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SESSIONS: 'I would recuse myself' from any investigation involving Hillary Clinton

Jan 10, 2017, 21:45 IST

Jeff Sessions.Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Sen. Jeff Sessions, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to be attorney general, said Tuesday during his high-profile Senate confirmation hearing that he would recuse himself from potential investigations involving Hillary Clinton.

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The Alabama senator said he would do so because of the positions he staked out while campaigning for Trump.

Asked by Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the Senate Judiciary Committee chair, about how he would handle any further potential investigation regarding Clinton, Sessions said, "I believe the proper thing would be to recuse myself."

"Some of the comments I made I do believe could place my objectivity into question," he said, adding, "We could never have a political dispute turn into a criminal dispute."

Sessions was sharply critical of Clinton during the campaign, serving as a top surrogate for Trump. In August, he said it "seems like" the FBI didn't fully investigate the former secretary of state regarding a relationship between the Clinton Foundation and State Department under her leadership.

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"The fundamental thing is you cannot be secretary of state of the United States of America and use that position to extort or seek contributions to your private foundation," he said. "That is a fundamental violation of law and that does appear to have happened."

Trump said during the campaign that he would appoint a special prosecutor to pursue investigations into Clinton, a pledge on which he has backtracked after his electoral victory.

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