shot and killed last night outside of the capital jewish museum blocks from the U.S. capitol building here in washington.
▶ 0:22:40Sen. Durbin: My thoughts are with their families as I read these stories of two young people planning to get married, it's a heartbreaking episode. Violence has no place in our society and must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. There is no justification, none, for hate speech, hate crimes are antisemitism, whether from the left or right side of the political spectrum.
▶ 0:23:07Sen. Durbin: We must condemned political violence and hate, no matter the ideology that promotes it and we must work together to protect america from this urgent threat. According to the most recent national hate crime statistics, the fbi received reports of 11,862 hate crimes in 2023. The highest number ever recorded since the fbi began reporting this data more than 30 years ago.
▶ 0:23:34Sen. Durbin: More than half of the religious crimes were based on anti-jewish bias. We know that this data does not fully capture the increase in anti-semitic threats, vandalism and attacks since the horrific october 7 hamas attack on israel in 2023. This is a reminder to our committee which has jurisdictional responsibility.
▶ 0:24:01Sen. Durbin: We must continue to equip federal and state law enforcement with the resources necessary to combat anti-semitism and protect jewish americans from combat violence. This includes asking this administration to reverse course on dangerous cuts to domestic terrorism prevention efforts, which leads our nation less secure -- leaves our nation less secure.
▶ 0:24:27Sen. Durbin: We must support law enforcement programs -- I hope that in light of today's tragic news, we can agree to redouble our efforts on a bipartisan basis to confront this threat with the full force of the federal government and promote the safety of all americans. I hope, Mr.
▶ 0:24:47Sen. Durbin: Chairman, I can appeal to you and other members of the committee to join me in asking the justice department and the f ei -- fbi for immediate briefing into this attack. Before we go on, I want to say brief word about the nominees, Mr. terrance cole, to be administrator of drug enforcement -- the drug enforcement administration. This agency seeks to lead, there is a deep crisis do to in ministrations actions in the last four months.
▶ 0:25:20Sen. Durbin: The justice department has systematically diverted dea agents away from the efforts to fight the fentanyl crisis that is killing our kids in order to provide more troops for president trump's mass deportation agenda. Even worse, deputy attorney general blanche has proposed combining dea and the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms into one agency. I strongly oppose this merger. It would reduce the resources to address the critical calls of both agencies.
▶ 0:25:50Sen. Durbin: The proposal is yet another effort by the ministry should that is not strengthening but weakens -- strengthen but weakens public safety. It would make it harder to stop gun trafficking and other crimes. I respect his 21 years of service at the dea. But his lack of clarity on this key issue troubles me to this moment.
▶ 0:26:20Sen. Durbin: I would like to say a word about , I may mispronounce his first name. Gadyaces, serralta. I don't want to disrespect him by mispronouncing his first name but it is unusual spelling. Here's what impressed me the most. He's a holdover. He was originally a U.S. marshal under president biden.
▶ 0:26:50Sen. Durbin: The people in charge trusted him enough to give him the same response ability under a publican president. That speaks well of him. -- republican president, that speaks well of him. He appears to take his job seriously. His responses to the questions certainly tell that story. I like his background, his family was with him, a cuban immigrant to the united states. He and his family have done well to serve this country and I'm sure will continue to.
▶ 0:27:16Sen. Durbin: We asked him some questions that are consistent with what the line of questioning has been for other nominees for administrator positions and basic fundamental question, one that I asked him not once but twice and reminded him that he was under oath, is that would you follow the orders of the court when it comes to your activity as U.S. marshal? He said yes, unequivocally yes.
▶ 0:27:43Sen. Durbin: There were other questions that were asked for the record that I'm sure he received assistance and guidance from other people in preparing answers. Here's the bottom line that concerns me. I think we understand from what happened last night and what we read in the newspaper that we are living in heightened, dangerous -- a heightened, dangerous environment in this country. Judges have been targets already.
▶ 0:28:11Sen. Durbin: A judge I pointed to the bench years ago, judge joan lesko, had her mother killed and her husband killed in their home by eight disgruntled litigant. The same thing is -- a disgruntled litigant. The same thing is true in new jersey, senator booker can tell that story unaware a judge's son and husband were both killed. Thank you for clarifying that. Son was murdered, husband wounded but not killed in their home.
▶ 0:28:41Sen. Durbin: I continue to ask the judges across my state and I hope each member will do the same, do you have concerns about your own personal safety that we ought to address? When it comes to addressing those concerns, the first line of defense is the U.S. marshal's office. The obvious question is how we people work in this office nationwide? For the hundreds of federal judges we have working for us in the federal government. The answer is 5600.
