Attorney General Sessions will recuse himself from investigations related to campaign

Democrats say they remain unconvinced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ latest comments regarding his contacts with the Russian ambassador in 2016. But Pence again today was proven to have misstated the Trump administration’s contacts with Russian Federation.

Sessions said in a press conference at the Department of Justice Thursday that his staff recommended he recuse himself and that, “I believe those recommendations are right and just”. Sessions said he came to that decision after consulting with senior ethics officials in the Justice Department following the revelation that he had twice talked with Moscow’s USA envoy during the campaign.

It’s unclear whether that is how the information about the Sessions meetings came to light, but it has become clear that the Russian ambassador was under Federal Bureau of Investigation scrutiny and his communications were being monitored.

The scandal surrounding Sessions highlighted, once again, the failure of the Trump administration to stick to one story or stay on message.

Mr Sessions was speaking after it had emerged that he met Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak twice past year.

According to the Post, one of the meetings took place in September, as mounting evidence indicated that Russian Federation was attempting to interfere in the USA presidential election. “He could have stated his more accurately, but it was clearly not intentional”, Trump said in a statement released Thursday evening.

USA Today notes that at least 20 times Team Trump denied their campaign having any conversations with the Russians. We’ll have to wait for the intelligence community to drop more details on Kislyak’s visit to Trump Tower, as they did on AG Jeff Sessions’ private meeting in his Senate office with Kislyak, because we will not be getting accurate information from the Trump White House unless it’s forced. He said that Sessions was “100 percent straight” about his contacts with Russian Federation and that people playing politics with the issue “should be ashamed of themselves”.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Mr Sessions had misled Congress over his contacts with the ambassador and should resign for the good of the country, adding it would be like “Alice in Wonderland” if the administration was to approve Mr Sessions’ investigating himself.

Facing mounting political pressure on Capitol Hill, attorney general Jeff Sessions announced during a press conference on Thursday that he would recuse himself from the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Sessions was asked by Sen.

Quigley tweeted: It is unconscionable and unacceptable for a United States attorney general-our nation’s top law enforcement official-to lie under oath.

“I never met with any Russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign”, he said in a statement.

Read the full report at the Washington Post.

Trump told reporters during a visit to a USA aircraft carrier that he “wasn’t aware” that Sessions held two meetings previous year with Russian ambassador to Washington Sergey Kislyak.

When asked during his 10 January testimony how he would respond if he learned of communications between the Trump campaign and Russian officials leading up to the election, Sessions said he was “not aware of any of those activities”. The closest he came was to say: “America is willing to find new friends, and to forge new partnerships, where shared interests align”.

“There was absolutely nothing misleading about his answer”. A Justice official said Sessions didn’t mislead senators during his confirmation.

All the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to FBI Director James Comey asking for a criminal investigation into whether Sessions committed perjury.

Most Republicans have resisted calls to have an independent, select panel probe the issue, arguing that the intelligence committees can be trusted to oversee the inquiries that were launched shortly after U.S. officials accused Russian Federation of meddling in the American election. Flynn said he left his post because he had “briefed the Vice President Elect and others with incomplete information” in not revealing he had spoken about US sanctions with the diplomat.

While there is nothing legally wrong with such meetings, the reported contacts raise questions about the White House’s repeated statements that it knew of no further contacts with Russian officials beyond those by Flynn. “Well, don’t run for politics after that”, Trump said getting a laugh. No date was provided.

“The negative effect for the idea to develop at least some dialogue with Russian Federation is evident”, Mr Peskov added. “But before making any evaluations, we should wait for everyone to calm down and the situation to stabilize”.