WASHINGTON _ Attorney General Jeff Sessions refused to tell Congress on Wednesday if he had stepped aside from supervising the federal investigation into President Donald Trump's personal lawyer in New York, or say if he has discussed the sensitive probe with the president or his aides.
Sessions, testifying before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee, rebuffed questions about the Justice Department's investigation into Michael Cohen, the president's longtime personal attorney and trusted fixer.
Asked if he had discussed the Cohen investigation with Trump or White House staff, Sessions started to answer, "I don't think in any significant..." but then said he shouldn't reveal his conversations with the president.
"I am just not able to go down that road," Sessions said. He also declined to answer when asked if Trump or anyone else in the administration has discussed the possibility of pardoning Cohen if necessary.
On April 9, FBI agents armed with search warrants raided Cohen's New York City apartment, hotel room and law office and hauled away 10 boxes of documents, plus digital devices.
The investigation reportedly is focused on whether he violated federal banking or campaign finance laws with payments Cohen arranged to silence women who claimed they had sexual affairs with Trump.
A lawyer for the president argued in court last week that Trump, to protect attorney-client privilege, should be allowed to review the seized documents before they can be used in the investigation. The judge has yet to rule.
Cohen has not been charged with any crime, and he has denied any wrongdoing.
Sessions recused himself early last year from supervising the special counsel investigation led by Robert S. Mueller III into Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign, or whether anyone in the Trump campaign cooperated with it. Sessions was a senior adviser to the Trump campaign.
But Sessions wouldn't say Wednesday if his recusal also includes the investigation into Cohen, saying that would reveal details about the scope of the probe. According to court documents, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York launched the investigation after Mueller's team shared evidence of a potential crime.
The recusals are a sensitive subject for Sessions. The president has repeatedly blasted him for stepping away from the Russia probe, a decision he apparently views as a personal betrayal.
