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Comey and Sessions Are Questioned for Hours in Russia Inquiry Sessions Is Questioned as Russia Inquiry Focuses on Obstruction
(about 5 hours later)
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions was questioned for several hours last week as part of the special counsel investigation, and the former F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, was interviewed by the office last year, according to two people briefed on the meeting. WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions was questioned for several hours last week as part of the special counsel investigation, the Justice Department confirmed Tuesday, making him the first member of President Trump’s cabinet to be interviewed in the inquiry.
The interview with Mr. Sessions marked the first time that investigators for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, are known to have questioned a member of President Trump’s cabinet. The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, is increasingly focused on Mr. Trump’s conduct in office and on whether he obstructed the investigation itself.
The interview with Mr. Comey focused on a series of memos he wrote about his interactions with Mr. Trump that unnerved Mr. Comey. In one memo, Mr. Comey said that Mr. Trump had asked him to end the F.B.I.’s investigation into the former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn. Mr. Mueller has also told the president’s lawyers that he will most likely want to interview Mr. Trump, and one person familiar with the discussions has said that the special counsel appeared most interested in asking questions about the firing of the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, and about the former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn. Those topics show Mr. Mueller has an interest in whether the president tried to obstruct justice.
Mr. Mueller’s investigators have asked current and former Trump administration officials about what Mr. Trump cited as reasons for Mr. Comey’s firing, and why Mr. Trump was so concerned about having someone loyal to him oversee the Russia investigation, people familiar with the interviews said.
For Mr. Sessions, the interview was the latest in a balancing act that has lasted nearly a year. He has sought to get back in Mr. Trump’s good graces by pursuing investigations into issues like leaks to the news media and relaying Mr. Trump’s displeasure about senior F.B.I. leadership to the bureau’s current director, Christopher A. Wray.
But Mr. Sessions has also tried to present a veneer of independence in congressional testimony and now has met with investigators in Mr. Mueller’s inquiry, which has for months cast a shadow over the Trump White House.
News of the interview set off a day of revelations that highlighted Mr. Trump’s charged relationship with his top law enforcement officials.
Mr. Comey was said on Tuesday to have met last year with Mr. Mueller’s investigators to answer questions about memos he wrote detailing interactions with the president that had unnerved him. Mr. Trump also said he was not troubled that Mr. Sessions met with the special counsel and denied a report that Mr. Wray had threatened to resign.
“He didn’t at all,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Wray, adding: “He did not even a little bit. Nope. He’s going to do a good job.”
The report, by the website Axios, said Mr. Sessions was pressuring Mr. Wray, at the president’s behest, to clear the F.B.I. of loyalists to Mr. Comey. But Mr. Wray responded that he needed to move at his own pace to make changes, and that if Mr. Sessions and the president wanted replacements made more quickly, someone else would have to do it, a person familiar with the exchange said, adding that Mr. Wray stopped short of threatening to quit.
Mr. Wray’s tenure has been tense as the president has repeatedly fanned suspicion about whether the F.B.I.’s work is politically motivated, including the Russia investigation.
Mr. Trump and his allies have focused their ire on Andrew G. McCabe, the bureau’s deputy director. Mr. McCabe’s wife was a Virginia State Senate candidate in 2015, and she received donations from the “super PAC” supporting the state’s governor at the time, Terry McAuliffe, a longtime ally of Hillary Clinton’s.
Though Mr. Wray has resisted the pressure to change Mr. McCabe’s role, he has begun to alter the F.B.I.’s leadership. He removed James Baker, the general counsel for the bureau under Mr. Comey, and replaced him with Dana Boente, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and the acting head of the Justice Department’s national security division, according to a person familiar with the move.
Mr. Wray also said in a statement on Tuesday that he has replaced his departing chief of staff, James Rybicki, who served under Mr. Comey, with Zachary Harmon, whom Mr. Wray worked with in private practice and who previously served at the Justice Department.
During the daily White House news briefing, the press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, insisted that the president has “100 percent” confidence in Mr. Wray and that it was up to Mr. Wray to decide how to handle the bureau’s leadership.
A Justice Department spokeswoman, Sarah Isgur Flores, confirmed that the interview with Mr. Sessions occurred. He was accompanied to the interview by the longtime Washington lawyer Chuck Cooper.
For Mr. Mueller, Mr. Sessions is a key witness to two of the major issues he is investigating: the Trump campaign’s possible ties to the Russians and whether the Mr. Trump tried to obstruct the Russia investigation.
Mr. Mueller can question Mr. Sessions about his role as the head of the campaign’s foreign policy team. Mr. Sessions was involved in developing Mr. Trump’s position toward Russia and he met with Russian officials, including the ambassador.
Along with Mr. Trump, Mr. Sessions led a March 2016 meeting where one of the campaign’s foreign policy advisers, George Papadopoulos, pitched the idea of a personal meeting between Mr. Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Mr. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty in October to lying to federal authorities about the nature of his contacts with Russians and agreed to cooperate with the special counsel’s inquiry.
When Mr. Trump learned in March that Mr. Sessions, by then the attorney general, was considering whether to recuse himself from overseeing the Russia investigation, the president had the White House’s top lawyer, Donald F. McGahn II, lobby Mr. Sessions to remain in charge of the inquiry.