▶ 0:29:10Sen. Durbin: It's true that weeks ago, this administration sent letters to 5000 of the 5600, inviting them to retire. I asked Mr. serralta, would you be concerned about filling those positions and he said yes. We want to make sure we have good professional people.
▶ 0:29:30Sen. Durbin: We have a situation where this president has removed security protections from several former officials from the trump first administration sibley because he was unhappy with what they said about him politically. The judge has repeatedly attacked judges who rule against him to the point where the chief justice of the supreme court made a statement urging people to call their rhetoric when it -- calm their rhetoric when it comes to these judges.
▶ 0:29:58Sen. Durbin: We are all concerned with the demonstration outside of the home of the U.S. supreme court justice years ago. I was concerned not only for the conduct that took place but the fact that his address is now known to the public. I worry about that. There have been other instances where judges who made controversial rulings withdrew the pizza scam, you might be aware of it.
▶ 0:30:24Sen. Durbin: Somebody has been selling pizzas to these judges, to let them know in that fashion that we know where you live. That not only breaks my heart, it angers me that any public official would be exposed to that situation. I take security very seriously. I asked the attorney general and the head of the fbi to respond by today to tell us what they are doing when it comes to judicial security and no response came forward.
▶ 0:30:58Sen. Durbin: Is there anything more basic to share than bipartisan determination to keep our judiciary safe? For that reason, I am concerned about the progress of this nomination at this moment. I am going to withhold my vote for Mr. serralta today but I am not ruling out voting for him if we get a complete response from the administration about his judicial security and whether they consider it important.
▶ 0:31:26Sen. Durbin: >> what was your question about briefing?
▶ 0:31:32Sen. Durbin: I asked for a briefing of the investigation of this attack.
▶ 0:31:42Chair Grassley: Before I call on senator cornyn for a few minutes, I told everybody to be here at 10:30. One person can't come until 10:45. I hope we can still stay together. >> Mr. chairman, can I be recognized after senator cornyn now that we have a few minutes? >> thank, Mr. chairman.
▶ 0:32:13Chair Grassley: Yesterday, I wrote a letter to the attorney general requesting an investigation into the conspiracy which I don't think is too strong of a word, of the mainstream media, president biden's staff, and family, to hide his mental impairment. During the course of the latter years of his presidency. This is not a political matter. This transcends politics.
▶ 0:32:40Chair Grassley: When you think about the power that the constitution vests in the president of the united states, he was commander-in-chief -- he is commander-in-chief, he is leader of the free world and is the sole authority that can determine whether america's nuclear arsenal can be unleashed.
▶ 0:32:59Chair Grassley: Given the dangers the current environment of the world presents, the most dangerous environment we have seen since world war ii, we know from history that wars can be precipitated as a result of a mistake and miscalculation.
▶ 0:33:14Chair Grassley: For this conspiracy to have hidden the impairment of the president of the united states for years, and to lie consistently to the american people about his capacity to make decisions which are solely vested by the constitution in the president of the night states is unacceptable. This transcends politics. Obviously, our democratic friends are having to deal with the consequences of this, politically.
▶ 0:33:46Chair Grassley: But, the issue I am raising is I believe far more important. And then the most recent revelations about the president's prostate cancer, we of course extend our prayers and wish him a quick recovery from that.
▶ 0:34:03Chair Grassley: But, again, the idea that things like this, that taking all of a sudden sprung to the public attention are now being addressed is just incomprehensible. It is not possible that things like this could have just sprung up now, when we know from medical science and medical opinion that these sorts of things take years to develop.
▶ 0:34:32Chair Grassley: So, I just don't think it is responsible for those of us in the senate or in the congress or the american people to accept this laying down. I think we need to know what the staff knew.
▶ 0:34:48Chair Grassley: What the family knew, who lied to congress, who lied to the american people, and who wrist calamity due to a president who was suffering from severe mental incapacity during the latter years of his presidency. So, I hope that we can get to the facts.
▶ 0:35:12Chair Grassley: I think this is serious enough that it bears further investigation I the united states senate, the icy congress, and I would ask you to consider the possibility united states congress, and I would ask you to consider the possibility -- I hope we can get together with the leadership on the republican side and the democratic side to get to the bottom of this.
▶ 0:35:41Chair Grassley: I think it's too much to ask the american people to accept what we know to be the facts. And it is dangerous. Our republic depends on having a president who has the mental capacity to do the job. It's clear now that president biden did not. I think we need to get to the bottom of this.
