AG’s RUSSIA BOMBSHELL Sessions met Putin’s ambassador Misled Congress about 2016 confabs Talks with Kremlin probed by FBI
Att’y gen., Putin envoy met Hid info from senators in grill about Russia meddling
ATTORNEY GENERAL Jeff Sessions spoke twice with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. last year — encounters he did not disclose during his confirmation hearings — fueling calls for him to either resign or recuse himself from a Justice Department investigation into Russian interference in the presidential election.
Then-Sen. Sessions sat down with Sergei Kislyak at the height of what intelligence officials describe as a Moscow-based cyber campaign intended to influence the election, The Washington Post first reported on Wednesday.
Sessions said under oath at his confirmation hearings in January that he had no contact with the Russian government during the campaign.
The meetings were being examined as part of a wide-ranging intelligence investigation — being led by the FBI, which reports to Sessions — into possible communications between President Trump’s top advisers and Russia, according to The Wall Street Journal.
One of the meetings was a private conversation between Sessions and Kislyak that took place in September in the senator’s office.
Sessions was a senior member of the Armed Services Committee and serving as a top foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign at the time.
Trump has denied any of his associates had contact with Moscow before last year’s election and has dismissed the controversy as a “scam” perpetrated news” media.
Moscow has also denied the accusations. But the shadow of collusion with Russia has haunted the Trump administration.
Intelligence agencies continue to look into their findings that Russia was connected to the hacking of Democratic Party emails during the presidential campaign.
Retired Army Gen. Michael Flynn was forced to resign as national security adviser earlier this month after it came to light that he lied about discussing U.S. sanctions with Kislyak ahead of Trump’s inauguration.
Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, did not mince words as he called on Sessions to resign over the matter.
“It is inconceivable that even by “fake
after Michael Flynn was fired for concealing his conversations with the Russians that Attorney General Sessions would keep his own conversations secret for several more weeks,” Cummings, of Maryland, said in a statement Wednesday. “Attorney General Sessions should resign immediately, and there is no longer any question that we need a truly independent commission to investigate this issue.”
During his confirmation hearings, Sessions said he had no knowledge of anyone related to the Trump campaign communicating with Russian intelligence or government agents during the election.
“I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign, and I did not have communications with the Russians,” Sessions told Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.).
Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said “there was absolutely nothing misleading about his answer.”
Franken (photo inset) disagreed.
“If it’s true that Attorney General Sessions met with the Russian ambassador in the midst of the campaign, then I am very troubled that his response to my questioning during his confirmation hearing was, at best, misleading,” he said in a statement Wednesday.
Officials said Sessions did not consider the conversations relevant to the lawmakers’ questions and did not remember in detail what he discussed with Kislyak, according to the newspaper. A Justice Department spokeswoman said that Sessions met with the ambassador due to his role with the Senate Armed Services Committee — not as a representative of the Trump campaign. Still, the Post report suggests that the contact was unusual. Among the 20 of 26 members of the committee who responded to the newspaper, none met with Russia’s ambassador last year. The earlier one-on-one conversation between the two took place in July at a Heritage Foundation event around the time of the Republican National Convention that was attended by about 50 ambassadors, according to The Post.
“I have no idea what this allegation is about. It is false,” Sessions said in a statement released late Wednesday.
Democrats have asked Sessions to recuse himself from any FBI or Justice Department investigation into the Russian interference.
The House of Representatives Intelligence Committee announced Wednesday it plans on investigating the allegations of communication between Trump’s campaign and Russia.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) echoed Cummings’ statement and demanded Sessions’ resignation.
“Sessions is not fit to serve as the top law enforcement officer of our country and must resign,” she said in a statement.
Others said Sessions should, at the least, recuse himself from any investigation into Russia.
“If it’s true that Sessions failed to disclose his meeting with Kislyak, he must recuse himself. This is not even a close call; it is a must,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House intelligence panel, tweeted Wednesday.
“Sessions must at min recuse himself — not only b/c impartiality is tainted, he may be a subject of investigation!” Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) wrote. “If it turns out Sessions lied under oath, he of course will be sbjct to criminal prosecution & shld immediately resign. #ResolutionofInquiry,” Nadler added.