U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Tuesday he did nothing improper in meeting twice last year with Russia’s ambassador to Washington, and that any suggestion he colluded with Moscow officials in last year’s presidential election campaign is an “appalling and detestable lie.”
Sessions, in opening remarks before the Senate Intelligence Committee investigating Russian interference in the election to help President Donald Trump win, said he decided to remove himself from oversight of the criminal investigation of the Russian interference because of rules at the Justice Department prohibiting his involvement because he was a key campaign adviser to Trump.
The attorney general said he now has “no knowledge” of the criminal investigation being headed by Robert Mueller, a former director of the FBI who was named as special counsel in the case by Sessions’ Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who assumed oversight of the Russia probe after Sessions recused himself.
“I have confidence in Mr. Mueller,” Sessions said, but added he had no idea whether Trump does, even as news accounts circulate that Trump is considering firing Mueller, who was appointed less than a month ago.
Sessions declined repeatedly to discuss his talks with the president, saying they were private.
Sessions said he met twice with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, once at last year’s Republican National Convention and later in his Senate office, but neither time about Trump’s campaign, but rather in his capacity as a U.S. senator at the time before Trump nominated him as the country’s top law enforcement official.
Source-VOA