▶ 0:36:04Chair Grassley: I would ask all of my colleagues to join me in asking the appropriate law enforcement authorities to do an investigation to see whether any federal laws were violated.
▶ 0:36:19Chair Grassley: And if current law does not provide for an investigation, I think as part of our oversight responsible these, we should consider whether there need to be policy changes, which are the proper purview of the united states congress to pass new laws to protect the american people from what we have just been through as a result of a president who was not competent to perform the job, but whose
▶ 0:36:52Chair Grassley: Mental capacity or deficits were hidden from the american people for many years.
▶ 0:36:58Chair Grassley: Thank you. Senator booker?
▶ 0:37:02Sen. Booker: I want to join my colleagues for condemning the violence of last night. We all oabhor political violence. It would be good to have a briefing from the fbi.
▶ 0:37:22Sen. Booker: I take note of something as one of the bipartisan leaders of efforts on antisemitism, to note that hate crimes in this country, targeting religious groups are seen in so many of america's great religions but none come closto the targeting of american jews.
▶ 0:37:49Sen. Booker: That should be an added layer of analysis as we try to combat this kind of violence and these kinds of hate crimes. Mr. chairman, I wanted to make three points very quickly.
▶ 0:38:14Sen. Booker: And ask for some oversight hearings. Trumps department of justice has taken numerous concerning actions that demand the committee to exercise constitutional oversight.
▶ 0:38:35Sen. Booker: We are a coequal branch in a government with checks and balances and we need to address these issues in hearings. There are three concerning doj actions that I hope we can discuss, Mr. chairman. First, we have the issue of due process lest deportations. Over 50 of the venezuelans imprisoned in el salvador came to the U.S. legally with advanced U.S. government permission and entered at an official border crossing.
▶ 0:39:06Sen. Booker: Most americans have only held of -- heard of kilmar abrego garcia. This report makes clear that he's not the only person who was deported by the trump administration without due process, who was legally in the united states. I would like to, without objection, I would like to enter this cato report into the record. I want to reiterate the committee's request led by senator welch for an oversight hearing of the circumstances surrounding the deportations of more than 200 people moved to el salvador under the alien enemies ask, including the 50 individuals who I repeat entered the country legally, with our permission and are now in what is one of the more awful prisons on the planet. Mr. chairman, you have led and championed the senate judiciary committee's exercise of oversight and we need to know who are these 50 people?
▶ 0:39:37Sen. Booker: Can we confirm their names and that they are still alive? And understand that an assault on due process anywhere is threat to the new rights everywhere. We have seen a 9-0 supreme court affirmed that. You talked about the department of justice's cancellations of public safety grants.
▶ 0:39:58Sen. Booker: I have an unanswered I wrote on april 30 that was signed by every democratic member of this committee and 30 democratic senators in total, which I would like to enter into the record. >> is there objection? I hear none.
▶ 0:40:12Senator Booker: We were asking about the abrupt decisions to cancel at least 300 65 public safety grants on april 22, 2025, that served crime victims and improved public safety, totaling an estimated $500 million. These are programs that were supported in a bipartisan way, that have led to more safety and security and strength in our community. Some of them have helped victims of crime.
▶ 0:40:42Senator Booker: And they have been unjustly canceled. On the day of this letter, doj defunded programs that prosecutors, cherubs, police, academics and more -- sheriffs, police, academics and more depend upon to keep them safe.
▶ 0:41:01Senator Booker: This is an outrage to all of us on this committee who share a commitment to public safety, to have resources that were being effective in an evidence-based way, to have them stopped by administration demands that we at least have an oversight hearing to provide and get a justification. Or at the very least, have letters responded to. Finally, Mr.
▶ 0:41:24Senator Booker: Chairman, the justice department dismissed several civil rights cases against pattern and practice agencies of law enforcement yesterday. Almost five years to the day, this country watch in horror and we all condemned when a now convicted criminal, then a police officer used deadly force to murder george floyd.
▶ 0:41:47Senator Booker: The justice department's civil rights division thereafter investigated the minneapolis police department and proposed a co-enforceable consent order to prevent future police misconduct and improve the excellence of police accountability and professional standards. They did the same in louisville, kentucky after breonna taylor was killed by police during a no-knock raid that was condemned by people on this committee and beyond in a bipartisan way.
▶ 0:42:19Senator Booker: Yesterday, ajay bondi's justice department dropped both consent decrees in minneapolis and louisville, kentucky where mutual investigations and attorneys found evidence of constitutional and civil rights violations by those law enforcement agencies.
