Ambassador meetings that i had. Ad during 2016 in addition, i provided supplemental testimony to the Senate Judiciary committee to explain this event. So i readily acknowledge these two meetings and certainly not one thing happened that was improper in any one of those meetings. Let me also explain clearly the frommstances of my recusal the investigation into the russian interference with the 2016 election. Hear me onleagues, this. I was sworn in as attorney general on thursday, february 9. The very next day, as i had promised the Judiciary Committee i would do, at least at an early date, i met with Career Department officials including a senior ethics official, to discuss some things publicly reported in the press that might have some bearing on whether or not i should recuse myself in this case. From that point, february 10, until i announced my normal recusal on march 2, i was never briefed on any investigative details, did not access any information about the investigation. I received only the limited information that the departments career officials determined were necessary for me to form and make a recusal decision. As such, i have no knowledge about this investigation as it is ongoing today, beyond what has been publicly reported. I dont even read that carefully, and i have taken no actions whatsoever with regard to any such investigation. Recusalate of my formal , my chief of staff sent an emailed to the heads of relevant departments, including by name directorthomas advise hime fbi to not to briefed me or involve me in any way in any such matters, and it act, they have not. Myselfntly, i recused not because of any asserted wrongdoing or any believe that i may have been involved in any wrongdoing in the campaign, but because a department of justice calmerion, i felt required it. I felt required it. It states that Department Employee should not participate in the investigation of a campaign that they served as a campaign adviser. So the scope of my recusal, not and cannot interfere with my ability to oversee the department of fbi,ce, including the which has an 8 billion budget and 35,000 employees. I presented to the president my deputys and those of attorney general Rod Rosenstein about the ongoing leadership that the fbi, as stated in my letter, recommended the removal of mr. Comey along with anddeputy attorney general the memorandum on that issue that have been released publicly by the white house, does those represent a clear statement of my views. Deputy attorney general rosensteins point that he made in his memorandum and made my recommendation. It is absurd, frankly, to suggest that a recusal from a single specific investigation would render the attorney general unable to command the leadership of the various department of justice Law Enforcement components that conduct thousands of investigations. Testimony,ring his mr. Comey discussed the conversation that he and i had hadt the meeting mr. Comey with the president. Im happy to share with the committee my recollection of that conversation that i had with mr. Comey. Following a routine morning threat briefing, mr. Comey spoke to me in my chief of staff. While he did not provide me with any of the substance of his conversation with the president , apparently the day before, mr. Comey expressed concern about Proper Communications protocol with the white house and with the president. Not recall he did this, but i responded to his fbient by agreeing that the and the department of justice need to be careful to follow Department Policy regarding appropriate contact with the white house. Had served in the department for better than two decades, and i was confident that he understood and would abide by the wellestablished rule limiting communications with the white house, especially about Ongoing Investigations. Tot is what is so important control. My comments encouraged him to do just that and as i under stand it, he infracted that. Ofartment of justice rules proper medications between the department and the white house have been in place for years. Mr. Comey well knew them, i thought, and assumed that he complied with them. So i will finish with this. I recused myself from any investigation into the campaign for president , but i did not recuse myself from defending my honor against scurrilous and false allegations. At all times throughout the course of the campaign, the confirmation process, and the coming attorney general, i have dedicated myself to the highest standards. I have earned reputation for that. At home and in this body, i believe, over decades of performance. The people of this country expect an honest and transparent government, and thats what were giving them. This president wants to focus on the people of this country to ensure they are treated fairly and cap safe. Agenda is to improve the lives of the american people. I know some have different ways of achieving this and different agendas, but that is his agenda, and it is one i share. Importantly, as attorney general, i have a responsibility to enforce the laws of this nation, to protect this country from its enemies, and to ensure the Fair Administration of justice, and i intend to work andy day with our fine team the superb professionals in the department of justice to advance the important work we have to do. These false attacks, the innuendos, the league, you the leaks, you can be sure, will not intimidate me. These have only strengthened my resolve to fulfill my duty to reduce crime, to support our federal and state and local Law Enforcement officers who work on our streets every day. Just lack just last week it was reported that overdosed deaths in this country are rising faster than ever before recorded. Last year was 52,000. The New York Times estimated next year will be 62,000 overdosed deaths. The murder rate is up over 10 . The largest increase since 1968. The gangs,telling the cartels, the fraudsters, and the terrorists, we are coming after you. Every one of our citizens, no matter who they are or where they live, has the right to be safe in their homes and communities. Nd i will not be deterred i will not allow this Great Department to be deterred from its vital mission. Thank you, mr. Chairman, Ranking Member warner. Great honor to appear before you today and i will do my best to answer your questions. Thank you for that testimony. Foruld like to note members, the chair and the vice chairman will be recognized for 10 minutes. Members will be recognized for five minutes. I would like to remind our members that we are in open session. No references to classify or Committee Sensitive materials should be used relative to your questions. With that, i recognize myself at this time for 10 minutes. Sessions, you talked about the Mayflower Hotel, where the president