Special counsel investigating Trump for obstruction of justice

On Wednesday, US attorney-general Jeff Sessions vehemently denied that he colluded with an alleged Russian bid to tilt the 2016 presidential election in Donald Trump’s favour.

At other times, though, Sessions frequently said he couldn’t recall specifics, particularly when asked about his meetings with Russian officials during the 2016 campaign. Further, I have no knowledge of any such conversations by anyone connected to the Trump campaign.

“Oftentimes what happens, frankly, in counterintelligence investigations is you start looking at sort of a core intelligence question – What did the Russians do and did they do it with any Americans? – and it grows into: What did any of those Americans do in their financial matters that may also raise alarms with the FBI?” Al Franken, D-Minn., after many hours of testimony.

The report goes on to state that while Trump is suspicious of Mueller and that he is still furious with Attorney General Sessions for recusing himself from overseeing the Russian Federation probe. When Democrats (or Republicans like Marco Rubio) asked him hard questions that got to the heart of the relationship between the Trump campaign and Russia, Sessions’ memory suddenly failed him, and he tended to ramble, seemingly trying to run out the clock on their questioning.

Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden aggressively asked Sessions about suggestions arising from Comey’s testimony last week there was something “problematic” about his recusal.

“He didn’t recall this, but I responded to his comment by agreeing that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice needed to be careful to follow department policy regarding appropriate contacts with the White House“, Sessions told the panel. They’ll push the idea in the media that the only reason Sessions got so testy is because he has something to hide.

With precision and accuracy Tuesday, Mr. Sessions noted how Mr. Franken had larded his question with bamboozling charges about “compromising personal information” the Russians had supposedly collected about Mr. Trump. Sessions wasn’t having any of that. During one line of questioning by Sen. Sessions told senators on Tuesday that he’d recused himself because he was part of Trump’s campaign.

“I look forward to this matter concluding quickly”.

White House officials said late Monday that Ruddy was at the Executive Mansion that day, but said he hadn’t met with the president and never spoke with him about the issue.

All that seems to undermine the rationale for Comey’s firing that Sessions says he relied on – Rosenstein’s memo that charged Comey acted inappropriately in the handling of the Clinton email investigation.

Harris: Sir, I’m not asking about the principle. Trump has suggested there might be tapes of his encounters with Comey; Comey said last week that “lordy” he hopes there are.

In general, as with most of the Russia-related hearings conducted by Congress, it was a tale of two parties.

Sen. Ron Wyden of OR was even more blunt. Tom Cotton of Arkansas.

Senators got just five minutes each to ask questions (the chairman and vice chairman got 10).

– David Ignatius is a columnist for Washington Post Writers Group. “I just finished Ignatius’ book”. “So I would push back on that”, Sessions said. “I’m the attorney general of the United States”.

While it is certainly common for attorneys general to refuse to divulge their conversations with a president, Sessions’ loyalty to Trump was on full display the day before his testimony, along with most other cabinet members in that fawning, sycophantic, ingratiating opening statements to the president in the first full cabinet meeting.

If the special counsel found evidence of obstruction of justice, the Justice Department would likely not indict the president, according to longstanding precedent. He said he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had long discussed their concerns with Comey’s job performance.

“If I had nothing to hide and someone wanted to investigate, I would say, ‘Go ahead, do your thing, I don’t care, because you won’t find anything, ‘” said Younger, a Democrat who imports jewelry supplies.