During a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) questioned John Eisenberg, the nominee for Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the Department of Justice, about plans to counter foreign threats.
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00:00Trump administration has rightly put focus on disrupting and deterring China's malign influence
00:07within the United States. From a legal perspective and with the tools and authorities of the
00:15Department of Justice in mind, what do you see as the most urgent actions, the most urgent
00:21actions that we should be pursuing to stop this malign influence, disrupt IP theft, and
00:30economic and tech espionage?
00:36Thanks for the question, Senator. For a more complete answer, I'd certainly want to be able
00:40to discuss it with the professionals inside of NSD. But it seems to me that making sure
00:47that we have all of the intelligence collection that we can in order to find all of our vulnerability
00:51capabilities and adequate cyber security would be, you know, very good starts.
01:00So an inventory of the cyber capabilities? And how would you go about that?
01:09I would talk to the people who have those abilities and who are in charge of those around, not just
01:16in the Department of Justice, but around the intelligence community to see the status.
01:20People like NSA, various other intelligence organizations that do these things.
01:28If confirmed, what laws and regulations do you anticipate relying on in executing your role
01:35and NSD's role in this priority of cyberspace?
01:42Well, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act would be one to be able to collect the necessary
01:47intelligence to find our vulnerabilities. Essentially, any tool to collect information
01:55that we have, I think, would be very important in order to ascertain, you know, to learn as
01:59much as we can about our various vulnerabilities.
02:01And have you reviewed and are you deeply familiar with the laws and regulations that would govern
02:12your position, your conduct and your responsibilities?
02:15I'm quite familiar with some of them, like the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, but there
02:19are quite a number that the National Security Division administers. So I'm more familiar with
02:25some than I am with others. But fortunately, we have a lot of experts around the Department and the
02:29various other authorities. Thank you. Mr. Lucas, I think we share a view that we need more people
02:37from all kinds of backgrounds and experiences as we reform and fix the IC's analytical enterprise,
02:47bringing different perspectives and ideas to the fore. If confirmed, can you speak to what
02:54your priorities would be in attracting, recruiting, and retaining such a workforce?
02:59Yes, thank you, Senator. And I appreciated our conversation in your office where we talked
03:05about this topic. My view is that particularly the analytical cadre of the U.S. intelligence community
03:13needs a wide diversity of background, skills, and viewpoints. That's quite different than having
03:19a political dogma called diversity, equity, and inclusion. Part of that would be reaching out in
03:26terms of our recruitment efforts, looking across the countries to universities where the IC has not
03:31traditionally been active, and looking to just bring in a much broader community of new analysts
03:39who are then able to work on the questions facing our nation. Thank you. Yeah, I find that any
03:46organization runs best if it's open to free exchange and an honest, even a brutal confrontation with the
03:54truth and have heated arguments behind closed doors before important decisions are made and all the rest.
04:02And it seems like you embrace that ethic and culture. Is that an accurate characterization?
04:07Yes, Senator, that's an accurate characterization. What tangible actions would you recommend to the
04:14director in furtherance of good decision making as it relates to receiving different ideas and perspectives?
04:27Advising the director, I think it will be critical for her to be in regular contact with the heads of the IC agencies
04:34to be understanding how they are conducting their recruitment, what sort of cultures they are trying to build
04:40based around objectivity and and non politicization of intelligence. She really needs to dig in and
04:48understand what problems the community is facing. And I believe we have a director who's already doing that.
04:53All right. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you, Senator Young.