While no one but Sessions can know his exact motivation for dodging the questions, most of the questions he ducked involved whether or not he had discussed the investigations into Russian Federation and former national security adviser Michael Flynn, or their role in the decision to fire James Comey with the president. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., asked Sessions whether Trump records his conversations in the White House. But he refused to discuss whether the president's decision to fire Comey was related to the Russian Federation probe.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters later that Trump thought Sessions "did a very good job" and was especially "strong" on denying any collusion between Trump's campaign and Russian Federation.
Comey told the committee in his public testimony last week that he "implored" Sessions to make sure he was never left alone again with the president - but that Sessions did not respond. "Americans don't want to hear that answers to relevant questions are privileged or off limits".
"I do not", Mr Sessions replied. Sessions said he was following Justice Department policy and would not discuss confidential communications with the president.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions tesitfies before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, in Washington D.C., the United States, on June 13, 2017.
"It would be premature for me to deny the president a full and intelligent choice about executive privilege". "Further, I have no knowledge of any such conversations by anyone connected with the Trump campaign".
In a February meeting, Comey said, Trump told Sessions and other administration officials to leave the room before asking him to drop a probe into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's contacts with Russian Federation.
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Sessions' appearance before the intelligence committee is an indication of just how much the Russian Federation investigation has shaded his tenure.
"I recused myself from any investigation into the campaigns for President, but I did not recuse myself from defending my honour against scurrilous and false allegations", Mr Sessions said in an opening statement on Tuesday. But under questioning, Sessions acknowledged that Trump's campaign foreign policy advisers "never functioned as a coherent team" and there were members of that group he never met.
After Wyden started to say something, Sessions interrupted him. Sessions argued that recusing himself from a specific investigation didn't preclude him from overseeing the management of the FBI.
Attorney General Sessions also strongly defended his role in FBI Director's Comey's firing saying despite his recusal he had the right to take an active role in management decisions.
His testy exchanges with Democratic senators contrasted with the Republican senators' treatment, which tended to support Sessions' contention that he was being unfairly painted by allegations of being involved in Russian meddling. Sessions became attorney general in February but did not recuse himself from that probe until March.
The abrupt dismissal of Comey prompted Trump's critics to charge that the president was trying to interfere with a criminal investigation. Sessions said he did not have an undisclosed meeting with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak in the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, contradicting reports that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had been investigating whether such contacts took place.
"I do recall being one of the last ones to leave, I don't know how that occurred", Sessions said.
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