‘He Declined to Answer the Question’
Attorney General Jeff Sessions met with the House Intelligence Committee Thursday, and refused to say if President Donald Trump ever asked him to hinder the Justice Dept.’s Russia investigation.Â
Sessions, the nation’s top law enforcement executive, has repeatedly lied to the U.S. Senate while under oath, and has never been charged with a crime. Lying to Congress can put you in jail for five years, whether you did so under oath or not.
Meanwhile, technically, the president has to formally invoke executive privilege when he or someone in his or her administration refuses to answer questions from Congress. President Trump has not done so, so Sessions has exactly zero right to refuse to answer questions posed by Congress.Â
And yet, that’s exactly what he did today.
“I asked the attorney general whether he was ever instructed by the president to take any action that he believed would hinder the Russia investigation, and he declined to answer the question,” Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee told reporters Thursday afternoon.
“If the president did not instruct him to take any action that he believed would hinder the Russia investigation, he should say so. If the president did instruct him to hinder the investigation in any way, in my view, that would be a potentially criminal act and certainly not covered by any privilege,” Schiff added.
Sessions’ spokesperson, Sarah Isgur Flores, “pushed back on Schiff’s remarks, saying the top cop has repeatedly stated he would not talk about his communications with the president. She noted that he has denied in previous testimonies being instructed by Trump to do anything illegal or improper,” The Hill adds.Â
Is it evidence of Trump’s obstruction of justice?
Special Counsel Robert Mueller will have to decide.
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