Sessions will not discuss talks with the president
Attorney general refuses Senate panel’s inquiries.
WASHINGTON — Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that he would rebuff inquiries from lawmakers about his conversations with President Donald Trump — a move that is surely to frustrate Democrats who have vowed to press the attorney general on the matter.
Questioned early in the hearing by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., on what Trump told him on the firing of FBI Director James Comey, Sessions repeatedly declined to say anything other than that the president had asked for his advice in writing.
He lambasted his former FBI director, saying he did not believe “it’s been fully understood the significance of the error that Mr. Comey made” on the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. But he would not say if the president, in deciding to fire Comey, mentioned to him the ongoing investigation into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential race.
Sessions said, too, he had not been interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the Russia investigation, about Comey’s firing.
Democrats had warned Sessions they expected him to answer questions about his conversations with Trump, especially as they might relate to the firing of Comey and the Russia investigation. Sessions, though, said in his opening remarks that he wouldn’t, nor would he honor Democrats’ request that he detail the particular topics on which Trump would assert executive privilege and block his testimony.
“I can neither assert executive privilege, nor can I disclose today the content of my confidential conversations with the president,” Sessions said.
Sessions is recused from the Russia case and, at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing in June, he also refused to detail his conversations with the president.
But Democrats have questioned his rationale for not
Sessions issued a defense of the travel ban.
providing at least some information. In a letter to Sessions last week, they said the attorney general needed to formally identify the topics over which Trump would assert executive privilege — and Sessions thus could not address — and fully answer questions about the others.
“We expect that when you appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on October 18th, you will have determined whether the president will invoke executive privilege as to specific topics and will be prepared to answer completely all questions in those areas on which he has not,” the Democrats wrote. “As to the former category, we will expect you to provide the Committee with a list of issues over which the privilege has affirmatively been asserted.”
Sessions also in his opening remarks defended Trump’s travel ban, saying it could help prevent terror attacks in the United States. He called the directive — which was blocked by two different federal judges Tuesday and Wednesday — an “important step” in the fight against terror.
“It’s a lawful, necessary order that we are proud to defend,” Sessions said, adding, “We are confident we’ll prevail, as time goes by, in the Supreme Court.”
He said that military leaders had told him to expect an “increase in attacks” as the Islamic State is pushed out of strongholds in Syria and Iraq.
The hearing is the first time Sessions has appeared before the Judiciary Committee since his confirmation hearing in January. The committee chairman, Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, said he had not insisted the attorney general come sooner because he had hoped Sessions would have more of his leadership team in place first.