AG Sessions Lied to Senate, Spoke Twice With Russian Amb. During Campaign
Justice Department officials have confirmed that Jeff Sessions, who is now our Attorney General, spoke with Russia’s ambassador to the United States twice last year – during the time he was part of the Trump campaign. To make matters worse, then-Senator Sessions did not disclose this during his confirmation hearing to become attorney general.
According to the Washington Post, “One of the meetings was a private conversation between Sessions and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak that took place in September in the senator’s office, at the height of what U.S. intelligence officials say was a Russian cyber campaign to upend the U.S. presidential race.”
Two months prior to the meeting in Sessions Senate office, Sessions meet with the Russian ambassador on the sidelines of the Republican convention at a Heritage Foundation event in July. The Washington Post noted that “Sessions then spoke individually to some of the ambassadors, including Kislyak, the official said.”
During Sessions’ confirmation hearing, Senator Al Franken asked Sessions 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.
“I’m not aware of any of those activities,” he responded. He added: “I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians.”
Officials said Sessions did not consider the conversations relevant to the lawmakers’ questions and did not remember in detail what he discussed with Kislyak.
“There was absolutely nothing misleading about his answer,” said Sarah Isgur Flores, Sessions’s spokeswoman.
These new revelations could propel the formation of a special counsel to investigate Russia’s alleged role in the 2016 presidential election.
Thus far, Sessions has refused to recuse himself from the investigation into Trump’s Russia ties.
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