with this association, mr. zuckerberg >> congressman, i don't know the answer. >> who acknowledged -- there are many people who acknowledge they are a part of the community. you do not know? mr. zuckerberg, is it true that the overwhelming majority of persons associated with this endeavor are white men >> congressman, i don't know off the top of my head the list of the people who are running the organizations in the association. >> is it true that one would have to have $10 million to become a part, aside from other qualities, to become a part of the association? >> congressman, i believe that was the initial idea, but i don't think that that has been locked down yet. >> well, isn't it true that persons have already bought into the association and paid $10 million? >> congressman, i do not believe that has happened yet. >> well, i spoke to your person who manages calibra and he indicated that he is one of the holders of a post with the association. is he incorrect? >> congressman, you're right that david marcus

>> the deeper association is an independent association. we are trying to set up a global payment system. switzerland is where a lot of international organizations are. >> greater regulatory certainty in switzerland than in the united states for this type of technology? >> switzerland has been forward leaning on working on systems like this but i don't want it to come across -- >> the united states is not? >> one thing i want to be clear on is the independent libra association is independent, we don't control it but i want to make sure it is clear to everyone that my commitment running facebook is we are not going to launch anything until we have full support from us regulators regardless -- >> the project of libra internally, let's think of this. why would you have a project like that? is about competition with your peers globally? is that a component? >> i didn't hear that. >> you have no payment platform on facebook, facebook is not a payment platform. >> yes. >> in seeking to development a payment platform, internally before you had the

with this association, mr. zuckerberg? >> congressman, i don't know the answer. >> who can -- there are many people who acknowledge they are part of the community. >> sorry? >> you do not know. mr. zuckerberg, is it true that the overwhelming majority of persons associated with this endeavor are white men? >> congressman, i don't know off the top of my head the list of the people who are running the organizations in the association. >> is it true that one would have to have $10 million to become a part, aside from other qualities, to become a part of the association? >> congressman, i believe that was the initial idea, but i don't think that has been locked down yet. >> well, isn't it true that persons have already bought into the association and paid $10 million? >> congressman, i do not believe that has happened yet. >> well, i spoke to your person who manages calibra, and he indicated that he is one of the holders of a post with the association. is he incorrect? >> congressman, you're right that david marcus

if the libra association cannot satisfy those regulations with us will calibra pullout of the association? >> this short answer is yes. if we don't come up with a solution that gets the us regulatory approval then presumably we will work on the proposal until we can but we will not launch anything that doesn't have approval. >> but you would pull out on the wallet portion with calibra? >> that case i referred to before where we could be required to pull out is if the association decides to move forward with what we are not comfortable with. but right so now everyone is aligned to make sure we have us regulatory approval to launch anywhere in the world and that's the goal and that'sat the plan. >> is there an internal can describe?ou >> there are multiple levels of the work there is some work at the network level. that supersedes all the individual work the companies are doing to implement this. of course those that are members of the association or are transacting this system is responsible for themselves to implement and to follow those rulesbe so within facebook there's a big effort to

with this association, mr. zuckerberg? >> congressman, i don't know the answer. >> who can -- there are many people who acknowledge they are part of the community. >> sorry? >> you do not know. mr. zuckerberg, is it true that the overwhelming majority of persons associated with this endeavor are white men? >> congressman, i don't know off the top of my head the list of the people who are running the organizations in the association. >> is it true that one would have to have $10 million to become a part, aside from other qualities, to become a part of the association? >> congressman, i believe that was the initial idea, but i don't think that has been locked down yet. >> well, isn't it true that persons have already bought into the association and paid $10 million? >> congressman, i do not believe that has happened yet. >> well, i spoke to your person who manages calibra, and he indicated that he is one of the holders of a post with the association. is he incorrect? >> congressman, you're right that david marcus