gave his first foreignpolicy speech, and its been covered in the press that the president was there and you and others were there. Saidyour testimony, you you dont remember whether the Russian Ambassador was there, is that correct . I did not sessions remember that, but i understand he was there, and so i dont doubt that he was. I recently saw a video of him coming into the room. But you never remember having a conversation or meeting with the ambassador . Atty. Gen. Sessions i do not. In that event, was there ever a private room setting that weird that you were involved in . Atty. Gen. Sessions no, other than a reception area that was shut off from i guess the main crowd, there were two to three dozen people. I would take for granted that an event like this, the president shook some hands. Atty. Gen. Sessions yes, he came in and shocks some hands in the group. Quite you mentioned there were some staff that were with you at that event. Atty. Gen. Sessions i legislative director at the time , senate, legislative director who is a retired u. S. Army colonel who served in the u. S. Armed Services Staff with general warner before she joined by staff was with me in the reception area and throughout the rest of the event. Would you say that you were there as a United States senator, or as a surrogate for the event . I cameen. Sessions there as an interested person, very anxious to see how President Trump would do in his first major foreignpolicy address. I believe he had only given one major speech before and that was maybe at the jewish aipac event. So it was an interesting time for me to observe his delivery and the message he would make. That was my main purpose for being there. But she reported to other ambassadorislyak slyak. H ambassador ki a. B. You had any other interactions with government officials in a Campaign Capacity . In the Campaign Capacity. Atty. Gen. Sessions no, mr. Chairman. I have wracked my brain to make sure i could answer any of those questions correctly, and i did not. Thatld just offer for you when asked about whether i had had any meetings with russians by the reporter in march, we immediately recall the conversation, the encounter i had at the convention and the meeting in my office and make that public. I never intended not to include that. Theuld have gladly reported meeting, the encounter that may have occurred, that some say occurred in the mayflower, if i had remembered it or it actually occurred, which i dont remember that it did. On march 2, 2017, you formally recused yourself from any investigation in the Russian Investigation being conducted by the fbi and the department of justice. What are the specific reasons that you chose to recuse yourself . The. Gen. Sessions specific reason, mr. Chairman, cfr, code of federal regulations put out by the department of justice, part of ,he department of justice rules and it says this. I will read from it. Unless authorized, no employee shall participate in a criminal investigation or prosecution if he has a personal or political relationship with any person involved in the conduct of an investigation. It goes on to say for political in a political campaign, and it says if you have a close identification with an elected arising or candidate from service as a principal advisor, you should not participate in an investigation of that campaign. Many have suggested that my recusal is because i felt i was the subject of the investigation myself, that i may have done something wrong, but this is the reason i recused myself. Under i was required to the rules of the department of justice and as the leader of the department of justice, i should comply with the rules, obviously. So did your Legal Counsel basically know from day one you would have to recuse yourself from this investigation because of the current statute . Atty. Gen. Sessions well, i do have a timeline of what occurred. I was sworn in on the ninth, i believe, of that very. Id been on the 10th had my first meeting to generally discussed this issue, where the cfr was not discussed. We had several other meetings and it became clear to me over time that i qualified as a , a principal advisor type person to the campaign, and it was the appropriate right thing for me to recuse myself. Of this could explain director comeys comments that there was a likelihood you would recuse yourself because he was probably familiar with the same statute. Atty. Gen. Sessions i think probably so. Im sure the attorneys in the department of justice probably communicated with him, because mr. Chairman, let me say this to you clearly. In effect, as a matter of fact, i recuse myself that day, i never received any information about the campaign. I thought there was a problem with me being able to serve as attorney general over this issue, and i felt i would possibly have to recuse myself, and i took the position, correctly i believe, not to involve myself in the campaign in any way, and i did not. You made a reference to your chief of staff sending out anime l immediately notifying internally of your decision to recuse. Email. Ing out an would you make that email available . Atty. Gen. Sessions i would be pleased to do so, and i think i have it with me now. Have you had any interactions with the special Counsel Robert Mueller . Atty. Gen. Sessions i have not. With regard to the email i sing out, director comey indicated that he did not know that when i recuse myself or did not receive notice, one of those emails went to him by name. A lot happened in our offices, im not accusing him of any wrongdoing, but in fact it was sent to him. As you said, mr. Comey testified at length about his interactions with it president , highlighting your presence at those meetings, and you addressed the meeting where all were asked to live to leave except for director comey, and he had a private meeting with the president. And you said he did inform you of how uncomfortable that was and your recommendation was that the fbi and doj needed to follow the rules limiting further correspondence. Did director comey ever express additional discomfort with conversations that the president might have had with him . Because he had two additional meetings in a tank a total of six phone calls. And i think a total of six phone calls. Atty. Gen. Sessions that is correct. Theres nothing wrong with the president having communication with the fbi director. What is problematic for any department of justice employee is to talk to any cabinet persons or white house officials , high officials, about Ongoing Investigations that are not properly cleared through the top levels of the department of it was aand so regulation i think that is healthy. Needed and strongly believe we needed to restore discipline within our department , to adhere to just those