US attorney-general evasive on Russia probe
WASHINGTON DC: United States Attorney-General Jeff Sessions refused to answer questions on Thursday during a closed congressional hearing about whether President Donald Trump ever instructed him to hinder the Justice Department’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to Democratic lawmakers who attended.
Sessions testified behind closed doors for several hours before the US House of Representatives Intelligence Committee.
Representative Adam Schiff, the committee’s top Democrat, said he was troubled by Sessions’ refusal to answer what he believed were essential questions.
“I asked the attorney-general whether he was ever instructed by the president to take any action that he believed would hinder the Russia investigation and he declined to answer the question,” Schiff said after the hearing.
“There is no privileged basis to decline to answer a question like that.
“If the president did not instruct him to take an action that would hinder the investigation, he should say so.
“If the president did instruct him to hinder the investigation in any way, in my view that would be a potential criminal act,” Schiff said.
Representative Mike Quigley, another Democratic committee member, said on MSNBC that Sessions “is one of the most forgetful persons who works out of Washington DC, or he’s being less than candid with the American public”.
Sessions declined to comment to reporters as he left the secure hearing room.
The panel was among several congressional committees, along with the Justice Department’s special counsel Robert Mueller, investigating allegations that Russia sought to influence the US election and potential collusion by Trump’s campaign.
Moscow had denied any meddling and Trump had said there was no collusion. Reuters