The truth is leaking out slowly but surely
Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday strongly defended President Donald Trump's firing of James Comey, linking the FBI director's abrupt dismissal to his handling of the Hillary Clinton email server investigation.
Sessions, appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, said it was "the first time I'm aware of" in which an FBI director had performed the traditional role of Justice Department prosecutors by announcing on his own the conclusion of a federal investigation — that no charges would be brought against Clinton.
He said he was further galled when Comey, weeks before his firing, insisted to Congress that he would have taken the same actions again.
Under questioning by Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Sessions refused to say whether he also discussed with Trump Comey's involvement in the Russia investigation.
Though Sessions refused to discuss his private conversations with Trump, he said the president had asked him and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for their recommendations about what to do with Comey.
"He did ask for our written opinion and we submitted that to him," Sessions said under questioning from Feinstein of California, the committee's top Democrat. "It did not represent any change in either one of ours opinions."
Comey's firing received new attention earlier in the day when Trump tweeted, based on newly released private FBI emails, that Comey had prematurely exonerated Clinton.
The routine oversight hearing is Sessions' first before the committee since his January confirmation, and it comes as has worked quickly to reshape the department with an intense focus on immigration, drugs, gangs and violent crime.
He was likely to face questions from lawmakers about his swift undoing of Obama-era protections for gay and transgender people and his rollback of criminal justice policies that aimed to reduce the federal prison population, among other changes he has made in nine months since taking office.
Sessions has tried to pressure so-called sanctuary cities into cooperating with federal immigration authorities by threatening to withhold grant money, and he was the public face of the Trump administration's decision to end a program benefiting hundreds of thousands of young people who entered the U.S. illegally as children. Congress is seeking a legislative solution to extend the protections before recipients' work permits expire.
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/US-.../18/id/820546/
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Grokmaster