Mr. Sessions instead followed the guidance of career prosecutors at the Justice Department, who advised him that he should stay out of the investigation. When Mr. Trump was informed, the president erupted in anger, saying he needed an attorney general to protect him.
The special counsel’s investigators have also asked witnesses about the president’s desires to fire Mr. Sessions, whom Mr. Trump has criticized publicly and privately for recusing himself from the inquiry, though he has left Mr. Sessions in charge of the Justice Department.
Mr. Trump believes Mr. Mueller would never have been appointed if Mr. Sessions had not stepped aside. After Mr. Mueller was appointed in May, Mr. Trump again grew angry at Mr. Sessions, who offered to resign. Days later, Mr. Trump rejected that offer.
The questions that Mr. Mueller’s investigators have asked in relation to Mr. Comey were based in part on information he provided during his own interviews with the special counsel’s office last year, according to people familiar with the matter. In one of his memos, Mr. Comey wrote that Mr. Trump had asked him to end the F.B.I.’s investigation into Mr. Flynn.
After the president’s request was revealed publicly, the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, appointed Mr. Mueller as the special counsel to lead the Russia investigation and examine whether the president obstructed justice.After the president’s request was revealed publicly, the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, appointed Mr. Mueller as the special counsel to lead the Russia investigation and examine whether the president obstructed justice.
The disclosure about Mr. Comey’s interview came hours after the Justice Department spokeswoman, Sarah Isgur Flores, confirmed that the interview with Mr. Sessions occurred. Mr. Sessions was accompanied by the longtime Washington lawyer Chuck Cooper to the interview.
The attorney general announced in March that he had recused himself from all matters related to the 2016 election, including the Russia inquiry. The disclosure came after it was revealed that Mr. Sessions had not told Congress that he met twice with the Russian ambassador to the United States at the time, Sergey I. Kislyak, during the campaign.
Mr. Sessions, an early supporter of Mr. Trump’s presidential run, had been among a small group of senior campaign and administration officials whom Mr. Mueller had been expected to interview.
Mr. Mueller’s interest in Mr. Sessions shows how the president’s own actions helped prompt a broader inquiry. What began as a Justice Department counterintelligence investigation into Russia’s election interference is now also an examination of whether Mr. Trump tried to obstruct the inquiry, and the nation’s top law enforcement officer is a witness in the case.
For Mr. Mueller, Mr. Sessions is a key witness to two of the major issues he is investigating: the campaign’s possible ties to the Russians and whether the president tried to obstruct the Russia investigation.
Mr. Mueller can question Mr. Sessions about his role as the head of the campaign’s foreign policy team. Mr. Sessions was involved in developing Mr. Trump’s position toward Russia and met with Russian officials, including the ambassador.
Along with Mr. Trump, Mr. Sessions led a March 2016 meeting at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, where one of the campaign’s foreign policy advisers, George Papadopoulos, pitched the idea of a personal meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin. Mr. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty in October to lying to federal authorities about the nature of his contacts with the Russians and agreed to cooperate with the special counsel’s office.
As attorney general, Mr. Sessions was deeply involved in the firing of the former F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, and the president has repeatedly criticized Mr. Sessions publicly and privately for recusing himself from the Russia investigation.
When Mr. Trump learned in March that Mr. Sessions was considering whether to recuse himself, the president had the White House’s top lawyer, Donald F. McGahn II, lobby Mr. Sessions to remain in charge of the Russia investigation.
Mr. Sessions instead followed the guidance of career prosecutors at the Justice Department, who advised him that he should not be involved with the investigation. When Mr. Trump was told of this, the president erupted in anger, saying he needed an attorney general to protect him.
After Mr. Mueller was appointed in May, Mr. Trump again erupted at Mr. Sessions and Mr. Sessions offered to resign. Several days later, Mr. Trump rejected Mr. Sessions’s offer.
Mr. Trump insisted to reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday afternoon that he was not troubled that Mr. Sessions had spoken to Mr. Mueller’s investigators.
“No, not at all,” Mr. Trump said.
The president was also asked whether Christopher A. Wray, the director of the F.B.I. who replaced Mr. Comey, had threatened to resign because Mr. Trump and Mr. Sessions were pressuring him to clear the bureau of loyalists to Mr. Comey, as reported by the website Axios late on Monday.
“He didn’t at all,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Wray. Asked again, the president added: “He did not even a little bit. Nope. He’s going to do a good job.”
Mr. Wray’s tenure has been fraught as the president has repeatedly fanned suspicion about whether the F.B.I.’s work is politically motivated. But he stopped short of threatening to quit, a person familiar with the events said. Mr. Wray told Mr. Sessions that he needed to move at his own pace to make changes within the F.B.I., and that if the president and the attorney general wanted replacements made more quickly, someone else would have to do it, the person said.
Two weeks ago, Mr. Mueller subpoenaed Mr. Trump’s former chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, to testify before a grand jury. Mr. Mueller is expected to forgo the grand jury appearance for now and will instead have his investigators interview Mr. Bannon in the coming weeks.