Mueller was recently appointed to lead the investigation into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russian Federation to influence the 2016 election. Maybe most prominent is the Democrats' insistence that those testifying share conversations they've had with President Trump.
Sessions did not fall into the trap laid by questions about his private conversations with Trump regarding the investigation and the firing of FBI Director James Comey.
Still, Comey's testimony did little to affect Trump's approval rating.
Former FBI Director James Comey assured Trump in January that he was not under investigation.
In the same interview, Trump confirmed that the Russian Federation investigation, which he had called a "taxpayer-funded charade" on Twitter the day before sacking Comey, was on his mind at the time. And surely pleased the boss. According to The Smithsonian, Andrew Johnson and Clinton were the only two presidents who have appeared before the Senate in this type of "court".
Comey himself even blasted anonymously sourced mainstream media reports, including those from the New York Times that claimed Trump confidants were in cahoots with the Russians, as "not true".
- On whether Sessions met with Trump's foreign policy team. Sessions declared that he was supporting Trump during a rally in a football stadium, just two days before the crucial Super Tuesday primary where a dozen other states were to vote.
U.S. lawmakers back at work after shooting, congressman still hospitalized
House Republicans met privately earlier to discuss the shootings, pray and sign oversized cards for the wounded. Brooks said he couldn't recall an instance where Republicans have accused Democrats of trying to kill people.
Addressing allegations that he had unreported meetings with Russian officials while he advised the Trump campaign, Sessions said he had already acknowledged two encounters previous year with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
He added that Comey, after being uncomfortable with the airplane meeting between former Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President Bill Clinton, had "stepped up and done what his duty is, I think". "A movement is afoot that must not fade away". Trump could conceivably then fire Rosenstein and keep issuing the order until someone carried it out.
Mueller is interviewing as early as this week three top intelligence officials as part of the probe, the Post reported, citing "five people briefed on the requests". Sessions was even briefly in the running. How could that be connected to Russian attempts to influence the election? "It is no wonder the people of Alabama re-elected him without opposition". At the same time, you also have constitutional lawyers, like Alan Dershowitz, ripping Democrats for stretching criminal statutes to ensnare the Trump White House.
The questions will continue, especially of everyone who steps before Congress, but Trump allies have proved that even going under oath won't shed light on the full details surrounding the Russian Federation investigation and whether Trump pressured high-ranking officials to drop it.
What was learned, though, was that Sessions and Rod Rosenstein, now deputy attorney general, may have always been looking for a reason to fire Comey - and so was Trump.
On the one hand, Sessions didn't feel like he needed to stay in the Oval Office on February 14 when President Trump said he wanted to speak privately with Comey. Sessions then reportedly offered to hand in his resignation before Trump's trip overseas. We can note here that soon after Comey's firing Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein made statements suggesting that he may have been a witness to something that could be construed as a crime.
Senator Mark Warner, Ranking Member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said questions have been raised about some of his own interactions with Russian officials during the campaign. "I have not had that discussion with him", the press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters. And leading Republican legislators on Tuesday waved off the idea of firing Mueller, with House Speaker Paul Ryan saying that his advice was to "let Robert Mueller do his job" and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell voicing confidence in the special counsel. Because above all, Trump prizes loyalty. But he angrily denounced such claims as "secret innuendo", a likely reference to media accounts of a closed-door briefing lawmakers had last week with Comey that suggested the Federal Bureau of Investigation had been looking into whether another meeting had taken place.
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