US Attorney General under fire
WASHINGTON. - US Attorney General Jeff Sessions came under fire late Wednesday after the Washington Post reported he met twice last year with Russia’s ambassador to Washington, seemingly contradicting statements he made in Senate confirmation hearings in January.
The revelation cast a fresh cloud over President Donald Trump’s administration, which has repeatedly denied any suspected ties between members of his election team and Russia - which US intelligence says interfered in the 2016 campaign against Hillary Clinton.
The White House quickly labeled the report an attack by partisan Democrats, confirming the meetings but arguing Sessions did nothing wrong.
In a statement Sessions, the Trump administration’s top law enforcement official, said: “I never met with any Russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign. I have no idea what this allegation is about. It is false.”
But with US intelligence agencies, the Department of Justice, and four Congressional committees examining the Russia scandal, Democrats demanded that Sessions recuse himself from the investigations and for Congress to name an independent special investigator to oversee a broad probe.
“Given AG Sessions’ false statements about contacts with Russian officials, we need a special counsel to investigate Trump associates’ ties to Russia,” said Democrat Senator Ron Wyden, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The Washington Post reported late Wednesday that Sessions - formerly a senator who advised Trump’s campaign on foreign policy and other issues - met Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in July and September, just as accusations of Russian interference in the election were mounting.
Sessions, however, told his confirmation hearing at the Senate Judiciary Committee on January 10 that he did not know of contacts between Trump campaign members and Russia.
“I did not have communications with the Russians,” he said under oath. - AFP.