Senior U.S. Senator Pushes Trump on Russia, French Election

A senior U.S. lawmaker pushed President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday to respond to concerns that Russia was responsible for a hacking attack on the campaign of French President-elect Emmanuel Macron.

“Mr. Macron’s victory in Sunday’s election does not diminish the need for the Trump Administration to take this attack seriously and to work closely with the French government to bring the perpetrators to justice and prevent similar attacks from taking place in the future,” Senator Richard Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, wrote in a letter to administration officials, including Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general.

Jeff Sessions, Trump’s at- torney general, has removed himself from probes of Russian election interference after failing to disclose his meetings with Russia’s ambassador to the United States.

“Quite frankly it is the height of irresponsibility that President Trump still denies Russia’s act of cyber war against our election,” Durbin wrote in the letter, seen by Reuters.