Hearing of the House Judiciary Committee - Oversight Hearing on the Federal Bureau of Investigation

Interview

Hearing of the House Judiciary Committee - Oversight Hearing on the Federal Bureau of Investigation

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REP. MAXINE WATERS (D-CA): Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Mueller, for being here today. I want to follow up on the questions about the mortgage subprime crisis that we have now. This has been going on for quite some time and it appears, just looking, that less than 10 fair lending cases have been filed between 2002 and 2007. Could you tell us exactly what you're doing now? How many cases do you have under active investigation?

MR. MUELLER: Over 1,300. In fact, the latest total, to be specific, is at 1,337.

REP. WATERS: Have you identified any of the institutions have been involved in serious fraud?

MR. MUELLER: We have investigations into 19 large institutions. We have had a number of indictments. As I said, last year we had 320 indictments or informations in this arena.

REP. WATERS: You had how many indictments?

MR. MUELLER: Three-hundred and seventy.

REP. WATERS: For mortgage fraud?

MR. MUELLER: For mortgage fraud.

REP. WATERS: Could we get more information on that?

MR. MUELLER: Yes, you can. We will get that to you.

REP. WATERS: Go ahead.

MR. MUELLER: Well, we have -- as I said, we have over 1,300 cases. We have a total of almost -- we've got 246 agents working on mortgage fraud around the country. We participate in 33 task forces with the Securities and Exchange Commission, with other federal, state and local entities. The Department of Justice has a coordinating committee that is specifically addressed to the issues relating to the subprime mortgage arena. And so a great deal is being done there, but I will say the cases are growing each year.

REP. WATERS: Have you made the indictments public?

MR. MUELLER: Yes.

REP. WATERS: Is that public information?

MR. MUELLER: It should be, yes. There may be one or two in there that are still sealed, but I would venture to say most of them are public. We can get you a list of that.

REP. WATERS: Would you please get me a list of those, because we have not seen -- I have not seen that, and the public is, you know, very, very upset about the fact that we don't appear to be doing anything to deal with this massive fraud that has taken place in this country. So we need to understand exactly what you're doing.

Having said that, let me go on to gang violence. We have all of these task forces. This gang problem has been going on for many, many years. I know you've only been here for so many years, but it doesn't appear that you're successful in breaking up gangs and stopping violence. In the greater Los Angeles area it is rampant.

What are you going to do about gang violence and how are you going to tackle this issue to get some real success?

MR. MUELLER: Well, I think if you talk to Bill Bratton and others in Los Angeles you'll see that we have a very close partnership with our office and --

REP. WATERS: No, no, no. I don't have to talk to Mr. Bratton. I'm witnessing the drive-by shootings and the killings that are going on. I know what Bratton's doing; I don't have to talk to him. I want to know what are you doing.

MR. MUELLER: Well, we are working very closely with Bratton -- Bill Bratton and the LAPD and the sheriff's office on task forces. We also have, given the prevalence of the 18th Street gang, the MS-13, we have entities not only in Los Angeles but in El Salvador. We have a task force down in El Salvador. We have LAPD officers who are working on it; we're bringing El Salvador officers up to Los Angeles.

We have -- in the countries where you have MS-13 prevalent, whether it be Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras or Mexico, we are working with them to put in place fingerprint efforts so that we can identify gang members who come in and out of the country and utilize those countries outside the United States as safe havens.

We are complementing Bill Bratton and the sheriff's office in terms of addressing MS-13, the 18th Street gangs and the other gangs that you have in Los Angeles.

REP. WATERS: Well, let me just say that I'm not satisfied; most of the elected officials are not satisfied. I would like to know if you would be willing to come to Los Angeles and be a part of a meeting with Chief Bratton, Chief Baca, all of the elected officials in the affected area and talk about what you are doing now, what can be done better, and how can we depend on your task forces to solve some of these problems?

We cannot continue to witness the murders, the drive-by shootings and the devastation to our communities any longer. Would you be willing to do that?

MR. MUELLER: Yes, ma'am. Six months ago I went and stood on the street corner with Mario Roso (ph), with Bill Bratton, with the sheriff and did exactly that. And followed up with each of those individuals with more personnel, with contributions to the task force, and of course I'll be willing to do that again.

REP. WATERS: This is something that I will follow up on. It's not necessarily stand on the street corners, but it will be to sit down with the elected officials and the police officers in that greater Los Angeles area so that we can talk about the devastation to our communities and see if we cannot figure out with you how were are going to address this issue with a combination of law enforcement and social services.

MR. MUELLER: Yes, ma'am.

REP. WATERS: Thank you.

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