U.S. House
Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi has called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to
resign after the Washington Post reported he failed to disclose two meetings he
had with Russia’s ambassador before Donald Trump was inaugurated as president.
Citing
Justice Department officials, the Post said Sessions spoke twice last year with
Russia’s ambassador while he was still a U.S. senator. He failed to disclose
the encounters when asked during his confirmation hearing to become attorney
general about possible contacts between Trump’s campaign and Russian officials,
the newspaper said.
Pelosi, the
top Democrat in the House of Representatives, called for Sessions to resign and
for an independent, bipartisan investigation into Trump’s possible ties to
Russians.
“Sessions is
not fit to serve as the top law enforcement officer of our country and must
resign,” she said in a statement.
The
Washington Post said one of the meetings was a private conversation between
Sessions and Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak that took place in the senator’s
office in September.
This came at
the height of what U.S. intelligence officials say was a Russian cyber campaign
to upend the U.S. presidential race, the Post reported.
Along with
Pelosi’s call for Sessions to resign, the Post said the previously undisclosed
discussions could fuel new congressional calls for the appointment of a special
counsel to investigate Russia’s alleged role in the 2016 presidential election.
Trump’s
first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was fired last month after he
discussed U.S. sanctions on Russia with Kislyak before Trump took office and
misled Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations.
As attorney
general, Sessions oversees the Justice Department, including the Federal Bureau
of Investigation, which have been leading investigations into Russian meddling
and any links to Trump’s associates.
Sessions has
so far resisted calls to recuse himself.
When
Sessions spoke with Kislyak in July and September, he was a senior member of
the influential Senate Armed Services Committee as well as one of Trump’s top
foreign policy advisers, according to the Post.
Sessions
played a prominent role supporting Trump after formally joining the campaign in
February 2016.
At his Jan.
10 Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, Sessions was asked by Democratic
Senator Al Franken 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, the Post reported.
“I’m not
aware of any of those activities,” Sessions responded, according to the Post.
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,
according to the Post.
“There was
absolutely nothing misleading about his answer,” Sarah Isgur Flores, Sessions’
spokeswoman, told the Post.
The
Department of Justice and the White House did not respond immediately to
requests by Reuters for comment.
Justice
officials said Sessions met Kislyak on Sept. 8 in his capacity as a member of
the armed services panel rather than in his role as a Trump campaign surrogate,
the Post reported.
“He was
asked during the hearing about communications between Russia and the Trump
campaign – not about meetings he took as a senator and a member of the Armed
Services Committee,” Flores told the Post.
Source:
Reuters
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