Sen. Kennedy questions FBI's Kash Patel and DEA's Terry Cole on prosecuting Mexican drug cartels

[0:00] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, directors, all of you, for your good work. [0:10] I'm sure you have figured out by now that you're not going to be able to make some people in [0:20] Washington, D.C. happy. I regret that. One of my colleagues talked, Director Patel, about you [0:34] traveling too much. Is it important that you go out there and travel and talk to our line agents and [0:45] try to maintain morale? That's one of the most important parts of the job, and if I can, [0:52] when it comes to travel, I've actually traveled one-third less for personal holidays than my [0:57] prior two predecessors combined, and I've taken half as many days off as my prior predecessors [1:01] combined. Have you ever seen United States senators travel, including overseas? Frequently. [1:11] You've seen that? Yes, sir. I want to ask you and Director Cole. I see where the Department of [1:25] Justice, presumably with your cooperation and good background work, just indicted a governor [1:34] in Mexico for working with cartels to poison our people, which everybody's entitled to a defense, [1:51] and they're innocent until proven guilty, but I saw none of that in the prior administration [1:59] trying to get serious. Tell me, I love the people in Mexico. They're just wonderful people. [2:07] They're our neighbors. We buy a lot of their goods, and they buy a lot of our goods. [2:13] But help me understand why so many of the political leaders in Mexico cooperate so fully, [2:28] well, strike that, tend to have very close ties with the drug cartels. Is it money? Is it power? [2:37] Is it fear? And what do we do about it? I'll address it generally. The case is specifically [2:43] the DEA's senator. But generally speaking, you know, we've been able to retrieve 98 defendants from [2:51] Mexico in the last year, which is, I think, triple the year before. So they're cooperating ways that they [2:57] haven't done before in the past. But I do see your point, and I agree that largely it's fear, [3:02] senator. These cartels have so much power, and you've seen them go down there and kidnap people, [3:08] behead people, burn people. And I think it's a combination of the fear and a little bit of the [3:12] corruption because of the influence they have with the amount of money they make from the narco [3:16] trafficking trade, which is why we're prioritizing bringing it down. [3:21] Mr. Director. [3:23] Senator, it's good to see you again. [3:24] Good to see you, sir. [3:25] And I testified during my confirmation hearing regarding the arrest of Garcia Luna, [3:29] who was in charge of the federal police in Mexico. And after a career special agent, [3:36] and I had the opportunity to work in Colombia, Afghanistan, and end my career in Mexico, [3:41] there's no doubt that the narco traffickers and high-ranking government officials in Mexico [3:45] have been in bed for years. But for all of a sudden, we're paying attention to it. [3:53] We have a president who fully supports America first, Americans first. [3:57] They are just as much responsible for the death and destruction of record amounts of Americans [4:03] by cooperating, by conspiring, by helping producing this poison to come across the border [4:11] and come into our country. And Senator, I can assure you, this is just the start [4:17] about what's to come in Mexico. [4:21] Good. [4:22] I think it's important, and I don't want to paint with too broad of a brush, [4:26] but I think it's important that we keep the pressure on. And I appreciate the good work [4:33] that both of your agencies have done and that the president has done. [4:38] Because when the current president didn't do this, but when a prior president of Mexico [4:48] runs on a platform of hugs, not bullets, with respect to the cartels, [4:55] that sort of speaks volumes about what they're willing to tolerate. [5:02] Can I ask one question, Mr. Chairman of Director Patel? [5:07] Tell me why we shouldn't require warrants under Section 702 [5:15] when our intelligence people access the records of American citizens. [5:21] I think you're referring to the query process of U.S. persons under 702, Senator. [5:26] Yes, sir. [5:27] Because under Section 702 as it stands, the collection from 702 is already lawfully collected [5:34] under federal statute of overseas individuals targeted by the intelligence communities. [5:39] And just to clarify, 702 is run separately by the FBI, the NSA, the CIA. [5:44] They have their own 702 programs. [5:46] So for us, in order to have the ability to defend the homeland appropriately, [5:52] all we are doing when we run a query is we're asking that this selector popped. [5:58] And we have no other information. [6:00] So it would be factually and legally impossible to obtain probable cause [6:04] because we just walk into a courtroom and say, we got this selector. [6:07] It's connected with so-and-so lawfully collected information overseas. [6:11] We can't tell you, Judge, anything else about it. [6:14] They would say you don't have probable cause. [6:16] And that's why the query system exists to go in and see if they're actually connected [6:21] to any terrorist activities or narcotics trafficking activities or otherwise. [6:24] Thank you for your indulgence, Mr. Chairman.