Democrats at Jeff Sessions' hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee today grew increasingly frustrated at the Attorney General's refusal to answer basically any question about his conversations with the president. This is not unheard of in this setting, but the subject normally cites executive privilege when they refuse to respond. Sessions said the president had not invoked executive privilege and that he was not using it as an excuse, but that he still could not answer based on a nondescript "Justice Department policy."

Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, characterized this as "stonewalling" the committee:

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

“I am not stonewalling” -- this entire Sessions/Wyden exchange is something https://t.co/2RtQhOmAXh — Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) June 13, 2017

Later, Senator Heinrich clarified the "buckets" that responses from a congressional witness can fit in during an open session of a committee. The witness can respond to the question, claim the answer is classified and offer to reveal it in a closed session, or claim executive privilege:

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Sen. Heinrich to Sessions: “You are impeding this investigation” by not answering questions -- without a legal basis https://t.co/ctlKlQLrSN — Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) June 13, 2017

Senator Angus King, an Independent from Maine, pressed the issue. He demanded to know what Sessions' legal basis was for refusing to answer:

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

King: “What is the legal basis for your refusal to answer these questions” if Trump is not asserting exec privilege? https://t.co/WAX6b7yxku — Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) June 13, 2017

Like the intelligence officials who largely refused to answer questions last week, Sessions did not really offer a response. Other times, he simply did not recall:

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io