U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions late Wednesday night disputed claims he had lied in Senate testimony he had conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. while he was a prominent surrogate for President Donald Trump’s election campaign.
"I never met with any Russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign," Sessions said in a statement. "I have no idea what this allegation is about. It is false."
Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores portrayed the contacts that Sessions had with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak as part of his work as a senator rather than a surrogate for Trump’s campaign.
“Last year, the senator had over 25 conversations with foreign ambassadors as a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, including the British, Korean, Japanese, Polish, Indian, Chinese, Canadian, Australian, German and Russian ambassadors,” she said. “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.”
The revelation, reported earlier by the Washington Post, has raised fresh questions about which Trump associates had contacts with Russian government officials during the presidential campaign and what was discussed. It’s likely to intensify demands that Sessions recuse himself from investigations into Russian hacking in last year’s campaign.
The White House issued a statement saying the same thing, adding the allegations were an attempt to distract from President Donald Trump's "successful address to the nation" on Tuesday.
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