Washington: Embattled US Attorney General Jeff Sessions discussed campaign-related issues with the Russian ambassador to Washington during the presidential race — something Mr Sessions has insisted he did not do, The Washington Post reported late Friday.
The paper quoted current and former administration officials who cited US intelligence intercepts of ambassador Sergey Kislyak’s accounts to his bosses in Moscow of two encounters he had with Mr Sessions, then an adviser to Mr Trump, during the campaign.
The report is certain to add more pressure on Mr Sessions, whose job security is seen as being in jeopardy after President Donald Trump criticised him in scathing terms in an interview this week with The New York Times, saying he was sorry he had hired him.
Mr Trump said he regretted the hiring because Mr Sessions in March recused himself from overseeing an FBI-led probe into Russian meddling in the election in Mr Trump’s favour and whether the Trump team colluded in that effort.
“A new INTELLIGENCE LEAK from the Amazon Washington Post,this time against A.G. Jeff Sessions. These illegal leaks, like Comey’s, must stop!,” Mr Trump said on Twitter. The paper is owned by Amazon’s chief Jeff Bezos.
Mr Sessions recused himself in March after it was disclosed that he had in fact met the ambassador during the campaign, after saying during his confirmation hearing that he had not met with any Russian officials during that period.
But Mr Sessions insisted when he recused himself that he had not talked about the US election campaign with the ambassador.
“I never had meetings with Russian operatives or Russian intermediaries about the Trump campaign,” he said at the time.
However, Mr Kislyak, in briefing his superiors, said he and Mr Sessions discussed campaign-related matters, including policy issues important to Moscow, the Post said.
