Sessions stays mum on talks with Trump

Attorney General Jeff Sessions refused to expound on private conversations with President Donald Trump about the Russia investigation and the decision to fire FBI Director James Comey. While testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, Sessions said he would not break long-standing Justice Department procedure to talk about what he and the president discussed behind closed doors. But Sessions did try to provide a timeline of events that led to his recusal from his department’s Russia probe. The Senate confirmed Sessions on Feb. 9, and he said he met with an ethics official the next day to begin the recusal process. It took him a month to make the decision public. Sessions said Tuesday he removed himself from the inquiry because he was an adviser to the Trump campaign, not because he thought he was a subject of the Russia probe or did anything wrong. Trump decided to fire Comey last month, a decision the White House originally said came from a Sessions recommendation. Democrats prodded Sessions to explain why he helped fire the man leading an investigation he had recused himself from. But Sessions declined to provide an answer: “I am not able to discuss with you or confirm or deny the nature of private conversations that I may have had with the president on this subject or others.”

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