mr. whitehouse: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to legislative session and be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each, with the exception of this speaker who will speak for probably more like 20 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i rise today for now the ninth time to unmask the right-wing dark money scheme to capture our supreme court. i say capture in the sense of regulatory capture, an agency capture, well-known phenomenon none. today i turn to an important tool of the team's apparatus, the orchestrated am cuss -- amicus curiae brief. first things first. amicus for friend of the court briefs are an important striewm in our judicial system. they help those who aren't parties to a case to share their expertise, insight, or advocacy with the court. i filed them myself. friend of

mr. dougan continues our tradition of investigative excellence in rhode island. >> thank you senator whitehouse. with the witnesses please stand to be sworn in. please raise your right hand. do you affirm the testimony you are about give before the committee will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god? all answer in the affirmative. mr. muteric. >> aaron muteric. founder and president of crazy aarons a toy manufacturer in norristown, pennsylvania. thank you for the opportunity to testify today. chairman durbin, ranking member grassley. i applaud your commitment to protecting consumers. curbing the flow of counterfeit and unsafe goods is e-commerce is critically important to me as a toy manufacturer and a small business owner. i founded crazy aarons in 1998 with a mission to create toys that inspired a sense of wonder and creativity. i quickly realized i was going to have to build my own factory, so that is what i did. and today our headquarters is part of the revitalization of norristown. we employ over 100 people and for over 18 years we have provided meaningfu