Philip Mudd on Sessions: 'He Wins This Round'

Former FBI official Philip Mudd said Tuesday that Attorney General Jeff Sessions won with his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Russia.

"The Senate did not win," Mudd, who worked under former FBI Director Robert Muller, told Wolf Blitzer on CNN. "His strategy is to go dumb early."

During more than two hours of testimony before the panel, Sessions frequently said that he was relying on his recollections of various events from the campaign or in the administration — and hit back at Democrats who suggested that he was "stonewalling" senators with his answers.

Mudd said that Sessions most likely will continue this approach "if further facts about meetings come out.

"You will see more."

However, Mudd said that the true authority with the Russia probe lies with Muller, now special counsel in the Moscow probe, not the Senate.

"The most significant opinion is not in the Senate," he told Blitzer. "It is Robert Mueller's.

"I question some of his judgments, but nothing illegal. I think he wins this round."

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