Hearing of the House Judiciary Committee: FBI Oversight

Statement

REP. MAXINE WATERS (D-CA): Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Sorry, I could not be here for the entire hearing. I've been running between several committees here, but I'm very pleased that you're holding this hearing and I would like to welcome our FBI Director Mr. Mueller here today. I wish I had time to talk more about mortgage fraud, but I'd like to just say from the information that I have, I'm very pleased to see that the FBI have been doing a rather good job in dealing with this issue. And I hope to be able to talk with Mr. Mueller some time in the near future.

I have to bring up another very urgent issue at this time that deals with what is happening not only in my district in one of the small cities there, the city of Inglewood -- and I don't know if he's been briefed on this -- but what appears to be happening in too many places around the country.

You may be aware of the problem in the city of Inglewood, California, where in the last four months, four residents have been shot and killed by Inglewood police officers under what can be described as questionable circumstances. I've asked the Department of Justice to investigate the incidents t determine whether there is a pattern or practice of discrimination or other police misconduct that could result in the violation of civil rights or other federal criminal statutes. I have not received an answer yet about my specific request, but I'd like to know from you whether there are other investigations looking into these kinds of problems.

Have you been made aware of the problems in this city? I know you probably hear a lot about -- complaints about police misconduct all over the country, but Inglewood emerges pretty much on the radar screen of many of the people who watch these issues all over the country because each month for the past four months, an African- American male has been killed by this police department.

REP. WATERS: All right. Well I appreciate that and your offer to get back to us with information about Inglewood would be very helpful. And since I have just a few more minutes left here on the time that I have to raise questions, let me just ask you a little bit about the mortgage fraud work that you have been doing.

As you know, aside from just the regular operation of the new products that were put on the market like the ARMs, the adjustable rate mortgages, and the resets and all that caused part of the subprime meltdown, we have a lot of allegations of people who actually did not know what they were signing or somebody else signed for them, they were mislead about the ability to refinance and other things that look as if there was mortgage fraud. Have you discovered any specific operation or operations that you could safely say were involved with mortgage fraud?

MR. MUELLER: Yes, we've had a number of prosecutions over the last two years, in excess of 500, of a variety of mortgage fraud schemes that preyed on unwitting consumers and others. So, yes, around the country, particularly in those pockets where the sub prime mortgage crisis is most affecting the community is where may of these investigations reside. We also, as I indicated earlier have a number of investigations going against financial institutions who may well have misrepresented their assets in the course of filings and otherwise. So we're looking at it from both the top as well as those schemes at what would be the bottom of the pyramid and we're doing it in 42 task forces around the country and on those 42 task forces will be agents and specialist and experts from a variety of federal agencies as well as from state local law enforcement and then we will choose the particular jurisdiction in which to file the case depending on the circumstances of the case.

REP. WATERS: Just to alert you, you probably read the newspapers about it already. The foreclosure problem that we have is not simply a problem where people are losing their homes. It's not simply a problem where the value of homes and communities is being driven down. Because those homes that are not foreclosed are losing value because they are next-door to or on the same block as houses that are not being kept up. We're trying to do something about this in the housing legislation that we passed.

But the latest scheme -- the latest scheme -- is that we hear that people are going to be challenged at the polling places whose addresses match up with the homes that have been foreclosed. For example, we are told and information has been revealed that there will be lists of foreclosed homes, and people will be asked at the polling place who represent that this is their voting address, this is their home. And it's very, very serious. And I never dreamed that foreclosure would bring us even this additional problem.

But whether we're talking about people whose homes have been foreclosed on or people maybe who have lost their homes through storms and hurricane and damage, all of that, this business of challenging people at the polls about whether or not they are a resident of the state because their address appears to be a foreclosed property is something that we all are going to have to deal with. Have you heard about this?

MR. MUELLER: I had not heard about it, but I can understand it. But I must confess I am not that familiar with the election laws as they apply to circumstances such as this, in particular.

REP. WATERS: Who enforces the Voting Rights Act?

MR. MUELLER: We would do the investigation, Justice Department would be doing the prosecution.

REP. WATERS: Okay. So I'm bringing it to your attention in this hearing today that there are allegations and newspaper reports of foreclosure lists being used as a way to challenge voters at the polls. I'm adding to that people who are the victims of storms and hurricanes and natural disasters because they would fall in the same category. And I'm asking you to get in front of it and ask the appropriate entities in the Department of Justice to take a look at this. Let's not have this fight on Election Day at the polling places.

REP. WATERS: Well, I guess one of the things that I'm taking the opportunity to do is sound the alarm so that we are not talking about it after the election what happened and investigating. This can be stopped now. We believe it's unconstitutional, it's a violation of the Voting Rights Act, and we shouldn't linger with this. We've got an election coming up. And we don't want to see these challenges based on foreclosures or natural disasters, okay?

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