Sessions to testify about Russia, Comey
WASHINGTON — U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, facing fresh questions about his Russian contacts during last fall’s presidential election campaign and his role in the firing of James Comey, will be interrogated in a public hearing by former Senate colleagues today.
The appearance before the Senate intelligence committee comes one week after former FBI director Comey told lawmakers the bureau had expected Sessions to recuse himself weeks before he did from an investigation into contacts between Trump campaign associates and Russia during the 2016 election.
Sessions, a close campaign adviser to President Donald Trump and the first senator to endorse him, stepped aside from the investigation in early March after acknowledging he had spoken twice in the months before the election with the Russian ambassador to the United States. He said under oath at his January confirmation hearing that he had not met with Russians during the campaign.
Since then, lawmakers have raised questions about a possible third meeting at a Washington hotel, though the Justice Department has said that did not happen.
Sessions on Saturday said he would appear before the intelligence committee, which has been doing its own investigation into Russian contacts with the Trump campaign. There had been some question as to whether the hearing would be open to the public, but the Justice Department said Monday he requested it be so because he “believes it is important for the American people to hear the truth directly from him.”
The committee announced shortly after that the hearing will be open. It is expected to bring sharp questioning for Sessions and likely some uncomfortable moments from the Trump administration.
Sessions is likely to be asked about his conversations with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. He also can expect questions about his involvement in Comey’s May 9 firing, the circumstances surrounding his decision to recuse himself from the FBI’s investigation, and whether any of his actions — such as interviewing candidates for the FBI director position or meeting with Trump about Comey — violated his recusal pledge.
Asked Monday if the White House thought Sessions should invoke executive privilege to avoid answering questions about his conversations with Trump, presidential spokesman Sean Spicer replied, “It depends on the scope of the questions. To get into a hypothetical at this point would be premature.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. Secret Service said Monday it doesn’t have any recordings or transcripts of any tapes recorded within Trump’s White House, a disclosure that failed to rule out whether any tapes exist of Trump’s conversations with Comey. The agency made the disclosure in response to a freedom of information request by the Wall Street Journal.