‘I am not stonewalling,’ defiant Sessions testifies
Attorney general huffs and puffs but sheds little light on Trump’s dealings with Russia, Comey
WASHINGTON— U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is refusing to discuss his interactions with President Donald Trump about Russia and the firing of FBI director James Comey.
Testifying before Congress on Tuesday, Sessions mounted an aggressive defence of his actions and his integrity. But he did not identify a particular policy that would justify his unwillingness to shed light on the controversy roiling Trump’s administration, and Democrats accused him of “obstructing” and “stonewalling.”
“I am not stonewalling,” Sessions said. “I am following the historic policies of the Department of Justice.’’
By turns testy and relaxed, Sessions opened the hearing by aggressively re- jecting the suggestion that he had done anything wrong. He said the notion that he might have colluded with Russian meddling in the 2016 election is a “detestable lie.”
Asked about Comey’s mysterious suggestion last week that the FBI had known damaging facts that made it clear Sessions would eventually recuse himself from Russia-related investigations, the attorney general’s voice rose in protest.
“There are none,” he said. “This is a secret innuendo being leaked out there about me, and I don’t appreciate it.”
At other times, though, Sessions corroborated basic elements of the Comey testimony that Trump claimed was filled with lies.
In Comey’s appearance in the same Senate Intelligence Committee hearing room, he alleged that Trump asked him during a private Oval Office meeting on Feb.14 to halt the FBI investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Sessions confirmed that Comey was left alone with Trump after a broader meeting on that day. Comey testified that Sessions “lingered” in the room, perhaps sensing that something inappropriate was occurring; Sessions said he was indeed one of the last people to leave, though he said he did not recall why.
Sessions also confirmed that Comey approached him the next day to express discomfort about the way Trump was communicating with him. He disagreed, however, with Comey’s assertion that he did not react to this complaint.
“I affirmed his concern that we should be following the proper guidelines of the Department of Justice, and basically backed him up in his concerns. And that he should not carry on any conversation with the president or anyone else about an investigation in a way that was not proper,” Sessions said.
The hearing was the latest moment of televised drama in the sprawling controversy over possible links between Trump’s campaign and Russia and over Trump’s behaviour toward Comey.
Sessions, a former Alabama senator, was a top Trump campaign ally who has faced heavy scrutiny for his interactions with Russian officials. He recused himself in March from investigations related to the campaign — immediately after the Washington Post revealed that he was not being truthful when he told Congress he had not met with Russian officials during the campaign, since he had met twice with Russia’s ambassador.
Senators pressed Sessions again about his interactions with the ambassador, Sergey Kislyak. According to CNN, Comey told the committee behind closed doors last week that Sessions might have had a third undisclosed contact with Kislyak at a Trump event at a Washington hotel.
Sessions said “it’s conceivable” he spoke to Kislyak there in passing, but that nothing inappropriate was said.
Trump has not claimed executive privilege over his conversations with Sessions. In an argument that exasperated Democrats, Sessions said he was refusing to divulge details of those conversations in order to protect Trump’s ability to possibly invoke this privilege in the future.
“Unfortunately, the attorney general repeatedly refused to answer pertinent questions from members of the Senate Intelligence Committee without offering a scintilla of a legal justification for doing so,” Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.