Jeff Session's testimony, republican statements and highlights

[Gold Dragon]

WATCH LIVE: Sessions testifies about Russia meetings in Senate hearing

Transcript: Jeff Sessions' testimony on Trump and Russia

Again, I will only include what republicans stated. There is lots of information even if you exclude everything spoken by democrats. My emphasis is on information where there appears to be some level of certainty. I will include Sessions testimony as well as I think most republican leaning folks here would consider him credible.

BURR: On March 2nd, 2017, you recused yourself in the investigation being conducted by the FBI and the Department of Justice. What are the specific reasons that you chose to recuse yourself?

SESSIONS: The specific reason, chairman, is a cfr code of federal regulations put out by the Department of Justice. Part of the Department of Justice rules and it says this. I will read from it. 28 cfr 45.2. Unless authorized, no employee shall participate in a criminal investigation or prosecution if he had a personal or political relationship with any person involved in the conduct of an investigation that goes on to say for political campaign and it says if you have a close identification with an elected official or candidate arising from service as a principal adviser, you should not participate in an investigation of that campaign. Many have suggested that my recusal is because I felt I was a subject of the investigation myself, I may have done something wrong. This is the reason I recused myself: I felt I was required to under the rules of the Department of Justice and as a leader of the Department of Justice, I should comply with the rules obviously.

SEN. JIM RISCH: Attorney General Sessions, good to hear you talk about how important this Russian interference and active measures on the campaign is. I don't think there is any American who would disagree with the fact this we need to drill down to this, know what happened, get it out in front of the American people and do what we can to stop it again. That's what the committee was charged to do and started to do. As you know on February 14th, The New York Times published an article alleging that there were constant communications between the Trump campaign and the Russians in collusion regarding the elections. Do you recall that article when it came out?
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RISCH: You willing to tell the American people unfiltered by what the media will put out you participated in no conversations of any kind where there was collusion between the trump campaign and a foreign government?

SESSIONS: I can say that absolutely and have no hesitation to do so.

KING: Do you believe the Russians interfered with the 2016 elections?

SESSIONS: It appears so. The intelligence community seems to be united in that, but I have to tell you, senator king, I know nothing but what I've read in the paper. I've never received any details, briefing on how hacking occurred or how information was alleged to have influenced the campaigns.

SEN. TOM COTTON: Well, I am on this side of the dious and I could say a very simple question that should be asked. I am on this side of the dious, so a very simple question that should be asked is: “Did Donald Trump or any of his associates in the campaign collude with Russia in hacking those e-mails and releasing them to the public? That's where we started six months ago. We have now heard from six of the eight Democrats on this committee, and to my knowledge. I don't think a single one of them asked that question. They have gone down lots of other rabbit trails but not that question. Maybe that is because Jim Comey said last week as he said to Donald Trump on three times he assured him he was not under investigation. Maybe it's because multiple Democrats on this committee have stated they have seen no evidence thus far after six months of our investigation and ten months or 11 months of an FBI investigation of any such collusion.
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SESSIONS: Thank you for saying that, Senator Cotton. It's just like through the looking glass. I mean, what is this? I explained how in good faith I said I had not met with Russians, because they were suggesting I as a surrogate had been meeting continuously with Russians. I said I didn't meet with them and now, the next thing you know I'm accused of some reception plotting some sort of influence campaign for the American election. It's just beyond my capability to understand, and I really appreciate, Mr. Chairman, the opportunity to at least to be able to say publicly I didn't participate in that and know nothing about it.

CORNYN: So what essentially the deputy attorney general said is that former director Comey violated Department of Justice directives when he held a press conference on July the 5th, 2016. He announced that Secretary Clinton was extremely careless with classified e-mail and went on to release other derogatory information, including his conclusion that she was extremely careless but yet went on to say that no reasonable prosecutor would prosecute her. That is not the role of the FBI director, is it? That is a job for the prosecutors at the Department of Justice. That's what was meant by deputy attorney general Rosenstein when he said that director Comey usurped the role of the Department of Justice prosecutors. Is that right?

SESSIONS: That is correct, and former attorney general Bill Barr wrote an op-ed recently in which he said he had assumed that attorney general lynch had urged Mr. Comey to make this announcement so she wouldn't have to do it, but in fact it appears he did it without her approval totally and that is a pretty stunning thing. It is a stunning thing, and it violates fundamental powers and then when he reaffirmed that the rightness he believe of his decision on May 3rd, I think it was, that was additional confirmation that the director's thinking was not clear.

