14 June, 2017
Although Donald Trump has very publicly waived executive privilege, National Security Agency Director Adm. Mike Rogers, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, and now AG Sessions have all refused to answer the committee's questions without citing a legal reason for their refusal.
Sessions: Well, I think most cabinet people as the witnesses you had before you earlier, those individuals declined to comment.
Last Thursday, Comey told the same Senate panel during a hearing that he was confused over the circumstances under which he was sacked on May 9, and said Trump had "hoped" that he would drop the FBI investigation into former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn over alleged collusion with Russian Federation during the Trump campaign.
He also said it would be inappropriate for him to get involved - given that he has recused himself from Russia-election-related matters.
Simply put, it's power of the President of the United States, and other members of the executive branch, to be able to refuse requests for information if disclosing such information would disrupt the functions of the executive branch. Hence, Sessions had no reason not to fully answer every question. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., pressed Sessions on why the attorney general actually recused himself from the Russian Federation investigation.
He defended his answer during his confirmation hearing to a question posed by Sen.
But the accusations being levelled against Sessions are serious ones, with the Senate slowly peeling back layer-after-layer in the Russian Federation investigation.
He said he had recused himself from the investigation under Department of Justice rules because he had been a campaign adviser to Donald Trump, but not due to any potential "wrongdoing" in relation to Russian Federation.
"Our committee will want to hear what you are doing to ensure that the Russians - or any other foreign adversaries - can not attack our democratic process like this ever again". And he said, I was only recused from Russian Federation.
US Attorney-General Jeff Sessions could not have been any clearer on his position on the issue of collusion. But the incident illustrated how Sessions' attempt at Trump-like bombast and bravado - "Donald in a Dixie cup", as the New York Times columnist Frank Bruni called him last week - had crumbled under fire. He later amended the record by revealing he met with the Russian ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, twice over the course of the 2016 campaign.
He was asked about the event several times, and said at one point, "If any brief interaction occurred in passing with the Russian ambassador during that reception, I do not remember it". The latest tempest includes stories that Trump is considering firing Robert Mueller, the special counsel who picked up where Comey left off. "Certainly, I can assure you, nothing improper, if I'd had a conversation with him", he said.
Questions about Trump's support for Mueller were raised after Chris Ruddy, the CEO of Newsmax Media and a close friend to the president, said Monday he believed Trump was considering dismissing the special counsel.
Sarah Isgur Flores, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department announced that the Justice Department analyzed the intelligence material in an attempt to corroborate whether or not Sessions met with Kislyak at Mayflower Hotel. Sessions confirmed that he was the last or near the last to leave, and that Comey told him afterward that he was uncomfortable meeting with Trump alone and that Sessions should help him avoid that. "But that in itself is not problematic".
"Many have suggested that my recusal is because I felt I was a subject of the investigation myself, that I may have done something wrong".
Sessions said that he was not sure what was "explicitly" in Trump's mind when he made a decision to fire Comey. Comey's decision to announce previous year that Clinton would not be prosecuted over her emails was a "usurpation" of the Justice Department's authority, Sessions said.
