Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday denied before Senators that he was interviewed by the special counsel probing Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election which is headed by Robert Mueller, and declined to answer questions about his private conversations with President Donald Trump.
The former Alabama Senator told the Senate that Until the president waives any claims to executive privilege, he would not address questions about his talks with Trump concerning the federal investigation into Russian electoral meddling, the firing of former FBI Director James Comey and other high-profile issues.
However, deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who has taken over supervision of the Russia probe after Sessions recused himself from the investigation has been interviewed by Mueller’s team.
The Attorney General also did not discuss whether he had provided documents or other materials to Mueller, and initially hesitated when Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) asked about his interactions with Mueller.
But he replied, saying: “I’d be pleased to answer that. I’m not sure I should without clearing that with the special counsel”, looking at his former Senate colleagues, saying, “What do you think?”
Asked later by Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) if he would meet with Mueller if asked, Sessions replied: “Absolutely.”
But he declined to address a question from the committee’s top Democrat, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein about whether Trump fired Comey to remove “the cloud” of the federal probe into alleged Russian collusion with his presidential campaign.
He however cleared the air by sticking to his earlier justification of Comey’s firing over the handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server, saying: “I don’t think it’s been fully understood, the significance of the error that Mr. Comey made on the Clinton matter”.
He said the FBI chief made a serious mistake by effectively closing the Clinton investigation without first seeking the concurrence of top Justice Department officials.
Sessions also rebuffed a query from Feinstein about whether the president tried to get the Justice Department to drop its prosecution of former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio for defying a court order.
“I cannot comment on a private conversation I may have had with the president,” he replied.
Sessions said he was “not aware” whether Trump’s pardon of Arpaio went through the usual vetting process at the Justice Department, but argued that the president have the unilateral right to make such decisions and need not make any consultation with the DOJ.
“The president has the power to issue pardons with or without the Department of Justice involved. That has been done in the past in some very dramatic cases. This pardon was well within the power of the president to do,” Sessions said.
Read » AG Sessions denies being interviewed during the Russia probe on YNaija
from YNaija http://ift.tt/2xOAFhC
via IFTTT
