U.S. Attorney-General Jeff Sessions decided late Thursday to recuse himself from the federal probe into the Russian interference in the nation’s recent presidential campaign.
Sessions made the decision after consulting with ethics experts in the Justice Department. Earlier in the day Sessions came under intense pressure to resign, led by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Both accused him of perjury, saying he was not honest during his testimony to the Senate during confirmation hearings.
Sessions met with Russian Ambassador Sergey I. Kislyak twice last year, in July and September. Both meetings were held together with other senators, while Sessions was a senior member of the powerful Armed Services Committee.
He was asked by Senator Al Franken (D-MN) on Jan. 10 during his confirmation hearing what he would do if he learned of any evidence that anyone connected with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government during the course of the 2016 campaign. Sessions replied at the time, “I’m not aware of any of those activities.” He went on to say that he had been called a surrogate “a time or two in that campaign, and I did not have communications with the Russians.”
As it happens, neither meeting between Kislyak and Sessions had anything to do with the Trump campaign, and both included other senators. House Speaker Paul Ryan scoffed at the entire issue, noting that he regularly meets with foreign ambassadors along with other lawmakers, sometimes several at a time, and rarely can remember all of the meetings all of the time, let alone months later.
President Donald Trump told media Thursday while on his way to speak to a gathering at the USS Gerald Ford that he has “total” confidence in his attorney-general, and his faith in Sessions remains “unchanged.”
