Warren, Markey Call for Investigation into Attorney General Jeff Sessions

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Senate Democrats including Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey are calling for an investigation into Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s involvement in the dismissal of FBI director James Comey.

In a letter to the Department of Justice, the eight senators say Sessions “appears to have been intimately involved” in Comey’s firing, which would be a violation of his own recusal.

Sessions previously agreed to recuse himself from the FBI’s investigation into Russian tampering in the 2016 presidential campaign, during which he served as surrogate for President Donald Trump and held two undisclosed meetings with the Russian envoy.

“It is imperative that the American people have faith in the institutions that are investigating the influence a hostile foreign power may have had on our presidential campaign, election, and the current administration of President Trump,” the letter reads.

The eight senators, which include Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, pose three questions to the DOJ: to what extent is Sessions required by law to recuse himself from investigations into the Trump campaign; what was the scope of his March 2 recusal; and did his involvement in Comey’s dismissal violate either this recusal or department protocol?

“His involvement seems to be a clear violation of his recusal,” the letter says,” and can only be construed as an attempt to influence an ongoing investigation that threatens to examine his own role in the 2016 presidential campaign, as well as other elements of President Trump’s campaign and administration.”