Democratic senators are warning Attorney General Jeff Sessions that when he takes the stand before the Senate Judiciary Committee next week, he should detail his conversations with President Donald Trump, Politico reports.
Should Sessions fail to do so, he should announce that the President is invoking executive privilege to protect those communications, the senators have asked. Democrats on the panel have scorned Sessions in a letter on Wednesday about his June appearance at the Senate Intelligence Committee, when he repeatedly declined to answer such questions, saying that Trump had the right to decide whether to assert executive privilege over the discussions.
“We expect that when you appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on October 18, you will have determined whether the president will invoke executive privilege as to specific topics and will be prepared to answer completely all questions in those areas on which he has not.” the Democratic senators wrote in a letter organized by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse.
“As to the former category, we will expect you to provide the Committee with a list of issues over which the privilege has affirmatively been asserted,” they added.
During his intelligence committee testimony in June, Sessions detailed his involvement in Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey. However, he declined to discuss his conversations with Trump on that topic or about the Russia probe, Politico adds. Sessions disqualified himself from the Russia investigation in March, and two months later, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein appointed Special Counsel Robert Mueller to oversee that inquiry, Politico writes.
The decision by Sessions to recuse himself from the probe created tensions with Trump, as the Attorney General has kept quiet on criticism from the President. However, recently Sessions suggested that his relationship with Trump is getting better, Politico adds.
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