Jeff Sessions

March 02, 2017

“I DID NOT HAVE COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE RUSSIANS”

Last night’s bombshell New York Times and Washington Post stories shed even more light on the troubling contacts between Trump campaign officials—including Attorney General Jeff Sessions—and Putin's confidantes during the campaign. Here’s what we know:

Jeff Sessions lied to Congress about his contacts with Russian officials. Sessions met *twice* with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the campaign. But when asked during his confirmation hearing about potential Trump campaign communications with the Russian government, Sessions said: "I'm not aware of any of those activities... I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians." There were multiple meetings between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. Multiple European intelligence agencies (UK and Dutch) have evidence of meetings between known Trump campaign officials and known Russian officials in Europe. This additional evidence of contact between the Trump camp and Russia was shared with U.S. intelligence. U.S. intelligence also separately intercepted communications between Russian officials talking about their meetings with the Trump campaign. This information is accessible to Congress. Obama Administration officials took steps before leaving office to make sure that this intelligence couldn’t be swept under the rug by an incoming Trump administration. That means all this information is accessible to the intelligence committees conducting investigations into connections between Trump and Russia. What does this mean? First, Jeff Sessions must resign. Second, we need an independent commission and special prosecutor to fully investigate the ties between the Trump camp and Russia.