US attorney general Jeff Sessions came under fire on Thursday after the Washington Post reported he met twice last year with Russia’s ambassador to Washington, seemingly contradicting statements he made in Senate confirmation hearings in January. The revelation cast a fresh cloud over President Donald Trump’s administration — which has repeatedly denied any suspected ties between members of the Republican’s election campaign and Russia — which US intelligence says interfered in the 2016 election against Trump’s rival Hillary Clinton.
The White House quickly labeled the report an attack by partisan Democrats, confirming the meetings but arguing Sessions did nothing wrong.
Session said, “I never met with any Russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign. I have no idea what this allegation is about. It is false.”But with US intelligence agencies, the department of Justice, and four Congressional committees examining the Russia scandal, Democrats demanded Sessions — the Trump administration’s top law enforcement official — recuse himself from investigations, and for Congress to name an independent special investigator to oversee a broad probe.