▶ 0:42:36Senator Booker: Without more than saying the consent decrees were "no longer in the public interest," the department dismissed those cases along with six more investigations where it had shown a pattern and practice of the constitutional violations against american citizens.
▶ 0:42:52Senator Booker: I sent a letter to the doj yesterday with my democratic colleagues, requesting the preservation of and submissions to the committee, materials related to retracted police misconduct investigations and drop dissent -- dropped sent decrees. I asked to submit this into the record.
▶ 0:43:12Chair Grassley: Is there objection? I hear none.
▶ 0:43:16Sen. Booker: There are reports today that people are pushing the trump administration to pardon derek chauvin. This would be unacceptable, outrageous and interests to the public safety -- injureous to the public safety.
▶ 0:43:36Sen. Booker: We are lacking in our oversight of a department that appears to be on a turbocharged chip away at civil rights protections do not do commonsense measures that can make our communities stronger and safer and have the highest professional standards in policing. I ask for a third time that you hold an oversight hearing so we can get some of the answers that the public deserve.
▶ 0:44:06Sen. Booker: As somebody who used to be a mayor and oversee the police department. This is not to an end other than making our police department stronger, raising our professional standards, deepening trust and deepening an environment where we have greater community safety. I hope on these three issues, we can have oversight hearings soon. Inc. You, Mr. chairman.
▶ 0:44:33Chair Grassley: I think we will have to prioritize that. Before I call on the senator of rhode island, you mentioned something. I said last week about grants. I think I had information before the meeting was over that grants for nonprofits and law enforcement, they were going to reinstitute the ones for law enforcement.
▶ 0:45:03Chair Grassley: That's what I think I said last week to senator whitehouse.
▶ 0:45:06Sen. Booker: Can I respond? Some of the proudest work I have seen done by people on both sides, great leadership by senator cornyn and people on our side of the aisle, past this extraordinary bill on public safety. A lot of those grants were not just to law enforcement pre-they were to address mental health, something we have talked about on both sides of the aisle.
▶ 0:45:34Sen. Booker: To focus just on the grants of law enforcement and not on mental health, we know a lot of the gun crimes in our country have a lot of unaddressed mental health illness there. So, all of these grants are important. Not just the ones that are vital for law enforcement, but also the ones that are vital for public safety that go to nonprofits that deal with things like mental health, that are cortical for public safety.
▶ 0:45:57Chair Grassley: With senator whitehouse and senator schiff, we have 11 people here. The first item is for Mr. cole. The clerk will call the role. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye by proxy.
▶ 0:46:28Chair Grassley: >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> no. >> no. >> no by proxy. >> no by proxy. >> no. >> no by proxy. >> no. >> no by proxy. >> no by proxy. >> no.
▶ 0:46:59Chair Grassley: >> aye. >> the >> aye >> the >> ayes are 12 and the nay ares 10. >>> aye. >> aye. >> aye.
▶ 0:47:29Chair Grassley: >> aye. >> aye. >> aye by proxy. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> present. >> no. >> no by proxy. >> no by proxy. >> no. >> no by proxy. >> Mr. booker. >> no no.
▶ 0:48:02Chair Grassley: >> no by proxy. >> no by proxy. >> chairman grassley echo chair
▶ 0:48:11Grassley: Aye. -- >> chairman grassley?
▶ 0:48:25Chair Grassley: Aye. >> I want to clarify my vote with respect to Mr. serralta. I share the ranking member's tentative optimism about this individual.
▶ 0:48:44Chair Grassley: And probably would ordinarily the inclined to vote yes, except for my experience, which is how often statements by trump nominees either in private meetings or in open committee hearings have proven to be false. Smoke and mirrors, dishonored as soon as the pressure of confirmation is passed. I particular concern with respect to the marshals service is this.
▶ 0:49:11Chair Grassley: They have four duties that I think are vital. With respect to protecting our judges. Number one, obviously, protect the judge. Number two, I hope also obviously, protect any threatened family members of the judge.
▶ 0:49:30Chair Grassley: There appears to have been a bit of a campaign to go after particularly daughters of judges, in order to apply pressure to them or punishment to them, regarding judicial decisions.
▶ 0:49:45Chair Grassley: So far, my report throughout the judiciary, particularly the rhode island court is that the marshall service has done an excellent job -- marshals service has done an excellent job of protecting judges and protecting any threatened family members. Considerable satisfaction there. The third is to not just protect a judge and the family, but to investigate the threat.
