WASHINGTON: US Attor­­­ney General Jeff Sessions was questioned last week by the special counsel’s office investigating potential collusion between Russia and President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, the US Justice Department said on Tuesday.

The interview marked the first time that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office is known to have interviewed a member of Trump’s Cabinet.

The interview with Sessions, who served as an adviser to Trump’s campaign before the president appointed him as the top US law enforcement official, is another serious development in an investigation that has hung like a cloud over Trump’s year-old presidency.

Sessions recused himself from overseeing the Russia probe last March after media outlets reported he had failed to disclose several 2016 meetings with Russia’s ambassador. His recusal paved the way for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the No. 2 official in the Justice Department, to appoint Mueller as special counsel in May 2017.

His involvement in Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey is likely to be one area of interest for Mueller’s team as it looks at potential obstruction of justice by the Republican president.

Ian Prior, a Justice Department spokesman, confirmed that Sessions met with Mueller’s team last week, but did not provide any additional details. An attorney representing Sessions could not immediately be reached for comment.

Trump fired Comey last May after both Sessions and Rosenstein penned a memo recommending his ouster over his prior handling of the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. Clinton was the Democratic presidential candidate who lost to Trump in 2016.

Published in Dawn, January 24th, 2018