A SAD FAREWELL IN TURKEY
SENATORS ASK FBI TO REVIEW SESSIONS’ TIES TO RUSSIA
Raising the prospect of perjury, two Senate Democrats privately pressed the FBI to determine whether Attorney General Jeff Sessions failed to disclose a third meeting with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during a April 2016 campaign event for thencandidate Donald Trump at Washington’s Mayflower Hotel.
On Thursday, Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Al Franken of Minnesota released three written requests they made this year for an FBI review of Sessions after he belatedly disclosed two other meetings with Kislyak following his January confirmation hearing, in which the then-attorney general nominee said he was unaware of any such contacts.
In an April letter to James Comey, who was FBI director at the time, the senators asked for a May 12 briefing on their request, but that meeting was scuttled by Trump’s abrupt dismissal of Comey on May 9.
Former FBI director James Comey will testify publicly next Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee as part of its investigation possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.
Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the panel's senior Democrat, announced Thursday that Comey will testify at 10 a.m. on June 8. Comey's public testimony will be followed by a closed session at 1 p.m. in which he will continue answering questions that involve classified information.
TRUMP RENEWS WAIVER TO KEEP EMBASSY IN TEL AVIV
President Trump renewed a waiver Thursday that keeps the U.S. Embassy to Israel in Tel Aviv, rather than moving it to Jerusalem as he had promised during the presidential campaign.
The White House said in a statement that while Trump signed the waiver and delayed moving the embassy, “no one should consider this step to be in any way a retreat from the president’s strong support for Israel and for the United States-Israel alliance.”
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A massive crack in an Antarctic ice shelf grew by 11 miles in the past six days as one of the world’s biggest icebergs ever is poised to break off. Only 8 miles remain until the crack in the Larsen C ice shelf cuts all the way across, producing an iceberg about the size of Delaware.