Senator Collins Questions Attorney General Sessions at Intelligence Committee Hearing

Click HERE to watch Senator Collins’ Q&A at the Intelligence Committee hearing
Note to assignment editors and news directors: Click HERE for high-quality video of Senator Collins’ Q&A at the Intelligence Committee hearing

Washington, D.C. - At a U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing this afternoon, U.S. Senator Susan Collins, a member of the committee, questioned Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

A transcript of Senator Collins’ Q&A with Mr. Sessions follows:

COLLINS: Attorney General Sessions, I want to clarify who did what with regard to the firing of Mr. Comey. First of all, let me ask you when did you have your first conversation with Rod Rosenstein about Mr. Comey?

SESSIONS: We talked about it before either one of us were confirmed. It was a topic of, you know, conversation among people who had served in the department a long time. They knew that what had happened that fall was pretty dramatically unusual. Many people felt it was very wrong, and so it was in that context that we discussed it, and we both found that we shared a common view that a fresh start would be appropriate.

COLLINS: And this was based on Mr. Comey's handling of the investigation involving Hillary Clinton in which you said that he usurped the authority of prosecutors at the Department of Justice?

SESSIONS: Yes, that was part of it, and the commenting on the investigation in ways that go beyond the proper policies. We need to restore, Senator Collins, I think, the classic discipline in the department. My team, we've discussed this. There’s been too much leaking and too much talking publicly about investigations. In the long run, the department's historic rule that you remain mum about ongoing investigations is the better policy.

COLLINS: Now subsequently the president asked for you to put your views in writing you've testified today, and I believe that you were right to recuse yourself from the ongoing Russian investigation, but then on May 9th you wrote to the president recommending that Mr. Comey be dismissed. And obviously this went back many months to the earlier conversations you had had with Mr. Rosenstein, but my question is why do you believe that your recommendation to fire Director Comey was not inconsistent with your March 2nd recusal?

SESSIONS: Thank you. The recusal involved one case involved in the Department of Justice and in the FBI. They conduct thousands of investigations. I’m the attorney general of the United States. It’s my responsibility to our Judiciary Committee and other committees to ensure that that department is run properly. I have to make difficult decisions, and I do not believe that it is a sound position to say that if you recuse for a single case involving any one of the great agencies like DEA or U.S. Marshals or ATF that are part of the Department of Justice, you can't make a decision about the leadership in that agency.

COLLINS: Now, if you had known that the president subsequently was going to go on TV and in an interview with Lester Holt of NBC would say that this “Russian thing” was the reason for his decision to dismiss the FBI director, would you have felt uncomfortable about the timing of the decision?

SESSIONS: Well, I would just say this, Senator Collins. I don't think it's appropriate to deal with those kind of hypotheticals. I have to deal in actual issues, and I would respectfully not comment on that.

COLLINS: Well, let me ask you this. In retrospect, do you believe that it would have been better for you to have stayed out of the decision to fire Director Comey?

SESSIONS: I think it's my responsibility. I mean, I was appointed to be attorney general. Supervising all the federal agencies is my responsibility. Trying to get the very best people in those agencies at the top of them is my responsibility, and I think I had a duty to do so.

COLLINS: Now, Director Comey testified that he was not comfortable telling you about his one-on-one conversation with the president on February 14th because he believed that you would shortly recuse yourself from the Russian investigation, which you did, yet Director Comey testified that he told no one else at the department outside of the senior leadership team at the FBI. Do you believe that the director had an obligation to bring the information about the president saying that he hoped he could let Michael Flynn go to someone else at the Department of Justice? There are an awful lot of lawyers at the Department of Justice, some 10,000 by last count.

SESSIONS: I think the appropriate thing would have been for Director Comey to talk with the acting deputy attorney general, who is his direct supervisor. That was Dana Boente, who had 33 years in the Department of Justice and was even then still serving for six years and continues to serve as attorney general appointed by President Obama, so he's a man of great integrity and everybody knows it, a man of decency and judgment. If he had concerns, I think he should have raised it to Deputy Attorney General Boent,e who would be the appropriate person in any case really, but if he had any concern that I might be recusing myself, that would be a double reason for him to share it with Deputy Attorney General Boente.

COLLINS: Thank you.