Chris Van Hollen presses Kash Patel during hearing: 'Do you know it is a crime to lie to Congress?'

[0:00] senator van holland is and i are going to just have a couple of wrap-up questions [0:04] and then we'll conclude the hearing and i'll turn to senator van holland uh thank you mr [0:09] chairman so director patel i've been listening carefully to your responses to some of my [0:14] colleagues and i want to start with a question that senator coons asked you that relates to this [0:20] article where the headline is cash patel's latest firing firings ousted agents with expertise [0:27] in iran the article says that these individuals were fired for their role in the classified [0:38] documents investigations of donald trump first of all is that true uh the article just like all the [0:44] other articles you cited is false and there's ongoing litigation so i can't address it okay [0:49] did you you did answer senator coons and i understood your answer to me that the people that were fired [0:54] that none of them were part of the uh group that had iran expertise is that is that your answer no [1:00] he asked if they were iran experts i said they were not do you did the were the group fired did it [1:07] include people who were iran experts no did it include people who were involved in counter espionage [1:14] activities with respect to iran i don't have the list in front of me so you don't know whether or [1:21] not you fired people with counter executive ex counter espionage experience with respect to iran [1:27] you don't know the answer to that question i terminated anyone and everyone that weaponized law [1:30] enforcement i see so it was related obviously to the classified documents case so that's not what [1:39] i said well director patel uh director patel i understood you to say that in response to senator [1:44] murray that um you've not redirected fbi resources toward the immigration enforcement effort that's not [1:53] what i said okay did have you redirected resources away from your core fbi responsibilities [2:02] toward the mass deportation effort uh no one at the fbi has been permanently reassigned on the [2:07] immigration front and when we pull the numbers the fbi's overall operational field expenditures [2:13] surged periodically for immigration enforcement activities including the rest of two thousand [2:18] people with direct ties to foreign terrorist organizations was 2.4 percent so okay so you the [2:25] key word there i guess was permanently you have not permanently reassigned is that you reassigned [2:29] temporarily surges yes okay um have you had a chance to listen to or read about brian driscoll's [2:38] statements about what you said to him and the reasons for his firing no i have not sir so let me let [2:47] me just say this mr director um in your response to me earlier where you had a you made a couple provably [2:58] false statements so did you no mr director i was reading about and asking you and asking you to [3:06] respond to allegations that are made in fact i was giving you an opportunity to do that and you took [3:13] that opportunity but in the process you made these provably false statements that i know are sort of like [3:20] urban legend in right-wing media about margaritas in el salvador which is provably false and so [3:28] coming from the mouth of an fbi director to make provably false statements in a hearing like this [3:37] is extremely troubling and it it leads me to ask whether or not the other things you've been saying [3:44] are false statements and so my because that was that's a provably false statement you made a couple of [3:51] values that are provably false and this is from the mouth of the fbi director the only way my final [3:56] statements is you my my final question to you mr director is do you know that it is a crime to lie [4:02] to congress do you know that that's my last question i have not lied to congress i didn't ask you that [4:08] to congress is you do you and i'm not testifying here sir and i don't lie maybe the next time you run [4:13] up a seven thousand dollar bar tab we can talk about well see there you go line again you suggest the fbc [4:19] report i'll post it right there you suggested it was public it wasn't public money as you know that [4:23] was for a 50 members half part so it was a seven thousand dollar bar tab mr patel i'm glad let me [4:29] just say in closing mr chairman two things i'm glad that you have agreed to take the the test regarding [4:38] you know whether you have alcohol problems i'm glad you agreed with me to do that um you still [4:44] haven't answered my final question do you know mr director that it is a crime to lie to congress do you [4:49] know that i do not lie to congress i didn't ask you that you're insinuating that i am i asked whether [4:58] you know you want to correct your time in this session where you got steamrolled by the facts [5:04] so you can have a twitter narrative mr director raise more money and spend more money on seven [5:09] thousand dollars just just let the record i'm not going to give it to you the director of the fbi [5:13] apparently does not want to answer the question about whether or not it's a crime to lie to congress [5:19] and i find that extremely troubling i find it troubling you lie to the american people every [5:23] day you you are a disgrace mr director nearly as big the fact that you can't answer that question [5:29] i will i will that that that concludes my question mr chairman but uh i'm obviously very troubled