kind of rules, plus leaking rules and some of the other things that i think are a bit lacks and need to be restored. But you couldnt and had a conversation with the president about the investigation because you were never briefed on the investigation. Atty. Gen. Sessions that is correct. I would note that with regard to the private meeting that director comey had, by his own admission, i believe there are as many as six such meetings, several of them he had with think he trump, and i had to with president obama. So it is not improper per se, but it would not be justified for a Department Official to share information about an Ongoing Investigation without prior review and clearance from above. Just one last question. We believe that Senate Hearing for a moment. The u. S. Attorney general Jeff Sessions there giving testimony, being grilled on the trump administrations alleged ties to russia and his role in it, more specifically being questioned over meetings he allegedly held with the Russian Ambassador prior to Donald Trumps election. Lets go to our washington correspondent for a bit more on that. Philip, a pretty robust defense, as you would ask that from the from as you would expect the u. S. Attorney general, americas top lawyer. He said that any suggestion he did anything wrong, that he colluded with the russians, is a detestable live. Lie. P is a detestable herep what is different from what you heard from former fbi director james comey on thursday of last week is that james comey appears to have an ax to grind and has information you wanted to default, and is somebody who is no longer in government, but Jeff Sessions, who is very much an ally of donald trump and has been from almost the very beginning of the Donald Trump Campaign and of course is a member of the trump administration. Jeff sessions rejects rejects any accusation of any collusion there mightve been between him and russian officials and the russian government. And as he said any allegation ,hereof would be a lie according to the attorney general, Jeff Sessions. The questioning, part of which youve already heard. First of all, questions about how many meetings and where those meetings mightve taken place between the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who at the time was still a senator and a Campaign Circuit for donald trump, with the Russian Ambassador kislyak. Thats were democrats believe there might be some proof of collusion. Jeff sessions says yes, there were two meetings, and yes, he has told Senate Intelligence committee about them. That is true. There are also allegations there mightve been a third one, and he says he has no recollection of that. That were the mentions of meeting at the Mayflower Hotel in washington dc at which both present. Re according to Jeff Sessions, he doesnt recall any formal meeting happening. The other line of questioning, much of which is still con is still to come. Remember that Jeff Sessions recused himself from any investigation into the Donald Trump Campaign because he was a member of the Donald Trump Campaign. So the question there is, did he really recuse himself . Philip there in washington. Im joined in the studio by a legal expert, good to see you, eric. You were listening to that testimony as well, which is expected to go on for a lot longer. Somesessions answering tough questions, he did defend himself very strongly. A detestable lie, scurrilous allegations being made about me. Hes really not taking this on the chin, izzy is he . , rightame out swinging out of the gates, so to speak. He said i have not colluded with the russians. There is nothing here, and i think its going to be very hard to get anything out of him on that line of questioning. A problem for him is that he did not disclose initially at his confirmation hearings that he thathe two prior contacts are now undisputed, that he had. He says quite clearly he has had no recollection of that, it has been said in washington before. Ambassador has turned into the worlds most forgettable man, although looking at him, he is not a forgettable figure, but certainly Jeff Sessions doesnt have any further recollections of him that he is ever going to admit. Havinghe cannot remember conversations with him. He just says he has no recollection of it whatsoever. Case, and i think thats what the senator was getting to in his questioning, why all of a sudden did he recuse himself, because he had never said he would recuse himself up until his confirmation hearings when all this was roiling about. When he did it, it seems very sudden. He is not really explained that other than he went through this sort of tedious reading of the justice regulations, which is more of a commonsense sense thing, that you cannot be investigating yourself. Conceding, how could i oversee an investigation into myself, essentially. But if that is the case, why did it taken so long to come to that conclusion . Laura and he also made some comments on Donald Trumps ,elationship with james comey saying that it was very worrying to him, the former head of the testifying that he was so nervous about admitting to donald trump, he was worried that donald trump would lie about him afterwards. Sayings there was theres nothing wrong with the president having a relationship and talking to the head of the f ei. What is problematic is when they are talking about Ongoing Investigations. He was being a little disingenuous there. He said he even talked to president obama. Obama talked to him in one conversation in eight years issues at the fbi, obviously not having anything to do with the investigation concerning the white house that, and a second time just to say goodbye. Point is it is exceedingly rare for the fbi director to be talking to the president. What hes deflecting here is the rarest of that white cell, by saying theres nothing wrong for the two of them to be talking, but it is misleading, because clearly, what are they going to be talking about . They have nothing else to talk about, the way things have been going. And every one of these conversations was about the Russian Investigation. Is a career politician, and the bottom line is, he is conceding that it could have been inappropriate, but he took the cat of turning it around on comey, according he took the 06 13 17 06 13 17 [captioning made possible by democracy now ] amy from pacifica this is democracy now people are saying they feel so shocked by trump. I would suggest maybe the real thing we are feeling is horror. Shock suggests it is something out of the blue. Trump is the culmination of so many dangerous trends. If we want to deal with trump, we need to identify those trends and get the root of them, not just say no to trump. All that will do is get us to where we were before trump, and that was what