Sen. Jeff Sessions, on the day he was sworn in before the Senate Judiciary Committee to be Attorney General. Pic/AFP
Washington: US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has come under fire after the Washington Post reported he met twice last year with Russia’s ambassador to Washington, seemingly contradicting statements he made in Senate confirmation hearings in January. The White House quickly labelled the report an attack by partisan Democrats, confirming the meetings but arguing Sessions did nothing wrong.
In a statement, Sessions, the Trump administration’s top law enforcement official, said on Wednesday: “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.”
But with US intelligence agencies, the Department of Justice, and four Congressional committees examining the Russia scandal, Democrats demanded that Sessions recuse himself from the investigations and for Congress to name an independent special investigator to oversee a broad probe.
Sessions said he would recuse himself, “Whenever it’s appropriate, I will recuse myself, there’s no doubt about that,” Sessions told a news channel, after saying: “I have not met with any Russians at any time to discuss any political campaign.”
The Washington Post reported that Sessions met Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in July and September, just as accusations of Russian interference in the election were mounting. Sessions, however, told his confirmation hearing at the Senate Judiciary Committee on January 10 that he did not know of contacts between Trump campaign members and Russia. “I did not have communications with the Russians,” he said under oath.
Kremlin ‘unaware’
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday he was unaware that US Attorney General Jeff Sessions had met Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, but said such meetings were routine. “I don’t know the details of any meetings,” said Peskov. “(But) the ambassador’s job is to hold as many meetings as possible.”
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