Attorney General Jeff Sessions recusing himself from campaign investigations

Hours earlier, aboard the ship, the president had told reporters that he had “total” confidence in Sessions and saw no reason why the attorney general should recuse himself.

Sessions on Thursday recused himself from any investigation into Russian meddling in America’s 2016 presidential election.

Following Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ announcement that he would recuse himself from any investigations into the Trump campaign’s ties with Russia, Stephen Colbert devoted the opening monologue of Thursday’s episode of The Late Show to explaining why this wouldn’t be necessary.

Sessions met with Kislyak during the election, but did not disclose the meetings during his Senate confirmation hearings when he was asked about Trump aides being in contact with Russian officials.

Sessions rejected any suggestion that he had tried to mislead anyone about his contacts with the Russian, saying, “That is not my intent”.

Trump says Democrats are trying to save face after losing the election, are overplaying their hand and have lost their grip on reality.

Jeff Sessions, for forgetting the Russian ambassador is, well, Russian, you had the Worst Week in Washington.

The Washington Post checked to see if any other members of the Armed Services committee met with Kislyak.

Amid intensifying demands for action to combat an offensive by Moscow against the West, US president Donald Trump has reportedly appointed a paramount expert on Russian president Vladimir Putin as his chief Russia adviser.

The New York Times reported two weeks ago, citing USA intelligence sources, that three Trump campaign staff – including campaign chief Paul Manafort – had communicated with Russian intelligence officers over the past year.

Media captionSenator Chuck Schumer: “Because the Department of Justice should be above reproach”.

Franken, appearing on ABC’s “This Week”, said he wanted to give Sessions “the benefit of the doubt”, but that Sessions needed to clear up why he had not acknowledged two meetings with the Russian envoy, Sergey Kislyak, during the 2016 campaign.

However, Mr Sessions denied under oath any meetings during his January confirmation hearings.

Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in the Senate, called for Sessions to step down.

Rep. Devin Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, recently announced that there was no evidence linking the Trump campaign to the Russian government.

The House Intelligence Committee signed off this week on a plan to investigate Russia’s alleged interference in the U.S. elections, which includes examining contacts between Trump’s campaign and Russian Federation, and looking into who leaked the details.

Trump has backed his attorney general and accused Democrats of blowing the issue out of proportion for political purposes. Sessions also said that he and Kislyak had discussed a visit Sessions paid to a Russian church in the 1991 and that Kislyak had told him he was not religious.