Jeff Sessions Denies Russian Collusion

Attorney General Jeff Sessions offered an indignant defense on Tuesday against what he called “an appalling and detestable lie” that he may have colluded with the Russian effort to interfere in the 2016 election, showcasing his loyalty to President Trump in an often contentious Senate hearing but declining to answer central questions about his or the president’s conduct.

Sounding by turns defiant and wounded, Mr. Sessions, a former senator from Alabama, often infused his testimony with more emotion than specifics. He insisted repeatedly that it would be “inappropriate” to discuss his private conversations with the president, however relevant they might be, visibly frustrating senators who have been conducting their own inquiry into Russia’s election meddling.

Mr. Sessions cast his recusal three months ago from Russia-related inquiries as a mere procedural matter, given his status as a high-profile Trump campaign surrogate last year, and not a product of any wrongdoing.

“I recused myself from any investigation into the campaign for president,” he told the Senate Intelligence Committee, in what was the latest highly charged congressional hearing of the Trump age. “I did not recuse myself from defending my honor against scurrilous and false allegations.”

Yet at times, Mr. Sessions seemed committed to revealing as little information as possible, particularly about his interactions with the president. Pressed on his rationale, Mr. Sessions allowed that Mr. Trump had not invoked executive privilege concerning the testimony of his attorney general.

“I am protecting the right of the president to assert it if he chooses,” Mr. Sessions said.

“I don’t understand how you can have it both ways,” said Senator Angus King of Maine, an independent who caucuses with Democrats. “You’ve testified that only the president can assert it. I just don’t understand the legal basis for your refusal to answer.”

Mr. Sessions’s appearance did little to move the White House beyond the shadow of Russia-tinged investigations, which have for months consumed the president and his team — often with firestorms of Mr. Trump’s own making.

That testimony colored much of Tuesday’s hearing, with Democrats pressing Mr. Sessions on several key elements of Mr. Comey’s account. Among the questions: Why was Mr. Sessions involved in Mr. Comey’s firing — months after Mr. Sessions had removed himself from involvement in the investigations after failing to disclose past contacts with the Russian ambassador?

“It is absurd, frankly,” Mr. Sessions began, “to suggest that a recusal from a single specific investigation would render the attorney general unable to manage the leadership of the various Department of Justice law enforcement components that conduct thousands of investigations.”

Mr. Sessions also addressed Mr. Comey’s recollection of a private meeting in February with Mr. Trump, when Mr. Comey said the president pressured him to drop the Flynn investigation. Mr. Trump asked to be left alone with Mr. Comey, the former director has said. Mr. Sessions stayed behind at first but then left, according to Mr. Comey. He later told Mr. Sessions to never again leave him alone with Mr. Trump.

On Tuesday, Mr. Sessions seemed to confirm at least fragments of Mr. Comey’s rendering.

“I do recall being one of the last ones to leave,” he said. “I don’t know how that occurred.”

But Mr. Sessions said he did not see the arrangement as “a major problem,” calling Mr. Comey an experienced official who “could handle himself well.”

After the meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Comey, Mr. Sessions recalled, Mr. Comey “expressed concern to me about that private conversation.”

“And I agreed with him, essentially, that there are rules on private conversations with the president,” Mr. Sessions continued. “But there’s not a prohibition.”

More From The New York Times: