Why Do Democrats Want Jeff Sessions To Testify In Public About Trump's Alleged Links With Russia?

Democratic senators urged the Senate Intelligence Committee on Sunday to question Attorney General Jeff Sessions about alleged ties between President Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russia in a public hearing instead of a closed one. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) wrote a letter Sunday to the committee's Chairman Richard Burr and Vice Chairman Mark Warner requesting for an open hearing of Sessions.

"I urge that the Committee hold a hearing with the Attorney General in the open so that the American people can hear for themselves what he has to say with regard to connections to the Russians and the President's abuse of power," the letter stated.

Wyden also cited the example of former FBI Director James Comey's hearing last Thursday which "provided valuable information to the public," and increased the confidence of the people in the Congress that it will conduct a fair investigation into last year's presidential election and "concerns related to former National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn."

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The committee has not yet confirmed the Tuesday date for Sessions' testimony and is still discussing whether to allow Sessions to testify in open or closed sessions, or both, as was the case with James Comey last week, reports said.

Members of the committee said they would ask Sessions to recount the meeting between Trump and Comey on Feb. 14 at the Oval Office, where according to Comey, Trump pressured him to drop the FBI investigation into Flynn, the New York Times reported. Sessions was asked by Trump, among others, to leave the meeting so that the president could speak to Comey in private.

“We’ve had a lot of unnamed sources in the media come out and make statements about Jeff Sessions,” Sen. James Lankford (R-Oklahoma), who is on the committee, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “It’d be very good to get it directly from him.” Lankford also indicated the hearing might be public.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York) also appeared on the show after Comey's testimony last week and said he thinks Sessions' testimony should be public. "There's very little that's classified. Anything's that's classified, they can do in a separate classified briefing. There are some questions about Sessions that have to be asked. First, did he interfere with the Russian investigation before he recused himself? Second, what safeguards are there now so that he doesn't interfere? Third, it says he was involved in the firing of Comey. And the President said Comey was fired because of Russia."

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Sessions had originally been scheduled to testify Tuesday before the House and Senate Appropriations Committees about the Justice Department’s budget. He said he would send in his place Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general.

Sessions had said during his confirmation hearing that he had not met with Russians during the presidential election last year. In March, he announced his recusal from the Trump-Russia investigation. Comey’s testimony last week raised questions surrounding Sessions’ recusal from the FBI’s probe. Comey told the committee he couldn't discuss the reason why the FBI believed Sessions would have to recuse himself from the investigation.