or the modern definition. there have been a number of cases just in the last few years that have fleshed this out and made clear that in this country we don't send anyone to prison if they believed that they were doing something that complied with the law. in other words, when justice alito and justice thomas said in 2019 where congress wants to require proof that a criminal defendant knew his conduct was illegal, it specified that the violation must be willful. in the context of this statute, a misdemeanor contempt of congress differs from every single other statute in our jurisprudence. the court found that willful, in 1961 the court found that fault, just means did you get a subpoena and did you comply with it. that's not what willful means as a matter of law in the criminal context. and here the case is complicated because former president trump invocked executive privilege and reaffirmed that before the trial

started that he had invoked executive privilege. this case raises a dynamic separation of powers issue. we know from years and decades of case law that the president and a former president has the authority to invoke executive privilege. it's his prerogative, his or her prerogative, one day maybe her prerogative, but it's his prerogative to invoke and is presumptively valid when invoked. it's not for congress to determine whether it was an appropriate invocation or otherwise, and congress cannot be the ash aer the of how to respond to that -- ash aer the. only a court can be. that's the mcgahn case. courts have spoken clearly ant this. the judge's decision today cannot be reconciled with his earlier comments in the case that -- was wrongly decided. and what he said today was, he acknowledged a gt had argued that this panel in mr. bannon's case didn't have the authority to overrule cavoli, so how on earth can you find there's no longer a substantial question when they never even considered the modern

jurisprudence? the decision has it wrong factually. it's a horrible decision that overlooks facts in the record. but beyond all that, the fundamental principle of law here that's got to be vitiated in the united states supreme court is that willfully in the criminal conduct, context, you knew you did something wrong. the unequivocal evidence in this case without any dispute -- mr. bannon never got the subpoena. his lawyer got the subpoena, and his lawyer told him executive privilege has been invoked, president trump confirmed that, is and his lawyer told him you may not as a matter of law comply with this subpoena. it's not your privilege to waive. and he offered the committee an out. he said if the committee works out privilege with mr. mr. trump, bannon will comply fully. if the committee goes to a judge and the judge doesn't apply or doesn't extend this broadly, mr. bannon will comply fully. the committee only went criminal for their political agenda, and you can see that from every statement they made. i'm going to say one more thing

about this because t issue. the committee -- the january 6th committee was composed and engaged in conduct that violated the house rules without any question. there was never if any ranking minority member which was an essential part, as were other parts, of the resolution creating it. my hope is that the bilateral advisory group in congress will be convened by the speaker, and he will declare that, once and for all, that the january 6th committee violated the house rules and that their conduct rain actions and subpoenas issued by them were not lawful subpoenas. that's what they should do. they've talked about it day that and day out, that the committee wasn't properly composed and violated the rules. so the integrity of the house rules, i call on speaker johnson to simply convene the committee and make that pitio blag speaks for the house in legal matters. thank you. >> i've got great lawyers. we're going to go all the a way to the supreme court if we have to, but i want to say something specific about the justice

department. merrick garland, lisa monaco, they're not going to shut up trump, navarro, they're not going to shut up bannon, and they're certainly notut up maga. if you look right here, you reporters, in the two and a half, three years we've been here, look at the rise of maga, of donald trump. if the election was held today, according to cnn, president trump would win in a sland slide. landslide. all of this besides the major legal issues that have to be addressed, is about a shutting down the maga movement, shutting down grassroots conservatives, shutting down president trump. not only are we winning, we are going to prevail in every number, in every poll -- and every poll shows that. there's nothing that can shut me up and nothing that will shut me up -- >> [inaudible] >> there's not a prison built, this is not a prison built or jail built that will ever shut me up. all victories to maga. we're going to win this, we're going to win at the supreme court, and more importantly, we're going to win on november■

5th in an amazing landslide with the senate, the house and also donald j. trump back as president of the united states. thank you very much. >> lock him up! lock him up! you're a coup plotter! it's a failed coup! [inaudible conversations]direct

general merrick garland.

