Nothin’ but nyet!
SESSIONS STONEWALLS CONGRESS IN RUSSIA PROBE
WASHINGTON — While calling suggestions that he colluded with Russia “an appalling and detestable lie,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday stonewalled Senate questions about crucial conversations with President Trump.
The AG told the Senate Intelligence Committee that Trump hadn’t evoked “executive privilege” — legalese for an ability to protect private conversations with the President. He then refused to answer any questions about his conversations with Trump anyway, including whether he and the President had discussed the Russia investigation when talking about firing former FBI Director James Comey.
And after saying he had “no recollection” of any additional meetings with Russian diplomats during the 2016 presidential campaign, he later acknowledged that he “possibly” had one.
Sessions’ repeated dodges and refusals to answer questions led to building frustration from Democrats throughout the hearing.
“You’re not answering questions. You’re impeding the investigation,” Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said. “You are obstructing the congressional investigation by not answering questions.”
“I am not stonewalling,” Sessions told the senators.
“I’m protecting the right of the President to assert (executive privilege) if he chooses” in the future.
Sessions also insisted he had every right to be involved with Trump’s decision to fire Comey, even though the FBI head was leading the Russia investigation Sessions had been forced to step away from.
“The scope of my recusal, however, does not and cannot interfere with my ability to oversee the Department of Justice, including the FBI,” he said.
Sessions refused to offer further explanation of his role in firing the former FBI director, even though he had recused himself from the investigation into whether President Trump’s team colluded with Russia to meddle in the election.
And he used carefully selected language to give himself an out about a potential unreported third meeting with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., saying only that he did not “have any recollection of meeting or talking to the Russian ambassador or any other Russian officials” during a Trump event at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., during the campaign.
Later, he muddied up that denial even further.
“I could say that I possibly had a meeting but I still do not recall it,” he said.
“I don’t recall” was his favorite phrase of the day as Sessions fell back on the pat answer time and again throughout his testimony.
While he was evasive in his answers, Sessions was fiery off the bat in defending his character against what he painted as “scurrilous and false allegations” that he played any role in the Russia scandal.
“The suggestion that I participated in any collusion or that I was aware of any collusion with the Russian government to hurt this country, which I have served with honor for over 35 years, or to undermine the integrity of our democratic process, is an appalling and detestable lie,” he said.
He claimed that he had planned to recuse himself from the Russia investigation from the start, even though he had refused to commit to do so during his confirmation hearing, saying he was “not aware of a basis to recuse myself.”
Sessions made no moves toward recusal until after he was caught in a lie about previous contacts with Russian officials.
He denied having any contacts with Russian officials at his confirmation hearing in January, but later acknowledged he’d had two.
He then contended those meetings didn’t count because he had them in his capacity as a senator, not as a Trump campaign surrogate.
While he defended his role in firing Comey and claimed there were performance issues, he repeatedly refused to discuss whether recommended it or if Trump had asked him to come up with a rationale for a decision he had already made. Sessions said he wouldn’t talk about any private conversations with the President.
“I’d come to the conclusion that a fresh start was appropriate and did not mind putting that in writing,” he said, though he admitted he didn’t discuss any problems with Comey’s job performance with Comey before the firing.
He did acknowledge that Comey had asked him not to be left alone with the President again following a Feb. 14 meeting with Trump in the Oval Office.
Comey told the intelligence committee that Trump pressured him to back off an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn after asking Sessions and other top officials to leave the room.
Comey said that afterward, he “implored” Sessions to make sure he was never left alone with the President again — but that Sessions didn’t respond. Sessions insisted he did. “He didn’t recall this, but I responded to his comment by agreeing that the FBI and Department of Justice needed to be careful to follow department policy regarding appropriate contacts with the White House,” Sessions said.
He returned to a favorite answer when Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) asked him whether he’d confronted Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak about Russia’s meddling in the election when they met twice last year: “I don’t recall.”