Attorney General Sessions Under Fire for Meeting With Russian Ambassador During Campaign Without Disclosing When Asked

When a Senator, Sessions Met Twice With Ambassador Considered to Be a Top Russian Spy but Did Not Disclose During His Confirmation Hearing to Become Attorney General

In an article published Wednesday evening, the Washington Post reports that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions had spoken with the Russian Federation’s ambassador to the United States during Donald Trump’s presidential campaign last summer and fall. He is now under fire for not having disclosed those meetings while under oath.

During his Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing January 10, Sessions was asked by Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.) 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. Sessions responded telling Franken and other members of the Senate Judiciary Committee: “I’m not aware of any of those activities… I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians.”

A spokesperson for the Attorney General told the paper Wednesday that Sessions was acting as a member of the Armed Services Committee, not as a Trump surrogate, when he spoke with the ambassador, and was not trying to mislead fellow senators when he said during his confirmation hearing that he had not had contacts with the Russian government. 

According to the Post, Sessions had two separate meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, one of which, according to Justice Department officials speaking to the paper, was a private meeting last September. The earlier meeting was at a function last July hosted by the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C.. Sessions was approached informally by Kislyak and a few other ambassadors also in attendance at the event.

The September meeting occurred during the time period that U.S. Intelligence officials were informing the Obama administration and senior Congressional leadership, along with the Senate Intelligence Committee, that there was evidence of Russian influence and hacking efforts in attempts to interfere with the U.S. presidential election. 

“There was absolutely nothing misleading about his answer,” Dept. of Justice spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said. She added that the Attorney General did not consider his conversations with the ambassador relevant to the committee’s questions and said that he did not remember their discussion in detail. Flores noted that as a senior member of both the Senate Judiciary as well as the Senate Armed Services committees, he regularly met foreign ambassadors.

Kislyak is considered by U.S. Intelligence to be a Russian spy and a top recruiter of spies.

Flores also added that Sessions was “unaware” that his communications were under the scrutiny of the FBI during that same time period the bureau was investigating the Russian interference of the campaign last fall. 

“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,” Franken told the Washington Post in a statement on Wednesday.

The Post report has fueled immediate calls for Sessions, who oversees the Justice Department and the FBI, to appoint a special prosecutor to take control of any investigations into Russia’s election interference efforts.

However, some are asking for his resignation. In a conversation Wednesday evening, a spokesperson for House Democratic Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi, said that she feels that Sessions lied under oath and is demanding his immediate resignation.

In a statement issued late Wednesday night, Sen. Sessions 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.”

UPDATES:

Top Democrats Call for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to Resign Amid Accusations of Perjury

WATCH: Jeff Sessions Issues On-Camera Carefully-Worded Denial

 

Brody Levesque is the Chief Political Correspondent for The New Civil Rights Movement.
You may contact Brody at Brody.Levesque@thenewcivilrightsmovement.com

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