FBI Director Assures Senator That 'Every Crime In This Country Will Be Treated Equally'

Forbes Breaking News

At a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Thursday, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) questioned FBI Director Kash Patel about crimes against indigenous people.

Transcript

00:01Director, good morning.

00:03This is a week that a lot of Alaskans are paying attention to.

00:08Monday was the day that we recognized the Missing Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

00:15Awareness Day.

00:17I've just been going through the morning clips.

00:19Well, you've been testifying, of course, but this morning, and there's accounts in Anchorage

00:28and Juneau and Fairbanks and Marches and Nome, all recounting very painful stories that families

00:36have endured of their family members that have gone missing.

00:41Law enforcement just was not present for a host of different reasons.

00:46You and I talked about this prior to your confirmation, and it's something that I have been working

00:52on for a period of years now.

00:54We've made some good progress under the first Trump administration.

00:58There was a focus called Operation Lady Justice, and now I'm pleased to see that we have this

01:06expanded to what you're calling Operation Not Forgotten to look into unresolved violent crimes

01:14in Indian Country, including cases involving Missing Murdered Indigenous Persons.

01:21I'm looking critically at the budget here and wondering if you can share with me how the

01:29budget request or what we have of it at this point in time will support this expansion of

01:36Operation Not Forgotten.

01:39I need to be able to give folks back home the comfort that they need to know that these cases

01:47that have gone cold for not just months and years but decades will not be dropped, that

01:55that push for closure will continue.

01:58What can you share with me this morning?

01:59Senator, I greatly appreciate you highlighting and being a champion of crimes on Indian country.

02:06And just this week I was the first FBI director in U.S. history to sit down at the Department of

02:10Interior with the tribal leaders at the stat level, and I also met privately with the parents

02:16of Emily Pike, who was tragically butchered on a reservation in Arizona, and her parents

02:23asked me to find the remaining pieces of her body that have not been returned.

02:29She's a 14-year-old girl, she's still missing her arms, they only have her torso.

02:33What I told them, and what I hope you take back to Alaska and what the rest of the tribal

02:37community hears is that every crime in this country will be treated equally.

02:42Those that happen on Indian country and those that are happening to Native Americans are

02:47just as horrific as they're happening in the rest of the world, in the rest of America.

02:51We've already prioritized resources on our, in our state-level task forces to address these

02:58matters, and I ask the stat to allow FBI agents onto the reservations on a more regular

03:03basis and engage with them directly.

03:05I also invited the community leaders to nominate a law enforcement officer from one of the

03:11tribal jurisdictions to sit with me at the Hoover Building in the FBI so we have a direct

03:17engagement with the community.

03:19And so we are, just one highlight, I think in Wind River we executed an operation that

03:24took down, I can't remember how many dozens of pounds of fentanyl that was heading to an Indian

03:29reservation.

03:30So, you have my commitment that we will not forget it.

03:33Well, thank you for, for that broader commitment.

03:35As you know, of course, we don't have reservations in Alaska.

03:38We don't have the same type of tribal law enforcement presence.

03:42So, some unique aspects of it.

03:47My understanding is that the Alaska field office in Anchorage, along with the two satellite offices

03:52that we have, one in, one in Fairbanks and one in Juneau, they have one FBI victim service

03:58coordinator to communicate with these families.

04:02This has been part of the problem.

04:03It's radio silence out of the agency.

04:06They don't know whether a case is being pursued.

04:08They hear nothing.

04:10So, I would ask that you, you look, as you're looking at your budget, to make sure that the

04:16FBI does include support for victim service coordinators on this.

04:21It's a, it's a gap that is missing right now.

04:25Very quickly, we also talked about the, the fentanyl crisis in Alaska.

04:31We are the one state that is tragically going the wrong way when it comes to fentanyl deaths.

04:37We had a 40% increase in fentanyl deaths in 2023.

04:42So you had indicated that you were going to be doing aggressive work here.

04:48We need to be doing more and I, I, I, I've, I've shared that it ought to be easier to intercept

04:56drugs coming into Alaska because they come by airplane, they come through the mail and

05:02they occasionally come in by boat.

05:05Maybe a little, a little bit driving across through the border.

05:09But we've got the ability to do the interception and right now our numbers are not going down.

05:14I just ask for your continued commitment with this.

05:19We know we're seeing FBI partnering with ICE for arrests and detentions of, of, of immigrants

05:28in Alaska.

05:30Folks are asking me, they're saying, are we using FBI resources, redirecting them from the

05:38fentanyl crisis to, to perhaps pursuing those who are, have been targeted immigrants even

05:45though they're not violent criminals.

05:47So I'd love to have further conversation with you on some of these Alaska specifics, but we

05:52got to start turning that, that, that corner on fentanyl.

05:55Yes, ma'am.

05:56And I think you know this and we're sending a plus up to Alaska in part of this movement

06:01out to the field.

06:02And we'll look to address those specific issues.

06:04And I will work with you in your office to make sure that, uh, Alaska is not forgotten

06:09and that we emphasize it.

06:10Very good.

06:11Appreciate it.

06:12Thank you very much.

06:13Senator Peters.

06:14Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

06:15Director Patel, welcome to the committee here.

06:17Yes, sir.

06:18Director, uh, I've, uh, long been a supporter.

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