Attorney General Jeff Sessions will go before the House Judiciary Committee next week for a standard oversight hearing on the Department of Justice — but should be prepared for questions from Democrats on Russia.
Sessions, a former senator, has twice gone before Senate committees to divulge details of his contacts with Russian government officials when he was part of Trump’s presidential campaign team in 2016 — first during his confirmation hearing earlier this year and again last month.
Sessions told the Senate Judiciary Committee in January he was “not aware of” any Trump campaign associates communicating with Russians — though it was later revealed he met twice with former Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak in 2016 — and then told the same panel last month he himself had “no improper involvement” with Russian officials.
“I did not — and I’m not aware that anyone else did,” the former senator told Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., last month when asked if Trump campaign surrogates had communications with the Russians.
But since he last testified, former foreign policy campaign adviser George Papadopoulos has pleaded guilty for lying to federal investigators about his attempts to set up a meeting between the Russian government and the Trump campaign — which was reportedly shot down by Sessions.
Following that revelation, former Trump adviser Carter Page told the House Intelligence Committee last week he had told Sessions he was traveling to Moscow in July 2016.
In a letter dated Tuesday, House Democrats tell Sessions he should be prepared to be “responsible and complete” in his answers to them next week.
The letter makes it clear they plan to ask him about Papadopoulos’ communications with the Russians and what he relayed to both Sessions and the Trump team, as well as his “inconsistencies” in what he has previously told Congress.
The Democrats, led by Rep. Jon Conyers Jr. of Michigan, also ask the attorney general to respond to a handful of letters sent by House Judiciary relating to Justice Department oversight.
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee also want Sessions to return to Capitol Hill to answer questions, and want Republicans to back their calls.
“Maybe he has a faulty memory … there are a lot of excuses one can make,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
“But at this stage, he’s got to narrow his recollections. When he comes before the committee again, he has to be precise, and it has to be accurate.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC., said separately during a Sunday appearance on Fox News: “Jeff, you need to tell us everything you know about Russia. So, yes, he probably should come back and answer the question yet again: Did you know anything about an effort by the Trump campaign to meet with Russia, not just collude with Russia?”
Reuters reported Tuesday Sessions is also expected to appear behind closed doors before the House Intelligence Committee on Nov. 14, the same day as the House Judiciary’s oversight hearing.