▶ 0:50:16Chair Grassley: And, that is still a little bit spongy. I will say that Mr. serralta gave good answers to that question in his responses to my questions for the record. So, so far so good. There, I get into the benefit of the doubt problem of how often I've been misled trump nominees in the confirmation process.
▶ 0:50:51Chair Grassley: The fourth and the troublesome one for me is not just investigating the immediate threat to the judge, but investigating the organization of the threats.
▶ 0:51:07Chair Grassley: My concern is that the marshals service will never have a complete understanding of the threat posture to do its projection -- protection job as well as it should, if it isn't investor getting the organization and how those threats emerge.
▶ 0:51:26Chair Grassley: And it's actually a crime to instigate and orchestrate threats or potentially be part of a racketeering activity that could be addressed under civil or criminal rico statutes. There's a robust body of law around making sure that the marshals service does its job, not just of investigating the legal threat, but of who's behind the threats.
▶ 0:51:53Chair Grassley: Here's where we get into the problem with attorney general bondi's maga department of justice. There's every reason to believe that for the marshals service to say we are beginning an investigation into the organizational instigation of these threats.
▶ 0:52:13Chair Grassley: And when you look at them, you see that they are almost always in response to a decision contrary to the trump administration or its interests, it's not hard to see the pattern. It's entirely logical.
▶ 0:52:32Chair Grassley: That would mean that it leads to potential maga people and organizations, some of the threats directly followed postings on x by elon musk's, postings on x by laura loom her. -- loomer.
▶ 0:52:53Chair Grassley: And to the extent that they were aware of and complicit in that launching, the threat actors, then I think that there is a proper investigation to be done with potentially proper charges at the end of it. And my doubt is that that will actually happen.
▶ 0:53:13Chair Grassley: Because the head of the marshals service reports to the attorney general, I strongly suspect that there will be heavy blowback against any investigation that goes at the instigation or orchestration of the threats. That's what I continue to look for. I conclude by asking the chair that two letters be put into the record.
▶ 0:53:39Chair Grassley: One is from me to the acting director of the marshals service regarding this question which is not received an answer. The other is just a reference to the head of the new judicial security independence task force that the judiciary has had to set up to deal with this problem of threats and intimidation. Thank you very much, Mr. chairman.
▶ 0:54:03Chair Grassley: You will have to adjourn the meeting when you are done speaking. >> I have a bone to pick with Mr. whitehouse for saying what I was going to say, except better. Let me associate myself with senator whitehouse's comments.
▶ 0:54:21Chair Grassley: I would only add to his nomination that so many of these nominees, the hope for how they will perform has been betrayed by the realization of how they have conducted themselves in office once confirmed. I share some optimism about Mr. serralta, based on what I've heard of him and his testimony's experience.
▶ 0:54:48Chair Grassley: I would add to the challenges that he will face that not only is it going to be necessary to continue to vigorously protect judges and their families. It will be more important than ever to make sure that court orders are given effect, which is a primary responsibility of the marshals service, which brings me to two oversight investigation requests I want to make to add to senator booker's requests.
▶ 0:55:16Chair Grassley: The first goes right to the heart of the necessity of looking into the violation of court orders. We have another federal judge, yesterday ruling that the trump administration is violating court orders. This with the deportation flights to sudan. The court finding this in direct violation of its order. I think it's also in direct violation of the supreme court's order.
▶ 0:55:43Chair Grassley: It may, in the case of the district court order, be criminal contempt of that court. How often is this going to go on where the administration violates court orders after nominees come in here and promise it will never come up, we will never violate court orders, how could you suggest such a thing? How long will this go on before we as the judiciary committee say something or do something or do some oversight of this? If we are going to wait for the supreme court to act on they will probably never act.
▶ 0:56:11Chair Grassley: When it comes to standing up to be trump administration, they are a total paper tiger. When these cases reach the supreme court as they have already, the supreme court will look for every opportunity not to confront the administration. Not to put the administration to the test of just saying to the supreme court buzz off.
▶ 0:56:36Chair Grassley: We need to do oversight of the willful and deliberate decision to violate court orders in this country. Second, I would request an oversight hearing into the weaponization of pam bondi's justice department and the weaponization of their office of weaponization.
▶ 0:56:57Chair Grassley: Seeing in the first hand their unprecedented interference to dismiss the case against eric adams, a serious corruption case, and now seeing the flipside of that, the leaked report that their inquiry into or investigation of andrew cuomo , it could not be more obvious they are using the justice department as an instrument of their political will. And with that, I have to go vote and I will yield back.
▶ 0:57:29Chair Grassley: >> this committee is adjourned.