. >> who is the chair and board of the association? >> i actually am not sure if the libra association board has a chair. >> most boards are governed by an executive committee or chair, otherwise a bunch of people in the room having coffee and -- let's move on. you responded, we talked about the number of lawyers, the 60 that i mentioned, i those lobbyists in dc working for you? >> i'm not sure what you are referring to. >> miss porter, my colleague behind me asked you about the lawyers and referred to litigation you are involved with in terms of liability issues. how many lobbyists are working for you? >> i don't know the answer. >> you don't know how many lawyers are working for you in dc? >> know, i do not know the breakdown of our exact office. >> have you ever worked with them to try to get the federal reserve to have a digital dollar? >> my understanding is we talked to the federal reserve about a number of things. >> it seems to me if you want to help the bank to do these great things that you would work on an approach that -- w

rudy's associates busted. two men who worked with rudy giuliani to try and dig up dirt on joe biden in the ukraine were arrested trying to flee the united states and are now charged with breaking u.s. campaign finance laws, reportedly just hours after having lunch with rudy giuliani. >>> a subpoena for perry. another administration official is swept into the impeachment inquiry. three house committees have subpoenaed energy secretary rick perry. was he involved in the effort to dig up dirt on joe biden? >>> bernie sanders suts doits d this hour with dr. sanjay gupta to talk about his recent heart attack, his race for the white house, the impeachment inquiry, and more. >>> and democratic presidential candidates are about to take the stage and take on the issues facing america's lgbtq community in a night of groundbreaking back to back town halls right here on cnn. we're calling it "equality in america." we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in the sit

you were in geneva for the first official meeting of the libra association. through what happened yesterday and what you guys were able to accomplish. david: that is right. yesterday, we had the inaugural council meeting in geneva. it was an awesome moment where 21 companies came together -- not just companies, social impact partners, venture firms and others came together and , started working on not only establishing a governance model for the association, but also distribute a different roles. a board was elected. i was lucky enough to also be elected on the board with four other amazing individuals that i am really looking forward to working with. the big change is fundamentally, yesterday, this product moved from being facebook led to being led by this association of which we are one of 21 members now, and in the future, one of 100. one of five board members. really looking forward to the next stages here. it was just great to feel the passion and the energy in the room, and the commitment from all of these parties that are now really going to work on re

i just had a few quick questions about the libra association. on the website, one of the benefits before mr. marcus appeared before our committee was that those contributing, who joined the association, could derive dividends from libra investment tokens and that's since been taken off. could you elaborate on that? >> sure, congressman, i think that there had been an idea that in order to encourage marketing of the payment service, that there might be some investment that other companies could make into this and some return that they could make, but i think that that idea has either morphed or been abandoned at this point. i'm not sure exactly what the current state of it is. but that's what you're referring to. >> do you think that's a reason some of these bigger named players pulled out of the association? do you have a theory on that? >> i don't think that's related to that, would be my guess. those companies could have invested if they wanted to under that program, but i'm not sure that they were planning to. >> and so i want to close on thi

>> sorry, congressman,, i'm not sure i understand. >> the libra association, correct, the libra association regulates labor, correct? that's going to be one uniform system, presumably. >> yes. >> you also claim that labor will adhere to all the regulations in the countries of jurisdiction. how can you make that claim? because we could have two different sets of regulations in the u.s. versus the eu and one central organizing structure. >> congressman, i need to clarify the distinction between facebook's effort and independent labor association. i am speaking for this book and what we're going to do. what in committing we will comply with u.s. relations and we are not going to launch anything anywhere in the world until we have those regulations. >> will you disassociate from the labor project entirely if libra is going on a path that goes against u.s. regulations? >> i've testified that we would. >> thank you. andd the next thing that the big concern for a lot of folks that i talked to, you mention you not going to mix social and payment data. that's important to keep that distinction. i a

two associates of rudy giuliani detained over campaign finance violations. ing the growing white house/ukraine scandal. >>> a former ambassador set to testify on capitol hill today in the impeachment inquiry. will she show up or be blocked by the white house? >>> turkey says it's killed hundreds in its operation in northern syria. the trump administration trying to broker a cease-fire. >>> it's a legitimate question. this is an event that happened this week during the nba. >> and the nba cancelling all press conferences during their china trip after this moment during the league's face-off with beijing. good morning. welcome to early start. i'm alison kosik. happy friday, dave. >> they can't stop the questions from coming. these guys have to answer them. happy friday, october 11th. 5:00 a.m. in the east. we start with the stunning and dramatic airport arrest that could have links to the ukraine scandal engulfing the white house. two associates of rudy giuliani, arrested on charges they viol e violated campaign finance laws including donations they made to a

the government also raided the offices of the football association this afternoon.e sort of action and there will be a backlash against the association but it only remains to be seen what action will be taken against the actual fan groups that go and do this. do you think this will be the watershed moment that perhaps many are predicting it could be? to be honest with you i am not holding out much faith. we have had watershed moments in the past and things had fizzled out in the past. those supposedly will change the events of football and racism and other forms of discrimination will look in this game but the fact that we are here and talking about another issue, we are speaking about an issue with our national side, only last season and lam national side, only last season and i am still not of the confidence that uefa will follow through with the actions they should take at the moment. i think they are probably embarrassed but we eagerly await what happens from their meeting. for me they should have called a special meeting and it should have been a topic of discu

now the association can take this on and really make progress on these questions.for these types of letters to be circulated for a thing that is an idea, a project, and telling people you should not explore innovation and a project at a time where not only here in this country, but around the world, the color of our financial system has not evolved much. consumers around the world are paying the price for it. i think we should ask ourselves whether this is the right approach if we want to lower costs and lower the barriers of access for financial services for all the people who deserve better in the world. >> when you guys announced the formal association yesterday. he said there is many as 1500 others that were interested in joining. can you give us a sense of how soon you will be expanding the association and who will join? david: these other the types of things i cannot talk about anymore from calibra, because this is now in the hands of the libra association. what i understand from the process the libra association is running is that they will work towards welc

and i am the president of the white house historical association.privilege to commute to the historic house as well as to the white house historical association. tonight's

itself and to the members of that association and so that is another problem with that set up on the monetary policy side one of the concerns is that facebook has a certain monetary tools that they're taking away from central banks and if some of the conditions are promises change on the way that. this poses additional threats for central banks with facebook or libor itself there is a lack of details but with finance itself there is a lack of details. on the project venus side some of the things that we've seen by nance has done. well is the fact that they do have a very good outreach and education programs to people of all crypto currency they have done a pretty good job working with regulators regulate a different side of regulators globally but they are actually making some interesting traction there and so it's actually interesting to see where facebook itself is stronger for example very massive reach on the what's up and facebook platforms is of course much weaker there but they almost seem to complement each other so maybe one day we'll see them actually partnering and working

an offshoot of the american pro fire arms pressure group the national rifle association. after a safety briefing from shooting instructor on about who we start with. before. you. know the other hand then you can shoot. quite a kick my fingers are sweaty again. since you really notice something happen there it's a weapon of old stop us. and it gets worse the eof 15 semiautomatic rifle. shotgun that's a whole different. insert the cartridge drop back at. the winchester defender is a pump action shotgun. 4 words and forward again now there's another one of the breach. still too high. anyone can take part in all of his trial courses the german rifle association has 16000 members and they consider the german too strict like in the us they want weapons for almost everyone. if it is about a pensioner who lives in her apartment and can't run away or defenders off with martial arts or. handicapped. or women who have been attacked. maybe a fear just shown a gun the attacker would have backed off it's. people who want to buy a gun for self protection in germany are often refused a l

