00:00Well, thank you for the good news. Director Haynes, you said we've never been better prepared.
00:10Ms. Easterly, you said our elections have never been more secure. I think that's good news.
00:19All the campaigns I've been involved in in my career and are observed as a citizen have never been exemplars of truth telling.
00:30They are political contests for the hearts and minds of the voters and hopefully the ballot cast by that voter.
00:38And I frankly don't think it makes a whole lot of difference if some message is generated by some computer code or algorithm or artificial intelligence or a human being that is not telling the truth.
00:52Or some third party like these 51 intelligence officials who basically shared in a lie attributing certain information in election to Russian disinformation.
01:07I actually found also, Ms. Easterly, I found this statement in your statement to be reassuring.
01:17You said our election infrastructure is diverse, managed locally by state and local government offices to meet their unique jurisdictional requirements and involves in-depth layers of defense and redundancies to ensure security and resilience.
01:36It is because of these measures and the incredible efforts of election workers across the country that the American people can have confidence in the security of our elections process.
01:48Again, more good news.
01:51As I read that, though, it seems to suggest that the distributed nature of our election system is actually a strength against attempts to disrupt our election process.
02:05Is that correct?
02:07Yes, sir.
02:09So any attempt by federal officials here in Washington, D.C. to centralize or concentrate that election authority would seem to me to run counter to that distributed structure which is providing some defense against attempts to disrupt or interfere with our elections.
02:29That's my observation, not necessarily yours.
02:32So I was very encouraged to see that the work you've done with chief election officials in places like Texas and elsewhere, the training, the assessments, the resources you provided have been successful and led you to believe that we have never been more secure.
02:53Let me ask you, maybe Ms. Knapp, I don't know who should take this question, but one of the biggest challenges we've had when it comes to elections or cyber attacks basically have been attribution.
03:06How do we know what the source of some of this information or cyber attacks, let's say, how do we know who it is?
03:19Thank you for that question, sir.
03:20I can certainly start and then I'm sure my colleagues would love to jump in.
03:23As you had mentioned, sir, attribution is a difficult thing, but it is not something that is impossible and it takes time.
03:30So for us from an FBI perspective, that would involve us tracing the origin.
03:37We would gather all available intelligence.
03:39We would serve legal process.
03:41It's an iterative process.
03:43It's not something you could do in real time, let's say, against the deadline or backdrop of an election date.
03:51Well, it would depend.
03:52It would depend on how easy it is to have attribution.
03:54It would also depend on what sort of available intelligence is out there driving us to come to whatever conclusion.
03:59But I don't know if any of my colleagues want to jump in on this.
04:01And Ms. Hicks, Director Haynes, does the U.S. government do anything to impose costs against those who engage in this misconduct?
04:12Obviously, that's a policy question.
04:13But, yes, obviously, there have been actions that have been taken, sanctions.
04:17It may be a policy question, but you would know.
04:19Yeah, fair enough.
04:20No, no, no.
04:21I mean, I think sanctions are an example of the kinds of actions that have been taken, PNGing, other actions depending on the particular scenario.
04:30And we've also seen as we've been helping, for example, Europe look at Russian efforts to influence the European Parliament elections,
04:38they've been taking certain actions in response to some of those influence operations.
04:42So I do think there are, in fact, tools that can be used.
04:45And others may wish to join.
04:46Let me, I just have 17 seconds left.
04:48Let me change the subject a little bit.
04:50We've talked about virtual threats to election integrity, but not physical threats from terrorist groups.
04:57Director Haynes, you said in your annual threat assessment you're willing to acknowledge that perceptions of immigration policies
05:03are driving record numbers of illegal immigrants across our borders.
05:08Director Haynes also talked about the ISIS-affiliated individuals who are facilitating the passage of migrants to the U.S.-Mexican border and into the United States.
05:18Can you tell us in open session how many illegal immigrants have ties to ISIS operatives?
05:25And does the IC assess that individuals with those connections have entered the United States through the southern border, as Director Wray has testified?
05:34I can support what Director Wray has testified to publicly, but I can't answer your specific questions in open session.
05:41But we can obviously have further discussions.
05:43You can't tell us what he told us, which is ISIS facilitators have managed to deliver people to the southern border,
05:51and they have likely been released into the United States.
05:56There is a facilitation network that we have been monitoring, obviously, that has some links to ISIS,
06:03and that is something that we have been managing, but I can't go further into detail on that without being in closed session, sir.
06:10Well, I think we are looking at a matter of when, if not if, we're going to have to live with the consequences of that.
06:18Two quick comments before we go to Senator Bennet.
06:20One, I do think as policymakers, and I think there have been times in the past when we have punched back against some of those who try to interfere,
06:30and I think we ought to do more of that and try to urge as policymakers that action.
06:35And I would also say I want to commend some of this part you made with Jen about the decentralized nature.
06:41I want to applaud Texas, which in an overwhelming way, I think almost unanimous in your State House and 75 percent, I think, in your State Senate,
06:49approved legislation that the Governor Abbott signed prohibiting deepfakes of political candidates.
06:55I think that makes a lot of sense.
