Attorney General Jeff Sessions refused to answer on Tuesday the reasons for former FBI Director James Comey’s firing, during testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee, including whether he discussed the Russia investigation with President Donald Trump.
“Do you concur with the President that he was going to fire Comey regardless of recommendation because the problem was the Russian investigation?” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) asked Sessions.
“Sen. Feinstein, I guess I’ll just have to let his words speak for himself,” Sessions replied. “I’m not sure what was in his mind explicitly when we talked with him.”
“Did you ever discuss Director Comey’s FBI handling of the Russia investigations with the President or anyone else?” Feinstein asked.
“Sen. Feinstein, that would call for a communication between the attorney general and the President and I’m not able to comment on that,” Sessions replied.
“You are not able to answer the question here whether you ever discussed that with him?” Feinstein asked.
“That’s correct,” Sessions said.
“And how do you view that, since you discussed his termination, why wouldn’t you discuss the reasons?” Feinstein asked.
“Well, those were put in writing and sent to the President and he made those public,” Sessions said. “So he made that public.”
“So you had no verbal conversation with him about the firing of Mr. Comey?” Feinstein asked.
“I’m not able to discuss with you or confirm or deny the nature of private conversations that I may have had with the President on this subject or others,” Sessions said. “And I know this will be discussed, but that’s the rules that have been adhered to by the Department of Justice as you know Sen. Feinstein.”
“You’re a long time colleague,” Feinstein replied. “But we heard Mr. Coates and we heard Adm. Rogers say essentially the same thing, when it was easy just to say if the answer was no, ’No.’”
“Well it would have been easy to say if it was yes, ‘Yes,’” Sessions said. “But both would have been improper.”