>> please be seated. all right. good morning, everybody. one more time. good morning, everybody. >> good morning. >> all right. welcome back to a.t.f., for day two of our third annual chiefs and police executive forum on crime guns. i hope you all enjoyed yesterday, the first day. i know i learned a lot from you and as i said yesterday, we have chiefs here from all over, from vermont to vegas, from florida to fargo, and all over the country.

yesterday was a jam packed agenda, covering one of a.t.f.'s greatest assets, crime gun intelligence or as we talk about cgi, which means nothing more as we all know and discussed yesterday, squeezing he ever last bit of evidence out of that crime gun and make that into actionable leads, leads shared with you and the people you lead to clear homicide cases, leads that show how killers get their firearms illegally brings justice to survivors and victims. i love this summit and i was mentioning to our special keynote speaker, really, it's a unique event. it's a lot of people, but it's not a massive conference. it's a meeting that is of the size that has the right people in the room, you, who are leading the fight against violent crime, and one where a.t.f. and you can have an actual dialog and talk about

things on our minds and yesterday, of course, really drove that point home. we shared from a.t.f. side, some of the key advances that we're making, using our two pillars of crime gun intelligence to catch the trigger pullers, those driving the gun violence in your community and we discussed the results of the latest firearms trafficking assessment, talking about the data that shows some of the recent trends. for instance, the growth in illegal dealing of firearms without a license, which is now the leading method of trafficking cases that fuels firearms on the black market. we also shared with you from a.t.f. side the launch of our new firearms trafficking center, as well as our crime gun center of excellence in wichita, kansas, how exciting it is the work we're doing to expand our support for our partners, for you. and we heard from you.

we heard from you about the issues we're facing, just few about the dangerous proliferation that you're seeing of machine gun conversion devices that are posing extreme risks to your communities and to your officers. and personally, i really liked being here and hearing you talk with each other, about the efforts and strategies you're going through to try to promote secure storage because of the rising threats of firearms thefts from cars and others in your community. and i think we'll take this back with us, talking about nuts and bolts of crimes, and what the chiefs need to do with the nuts and bolts in terms of working with to set up. and in all, an incredibly productive first day and a.t.f. is proud to play host to that

important discussion. one of the topics that we did spend some time yesterday talking about, was the developments that had been made in one of the newest pillars of crime gun intelligence, ballistic-based dna's. our lab in maryland has led the way on developing this investigative technique. as a result, we've seen the hit rate for dna in shooting cases skyrocket, and it has p key leads in hundreds of murders and mass shootings and these are important cases as we heard yesterday from the deputy attorney general. this tool played a key role in catching the suspect alleged to have murdered a chicago police officer just last month. there was good news. on the other side, of course, we touched on a disturbing and upsetting topic in all of our minds, the increased danger that both a.t.f. and federal agents and your officers faced every day as they go to work and these days, as we know, there are too many dark days for the men and carry

a badge and risk so much to protect others. our keynote speaker understands this reality. and he is unwavering in his lifelong support for the brave officers agents on the good days and also on the tough days. recently i went to a funeral in charlotte to honor a member four heroes gunned down serving a search warrant. unsurprisingly, attorney general merrick garland was there in charlotte, too. he always shows up. he was there to help a community in a time of that, wh see him spend personal time away from cameras with a family in pain and with an agency going through a crisis, that's who this attorney general is to his core. his support for all of us and the courageous people who work with you and me, not just words, was deeply felt backed by action. we're very lucky to have the

tremendous leadership in the department of justice of attorney garland. he's a fierce advocate with a c also for justice with a small j that applies to everybody and things we need to do with everybody to actually achieve it. the sacrifices made by all of you, by law enforcement, to get justice for the victims of crime. i'm deeply honored to have him here this morning. and proud to introduce our keynote speaker, please join me in welcoming the 86th attorney general of the united states of america, the honorable merrick b garland. [applause]