what happens if the association decides to launch despite that? >> congressman, i believe we would be forced to leave the association. with -- thatthat the association recommendation and what we say publicly, that we think should happen, but at the end of the day, we don't receive the clearances that we feel like we need to move forward, than the association chooses to move forward without us, then we will not be in a position where we will not be a part of the organization. rep. hulzenga: my remaining 30 seconds. i believe facebook is a tool. i believe cryptocurrency and libra is a tool. it is a neutral pool like a car, plane, gun, and knife. back with a mark zuckerberg testimony shortly. markets closing in europe. we are taking a quick look at what is happening. another busy day for european politics mainly focused on brexit. is driftingibra sideways as we try to calculate what is happening next. -- wepectation is loomed will see an extension. the politics are clouding the situation. let's look at the majors and where they are, wrapping up the d

i am the president of the white house historical association.ilege to commute to the historic house as well as to the white house historical association. tonight's program is exciting and we are honored to partner with our good friends at the richard nixon foundation. i would like to welcome d

protesters in hong kong and now a number of chinese businesses, including the chinese basketball association are suspending ties with the rockets. >>kelly smoot has the latest on the fallout. >>houston rockets facing serious backlash in china over their general manager support for the anti government protests in hong kong. on friday daryl morey tweeted this image that says quote fight for freedom stand with hong kong maury later deleted the tweet and affirmed his appreciation for chinese fans, but a number of chinese businesses spend it i with the houston rockets, including state-run broadcaster cctv sports channel ten's in sports and the chinese basketball association which is chaired by former rockets star yao ming in a statement, the nba said quote we recognize that the views expressed by houston rockets general manager daryl morey have deeply offended

associate. with asiri. what's the extent of this trafficking and how do the local networks that supply it operate to find the answers you need to go into the field most makes regular visits to turkey. to meet other members of his association. was early in the war his correspondence could easily cross the turkish syrian border but turkey recently closed entry into its territory. because the same year the stock of. the c.e.o. but they are. not the sessions on the piece they did that you. push it up to the car that you can't walk. or see you. can't get a kitty don't choose it on the whole case for to increase never we're you know his last post the plessy able to keep up the quality if i'm the only one not nearly 0 but look what a mitt romney job listed in a semi no citigroup good advice let me ask you was. and i live it was hardly a cheap one or my most new vanish on movie hard to keep it down to people being only. did not know me. sick it can't have the absence. of wife it gets we. don't need to look past our

the group to is part of the mozambique association of recycling and more the association is working to set up an efficient waste management and recycling system in mozambique so far 6 regional organizations are taking part and more have signaled interest in joining. when a more started in 2009 the concept was new in the southeast african country now 10 years down the line the attitude towards waste has changed. or has changed a lot here since they started their activities and those are big they've brought a whole new perspective as regards recycling. and they've also introduced new infrastructure. before we had huge amounts of plastic waste but we didn't know what to do with it or how to process it. free our recycling is one of the private companies that also profit from the growing interest in the cycling they sell on the salty materials to a local company to transform them into furniture and many other useful items are more says that between $4.60 tons of waste are being recycled every month that might sound like a lot but it's actually only the equivalent of 2 percent of the overall

the two associates have been arrested. the president not rushing to rudy's defense tonight. >> well, i hope not. again, i don't know how he knows these people. it's easy to move forward when you're ready for what comes next. at fidelity, we make sure you have a clear plan to cover the essentials in retirement, as well as all the things you want to do. and on the way, you'll get timely investment help to keep you on the right track, without the unnecessary fees you might expect from so many financial firms. because when you have a partner who gives you clarity at every step, there's nothing to stop you from moving forward. who gives you clarity at every step, no matter what life throws down ♪ roomba is up for the challenge. only roomba uses 2 multi-surface rubber brushes that powerfully clean up debris on all your floors. and only the roomba i7+ system empties its bin into allergenlock™ bags that trap 99% of allergens. forget about vacuuming for months. if it's not from irobot, it's not a roomba™ unitedhealthcare medicare a

