Less than a week after Jim Comey transfixed the nation at a Senate hearing in which he claimed, among other things, that President Trump lied about the circumstances of his firing, another hearing in the same room is set to rock the capital. Though it hasn’t gotten quite as many headlines, the testimony of Attorney General Jeff Sessions today could prove to have even more serious consequences—and contain more damaging revelations.
Sessions has been unusually taciturn about the Comey firing and other contentious issues, like his firing of dozens of federal prosecutors back in March. And he hasn’t appeared in Congress since his confirmation hearing on January 10, where he falsely stated that he “did not have communications with the Russians.” Almost two months later, it was reported that he had, in fact, twice met Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the campaign, forcing him to recuse himself from the Russia investigation.
If you’re looking for your weekly fix of Congressional hearing drama, set your watches for 2:30 p.m. EST for the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.
Here are just some of the questions that we think Sessions needs to be asked:
• What will you do if Trump tries to fire special prosecutor Robert Mueller?
• Did you know that Trump was going to fire James Comey before May 8, when he met with you and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to discuss the former FBI director? Did Trump mention the Russia investigation at that meeting?
• When Trump met with your team on Feb. 14, the day after Michael Flynn had resigned as national security adviser, he asked you to leave the room so that he could talk to Comey privately. Did you think that was appropriate? Did either one of them tell you later what they discussed?
• During Comey’s testimony last week, he said the FBI had information on you that would make it “problematic” for you to be involved in the Russia investigation, adding that your recusal was inevitable “for a variety of reasons.” But he declined to discuss any details in an open session. What information was Comey talking about?
• Did you have a third meeting with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak? According to recent reports, you and Kislyak attended an event at the Mayflower Hotel in April 2016 to hear Trump give a foreign policy speech.
• Why did you fire Preet Bahara, the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, whom Trump had told was going to keep his job? In addition, why was there such a rush to fire dozens of other prosecutors in one day?
• President Trump has suggested that he has “tapes” of his private meetings with Comey. Are there tapes? Do you think the president should release them?
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