Sessions didn't help himself or his president

By Jennifer Rubin October 19 at 9:00 AM

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Despite advanced warning from committee Democrats, Sessions played the same game as he and other witnesses have before. He wouldn’t answer, but neither would he invoke executive privilege. “Contrary to Department of Justice Department policy, Attorney General Sessions doubled down on his non-assertion assertion of executive privilege,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) in a written statement provided to Right Turn. “It has been four months since he refused to answer questions before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. How much time does he need to get a response from the White House as to whether the President asserts executive privilege?” The former prosecutor explained, ” The Attorney General had months to approach the President about whether he’d make such a claim, and we gave him plenty of warning that he’d need to address this today. This is a stonewall, plain and simple, and it undermines the credibility of the Committee and the Attorney General to allow it to happen.”

In a telephone interview, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told me, “He has stretched the concept of privilege beyond all legal recognition.” If the privilege is to be invoked, Blumenthal pointed out, it is up to the president. “But the president has waived the privilege by tweets and public statements,” he said.

Indeed, Republicans could put a stop to this rigmarole if they subpoenaed him and demanded he answer direct questions, with the threat of contempt of Congress hovering over his head. That doesn’t appear to be happening any time soon. As Blumenthal wryly observed, Republicans evidence “no real appetite to precipitate a confrontation” with the administration. That’s putting it mildly.

Nevertheless, we got some snippets of intriguing information, none of which are particularly helpful to the president or to Sessions.

First, he has not yet been interviewed by the special counsel. This confirms that Robert S. Mueller III and his attorneys are following a methodical path — first request documents, then interview lesser figures (e.g. former chief of staff Reince Priebus, former press secretary Sean Spicer) and only then get to the main players. As one could tell from the unanswered questions raised by Democrats, Mueller will want to know what information Sessions has about firing former FBI Director James B. Comey, concocting a phony cover story, being on the receiving end of retaliation for recusing himself and possibly the president’s interfering with the prosecution of former sheriff Joe Arpaio.

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