The following article by Damien Sharkov of Newsweek was posted on the National Memo website June 2, 2017:
Congressional investigators are requesting more information from Attorney General Jeff Sessions, suspecting he may have had another undisclosed meeting with Russia’s ambassador, CNN reports.
Sources from both parties, but speaking on the condition of anonymity, said they are attempting to clarify whether or not Sessions met Ambassador Sergey Kislyak on April 27, 2016, at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC. The pair attended a VIP reception after one of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign events.
Sessions has already had to recuse himself from the investigation into alleged links between Trump’s team and Russia for not disclosing his own meetings with Kislyak last year. Meeting the Russian ambassador does not violate any laws per se, however Sessions was confirmed into office by the Senate after he told them: “I did not have communications with the Russians.”
His secretary later confirmed he had met with Kislyak during the campaign but had not discussed campaign issues.
Suspicions about the contacts have not subsided and Sessions’ behavior at Trump’s first major campaign foreign policy address is now reportedly being scrutinized.
Both legislative and FBI sources, who are also looking into allegations the Trump campaign covertly communicated with Russians, said a meeting between Sessions and Kislyak at the Mayflower may have been incidental.
“The Department of Justice appointed special counsel to assume responsibility for this matter,” Department of Justice spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said in a statement to CNN. “We will allow him to do his job. It is unfortunate that anonymous sources whose credibility will never face public scrutiny are continuously trying to hinder that process by peddling false stories to the mainstream media. The facts haven’t changed; the then-Senator did not have any private or side conversations with any Russian officials at the Mayflower Hotel.”
Trump has dismissed suspicions his campaign team had any untoward contact with Russian officials as an excuse by his opponents for losing the election.
View the post here.