Pam Bondi (00:10):
[inaudible 00:00:02] Good morning. On September 11th, 2012, Americans watched horrified as our embassy in Benghazi came under a vicious terror attack. We lost four American lives that day, Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith with the State Department, and two CIA contractors, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods. We have never forgotten those heroes, and we have never stopped seeking justice for that crime against our nation. In fact, from day one, Cash and Dan would sit in meetings and say, "We're going to get them," and they did. Today, I'm proud to announce that the FBI has arrested one of the key participants behind the Benghazi attack. Zubayr al-Bakoush landed at Andrews Air Force Base at 3:00 AM this morning. He is in our custody. He was greeted by Director Patel and US Attorney Jeanine Pirro.
(01:13)
Hillary Clinton famously once said about Benghazi, "What difference at this point does it make?" Well, it makes a difference to Donald Trump. It makes a difference to those families. And 14 years later, it makes a difference to law enforcement who made the difference in this case. Thank you, President Trump, for supporting all of our agencies around the country and around the world. al-Bakoush will now face American justice on American soil. We will prosecute this alleged terrorist to the fullest extent of the law. He'll face charges related to murder, terrorism, arson, among others. Let this case serve as a reminder. If you commit a crime against the American people anywhere in this world, President Trump's Justice Department will find you. It might not happen overnight, but it will happen. You can run, but you cannot hide. We are immensely grateful to our partners, especially at the State Department and the CIA, who lost lives in the Benghazi attack. Director Patel and the FBI agents did tireless work to track and arrest this man.
(02:40)
I want to thank everyone standing behind me, all the agents who worked so great with our lawyers, with our national security lawyers, and around the world to bring this terrorist to justice. And I have a statement to read from Director Ratcliffe. He wanted to be here. He couldn't be here. He's busy protecting our world. He's deeply grateful for the relentless efforts of the Department of Justice and the FBI to bring justice to the individuals, the individual allegedly responsible for the death of Americans in the horrific 2012 Benghazi attack. CIA and the nation will never forget the extraordinary services and sacrifices of Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty who gave their lives in defense of others and exemplified the very best of our agency. I'd now like to turn it over to Director Patel for remarks, and I, again, want to thank him for his relentless work in this case. Gosh.
Kash Patel (03:42):
General, thank you. And I want to steal one of your lines. Never forget. Pam never forgot, the president never forgot, this FBI never forgot, and certainly US Attorney Pirro never forgot. When an act of terrorism of this magnitude strikes at the heart of our nation, we go to work. President Trump has given us the full resources at the FBI and across the inner agency to make sure we deliver justice. And Pam, you're right. Dan and I did sit down early on about this to bring justice, but you led the effort. You brought together the inner agency. You said, "We are going to get this done because no one agency alone can do it." So we are thankful to have an attorney general at the Department of Justice who works together with every single cabinet secretary and enforce the law.
(04:28)
What you saw today, or what you're going to see today, I want to address it a minute, but I want to remind the folks out there the work of this Department of Justice. We were here just a few short months ago talking about how we were going to raise the RFJ for another violent offender on the run, Ryan Wedding. And what did we do under Attorney General's leadership? And what do we do when President Trump said, "Go get the worst of the worst?" We captured him. We captured together, under President Trump's leadership, six of the FBI's most wanted fugitives in one calendar year. To put that in perspective, that is two more than the entirety of the prior administration. And you cannot do that alone at the FBI. You have to have an attorney general and a Department of Justice willing to prosecute, willing to go to the four corners of the Earth and make sure we deliver justice. And that's what we're doing here today.
(05:18)
I was at the airfield with US Attorney Pirro earlier this morning when we did the formal foreign transfer of custody of Bakoush into US custody to face prosecution under her auspices and her office and the Department of Justice are going to execute justice for the fallen. As a young prosecutor at CTS in the National Security Division, I worked on the Benghazi case. This was very near and dear and personal to me. We lost four brave Americans in Chris, Sean, Kyle and Steve, and we can never, ever, ever forget them, ever, and we will not.
(05:53)
In order to put something like this together, it doesn't happen overnight. The FBI's Hostage Rescue Team, the FBI's Critical Incident Response Group, our Special Flight Operations Unit, and countless others, along with the agents in the New York field office who never forgot Benghazi and never let the world forget it, endured over a decade to bring yet another terrorist who killed four Americans to justice. That is a relentless pursuit of mission that can only happen when you have an inner agency who's willing to get after it. I'm extremely thankful to the CIA and Director Ratcliffe and our other law enforcement partners for making sure that the world knows that if you kill an American citizen in an act of terrorism, we will hunt you down. We will bring you to justice and you will face justice here in America, not in another court and not in any other proceeding around the world, but here. You killed our own, so we are going to take it to the streets to make sure you are held accountable.
(06:51)
Once again, I'd really like to thank the entirety of the FBI, headquarters divisions. There are so many moving pieces to actually execute a foreign transfer of custody. And now we're talking about the seventh, the third in just a couple of weeks and I don't know if that has ever happened before in US history. It's happening because President Trump backs the blue. President Trump has given law enforcement the resources we need to take the fight across the world. And the Attorney General has been relentless in her mission to make sure that these victims are remembered and that we bring them some semblance of peace by bringing those who killed their loved ones to justice.
(07:35)
It's a little full circle for me. Yes, then Director Deputy Bongino and I did sit down and said, "How are we going to get this guy? How are we going to find the individual responsible for the Benghazi attacks?" And we sat down with Jeanine Pirro and we sat down with the AG and her team and the Deputy Attorney General and every single day, every single week, we talked about how we would do it. And we're here today because we have an interagency that is led by superior individuals who have one shared goal, protecting America and our lives and our future. And to any others out there who wish to do harm, especially commit acts of terrorism here and around the world, this is the feat you will meet. You will not be forgotten by us. We will chase you down. And it is a privilege and an honor to be the director of the FBI and come full circle for me, especially on this Benghazi case, especially with the families I know so well.
(08:30)
And for me, to you, the families, I just want to personally say, I continue to pray for you. I hope that we can give you a little bit of peace in the utmost difficult of times when you've lost loved ones. And I just want to thank President Trump for delivering that peace and that modicum of justice. Thank you, Attorney General.
Pam Bondi (08:46):
Thank you, Director. Thank you, Director. And it's now my honor to introduce the woman who will be prosecuting this alleged terrorist, US Attorney Jeanine Pirro.
Jeanine Pirro (09:00):
Thank you, Attorney General. 14 years ago, Americans watched in horror as a scene unfolded in a foreign land in one of the most dangerous places in the world for Americans, Benghazi Libya. An American ambassador, elite military personnel and a State Department employee were all violently murdered. For 13 hours, the American cavalry never came. For 13 hours they waited for help that never came. Today, President Trump is making sure that American justice is coming for those individuals responsible for the deaths of those four Americans. Bakoush is now on US soil because of the President, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Kash Patel. The FBI, the Department of Justice, never forgot. There are prosecutors in this room right now who have been in the office for 13 years and have consistently handled this matter in this case. This department will never forget, the seemingly forgotten in that outpost in Benghazi.
(10:26)
Bakoush was first charged by complaint in 2015, which was sealed for 11 years. An indictment, an eight-count indictment has been unsealed and it charges Bakoush with the murder of Ambassador Chris Stevens, the murder of State Department employee Sean Smith, the attempted murder of State Department Special Agent Scott Wickland, and conspiracy to provide materials for terrorist and support that resulted in the death of four Americans, as well as arson at the special mission. I don't have to go through all of the facts, but every one of us remembers this case. I reported on it when I worked at Fox. I had relationships, as Kash Patel just said, with the families. And last night, as soon as they were in custody, because of Pam and because of Kash, we had a limited unsealing order from Judge Cooper that allowed me to speak to the family members to let them know that justice was coming for Bakoush.
(11:35)
I spoke with Sean Smith's mother, who I've known for years and have communicated with for years. I spoke with Tyrone Woods' wife, widow, Dr. Dorothy Woods. I spoke with Ambassador Chris Steven's family as well as Glen Doherty's brother, Greg, as well as his widow. These were people who never expected that justice would be coming. They never knew about the determination in this room and behind me and the incredible work of the FBI along this case for years and years because this was something that mattered.
(12:17)
The Benghazi Saga was a painful one for Americans. It has stayed with all of us. And let me be very clear, there are more of them out there. Time will not stop us from going after these predators, no matter how long it takes, in order to fulfill our obligation to those families who suffered horrific pain at the hands of these violent terrorists. And now, I again want to tell everyone that American justice is here, that President Trump will make sure that the cavalry comes for Americans no matter where they are in this world. Thank you.
Pam Bondi (13:03):
We'll take a few questions.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
Attorney General. David?
David (13:07):
I'm looking, I have an on topic and an off topic.
Pam Bondi (13:10):
Sure.
David (13:10):
Tell us a little bit about how he was captured, where he was captured. Was he in jail for a while before? Was he at home? What can you tell us about how this all went down?
Pam Bondi (13:19):
Yeah. We're not going to give out a lot of the details, but I'm going to let Kash take what we can say.