>> he's tallen than me. good morning. thank you, steve. grateful for your leadership and for the dedication of extraordinary professionals of the a.t.f. to all of the police chiefs who have joined us at week as i've said before and i will say again, the justice department could not do its work without you and the officers you lead. when i became attorney general, i into you that grappling with the violent crime that had dur would be one of the most urgent challenges the justice department would face. i knew well the scourge of violent crime. i was a drugs and guns prosecutor during the crack wars of the late 1980's and early 1990's and then i was a supervisor of prosecutors and

agents in the criminal division at the justice department. i knew that among the most powerful tools the department has to confront violent crime would be our partnerships. our partnerships among federal law enforcement agencies assisting in the fight against violent crime, our partnerships with the state and local law enforcement agencies that protect our local communities every day and our partnerships with the communities that we all serve. so we have spent the last three years pouring every available resource into strengthening those partnerships. we have expanded access to the range of advanced a.t.f., inclug ballistics analysis, firearm tracing and crime gun intelligence centers as steve just recounted. we've worked in joint task forces with our state and local law enforcement partners to

ro the individuals and gangs that have repeatedly committed violent offenses. and we have put our grant making powers into work as well. this has included investing in essential programs through our cops office and office of justice programs to allow police departments to hire more officers. included in investing in policing efforts to public trust. and anti-violence initiatives aimed at preventing violent at the community level. as we have worked to reduce violent crime, the department has found committed partners on the state and local level at every turn. our shared commitment to deepening our partnerships into the public we serve has already begun to show results.

fbi data shows a decrease in violent crime in communities across the country in 2023, compared to the previous year, including an over 13% reduction in homicides. that's the steepest decline, yearly decline in homicides in over 50 years. and last year's trend appears to be continuing into this year. based on data from police departments in 90 cities across the country, we saw a 18% year over year decline in murders in the first quarter of 2024. that program is-- that progress is reflected in many so of the communities represented here today. in atlanta, there was a 21% drop in homicides in 2023. in san antonio, there was a nearly 29% drop in homicides and a 10% decrease in overall

violent crime and in philadelphia, there was a 20% decline in homicides. this progress is thanks first f and women in your departments, who put their lives on the line to protect their communities every day. we know that there are families because of the brave efforts of your officers. we also know that our work is far from over. there is no acceptable level of violent crime. violent crime not only threatens ty, it threatens their ability to go about their daily lives, and needless to say in this room, violent crime endangers the law enforcement officers who risk their lives every single day to protect their communities.

it has been a particularly tough year for law enforcement. according to the fbi, 2023 marked a 10-year high for the number of officers assaulted or injured by firearms. 60 officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty. i knew that none of us will give up until that number is zero. just upstairs in this buildg we recently rededicated the memorial to those who have lost their lives to the tragic of the 118 people honored in the memorial today, 39 are heroic law enforcement officers who are killed by gun violence in the line of duty. they include a loving husband and father who served for over two decades as a police officer. and whose heroism even after he

was shot saved the lives of countless more officers. they include a wife and mother who was a trailblazer in her police department and who died in the line of duty while protecting others. they include two fbi agents who put their lives on the line combatting insidious crimes against children and made the ultimate sacrifice. the justice department is committed to honoring the memories of the fallen and their families through our continuing work to help keep our communities and the officers who protect them safe. that is why we are continuing our efforts to fight gun violence on every front, fm cracking down on criminal gun trafficking pipelines to updating regulations to deepening our partnerships with state and local law

enforcement. in cleveland, for example, a three-month crime reduction initiative brought together a.t.f., the cleveland division of police and almost a dozen other federal, state, and local law enforcement agents. that operation resulted in charges against 59 individuals in connection with drug and firearms offenses. thanks to a.t.f.'s system we know that a significant number of the guns seized during that investigation were connected to violent criminal activity. we have also surged resources to other cities that experienced a record ris in violent crime. in houston, memphis, st. louis, jackson, hartford, we launched a violent crime initiative that brought prosecutors from the justice department's criminal division in washington to work already on the ground, to target those responsible for

the greatest violence. as a deputy attorney general discussed yesterday, we are also using crime gun intelligence centers to trace crime guns, ballistic evidence to link shootings and identif gun traffickers and straw purchasers who arm violent criminals. these centers use cutting edge a.t.f.'s e-trace systems to rapidly develop and pursue investigative leads in order to find those who are responsible for violent crime. i know that our bureau of justice assistance is going to be speaking with you later today about grants that can be used to build new ones or expand existing ones. i encourage you to look into whether these grants can be used in your own work. we are also using the tools created by the bipartisan safer