So we begin this morning with one of the most powerful people in US government, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. She's someone who you may not know very well, but every single day she's making decisions about all those issues and more. We sat down for an exclusive interview in what is truly one of the most volatile and unprecedented moments in the history of the.

Justice.

Department.

Some are calling this perhaps the most challenging threat environment since 9/11. The FBI director endorsed that at a recent hearing. Do you share that concern? And if so, why?

I think we are in a very, very challenging threat environment. During 9/11, our focus was on sophisticated plots driven by foreign terrorist organizations with catastrophic effect. Today, I think we're in a unique moment where what we're most worried about are individuals or small groups who are often radicalized online and who are motivated by and influenced by a range of ideologies, from foreign terrorism and foreign terrorist organizations to domestic grievances. And oftentimes what we're seeing in the most lethal form is from racially or ethnically motivated ideologies.

So the FBI director was saying he's never seen a time when all those categories are elevated at the same time. Is that what you're talking about here?

That's exactly right. I mean, we have this range of ideologies that can motivate and inspire individuals to violence. The current conflict is causing, I think, contributing to a heightened threat environment. What we are seeing is foreign terrorist organizations taking advantage and calling upon their adherence to act to do something. Then we're seeing individuals and small groups that we worry will basically take twisted inspiration from the conflict overseas and from the very searing images that we're seeing that came out of the brutal terrorist attacks that occurred on October seventh.

Can you give a sense of the cases, the caseload?

We have seen a significant uptick in threats of violence and violence, particularly directed at the Jewish community and also at the Muslim and Arab-American communities here in the United States. Since October seventh, the FBI has received more than 1,800 reports of threats or other types of tips or leads that are somehow related to or have a nexus to the current conflict in Israel and Gaza. Now, many of these reports and these threats or tips are resolved without incident, but many also develop into investigations. And today, as we sit here, the FBI has opened more than 100 investigations coming out of those reports. They're still ongoing. Indeed.

And the Jewish community has been impacted, but the Muslim and the people of Arab origin as well. That case of the six-year-old.

Boy.

Stabbed 26 times, allegedly, by his landlord. Do you recall where you were and what was your reaction to it when you heard about it?

Look, it's heartbreaking, Pierre. I remember actually asking my staff, Six years old? Six years old? The hub of this conflict is thousands of miles away, but it spokes, extent, here to the United States, in events like this brutal, fatal stabbing of a six-year-old Muslim boy.

The domestic repercussions of the Israel-Hamas War are not the only contributor to the current threat environment. Like I said, the Justice Department is also working to address potential threats at the Southern border.

This week, customs and border protection sources are telling us that on one day, they stopped 12,000 people from trying to enter the country from the Southern border. I was looking at research, and last fiscal year, more than 7,000 Russians tried to come into the country through the Southern border. 24,000 people of Chinese origin, Chinese nation. Isn't that a national security issue? And what can the Justice Department do about that?

Well, sure, these are national security issues, and the Justice Department and the FBI are working with the Department of Homeland Security that has primary responsibility for securing the border, working with the intelligence community to address national security, challenges and threats from wherever they emanate. And you can be assured that the FBI and the Justice Department are hard at work on that.

And resource issue. Three million roughly case backlog in terms of immigration cases, many of these asylum cases. It creates a feel that because many of these people are going to stay while these cases are being resolved because of the backlog, that it is unfair to people who are going through the system the proper way. How do you address that? And can you get that backlog down?

Yeah. Look, this is a real challenge. The Justice Department operates the immigration courts with immigration judges, and they are essential to a fair and efficient immigration system. And we have been resolving a record number of cases in the last couple of years, but we still have far too few immigration judges, which is why we've asked Congress in our latest budget request for a lot more money and authority to hire more immigration judges.

I want to talk about the toxic environment here in Washington. You have Republicans who will say that the Justice Department is full of political operatives who are working to help President Biden hurt President Trump, and they'll even say that the FBI should be defunded. What's your reaction to that language? And what do you say on behalf of DOJ?

Those claims bear no resemblance to the Justice Department that I know. The Justice Department that I know is filled with dedicated men and women, investigators, lawyers, prosecutors, analysts, professional staff who get up every day, Pierre, they get up every day without regard to who's in the White House or who's in Congress. It really bothers me when I hear those claims because it does a disservice to the men and women of the Justice Department. It contributes to the toxicity that you're speaking about, and- Political threats?

Well, what we've seen is an unprecedented rise in threats to public officials across the board: law enforcement agents, prosecutors, judges, and election officials. And we are seeing that and responding to it.

I know you don't want to talk about any particular candidate, but when people are using words like poison the blood and calling DOJ officials thugs, is that helpful?

Well, of course it's not helpful. I get something called urgent reports. These are reports that come in from the field, from US attorneys all across the country. And on a weekly basis, sometimes more often, I am getting reports about threats to public officials, threats to our prosecutors, threats to law enforcement agents who work in the Justice Department, threats to judges. In fact, just this week, Pierre, we've had cases involving threats to kill FBI agents, a Supreme Court justice, and three presidential candidates. Three. That's just.

This week. I'm going to ask a couple of questions that I hope get to transparency, understanding the limits that you have to operate over them. Can you assure the American public that Special Counsels, Jack Smith, David Weiss, Robert Herp, are operating without regard to anything but the facts and the law?

Yes. And the reason I say that, Pierre, is look, these are matters of the utmost importance and significance. Cases of that level of significance are exceptionally important that they are handled independently, confidentially, and free of any outside or inappropriate influence. And that's exactly why the attorney general appointed special counsel in the first place.

Just for the record, so the public can hear from the topofficial or DOJ. Has President Biden ever raised the classified documents investigation? The probe of Hunter Biden with you or the AG tried to influence you? Has he ever done that in regard to President Trump?

No, and the attorney general has been exceptionally clear on this point.