NEW YORK – Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he never spoke with Russian officials concerning “any type of interference” with the 2016 presidential campaign and called any suggestion he colluded with Russia during the election an “appalling and detestable lie.”
Sessions defended himself in remarks Tuesday to the Senate Intelligence Committee against Democratic allegations that he gave misleading testimony about his contacts with Russian officials during his confirmation hearing.
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“That is false,” Sessions said.
Sessions sought to pre-empt questions from the panel about conversations with President Donald Trump regarding the Russia investigation or the May 9 firing of FBI Director James Comey.
“I cannot and will not violate my duty to protect the confidential communications I had with the president,” Sessions said in his opening statement.
Nevertheless, the top senators on the Intelligence Committee vowed they will press Sessions about the role he played in the firing of Comey, his meetings with Russian officials during the campaign and whether the president pressured the FBI over its Russia probe.
“You recused yourself from the Russia investigation,” Democratic Senator Mark Warner said in his prepared remarks. “Yet you participated in the firing of Mr. Comey over his handling of that same investigation. We will want to ask you about how you view your recusal and whether you believe you have complied with it fully.”
Sessions, in his first public testimony on Capitol Hill since his January confirmation hearing, said that because he recused himself from the Russia probe he “was never briefed” on the inquiry. He added that his knowledge of the probe comes only from what has been publicly reported.
The attorney general said he has learned that Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak was at a reception held in conjunction with a foreign policy speech then-candidate Trump gave at Washington’s Mayflower Hotel in April 2016 that Sessions attended. But Sessions said he doesn’t remember Kislyak being there and has no recollection of interacting with him at the event.
Sessions has acknowledged two other exchanges with the ambassador, yet his failure to initially disclose those encounters during his confirmation hearing helped prompt his recusal from the Russia probe.
Sessions’s testimony comes one day after National Security Agency chief Mike Rogers met behind closed doors with the Intelligence Committee, after last week saying he couldn’t respond to some questions about the Russia probe and Trump’s alleged involvement in a public hearing.
Chris Strohm and Steven T. Dennis are reporters for Bloomberg News.
