That one, the campaign had communications with the russians through mr. Pop dob luss. So lets papadopoulos. So lets try to correct the record. Yes or no, did you chair the march 31, 2016, meeting of the National Security Advisory Committee . Mr. Sessions yes. Mr. Nadler did mr. Papadopoulos made some r. Sessions i remember mr. Nadler yes or no. I dont have time. You shut george down when he proposed that meeting with putin, is this correct, yes or no . Mr. Sessions yes. I pushed back. I will say it that way. Mr. Nadler your answer is yes. So you were obviously concerned with mr. Papadopoulos connections and his possibly arranging a meeting with putin. Yes or no, did anyone else at that meeting, including thencandidate trump react in any way with what mr. Papadopoulos presented . Mr. Sessions i dont recall. Mr. Nadler your testimony is that they didnt express any meeting with the russian president or concerns of communications between the campaign and the russians . Mr. Sessions i dont
The committee will reconvene. The chair recognizes the gentleman from florida, mr. George, for five minutes. General sessions, who do you work for . To you or for the American People are for the president of the United States . Mr. Sessions i am a member of themr. Sessions executive branch and i work for the American People. I want to ask you questions about that. On february 14, the president asked fbi director about the Flynn Investigation and said i hope you can see your way clear to letting this go. On may 9, the president fired comey. On may 11, he went on television and announced he fired, a because the russia thing with trump and russia. General sessions, do you think it would be reasonable for the members of this committee to byclude that the president , first interfering in one investigation and then interfaced interfering into an investigation into himself committed obstruction of justice . Mr. Sessions i dont believe that is a fair conclusion. Matter that would be the specia
The Judiciary Committee will come toward her, and without objection, the chair is to we welcome everyone to this mornings hearing on oversight of the department of justice. We begin by recognizing myself for an Opening Statement. Good morning. Today, we welcome Jeff Sessions, up for the annual department of justice oversight hearing. General, you have a long and distinguished career of service. You continued that service by leading the department of justice, an agency that by its very nature is prone to controversy because of the varied opinions on what it means to obtain justice. However, you clearly understand the department you need must have confidence of the american decisionsn when your are not always well deceived. The first year has not been without difficulty, which is expected at the outset of the new administration. You dont have the improper Political Engagement under the Obama Administration. More work must be done to ensure the department is operating to impartially admin
By moscow by the kremlin. Ambassador kislyak is now familiar to me because Michael Flynn resigned because ofri only ambassador kislyak they try to keep secret and misrepresent not th only to the American People that the Vice President of the United States. The warm smiles and hearty handshakes President Trump gave these russian officials stands in stark contrast to the way the white house is treated the American Department of justice officials. Preet bharara. He asked some antisadness u. S. Indi district of new york and indicated mr. Comey could stand director of the fbi. It appears that each of these three Justice Departmentar officials were in charge of domestic investigations started to become a concern president translate us. We heard on monday from sally yates how she informed the White House Office on january 26 of this year that Michael Flynn, the National Security advisor to the president of the United States was compromised and blackmailed by the russians were publicly. Ad kep
Your thoughts on general kelly . So on gun ta know, the president spoke of this earlier this week. The nda going with the current restrictions that apply, nevertheless, the work that has been done to go from 242 detainees at the time the president took office to today 59 detainees remain in guantanamo, but the transfer efforts are on going and the work that has been done by the state department, defense department, across the board to engage and do tremendous diplomacy and security arrangements with other governments to allow for further transfers, were going to continue to do that. Were going to continue to pursue those transfers, just as many as we can just before january 20th. But at the end of the day, the domestic transfer restriction remains in place, so until Congress Lifts that, we are not able to bring detainees here even to serve a life sentence, even to undergo a prosecution to render a life sentence. So those restrictions remain in place, and there continue to be a number o