Kash Patel (13:24):
The general's right. We have to protect the integrity of the investigation and the ongoing prosecution. That's of the utmost importance. It always is to make sure they, even this individual, receives the constitutional protections only afford in the United States of America. But in FTOC, a foreign transfer of custody is executed by the FBI each and every time with special tactical assets, FBI agents, and, of course, medical personnel. And that was done in this instance. And the individual was apprehended and transferred over the night and into custody early this morning at an airfield. And so that's about all we can say on that matter. But in order to maintain the chain of custody, this is what the FBI does, routine every time. It's what we did for the 6 top 10 we already captured. It's what we did for the relentless others that we continue to capture.
David (14:09):
Was he picked up in Libya?
Kash Patel (14:11):
He was picked up overseas.
David (14:12):
Overseas. And then if I could just ask you two quick off topics.
Pam Bondi (14:15):
Sure.
David (14:15):
Obviously, this terrible tragedy we're watching in Arizona with Nancy Guthrie. I understand you know Savannah Guthrie. What is the federal government doing right now? Is the FBI now leading the investigation, taking it over from the locals?
Pam Bondi (14:30):
We're doing everything to assist the locals. We're working with the locals. Breaks my heart for Savannah and for her family. I know she's asked for all of our prayers, so please pray for her, pray for her beautiful mom, pray for her family that she's returned home. That's all we can say about that at this time. But yeah, I've known Savannah for over 30 years and it's breaking my heart.
David (14:56):
If I may, there seems to be a little confusion with DNI Gabbard was down in Atlanta last week for the Fulton County search.
Pam Bondi (15:04):
Yes.
David (15:04):
Originally this office said that she was not part of the investigation. She put in a letter to Congress that President Trump directed her to do so. And then now President Trump yesterday said that it was at your insistence that she went down there. So what is the case here?
Pam Bondi (15:21):
Yeah. Thanks for asking that. That's interesting because DNI Gabbard and I are inseparable. We are constantly together. As are the people behind us, we constantly talk. We collaborate as a cabinet. We're all extremely close, know what each other, what we're doing at all times pretty much to keep not only our country safe, but our world safe. And she was down there with Deputy Director Andrew Bailey of the FBI. And I'm not going to talk about any other details of that matter right now because Georgia's a very important issue to us.
David (15:57):
She out there now?
Pam Bondi (15:58):
She was there. We're inseparable. That's all I'll say.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Mike, let me see.
Mike (16:03):
Can you say, was there foreign involvement in the capture of this suspect? What kind of assistance did you get from other countries?
Pam Bondi (16:12):
I'm going to let Director Patel take that. I think we're not going to be able to say a lot on that matter as well. And to you personally, I'm so sorry you and your NBC family are going through this right now.
Mike (16:25):
We appreciate it.
Kash Patel (16:27):
As the general said, in order to execute an apprehension, a capture and a foreign transfer of custody, no one agency alone can do it. We did it throughout the interagency here, and of course we're working with partners overseas. And we're not going to get into the details of those conversations and those ongoing matters, because as the US Attorney indicated to you, we're not done. And so what we want to do is maintain not just the integrity of this investigation, but the possibility and the promise of bringing more individuals to justice for this heinous act of terror.
Pam Bondi (17:02):
Lewis, do we have time for a couple more?
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Yeah, we do [inaudible 00:17:04]
Pam Bondi (17:04):
We have something else going on at 10 o'clock down the-
Speaker 4 (17:06):
[inaudible 00:17:07] with Daily Wire.
Speaker 7 (17:08):
Yeah. So on Benghazi. What did the communication look like between the Trump administration, the victim's families throughout this process, if any? I know someone as part of [inaudible 00:17:19] in the early days of this, but what's the communication look like with them?
Pam Bondi (17:23):
I think what I can say now is that we... Oh, do you want to take that, Director? We've had to keep everything very quiet for obvious reasons up until this point. And then US Attorney Pirro, as she said, contacted all the families and I think they were absolutely thrilled. I think they had probably lost faith that something would happen, but again, we never forget, Donald Trump never forgets.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
[inaudible 00:17:52] we got it, we got it.
Pam Bondi (17:52):
Yeah. And we have a 10 o'clock in our office that's a very positive if anyone would like to join us on that. Go ahead.
Speaker 8 (17:59):
Attorney General, are you concerned that the DNI, the Tulsi Gabbard's presence in Atlanta during a law enforcement search, are you concerned at all that that could taint whatever the FBI is doing and whatever findings come from that investigation?
Pam Bondi (18:12):
Absolutely not. And Andrew Bailey was taking the lead down there. He's Director Patel's deputy director of the FBI. Thank you all. Thanks.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.
Jeanine Pirro (18:21):
Oh, sorry I'm [inaudible 00:18:25]
Pam Bondi (18:21):
It's okay.