While Tuesday’s Appropriations hearing was billed as an opportunity to discuss the Department of Justice budget, U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., was planning to interrogate Sessions over his contacts with Russian officials, as well as the attorney general’s current role in the FBI investigation into Russia meddling in the 2016 election.
Tuesday’s hearing would have been Sessions’ first time testifying under oath since he was confirmed as attorney general in February. He instead testified Tuesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Under oath, Sessions called any allegations of collusion between the Russian government and associates of Donald Trump an “abhorrent and detestable lie.”
“These false attacks, the innuendo, and the leaks, you can be sure, will not intimidate me,” Sessions said.
During Tuesday’s Intelligence Committee hearing, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., asked Sessions to reschedule his testimony before the Appropriations Committee, a request that drew no response from Sessions. A detailed report on Sessions’ Intelligence Committee testimony is available here.
Sessions’ two cancellations before Appropriations have miffed Leahy, who made clear in remarks Tuesday that he still wanted to question the former Alabama senator.
“I won’t mince words: You are not the witness we were supposed to hear from today, and you are not the witness who should be sitting behind that table,” Leahy told Rosenstein during Tuesday’s hearing.
Leahy has sought details on Sessions’ exact role in Trump’s campaign and administration for months.
During Sessions’ confirmation process before the Senate Judiciary Committee in January, both Leahy and U.S. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., asked Sessions whether he had been in contact with Russian officials during the campaign. Sessions said no, a claim that was later shown to be false in a March report from The Washington Post, which reported two meetings between Sessions and the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak.
After the Post story was published, Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation, but he was involved in the decision to fire former FBI Director James Comey.
Leahy and Franken have written three letters to the FBI seeking investigation of Sessions’ role in dealings with Russia.
Two of the letters were sent when Comey was still director, and requested the FBI “investigate all contacts the Russian ambassador, or any other Russian officials, may have had with Attorney General Jeff Sessions or his staff.” A follow-up letter from Leahy and Franken on May 12 notified acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe of the request to probe Sessions’ contacts with Russia.
On Tuesday, Leahy said in a Senate floor speech that Sessions’ Judiciary testimony over Russia contacts “could be construed as perjury.” For weeks, Leahy has has been looking to get the attorney general back before the Judiciary Committee to clarify his relationship with Russian officials, and he is optimistic that Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, will hold such hearings.
There may be additional contacts Sessions had with the Russians beyond the two reported by the Post, including allegations of a third meeting last year between the attorney general and the Russian ambassador at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington.
In testimony Tuesday, Sessions did not deny the meeting outright, but said he could not recall a meeting with Kislyak.
“I can assure you nothing improper, if I had a conversation with [Kislyak],” Sessions said.
FLAG: Sessions, seeming to contradict earlier testimony, now says it’s “conceivable” he had a conversation with Kislyak at the Mayflower. pic.twitter.com/I3JHAGWEa6
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 13, 2017
Speculation around Sessions has ramped up since former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony last week. During questioning, Comey said he had expected Sessions to recuse himself weeks before the decision was announced, saying the bureau had “facts I can’t discuss in an open setting that would make his continued involvement in a Russia investigation problematic.”
“Sooner or later the attorney general must answer for his actions,” Leahy said on the floor Tuesday. “We deserve to know whether he is acting in the public interest, or in Donald Trump’s personal interest. If he cannot decide between those answers — if he cannot distinguish between the public interest and Donald Trump’s interest — then he is unfit to serve as attorney general.”
While Leahy leveled serious concern with Sessions’ involvement in the Russia investigation, he also voiced disapproval of Trump’s proposed 2018 Department of Justice budget, which slashes spending by more than $1 billion over 2017 levels.
While many DOJ programs would see cuts, Trump’s budget would see more than a $400 million increase in efforts to combat drug trafficking.
Leahy defended specific programs on the chopping block, from the Crime Victims Fund to grants supporting school safety. Trump is looking to cut rape kit backlog reduction grants by $20 million, youth mentoring programs by $22 million and $70 million from Byrne-Justice Assistance grants, which help municipalities and states, including Vermont, fight crime.
Another Justice program that is important for Vermont and targeted by Trump is the Community Oriented Policing Services program. In November, Burlington received a $625,000 federal COPS grant to hire more officers, and the state of Vermont received more than $700,000 to hire officers in September 2013. (Trump hopes to cut the COPS program by more than $10 million.)
“The unbalanced and misplaced ‘priorities’ of this budget makes one thing clear: Rather than a ‘foundation for American greatness,’ President Trump and Attorney General Sessions are intent on making our communities less safe, abandoning victims of crime, and villainizing immigrants who contribute to our communities,” Leahy said Tuesday.