>> the libra association is an independent association. trying to set up a global payment system. switzerland is where a lot of the international organizations are. >> greater regulatory certainty in switzerland than here in the united states for this type of technology? >> i think switzerland has certainly been forward-leaning on wanting to work through systems like this. but i don't want this to come across as if -- >> and the united states is not. >> well, congressman, one of the things i want to be clear on is that the independent libra association is independent, we're a part of it, we help stand it up, we don't control it, but i want to make sure it's 100% clear to everyone today that my commitment running facebook is we're not going to launch anything that is a product a part of this until we have full support from u.s. regulators regardless of what the international regulation s. >> the project of libra internally before you handed this technology over to the association, let's think of this. why is that project like that? is this

betty is a great colleague for us at the association. she has worked with us and continues to work with us on many projects. , our major our book decorative arts and the white house book available in our bookshop. she is a consultant to the white house history quarterly. she is our quarterly scholarly magazine we are very proud of. betty is a master regarding the white house collections. we have a wonderful panel for you to hear from tonight. , i wouldn comes up like to introduce hugh hewitt representing the richard nixon foundation. hugh is president of the nixon foundation, and has been teaching constitutional law in chaffin college of law school since 1995. you will recognize him as a frequent guest on many tv news networks and programs. he has written extensively for the new york times, the wall street journal and the los angeles times. you will be very familiar with him as a host of a nationally syndicated radio program. he served for nearly six years in the reagan and administration and a variety of posts, including assistant couns

breaking news today, two trump supporting rudy giuliani associates arrested. effort to dig up dirt over joe biden. does their allege crime here connect at all to the tangled web that could lead to impeachment? so far, president trump has been silent on his lawyer's associates being nabbed at the airport trying to skip the country. what might he say when he waubs to marine one this hour? >>> and allowing turkey to run over u.s. allies in syria, iraq war veteran and cnn contributor with a passion on the subject will join me this hour. >>> welcome to "the lead." i'm jake tapper. we begin with the breaking news. two of rudy giuliani's so-called expert witnesses to find alleged corruption by trump's opponents were arrested today by the u.s. department of justice for, quote, corrupt behavior. led barnas. said his ukrainian operation is to help his client, the president. they were arrested at dulles airport last night holding one-way tickets out of the country, according to two u.s. officials, prompting prosecutors to today unseal this indictment that claims that the

climate regulation to its business the lawsuit argues that exxon systematically minimize risks associated with climate change when evaluating new projects analysts say that if the company had been transparent about the financial impact of government action to limit global warming investors would have forced exxon to invest less in fossil fuels. now in another closely watched legal fight a last minute agreement could set a pricey precedent shortly before the start of the biggest ever court battle in the own growing us opioid crisis the parties decided to settle the case now to suing counties in ohio will receive $260000000.00 from pharmaceutical companies however thousands of similar cases are still ok. these flags bear witness to an american tragedy they represent the 400000 people who have died of an opioid overdose over the past 2 decades. contend the drug makers doctors pharmacies and wholesalers all frivolously feel the excessive prescription and consumption of opioids while at the same time flagrantly ignoring the risks of addiction a total of $2600.00 lawsuits are pending throughout

interests through people like perhaps rudy and/or his associates. so what would some predication for that be? well, let's look at what we know. we know that about $1 million flowed from russian -- or excuse me -- foreign national number one, that's what they call him in the indictment of rudy's associates -- into the united states and through the associates into campaigns or pacs. that's a lot of money that would get the fbi's interest, and that foreign national number one is supposed to be a russian. that would get even further attention. then we see even rudy openly saying, i'm working over there with ukraine. i'm working for a guy who was pro-russia candidate, and that would get the fbi's attention and say, are you unwitting or wittingly working on behalf of russia? as nancy pelosi said today, all roads seem to lead to putin. for the fbi looking at rudy or his associates, all roads may indeed lead to russia. >> and berit berger, of course this is your former shop. it's never a good look when four former associates of yours are rounded up as part

