Jeff Sessions has landed in the eye of a storm following a Washington Post exclusive which claims that the United States Attorney General met with Russia's ambassador to Washington in the lead up to the 2016 Presidential elections. The report cites intercepts of the meetings by U.S. intelligence agencies and could land Sessions in hot soup as he had allegedly discussed policy decisions with the Russian ambassador.
Highly damaging revelations
According to the Washington Post exclusive, U.S. intelligence officials are aware of two meetings that Jeff Sessions had with Russia ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
These agencies are responsible for monitoring Russian officials and according to the intercepts, Sessions spoke to Kislyak about matters related to Donald Trump's campaign and foreign policy. Kislyak had informed his superiors in Moscow about the meeting with Sessions and also informed them that Sessions had discussed foreign policy matters that should be of interest to Kremlin. Sessions was Donald Trump's foreign policy advisor during his Presidential campaign.
The revelations could prove to be extremely damaging for Sessions particularly because he had earlier told U.S. officials that he did not remember anything about a meeting that took place in April. One U.S. official went on to state that Sessions had provided the agencies with misleading information and that his testimony falls apart in the light of the intercepts.
The President reacted to the news by taking to Twitter and calling for these leaks to stop.
A new INTELLIGENCE LEAK from the Amazon Washington Post,this time against A.G. Jeff Sessions.These illegal leaks, like Comey's, must stop!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 22, 2017
Caught lying?
Sessions has said on a number of occasions that he has had absolutely no contact with Russian officials and had not discussed any campaign-related matters with them.
However, these revelations might end up discrediting all those statements that he has delivered. In March this year, he stated, “I never had meetings with Russian operatives or Russian intermediaries about the Trump campaign." The two meetings with Kislyak took place in April and July, according to the intercepts by the intelligence agencies.
At a time when the Russian investigation is in full swing, these latest revelations come as another blow for the U.S. president.This past week the U.S. Special Counsel had expanded his investigation into Donald Trump's business transactions in order to find any possible links to Russia. However, it is important to point out that Kislyak's conversations might have included exaggerated descriptions of his meetings with Sessions in order to impress his bosses and so there is still room for reasonable doubt about the veracity of the Russian ambassador's claims.
