The Justice Department
The Justice Department has declared that Attorney General Jeff Sessions has done nothing wrong in stating that he did not have discussions with Russian officials about the campaign.
In keeping with the questions asked of him during his confirmation hearing, Mr. Sessions was asked if he had contact with the Russians during the presidential campaign. Mr. Sessions stated that he had never met with any Russian official or intermediary regarding the campaign.
Press Conference
During today's press conference, Mr. Sessions said, "I have now decided to recuse myself from any existing or future investigations of any matter relating in any way to the campaign for president of the United States."
He went on to say that, "This announcement should not be interpreted as a confirmation of the existence of any investigation or suggestive of the scope of any such investigation, because we in the Department of Justice resist confirming or denying the very existence of investigations.
So, in the end, I have followed the right procedure just as I promised the committee I would, and just as I believe any good attorney general should do."
The September Meeting
Sessions said in a September meeting with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, the two talked about "terrorism. ...Somehow the subject of Ukraine came up; I had the Ukrainian ambassador in my office the day before and to listen to him, Russia had done nothing that was wrong. ...It got to be a little testy at that point," Sessions recalled. "It wrapped up."
The FBI, which is under Sessions leadership is investigating connections between Russia and some of trump's campaign allies.
The Hearing
Sessions commented during the hearing, "I never met with any Russian officials to discuss the issues of the campaign," is true if looked at it from the the direct question which was whether or not Sessions had had contact with any Russians in regards to the campaign.
Sessions did not clarify that he had, in fact, met with the Russian Ambassador twice over 2016 in his duties as senator and as a member of the Armed Services.
Senator Claire McCaskill, who this morning criticized Sessions for meeting with the Russian Ambassador claimed on Twitter that she had been on the Armed Services Committee for 10 years and had never had a meeting with the Russian ambassador. She was caught off guard when another tweet was found stating that she was off to meet with the Russian Ambassador regarding adoptions in 2013 making her previous statement untrue.