talking about neighborhood association. this would be 186 low income senior homes on the site.as i'm going around to different community meetings around the city, it does have a slightly older population pair they often talk about their desire to stay in san francisco. there's just no options. the ability to downsize, and the ability for seniors to be able to stay in san francisco is just not a reality. these homes are important. my mother, you know, she is not quite there yet. as she moves and as other folks are watching their parents and eventually a get to that age. we want to have options. so the senior homes are really important for the project they are important to the community in the city. we wholeheartedly encourage you to move forward with the project today. thank you. >> next speaker please. >> good afternoon supervisors. i'm here on behalf of of larry who asked me to speak on his behalf. regarding this project. first i want to commend everybody and bringing it to this point. i know this project has been in planning and people have been talking about it for some time

a lot of these companies theynced late last week were leaving the association.s happening behind the scenes as these announcements came out around the same time on friday? david: first, i have to say, i said this publicly, i want to thank these companies were coming along on the journey. when you are in the payments space, wanting to really explore something that could potentially be disruptive and wanting to lean in like this is really remarkable. it is to be commended. towards the end of last week, there was a lot of pressure mounting. i totally respect the fact those businesses and those leaders have a responsibility to their shareholders, employees and stakeholders. given that you don't need to be a member of the association to build on top of the libra network, all of these companies will still have the ability to build on top of libra. i understand they don't want to do the heavy lifting by our side at this moment in time, and that's ok. we are going to move forward. we are going to add more members going forward in the next two quarters. we're going to wo

the ambassador testified that rudy giuliani's associates, these two guys associated yesterday, igor fruman and lev parnas, may well have believed her positions were stymied by our anti-corruption campaign in ukraine. was president trump aligning foreign policy to benefit these two? >> it seems to indicate that's what they were doing. whether the president news it, i was thinking the old question from watergate, what did the president know and when did he know it? proving intent is tough in fraud, corruption cases like this. so i expect everyone is going to be trying to dig into it, asking questions of witnesses, looking for documents, text messages that might indicate that. giuliani saying something like that. >> the administration made a last-ditch effort to prevent ambassador yovanovitch from testifying today. they had to produce a subpoena. she showed up and has been speaking for hours. what does it tell you about this process moving forward? >> it's striking how quickly the process is moving forward and democrats having a fair amount more success with getting key witnesses to appear on

nasa administrator jim bridenstine and the agencies acting associate administrator for human exploration of space took questions about potential cost of a moon mission which would be the first since 1970s 1970s. >> the subcommission come to order. i would like to welcome nasa administrator, jim bridenstine, and acting nasa associate administrator for human exploration and operations, kenneth bowersox, to the subcommittee. earlier this year nasa commemorated the 50th anniversary of the landing on the moon, which remains the single most successful and famous mission in nasa's history. just a week before our cjs bill was marked up in subcommittee, nasa submitted a $1.6 billion budget amendment that intended to start the effort to advance the return of humans to the moon by four years. such little time prevented us from adequately considering the proposal. this hearing will give us an opportunity to obtain more information from nasa regarding its revised plans for returning to the moon. while all of us on this subcommittee would like to send the first woman astronaut into deep space, includi

ben scholes, national association of wheat growers. that is a big deal. >> think they are ready to sell wheat? pres. trump: they are ready to buy it. they are going to buy a lot of wheat. the national cattlemen's beef association. i can tell with the hat. kevin ross, national corn growers' association. congratulations. great job. randy mooney, national milk producers federation. great job, randy. david herron, national pork producers' council. david, you are a very big beneficiary to things that are going on, about to be. pork is off the charts, the numbers. you are just going to -- >> wonderful news. wonderful news in this country. japan has been our number one market for many years. it is just great momentum. it creates a wonderful opportunity in rural america. pres. trump: and china is a big buyer right now. >> we are starting to move to china. pres. trump: it has already happened. cody carson? cody carson, national sorghum producers. where is cody? good job. you happy about this one? >> you said that right. i have got to be careful

