US investigates Russian war crimes and wants to use its frozen assets to support Ukraine — US Deputy Prosecutor General

This was stated on Wednesday by US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco in the Senate Judiciary Committee, CNN reports.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act allows the US government to obtain information about non-Americans abroad who use US communications services.

"When it comes to this conflict and what Russia is doing in Ukraine, it has proved vitally important," Monaco said to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Section 702 "has helped us uncover gruesome atrocities in Ukraine, including the murder of noncombatants, the forced relocation of children from Russian-occupied Ukraine to Russia, and the detention of refugees fleeing violence by Russian personnel," she said.

The information the department received thanks to the law "has helped us as a country and as a national security community galvanize accountability efforts regarding Ukraine by allowing us to confidently and accurately speak with the international community about Russian atrocities," Monaco said.

She also expressed concern that in some areas the Justice Department lacks the resources and authority to take stronger action against Russia.

She stressed that the department is conducting "active investigations" into crimes committed during the war and that these cases are "moving just as fast as we can," but that it hopes to work with Congress to give federal prosecutors criminal jurisdiction over "crimes against humanity."

"We cannot — and we will not — let war criminals escape accountability for the aggression and atrocities they have committed in Ukraine," she added.

Monaco also said that the US government is considering using money from Russian oligarchs frozen by the Justice Department to support Ukraine.

The department has confiscated more than half a billion dollars in assets from Russian oligarchs and people who support the Russian government and evade U.S. sanctions, Monaco said. However, the department can only seize and transfer Russian assets that were obtained as a result of certain types of sanctions evasion, Monaco said.

This means that "millions" of dollars cannot be transferred to Ukraine, she explained.

"We are leaving money on the table if we don't expand our ability to use the forfeited access that we gain from enforcement of our export control violations," Monaco said, adding that the DOJ wants "Congress to give us that authority so we can make the oligarchs pay for rebuilding Ukraine."