Goldman Grills Bryan Malinowski's Family's Lawyer About Circumstances Surrounding Deadly ATF Raid

6 months ago

At today's House Weaponization of the Federal Government Committee hearing, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) spoke about the case of Bryan Malinowski, a Little Rock man who was killed in an ATF raid.

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Transcript

00:00 from New York's witness. Thank you Mr. Chairman. First I want to express my

00:04 condolences to Mrs. Malinowski. I'm terribly sorry for your loss and for

00:09 what you had to endure that day. I do want to get into some of the details

00:15 because I think they're very important. It was actually, you know, the search

00:22 warrant affidavit, without going into great detail, demonstrates that Mr.

00:27 Malinowski did purchase 142 guns from 2019 to February 27, 2024. He resold at

00:37 least nine, because we have the six plus the three to the undercover firearm. He

00:43 also had, at various times, at various gun shows, 12 or 13 firearms on the table to

00:50 be sold. And he offered one witness, who was the one convicted of robbery and

00:58 therefore was a prohibited person, many more firearms than what he

01:03 purchased. Many of these firearms were purchased just days before they were

01:10 sold. So whether or not you want to assert, Mr. Cummings, that this was a

01:18 hobby of his, you agree that there's certainly probable cause to believe that

01:25 he was selling guns to to individuals without a license and without performing

01:33 a background check, because he didn't have a license. There's no

01:37 allegation that he knowingly sold a gun to anyone that was prohibited. That's

01:41 not what probable cause... And under ATS interpretation... But you don't have to,

01:45 you don't have to do that. I just said that he... I'm just answering your question.

01:49 Selling without a license. Like there's certainly probable cause that he was in

01:52 the business of selling without a license. Under ATS interpretation of a

01:57 vague, vague regulation. But not yours. So you would say that if you purchase 142

02:02 firearms within a four-year span as a former US attorney, and you have evidence

02:07 of nine sales within that period of time, plus many other more weapons offered for

02:13 sale, you would say, as you, not the ATF, as you, as the former US attorney, that

02:17 there is no probable cause to believe that this person is in the business of

02:22 selling guns without a license. I would agree that there that could be probable

02:26 cause. Thank you. So we have probable cause. The Little Rock Police is there

02:32 with the ATF. They go in and the one fact that doesn't ever seem to be mentioned

02:41 here, and that the chairman's letter does not mention, is that an ATF agent was

02:50 shot. Is that correct Mr. Cummins? That's correct. Okay. So an ATF agent was shot

02:55 and then in response fired back at Mr. Malinowski. Is that accurate? That is

03:01 accurate. It's also a tragedy. It is a tragedy. I agree. I agree. And, and the, you

03:09 also agree, I assume, I was a assistant US attorney for 10 years, secured many,

03:16 many search warrants, oversaw the execution of them, and arrest warrants,

03:21 they're routinely done at 6 a.m. Is that right? A lot of warrants are executed at

03:27 6 a.m. Whether I agree with that as a tactic is another discussion, but yes,

03:31 that's not uncommon. No, that, okay, I just, I want to understand that we're making a

03:37 big deal out of the 6 a.m. here, but that is the standard time that law enforcement

03:42 executes arrest warrants and executes search warrants. So I, I certainly am

03:49 sorry that this is a tragedy that Mr. Malinowski died. I'm also sorry that Mr.

03:57 Malinowski shot an ATF agent during a search, and I think if he were truly not

04:06 in the business of selling firearms, the way to respond to a search warrant is to

04:13 allow your house to be searched and to cooperate. But it is, it is insane to me

04:21 that we are sitting here criticizing the ATF because they retaliated with deadly

04:29 force after someone shot an agent. That is what happened here. There, this was not

04:36 an out-of-the-ordinary execution of a search warrant. This is standard

04:40 operating procedure. Mr. Cummins acknowledges that there was probable

04:45 cause to do it, and now there is an investigation of this incident. Is that

04:50 right, Mr. Cummins? There has been an investigation. It's been handed over to

04:54 the local prosecutor. So the local prosecutor is investigating it, and you

04:58 know as a prosecutor that none of the witnesses or the relevant people

05:03 involved are allowed to discuss this publicly while an investigation is going

05:09 on, correct? I don't know what the policy of ATF is. Well, was it your policy as a

05:14 prosecutor? It certainly was mine. Witnesses do not talk to the public

05:19 while there's an investigation going on. One last question. As a U.S. attorney, did

05:24 you ever send a notification to a target of yours who's selling a hundred, who's

05:29 buying 140 guns, selling at least nine of them, that, "Hey, you're under

05:35 investigation, just a heads up"? I hope I would have, yes. You would have? You would

05:39 have reached out and said, "Hey, by the way, I'm investigating." So you can go ahead and

05:43 destroy and hide all the evidence? You would have done that? You notified the

05:47 targets that you would have? The gentleman has expired. The gentleman from North Carolina is recognized for five minutes.

Goldman Grills Bryan Malinowski's Family's Lawyer About Circumstances Surrounding Deadly ATF Raid

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