Earlier this week, Jeff Sessions, Donald Trump’s Attorney General, had testified in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee concerning the Russian investigation. When asked by the committee if he ever had any contact with a representative of any Russian company, Sessions simply replied no. A very common answer from Sessions throughout the duration of his testimony.

However, despite being under oath, evidence suggests that Sessions was indeed lying. Richard Burt, a former U.S. ambassador to Germany who now lobbies for several major Russian entities, told the Guardian that he had hosted him on two separate occasions.

Both events occurred during Trump’s presidential campaign and around the time that it became known that the Russian government was interfering with the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Richard Burt

After serving as a U.S. ambassador to Germany from 1985-1989, Burt soon began lobbying for various Russian interests including a private equity firm associated with the state-run Alfa Bank, as well as a pipeline company owned by Gazprom, one of Russia’s largest natural gas companies. Burt’s history lobbying for Russian corporations is well documented in which in 2016, he had made hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to convince Congress to exempt a Russian natural gas pipeline from U.S.

sanctions. This move would allow more Russian gas to be accessible to European markets which are a major geopolitical objective for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Burt was also heavily connected to Trump’s campaign which was reported last October. In addition to lobbying for Russia, Burt also serves as a member of a Russia-friendly D.C.

think tank called the Center for the National Interest. The group had hosted Trump during his foreign policy speech at the Mayflower Hotel last April. The speech delivered by Trump at the event was reportedly influenced by Burt along with others associated with the Center for the National Interest. Not to mention that Sessions attended this event as the Trump campaign’s chairman for their national security committee.

Sessions Testimony

Session’s testimony earlier this week was essentially riddled with denial. On several occasions, he had denied any sort of Russian collusion involving both the Trump campaign and himself. On top of that, he had also refused to disclose the content of his conversations with Trump. While it remains to be seen if Sessions is lying, it should be noted that in addition to lying about his aforementioned connection to any agent involved with a Russian company, he has also lied before while under oath.

During his confirmation hearing in January, when asked if he had been in contact with anyone associated with the Russian government during the 2016 election, he plainly answered no. However, this was later proven to be false by the Justice Department in which Sessions had met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak twice during Trump’s campaign.