Comey and Sessions Are Questioned for Hours in Russia Inquiry

The attorney general announced in March that he had recused himself from all matters related to the 2016 election, including the Russia inquiry. The disclosure came after it was revealed that Mr. Sessions had not told Congress that he met twice with the Russian ambassador to the United States at the time, Sergey I. Kislyak, during the campaign.

Mr. Sessions, an early supporter of Mr. Trump’s presidential run, had been among a small group of senior campaign and administration officials whom Mr. Mueller had been expected to interview.

Mr. Mueller’s interest in Mr. Sessions shows how the president’s own actions helped prompt a broader inquiry. What began as a Justice Department counterintelligence investigation into Russia’s election interference is now also an examination of whether Mr. Trump tried to obstruct the inquiry, and the nation’s top law enforcement officer is a witness in the case.

For Mr. Mueller, Mr. Sessions is a key witness to two of the major issues he is investigating: the campaign’s possible ties to the Russians and whether the president tried to obstruct the Russia investigation.

Mr. Mueller can question Mr. Sessions about his role as the head of the campaign’s foreign policy team. Mr. Sessions was involved in developing Mr. Trump’s position toward Russia and met with Russian officials, including the ambassador.

Along with Mr. Trump, Mr. Sessions led a March 2016 meeting at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, where one of the campaign’s foreign policy advisers, George Papadopoulos, pitched the idea of a personal meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin. Mr. Papadopoulos plead guilty in October to lying to federal authorities about the nature of his contacts with the Russians and agreed to cooperate with the special counsel’s office.

As attorney general, Mr. Sessions was deeply involved in the firing of the former F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, and the president has repeatedly criticized Mr. Sessions publicly and privately for recusing himself from the Russia investigation.

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When Mr. Trump learned in March that Mr. Sessions was considering whether to recuse himself, the president had the White House’s top lawyer, Donald F. McGahn II, lobby Mr. Sessions to remain in charge of the Russia investigation.

Mr. Sessions instead followed the guidance of career prosecutors at the Justice Department, who advised him that he should not be involved with the investigation. When Mr. Trump was told of this, the president erupted in anger, saying he needed an attorney general to protect him.

After Mr. Mueller was appointed in May, Mr. Trump again erupted at Mr. Sessions and Mr. Sessions offered to resign. Several days later, Mr. Trump rejected Mr. Sessions’s offer.

Two weeks ago, Mr. Mueller subpoenaed Mr. Trump’s former chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, to testify before a grand jury. Mr. Mueller is expected to forgo the grand jury appearance for now and will have his investigators interview Mr. Bannon in the coming weeks.

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Kentucky school shooting: 2 dead, 12 more shot at Marshall County High School

BENTON, Ky. – Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin said Tuesday afternoon that a 15-year-old boy shot 14 people Tuesday morning at a southwestern Kentucky high school. Two of the victims, a 15-year-old boy and 15-year-old girl, died. Five others suffered non-gunshot injuries, the governor said. The suspect in the incident at Marshall County High School in Benton, Kentucky, has been apprehended, according to officials with Marshall County Emergency Management.

Kentucky State Police Commissioner Richard Sanders said during a press conference Tuesday afternoon that the suspect entered the school at 7:57 a.m. and soon opened fire with a handgun. Sanders said the first 911 call came in two minutes later, and police were on scene by 8:06 a.m.

A Marshall County deputy apprehended the shooter. One of the two deceased victims, the 15-year-old girl, died at the scene, Bevin said during the press conference. The other deceased victim passed away at a hospital. He was one of six students flown to the nearest Level 1 trauma center, in Nashville, Tennessee.

Bevin lauded the officers who rushed to the scene, saying they prevented the shooter from killing more people.

“(They) ensured that this was not a more painful incident than what has occurred,” Bevin said.

Sanders said officials expect to charge the suspect with counts of murder and attempted murder. He added that investigators are looking into background and home life. The identities of the suspect and victims were not released.

Nearly 100 children ran out of Marshall County High School seeking safety, said Mitchell Garland, who rushed outside of his business when he heard about the shooting. 

“They was running and crying and screaming,” Garland told the Associated Press. “They was just kids running down the highway. They were trying to get out of there.”

A half-dozen ambulances and numerous police cars converged on the school. Officers in black fatigues carrying assault rifles showed up as well. Federal authorities also responded, and Bevin ran out of the Capitol to rush to the school. Parents left their cars on both sides of an adjacent road, desperately trying to find their children.

The Marshall County Tribune-Courier reports students were being bused late Tuesday morning to nearby North Marshall Middle School, where parents could pick them up. 

Marshall County High School is about 30 minutes from Heath High School in Paducah, Kentucky, where a 1997 mass shooting killed three and injured five. Michael Carneal, then 14, opened fire there about two years before the fatal attack at Columbine High School in Colorado, ushering in an era when mass school shootings have become much more common.

Meanwhile, in the small North Texas town of Italy, a 15-year-old girl was recovering Tuesday after police said she was shot by a 16-year-old classmate in her high school cafeteria on Monday, sending dozens of students scrambling for safety.

The scene of Tuesday’s shooting was chaotic, with parents and students rushing around trying to find each other, said Dusty Kornbacher, who owns a nearby floral shop.

“All the parking lots were full with parents and kids hugging each other and crying and nobody really knowing what was going on,” Kornbacher said. 

Barry Mann said his 14-year-old son was put on a bus and taken to another school for him to pick up. 

“He gave me a call as soon as he run out the door and I didn’t know what was happening to him,” he told the AP. “It sounded like his heart was in his throat.” 

Garland said his son, a 16-year-old sophomore, jumped into someone’s car and sped away before reaching his office. 

“Everyone is just scared. Just terrified for their kids,” Garland said. “We’re a small town and we know a lot of the kids.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

 

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