US Attorney General met Russian envoy twice during presidential campaign

Bloomberg/Reuters

WASHINGTON: Attorney General Jeff Sessions had conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the US while he was a prominent surrogate for Donald Trump’s election campaign, even though he said during his confirmation hearing that no contacts had occurred, the Justice Department confirmed late Wednesday.

Sessions said in a statement that he never met with Russian officials to discuss the campaign. “I have no idea what this allegation is about,” he said. “It is false”.

The revelation prompted top Democrats in Congress to call for his ouster.

US House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi called on Sessions to resign on Wednesday after the Washington Post reported he failed to disclose two meetings he had with Russia’s ambassador before Donald Trump was inaugurated as president. “After lying under oath to Congress about his own communications with the Russians, the Attorney General must resign,” Pelosi said in a statement.

A Sessions spokeswoman, Sarah Isgur Flores, rejected accusations that he had misled lawmakers and portrayed the contacts that he had with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak as being part of his work as a senator rather than as a key backer of Trump’s presidential bid.

The revelation, reported earlier by the Post, has raised fresh questions about which Trump associates had contacts with Russian government officials during the presidential campaign and what was discussed. It also intensified calls for Sessions to recuse himself from investigations into Russian hacking in last year’s campaign.

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Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said if FBI discovered any sign of potential criminal activities, a special prosecutor should be appointed to handle the matter.