i don't know what the evidence is of the guilt the associates for fruman and parnas. he seems to be equally implicated in it. and so he could be the next. so there are a number of crimes that he may have been a participant in the election campaign violations that his associates were arrested for. we just don't have the evidence. and i would think that disbarment is the last thing on his mind. he should be worried about criminal cases. he had a criminal attorney. he no longer has that criminal attorn attorney. he should have one. he should not be representing himself, as he said he is doing. >> all right, then. charlie, before we go, firman and parnas were arrested for campaign finance violations. that's a long walk from being central figures in the impeachment inquiry. is that where they're headed? >> well, there's a lot of byzantine trails that this once simple story of extorting ukraine to gin up dirt on the bidens has taken. the number of people and countries and former officials from different countries who are at war with each other and now these short of shady f

she represents companies and associates including the u.s. chamber on preemption and first amendment constitution. and amy howe is the co-founder of scotus blog, that indispensable website for all of us who care about the court. she's a reporter for her own blog, amyhowe.com and scootus blog. although she's too modest to mention it, she's the only person i know of in the supreme court press room who has argued two cases there. so, as you can see, we have a real panel of experts. they're going to break down some of the issues that are before the court, and we're going to start with bob, who will talk to us about the second amendment case. bob: yes, the court has before it what is actually the first meaningful second amendment case that it's been asked to consider since mcdonald, which incorporated the right to bear arms against the state. the court did consider in 2016 -- briefly considered by a procureum vote reversed the massachusetts supreme judicial court in the case of qitano which dealt with whether or not stun guns, electric guns might

i believe i appreciate the work of the cannabis association, the industry association, and normal, the national association for marijuana laws for sharing and submitting the stories for the record. across the country, more and more states are following the example established in the initial states more than two decades ago. red states, blue states, purple states, whether it allows the cultivation of hemp and remedies, such as cvd, it was legalized in the 2018 farm bill, or taxing and regulating medicinal and adult use cannabis. in my home state, over $80 million are taken in taxes. that is $80 million traveling down the roads and highways in duffel bags and backpacks. i have heard from dozens of people operating legal businesses who have been forced to deal entirely in cash or risk having lines of credit cut off. the owner and president of red barn cannabis from my hometown of myrtle creek, oregon, told us not only has he lost accounts for dispensaries but his employees have lost personal bank accounts and credit cards. spouses of employees have lost personal bank accounts. many employ

thank you once again, administrator and acting associate administrator for being with us today. i look forward to hearing your testimony. now i'd like to recognize at this time my good friend the ranking member for his opening comments. >> thank you, mr. chairman. first of all, i want to thank you for your leadership on this subcommittee. your willingness to have hearings throughout the year. but in particular for this hearing. regardless of party labels, the house of representatives will -- your professionalism and kindness. we look forward to working with you, of course, through the rest of this congress. we have a long way to go. so we know you are not leaving yet. but i would be remiss if i didn't mention that this morning. also i appreciate the ranking member of kay granger being here today and for her engagement with these issues. she has put a lot of hard work and expertise in defense issues and on the space issues over the years for her district, state, and country. and also i'd like to express my gratitude to the president and to the vice president for taking a real act

but at the end of the day, he's an associate of these individuals.vestigations are built is that people please guilty and they testify against their associates. so he should certainly seek counsel and get a lawyer. that would be my advice to him as another lawyer. probably lawyer up. just because associates are charged, that doesn't mean it's necessarily going to rise up to his level. >> the word that kept popping up into my head as i was reading all they were accused of and charged with dirty, dirty, dirty. everything they did -- >> to be fair, that's always in your head. >> a lot of stories i've been thinking about that lately. but dirty. dirty players. dirty politics. they set up a shell company to funnel money to a trump superpac that exceeds legal limits. they are directly connected to digging up dirt os ambassador yovanovitch to get her out of the way because she was trying to fight corruption. they funneled money to congressman pete sessions to get him to fire -- to enlist his help in firing marie yovanovitch. it goes on and on how the dirty d