Sessions ‘Met With Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at Least Two Times Last Year’
Last year during the presidential campaign then-Senator Jeff Sessions did not disclose meetings he had with Russian officials on a federal form he signed to apply for a security clearance. CNN first reported the story Wednesday evening, citing as its source the Dept. of Justice.
“Sessions, who met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at least two times last year, didn’t note those interactions on the form, which requires him to list ‘any contact’ he or his family had with a ‘foreign government’ or its ‘representatives’ over the past seven years, officials said,” CNN reports.
During his Senate confirmation hearings to become Attorney General earlier this year, Sessions also declined to disclose the meetings. When trapped, Sessions claimed he had met with the Russians not in his capacity as a Trump campaign official, but as a U.S. Senator.
Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores “says he and his staff were then told by an FBI employee who assisted in filling out the form, known as the SF-86, that he didn’t need to list dozens of meetings with foreign ambassadors that happened in his capacity as a senator.”
That now appears to be incorrect.
CNN notes that top Trump adviser Jared Kushner and now-fired former Trump adviser Michael Flynn also neglected to fully reveal the names of Russian officials they had met.
The chief White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush took to Twitter to weigh in:
U.S. Senator Kamala Harris:
On social media calls for Sessions to resign once again grow:
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Image by Ronald Woan via Flickr and a CC license