Sessions defends Comey firing, dodges questions on Trump

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump is coming under increasing pressure as an ex-adviser has handed himself into the FBI for questioning as part of its investigation into links between the campaign and Russian Federation.

Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation about interactions with foreign officials close to the Russian government – the campaign’s clearest connection so far to Russia’s efforts to meddle in the 2016 election.

Thomas Breen, Papadopoulos’ attorney, issued a statement declining to comment.

George Papadopoulos was arrested in July and interviewed repeatedly by investigators, according to court papers.

Papadopoulos graduated from college in 2009, before moving to London to get a master’s degree in security studies.

After a six-week stint with the Carson campaign, Papadopoulos was cut loose in January 2016 as part of what Bennett told the Post was an effort to reduce staffing costs.

He is now an oil, gas and policy consultant, according to his LinkedIn page.

Prosecutors, seeking to keep the case sealed after his plea was entered, argued that they shared “substantial information” with Papadopoulos, providing a “road map of sorts” in an attempt to “jog his memory”.

Writing to the Russian contact a week before the Republican National Convention, Papadopoulos proposed a meeting for August or September in the United Kingdom that would include “my national chairman and maybe one other foreign policy adviser” and members of Putin’s office and Russia’s foreign ministry.

Trump on Tuesday knocked George Papadopoulos as a “liar” and a low-level volunteer.

“He was a foreign policy adviser”, the official said.

“The political climate inside Washington has made it impossible for me to receive balanced and fair consideration for this position”, Clovis wrote in the letter. Papadopoulos had told campaign superiors for months that the Russian government had “dirt” on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton including “thousands of emails”.

Dick Farkas, Papadopoulos’ former professor and a Russia expert at the university, remembered him as a “nondescript” and not “particularly noteworthy” student who displayed no “particular interest” in Russian affairs.

“Jeff Sessions concealed his meetings with the Russians and he had an obligation to be more forthcoming about meetings that involved Papadopoulos”, said Sen.

Clovis, a novice to national presidential campaigns, was supervising Papadopoulos and became a visible spokesman for Trump on CNN and other networks. And, Jay Sekulow says, pardons for his former campaign aides facing federal charges “are not on the table”.

“He may have been at future Trump events that Sessions attended – including a dinner at the Capitol Hill Club with some members of the foreign policy committee over the summer – but Sessions doesn’t recall any further interactions with him, including any phone calls or emails”. Sessions, however, did attend, and he and Papadopoulos sat next to each other, according to the source who was in the room.

The Trump campaign’s national co-chairman had an interesting excuse when it was revealed he had urged another campaign staffer to meet with Russian officials.

But Sessions, who was a top surrogate for Trump during the campaign, did not disclose these discussions despite a persistent set of questions from Democrats and some Republicans about Russian Federation during multiple hearings on Capitol Hill.

There is no evidence that the planned meeting described in Papadopoulos’s email ever took place, and he may have been bragging to his contact about his influence in the campaign. In reality, the group met only once or twice and didn’t really function.

The statement does not explain who the campaign officials were concerned about sending signals to.