Sherrod Brown calls for Sessions to step down

The resurgence of questions about the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russian officials abruptly ended a period of high spirits for Trump after his well-received address to Congress on Tuesday night.

Trump was questioned by reporters while touring a naval warship Thursday. Trump did not say where the photo came from, but Schumer quickly pointed out that it was taken in 2003 when Putin ventured to NY to celebrate the opening of a Russian-owned Lukoil gas station on Manhattan’s west side.

Sessions responded: “I’m not aware of any of those activities. I think both of those will go on at the same time and we’ll see if he has any success in the negotiations, I suspect not”, Keane said. Lindsey Graham. But Graham dismissed the idea that anything nefarious was going on.

“Jeff Sessions is an honest man”.

Blunt said in a statement that the issue should be what is considered reasonable contact between Sessions and the Russians, and what was not.

Wanting to know the details of the Sessions saga, Democrats have also asked the Department of Justice inspector general to review Sessions’ recusal.

White House senior advisor Jared Kushner enters the East Room with his wife Ivanka Trump, prior to a joint news conference between President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at the White House in Washington, Feb. 15, 2017. I completely reject it. President Donald Trump: “I don’t think he should do that at all”.

As a result, opposition Democrats are calling for his resignation and even some Republicans want the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate possible Russian involvement in the United States elections.

Grassley announced late Friday that there are no plans to ask Sessions, who has come under fire from Democrats demanding his resignation, to testify at the committee “until an annual oversight hearing, as is customary”.

Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, called the Sessions recusal “deeply inadequate” and said he was troubled by the number of Trump associates who he contended have either made misleading statements or concealed communications with Russian Federation. Still, the emergence of the additional potential of Russian interference in American politics and the omission of the meetings caused more than a half-dozen Republican lawmakers, including some who consider themselves personally close to Sessions, to urge him to recuse himself.

“I have now made a decision to recuse myself from any existing or future investigations of any matter relating in any way to the campaigns for president of the United States”, he said.

It is not improper for elected officials to meet with foreign diplomats.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions met with Kislyak twice: once at the Republican convention and once in September in Session’s Senate office.

“Sessions recused himself. But his subordinates can not conduct the investigation of their boss”, legal ethics specialist and New York University law professor Stephen Gillers told Politico’s Josh Gerstein.

Ohio Sen. Rob Portman had a similar take. He has so far resisted calls to recuse himself. There were growing calls Thursday for Sessions to resign and even to face prosecution.

“It’s hard to imagine a more challenging environment in which to come in as the deputy attorney general than what we have now”, said Jason Weinstein, who served under Rosenstein in the USA attorney’s office in Maryland. “I just stated my opinion”.

Illinois Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth said Thursday in a statement that, at minimum, Sessions needs to stay out of any Federal Bureau of Investigation or Justice Department probes into alleged ties between the Trump administration and Russian Federation.

“I feel I should not be involved in investigating a campaign I had a role in”, he said. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy initially seemed to break with Ryan and call for Session to recuse himself, but his office clarified later Thursday that he was saying Sessions only ought to do so if he felt it was necessary.

“The Democrats are overplaying their hand”.