--- title: Jeff Sessions Hired His Own Private Lawyer description: Attorney General Jeff Sessions has retained his own private lawyer, D.C. litigator Charles Cooper, amid the Russia investigation. canonical: https://time.com/4826010/jeff-sessions-charles-cooper-attorney-russia-investigation/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-20T23:04:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:14:31.928Z article:section: Politics og:title: Attorney General Jeff Sessions Hired His Own Private Lawyer og:description: The Attorney General has retained his own attorney og:url: https://time.com/4826010/jeff-sessions-charles-cooper-attorney-russia-investigation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb3b4c786ab8d6148/6988d1780a4a22366e9ce984/jeff-sessions-senate-testimony.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Attorney General Jeff Sessions Testifies Before Senate Intelligence Committee og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Attorney General Jeff Sessions Hired His Own Private Lawyer twitter:description: The Attorney General has retained his own attorney twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb3b4c786ab8d6148/6988d1780a4a22366e9ce984/jeff-sessions-senate-testimony.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Attorney General Jeff Sessions Hired His Own Private Lawyer > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement.  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Jun 20, 2017 11:04 PM UTC  U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill June 13, 2017 in Washington, DC. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill June 13, 2017 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Jun 20, 2017 11:04 PM UTC [Attorney General Jeff Sessions](http://time.com/4817199/jeff-sessions-testimony-russia-investigation-briefing/) has retained his own private lawyer, D.C. litigator Charles Cooper. Cooper has been providing counsel for Sessions, and helped him with preparation for his June 13 testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, according to the Associated Press. The attorney is a founding member and chairman of Cooper & Kirk, PLLC, a law firm in Washington D.C., according to the [firm’s website.](http://www.cooperkirk.com/lawyers/charles-j-cooper/) He clerked for Chief Justice William Rehnquist before joining Justice Department during the Reagan administration in 1981\. In 1985, he was appointed Assistant Attorney General for the office of legal counsel. Cooper worked for the Reagan administration until 1988, when he went into private practice. In 2013, he defended Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California, before the Supreme Court. Both Cooper and the Department of Justice did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Sessions joins other high-ranking members of the Trump administration in retaining their own lawyers as special Counsel Robert Mueller continues to investigate claims of collusion between Russia and Trump associates during the 2016 campaign. Both President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Vice President Mike Pence have hired personal lawyers. Sessions vehemently denied any claims of collusion or improper meetings when he testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is conducting its own Russia investigation. The [Washington _Post_ reported March 1 ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/sessions-spoke-twice-with-russian-ambassador-during-trumps-presidential-campaign-justice-officials-say/2017/03/01/77205eda-feac-11e6-99b4-9e613afeb09f%5Fstory.html?amp;utm%5Fterm=.19d6ad32ae65&hpid=hp%5Frhp-top-table-main%5Fno-name%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm%5Fterm=.952df534d18d)that Sessions spoke with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak twice in 2016, and did not disclose these encounters when he was asked about them during his confirmation hearing. The day after the _Post_ report, Sessions [recused himself ](http://time.com/4689524/jeff-sessions-recuse-russia-trump-transcript/?iid=sr-link2)from overseeing the Russia investigation, although he said it was because of his role as a campaign surrogate rather than these meetings. 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