Sessions Won’t Say If He Was Aware Of Trump’s Draft Letter On Comey Firing

UNITED STATES - OCTOBER 18: Attorney General Jeff Sessions testifies during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Full committee hearing on "Oversight of the U.S. Department of Justice" on Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2017. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call) (CQ Roll Call via AP Images)
UNITED STATES - OCTOBER 18: Attorney General Jeff Sessions testifies during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Full committee hearing on "Oversight of the U.S. Department of Justice" on Wednesday, Oct. 18, 201... UNITED STATES - OCTOBER 18: Attorney General Jeff Sessions testifies during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Full committee hearing on "Oversight of the U.S. Department of Justice" on Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2017. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call) (CQ Roll Call via AP Images) MORE LESS
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Attorney General Jeff Sessions refused to say on Wednesday whether he was aware of a draft of a letter that President Donald Trump reportedly wrote arguing that James Comey should be fired as FBI director because of the way he handled the Russia investigation.

Trump reportedly dictated a letter griping about Comey and the Russia probe before the White House publicly released a memo from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that argued Comey should be fired due to the way he handled the Hillary Clinton email investigation. In that draft letter, which Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT) brought up in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Trump allegedly argued that Comey should be fired for declining to say publicly that Trump himself was not under FBI investigation.

Leahy asked Sessions if he was aware of that reported draft letter when he signed off on Comey’s firing in May. Sessions would not say, invoking executive privilege.

“I also believe it considers and consumes a possible communication for the President of the United States and the same privilege would apply,” Sessions told Leahy.

Earlier in the hearing, Sessions declined to say whether Trump discussed with him that he wanted to fire Comey because of what was happening with the bureau’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election, invoking executive privilege in that instance as well.

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