Attorney
General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday denounced as a "detestable lie" the
idea he colluded with Russians meddling in the 2016 election, and he clashed
with Democratic
lawmakers over his refusal to detail his conversations with
President Donald Trump.
Sessions, a
senior member of Trump's Cabinet and an adviser to his election campaign last
year, had a series of tense exchanges with Democrats on the Senate Intelligence
Committee during about 2-1/2 hours of testimony as they pressed him to recount
discussions with the Republican president.
"You
raised your right hand here today and said you would solemnly swear to tell the
truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth," Democratic Senator
Martin Heinrich said. "Now you're not answering questions. You're impeding
this investigation."
Sessions
refused to say whether he and Trump discussed FBI Director James Comey's
handling of an investigation into possible collusion between Trump's campaign
and Russia during the election campaign before the president fired Comey on May
9.
He also
declined to say if Trump opposed Sessions' decision to recuse himself from the
Russia probe in March, and whether Justice Department officials discussed
possible presidential pardons of individuals being looked at in the probe.
Democratic
Senator Ron Wyden told Sessions: "I believe the American people have had
it with stonewalling. Americans don't want to hear that answers to relevant
questions are privileged."
"I am
not stonewalling," Sessions replied, saying he was simply following
Justice Department policy not to discuss confidential communications with the
president.
Sessions'
testimony did not provide any damaging new information on Trump campaign ties
with Russia or on Comey's dismissal, but his refusal to discuss conversations
with Trump raised fresh questions about whether the White House has something
to hide.
Adam Schiff,
the top Democrat on the House of Representatives' Intelligence Committee, which
is conducting a parallel Russia probe, said on Twitter that Congress "must
compel responses using whatever process necessary."
Last week,
Comey told the Senate committee that Trump had fired him to undermine the FBI's
investigation of the Russia matter.
Trump's
decision to fire Comey, a move recommended by Sessions despite having already
recused himself from the Russia probe, prompted critics to charge that the
president was trying to interfere with a criminal investigation.
Senator
Angus King, an independent, questioned Sessions' legal basis for refusing to
answer questions after Sessions said Trump had not invoked executive privilege
regarding the conversations.
Executive
privilege can be claimed by a president or senior government officials to
withhold information from Congress or the courts to protect the executive
branch decision-making process.
Sessions
said it would be "inappropriate" for him to reveal private
conversations with Trump when the president "has not had a full
opportunity to review the questions and to make a decision on whether or not to
approve such an answer."
Legal
experts said there was some merit to Sessions' argument.
Andrew
Wright, a professor at Savannah Law School and associate counsel under former
President Barack Obama, said it was not unusual for government employees to
refuse to discuss conversations with the president in order to preserve the
right to invoke executive privilege later.
'APPALLING'
Sessions'
clash with the Democratic senators was the latest chapter in a saga that has
dogged Trump in his first five months as president and distracted from his
domestic policy agenda including major healthcare and tax cut initiatives.
"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," Sessions said.
"I have
never met with or had any conversation with any Russians or any foreign
officials concerning any type of interference with any campaign or election in
the United States. Further, I have no knowledge of any such conversations by
anyone connected with the Trump campaign."
U.S.
intelligence agencies concluded in a report released in January that Russian
President Vladimir Putin ordered an effort to interfere in the election to help
Trump in part by hacking and releasing damaging emails about Democratic
candidate Hillary Clinton.
Russia has
denied any such interference, and Trump has denied any collusion by his
campaign with Moscow.
Sessions
recused himself from the Russia investigation in March after revelations that
he had failed to disclose two meetings last year with Russia's ambassador to
Washington, Sergei Kislyak.
In his
testimony on Tuesday, Sessions addressed media reports that he may have had a
third previously undisclosed meeting with Kislyak at Washington's Mayflower
Hotel last year.
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.
A former
Republican senator, Sessions was an early supporter of Trump's presidential
campaign, but sources say there has been tension between the two men in recent
weeks because Trump was annoyed that Sessions recused himself from the Russia probe.
Sessions
said on Tuesday he did not recuse himself because he felt he was a subject of
the investigation himself but rather because he felt he was required to by
Justice Department rules.
Reuters*
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