Sessions urged to come clean
"[Jeff Sessions] does owe it, quite frankly, to all of us to tell us what he talked about." Senator Lindsey Graham
UNITED STATES: Attorney General Jeff Sessions will recuse himself from any investigations related to the 2016 US presidential campaign, which would include any Russian interference in the electoral process.
Speaking at a hastily-called press conference at the US Justice Department yesterday, Sessions said he had met with department ethics officials soon after being sworn in last month, to evaluate the rules and cases in which he might have a conflict.
‘‘They said that since I had involvement with the campaign, I should not be involved in any campaign investigation.’’
Sessions said he concurred with their assessment, and would therefore recuse himself from any existing or future investigation involving President Donald Trump’s campaign.
The announcement came a day after The Washington Post revealed that Sessions twice met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak but did not disclose that fact to Congress during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
At that hearing, Sessions was asked by Senator Al Franken, D-minnesota, what he would do if he learned of any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of the 2016 campaign. He replied: ’’I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign, and I did not have communications with the Russians.’’
Democrats had been calling for weeks for Sessions to step away from the investigation, though he had resisted pressure to do so.
Yesterday some high-level Republicans joined in, saying the former senator should recuse himself.
Sessions said discussions about his recusal began before the revelation of his meetings with Kislyak.
He also defended his comment about meetings with Russian officials to Franken as ‘‘honest and correct as I understood it at the time’’, though he also said he would ‘‘write the Judiciary Committee soon - today or tomorrow to explain this testimony for the record’’.
His explanation, he said, was that he was ‘‘taken aback’’ by Franken’s question - which referenced a breaking news story about contacts between Trump surrogates and Russians.
‘‘It struck me very hard, and that’s what I focused my answer on,’’ he said. ‘‘In retrospect, I should have slowed down and said I did meet one Russian official a couple times. That would be the ambassador.’’
A spokeswoman for Sessions said he did not meet with Kislyak as a Trump supporter but in his capacity as a member of the Armed Services Committee. One meeting was in September, and the other was in July, when Sessions was approached after an event on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention.
A Justice Department official said earlier of the September meeting: ‘‘There’s just not strong recollection of what was said.’’ Yesterday, though, Sessions outlined fairly extensive details of the encounter, which also included two of his senior staffers.
He said he talked with the ambassador about a trip he made to Russia in 1991, terrorism, and Ukraine - a major policy issue following Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the imposition of US and European Union sanctions on Russia for its actions.
At one point, Sessions said, ‘‘it got to be a little bit of a testy conversation’’. He said the ambassador invited him to lunch, but he did not accept.
‘‘Most of these ambassadors are pretty gossipy, and this was in the campaign season, but I don’t recall any specific political discussions,’’ Sessions said.
Trump said Sessions could have been more accurate in what he said about his contacts with Russian officials but blamed Democrats for blowing up the controversy for political reasons.
‘‘Jeff Sessions is an honest man. He did not say anything wrong. He could have stated his response more accurately, but it was clearly not intentional. The Democrats are overplaying their hand. It is a total witch hunt!’’
Trump said he had ’’total’’ confidence in Sessions.
Some Democrats said Sessions had perjured himself in his confirmation hearing. The response among some Republicans signalled increasing concern about the potential political fallout.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-utah, tweeted that ‘‘AG Sessions should clarify his testimony and recuse himself’’. Asked whether his committee would investigate the matter, he said: ’’There are things we are looking at.’’
The episode marks the second time in Trump’s nascent administration when the truthfulness of one of its top officials has come under scrutiny. In February, Trump fired his national security adviser, Michael Flynn, after The Washington Post reported that he had not fully disclosed his contacts with Russian officials.
At least two additional officials in Trump’s presidential campaign said they spoke with Kislyan at a conference on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention last July, USA Today reported.
The newspaper said J D Gordon, who was the Trump campaign’s director of national security, and Carter Page, another member of the campaign’s national security advisory committee, both said they met the ambassador at a conference of diplomats in Cleveland that coincided with the convention, at which Trump was selected as the party’s presidential candidate.
Every Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee called for a criminal investigation of Sessions’ comments during his confirmation hearing.
But Senator Lindsey Graham, R-south Carolina, who considers Sessions a close friend, said, ‘‘I don’t think Jeff Sessions is a liar’’, and argued that Sessions had not misled the Judiciary Committee ‘‘because all of the questions were about campaign contacts’’.
But Sessions ‘‘does owe it, quite frankly, to all of us to tell us what he talked about’’ with Kislyak, Graham said.
- Washington Post, Reuters