By: Kayla Pasacreta

Things to know before reading:

·      Jeff Sessions lied under oath to Congress about his dealings with Russia (he didn’t disclose meetings with Russian ambassadors), causing him to recuse himself from matters involving the Russia investigation

Jeff Sessions, the head of the Department of Justice was already expected to testify in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, but this testimony is now starting to cause quite a commotion as Sessions has announced the hearing will be public. This comes not even a week after former FBI director James Comey’s hearing (that amassed almost 20 million viewers) about the Trump administration and the Russia probe.

The members of the Senate Intelligence Committee want to specifically asks Sessions about the events that occurred in the Oval Office on February 14th. Comey described that on this day, Trump cleared the room of Sessions and one of his advisers, Jared Kushner, to urge Comey to “let the Flynn investigation go”. The Senate Intelligence Committee now wants to hear Sessions’ side of the story.

Comey also confirmed in his testimony that he had told Sessions to not leave him alone with Trump. Comey says Sessions didn’t say a word after his statement, but Session’s team insists that Sessions told Comey this would not be acceptable.

Another hot topic in the testimony should be whether or whether not it was important for the Department of Justice to recommend the firing of Comey, since Jeff Sessions had recused himself from the Russia investigation. If you remember the events following Comey’s firing, you know that there were multiple reports about why Comey was fired, but Trump said himself it was to take off heat regarding the Russia investigation. If this is true, Sessions was not honoring his recusal from the Russia investigation.

The most pressing question we have here is if Sessions is truly credible. After failing to disclose dealings with Russian ambassador at his January 10th confirmation hearing, many are wondering if Sessions is at risk of committing perjury again. If Sessions did in fact lie under oath a second time, serious questions should be raised about the integrity of the Trump administration (seriously, who didn’t already have those)?