Key takeaways from Attorney General Sessions’ testimony

Eastern Michigan University Political Science professor Ed Sidlow says there were no fireworks like there were last week with former FBI Director James Comey over conversations with President Donald Trump that Comey believed were meant to have him stop further investigation into Russian interference in USA politics. Former FBI Director James Comey told the world during his testimony last week that he and others in the intelligence community knew Sessions would likely “recuse” himself for a few different reasons-some of which Comey felt he could not speak about publicly. Sen.

That possibility of a meeting between Kislyak and Sessions at the Mayflower had taken on potentially new meaning last Thursday when Comey said there were a number of reasons Sessions had to recuse himself in the Russian Federation investigation, but that he could only discuss the matter in a closed hearing. He didn’t declare executive privilege, but he did say it was the policy of the Department of Justice not to talk about conversations with the president. Ryan said: “I think the best thing to do is to let Robert Mueller do his job“. What did Jeff Sessions have to say about that?

While no new bombshell details emerged from the Sessions testimony Tuesday, there were a number of threads and themes that are sure to crop up again as hearings continue on Russian election meddling.

Sessions shot back: “I am not stonewalling”. Now you’re not answering questions.

“I was confident that he understood”, said Sessions in his opening remarks. Comey’s decision to announce previous year that Clinton would not be prosecuted over her emails was a “usurpation” of the Justice Department’s authority, Sessions said.

Mr Trump has recently expressed frustration with Mr Sessions, who has come under pressure over his own Russian Federation contacts.

But the attorney general pushed back hard when asked what those problematic matters could be, retorting: “There are none”. CNN reported that Mr. Comey had told senators in a closed-door briefing that agents were investigating another possible meeting between Mr. Sessions and Mr. Kislyak. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., rejected knowledge of such information and said that he doesn’t appreciate the “secret innuendo being leaked out there about me”.

Sessions became visibly angry when asked about former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony last week that aspects of the attorney general’s recusal were problematic.

Basing its information on several unnamed sources, the Post said Mueller’s obstruction-of-justice investigation of Trump began within days of Comey’s May 9 dismissal.

Following the hearing, a White House spokeswoman said Trump “has no intention” of dismissing Mueller.

Sessions said he did not have any private meetings and could not recall any conversations with any Russian officials at the hotel but did not rule out that a “brief interaction” with Kislyak may have occurred there.

The attorney general said he learned after the fact that Kislyak was at a reception held in conjunction with a foreign-policy speech that then-candidate Trump gave at Washington’s Mayflower Hotel in April 2016, which Sessions attended. And it’s on that question – the reason Comey was sacked – that Sessions’ performance was the least assured and the most evasive. But he refused to discuss the reports “because I know nothing about the investigation”. Yet Sessions admitted, as all are aware, that President Trump previously had not declared executive privilege regarding his communications with AG Sessions. Republicans were mostly noncombative, if not friendly to Sessions Tuesday, maybe none more so than Sen.

However Democrat Congressman Jim Langevin said Sessions fell short of the standard of evidence required at such a hearing. Do they believe a lifelong public official and law enforcement officer who, while his judgment may be questioned, has always been regarded by members of both parties as a man of the utmost honesty and integrity?