Prepared Opening Statement by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
Executive Business Meeting
Thursday, November 20, 2025
On today’s agenda, we have eleven nominations listed. We’ll vote today on:
Tysen Duva to serve as Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division.
William Crain and Alexander Van Hook to serve as district judges in Louisiana.
James Maxwell and Robert Chamberlin to serve as district judges in Mississippi.
Ryan Kriegshauser, Erin Creegan, Scott Leary and James Kruger to be U.S. Attorneys.
We’ll hold over the other nominations for future consideration.
I’ll start by providing a brief update on my Arctic Frost investigation.
Since last week, the number of congressional phone records targeted by Jack Smith has increased.
It’s now at least 14 Members of Congress. All Republicans. That includes former House Speaker McCarthy and former Congressman Gohmert.
I expect there to be more.
Jack Smith claims he wants to tell his story to Congress, but when I asked Smith whether he met with Wray, he refused to answer.
I’ve since [received] a document that shows Smith met with Wray on May 24, 2023.
Smith could’ve answered Congress, but chose not to.
I’ve also asked Smith if he used non-governmental devices for official work. It’s a pretty simple question. No answer from him.
Lastly, Smith previously said this about the subpoena targeting eight senators and one congressman: “The toll data collection was narrowly tailored and limited to the four days from January 4, 2021 to January 7, 2021.”
Notably, the subpoenas for McCarthy and Gohmert requested records from November 3, 2020, through January 8, 2021.
All these facts undermine Smith’s credibility, as well as his actual willingness to cooperate with us.
This broader scope demands explanation.
The committee will continue its review and hold robust hearings.
Next, I want to turn to the Epstein matter.
For years, I’ve sought more transparency. As Chairman of this Committee, I’ve made bipartisan requests for information.
I applaud the passage of the Epstein resolution. I’ll continue to push the Justice Department to release records, which the Biden administration failed to do.
The victims deserve our maximum effort.
Now, I would like to say a few words about judges.
This Congress, many of my Democratic colleagues have alleged that President Trump nominates historically bad judicial nominees.
One member of this Committee even described President Trump’s judicial nominees as, “The most extreme and unqualified judicial nominees ever considered by the Senate.”
So, are they right? Based on a recent study by professors at New York University and the University of Virginia, the answer is a resounding no.
The study considered objective, non-partisan metrics to determine a judge’s productivity, quality, and independence.
It then compared results across the first Trump, Biden and Obama Administrations.
According to the study, President Trump’s judges “dominate the field.”
In fact, the study found that the top 10 most productive judges were all Trump nominees.
And productivity isn’t the only metric where Trump-appointed judges outperformed. Let’s take judicial independence.
After all, my Democratic colleagues frequently allege that President Trump only picks loyalists. Surely, this must be where President Biden and Obama’s nominees shined.
No, again! Trump nominees dominated the field.
All of the top 10 judges rated on independence were nominated by President Trump.
And that’s not all. On the metric of partisanship – meaning whether judges voted in alignment with other judges nominated from the same party – Trump appointees win again!
Eight of the top 10 least-partisan judges were nominated by President Trump.
In short, President Trump has a history of nominating highly qualified jurists to the bench.
Today, we’re going to vote for a few more.
I’m proud to say that under my Chairmanship, the Judiciary Committee has and will continue to advance highly qualified nominees to serve the American people.
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