MCCAIN: Politico recently reported in the middle of the 2016 election the FBI found that Russian diplomats whose travel to the state department was supposed to track had gone missing. Some turned up wandering around the desert or driving around Kansas and reportedly intelligence services reported after a year of inattention, these movements indicate, one, that Moscow's espionage ground game has grown stronger and more brazen and that quietly, the Kremlin has been trying to map the United States telecommunications infrastructure. What do you know about this development and how the justice department and other relevant U.S. Government agencies are responding to it?

SESSIONS: We need to do more, Senator McCain. I am worried about it. We also see that from other nations with these kind of technological skills like China and some of the other nations that are penetrating our business interests, our national security interests. As a member of the Armed Services Committee, I did support and advocate -- and I think you supported -- legislation that would -- and it's ongoing now, that requires the defense department to identify weaknesses in our system and how we can fix them, but I would say to you, Senator McCain, that in my short tenure here in the Department of Justice I've been more concerned about computer hacking and those issues than I was in the Senate. It's an important issue, you're correct.
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MCCAIN: Do you believe we have a strategy in order to counter these ever increasing threats to our national security and our way of life?

SESSIONS: Not sufficiently. We do not have a sufficient strategy dealing with technological and I.T. penetrations of our system. I truly believe it's more important than I ever did before, and I appreciate your concern and leadership on that issue, and in fact, all of Congress is going to have to do better.

I believe Sessions that there was no outright collusion between himself or the Trump campaign as a whole with the Russians. I am still open to the possibility that there may have been 1 or 2 individuals on the campaign directly connected to Russia with a direct tie to Trump but hopefully that is not the case. It does appear clear to folks on all sides that the Russians were successful in their attempts to influence the US election (I'm not saying that is the reason Trump won but just that Russia's tactics successfully achieved their objectives of hacking, etc) and that is a serious thing the US needs to protect itself against.

It does appear that Sessions really has to work hard to protect Trump when it comes to the Comey firing. I think Sessions recognizes there may have been some inappropriateness from Trump there but nothing illegal.

 

[HankD]

I am not convinced that there was any activity on the part of the "Russians" (so-called) that was out of the ordinary to influence our 2016 election.

All over the international news scene (check Drudge News) just before an election there are pundits of every nation giving points of view, analyses even to the level of advice concerning our elections.

SO WHAT!

Did the Russian perpetrators (or German or Israeli or Italian, blah, blah) who support the DNC or RNC or independents or whoever SNEAK into the voting booths and VOTE!?

Oh that's right we've switched over to Obstruction of Justice.

My bad.

HankD

 

[Revmitchell]

It does appear clear to folks on all sides that the Russians were successful in their attempts to influence the US election

Nothing about this statement is true.

 

[HankD]

Nothing about this statement is true.

And there are those from both sides of the aisle which are risking domestic and international upheaval in an attempt to unseat our president.

HankD

 

[Gold Dragon]

I'll highlight a few quotes.

SEN. JIM RISCH: Attorney General Sessions, good to hear you talk about how important this Russian interference and active measures on the campaign is. I don't think there is any American who would disagree with the fact this we need to drill down to this, know what happened, get it out in front of the American people and do what we can to stop it again.

KING: Do you believe the Russians interfered with the 2016 elections?

SESSIONS: It appears so. The intelligence community seems to be united in that, but I have to tell you, senator king, I know nothing but what I've read in the paper. I've never received any details, briefing on how hacking occurred or how information was alleged to have influenced the campaigns.

From the Comey hearing.

RISCH: That's obvious, sir.

The -- the chairman walked you through a number of things that -- that the American people need to know and want to know. Number one, obviously we're -- all know about the active measures that the Russians have taken.

I think a lot of people were surprised at this. Those of us that work in the intelligence community didn't -- it didn't come as a surprise. But now, the American people know this, and it's good they know this, because this is serious and it's a problem.

And there are those from both sides of the aisle which are risking domestic and international upheaval in an attempt to unseat our president.

HankD

I don't think the republicans and sessions are looking to unseat the president. It was stated explicitly in the hearing that the election results are not under review. I think they are honestly trying to get to the bottom of what election interference took place, whether there was collusion, and how to prevent either in the future.

I think it is reasonable to be concerned about this, admitting it happened and will likely continue to happen without saying that the trump campaign was involved or that it decided the result of the election. It is pretty consistent with what appears to be Russian interference in other elections around the world.