Former Alabama U.S. Senator and current U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions appeared Tuesday at a public hearing before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to testify in the ongoing investigation into Russian tampering in the 2016 presidential election.
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“I do recall being one of the last ones to leave”, Sessions said.
Sessions originally said that he disaffiliated himself simply because he was an adviser to Trump during the campaign, but doubt was cast on that explanation when Comey testified last week and said he had thought Sessions would recuse himself earlier than he did for “problematic” reasons that needed to be discussed in a closed session.
Sessions lent his support to the special counsel, Robert Mueller, who is now in charge of the Trump campaign-Russia investigation. The testimony raised serious questions as to whether the nation’s top law enforcement official is undermining the rule of law. “It would be premature for me to deny the president a full and intelligent choice about executive privilege”, Sessions said. Sen.
Sen. Franken called out Sessions and virtually demanded that the Attorney General testify before the Judiciary Committee on multiple occasions during the interview. Martin Heinrich (D-NM). But Democrats got nowhere with their protests, as they tried to pin down Sessions on whether he was invoking executive privilege (he was not), or what legal reasoning he was using to not answer. “Your silence. speaks volumes”.
He continues: “I believe it would be unwise for Congress to restrict the discretion of the Department to fund particular prosecutions, particularly in the midst of an historic drug epidemic and potentially long-term uptick in violent crime”.
Sessions lent his support to the special counsel, Robert Mueller, who is now in charge of the Justice Department’s Russian Federation investigation.
Comey contended last week that he specifically asked Sessions not to allow him to be left alone with Trump. But who knows? Trump does like to look bold, and he likes to be the center of attention.
He also said Comey should have shared his concerns about the Trump conversation with another Justice Department official, Dana Boente, who was then acting deputy attorney general, and would have been Comey’s direct supervisor.
Oregon’s Congressional delegation is reacting to news Tuesday that the U.S. Attorney General wants to reverse laws protecting states with legalized marijuana. “If I don’t qualify it, you’ll accuse me of lying”, he said, in response to an aggressive series of questions from Sen. But he angrily denounced such claims as “secret innuendo”, a likely reference to media accounts of a closed-door briefing lawmakers had last week with Comey that suggested the Federal Bureau of Investigation had been looking into whether another meeting had taken place.
Last week, at the hearing of former FBI Director James Comey, panel Chairman Richard Burr had admonished Harris.
Sessions declined to comment on those reports, stating only that he had “confidence” in Mueller and would not be involved in any effort, should it arise, to fire the special counsel.
Following the hearing, a White House spokeswoman said Trump “has no intention” of dismissing Mueller.
Despite his statement about the reasons for his recusal, the attorney general did not actually step aside from the Russia probe until March 2, the day after The Washington Post reported on his two previously undisclosed meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Sklansky: Even before Comey’s testimony, Sessions was facing increasing pressure to defend his own actions.
And he’s also not being really honest about what the question was that he was asked and that he just didn’t answer the question I asked but rather chose to say that he hadn’t met with Russians.
But Sessions has not addressed this issue directly, nor broader questions about his relationship with Comey.
Tuesday’s hearing was followed by predictably partisan reaction from Republicans and rival Democrats.
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Sessions said during his hearing he is not sure if he would be able to answer the questions in a closed session. At all times throughout the course of the campaign, the confirmation process, and since becoming Attorney General, I have dedicated myself to the highest standards.
