Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Monday asked the panel’s chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), to call Attorney General Jeff Sessions to testify before the committee.
Feinstein asked Grassley in a letter to invite Sessions “for an oversight hearing as soon as possible.”
She cited the Washington Post’s report on Friday that Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak told his superiors that he and Sessions had “substantive” discussions on policy issues during President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.
“If this is true, it would be directly contrary to the testimony that Attorney General Sessions gave – under oath – before the Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearings,” Feinstein wrote. “It would also be directly contrary to public statements made by the Attorney General.”
She said it “would be a grave breach of trust” if Sessions “gave false or misleading testimony” to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“I have requested the intelligence intercepts from Ambassador Kislyak’s transmissions and believe that they raise additional questions about the Attorney General’s discussions concerning Russia during the past year,” Feinstein wrote. “This is a serious matter, and the Judiciary Committee must hear directly from the Attorney General.”
She said that she and other members have made “repeated requests” for Sessions to be invited to testify, to no avail, and requested that Grassley invite Sessions to appear “at the first opportunity in August or September.”
