Russian ambassador reportedly said he and Sessions discussed campaign-related issues
Attorney General Jeff Sessions/Gage Skidmore
Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak reportedly told his superiors that he and Jeff Sessions discussed campaign-related issues and matters important to Moscow in two meetings during the presidential campaign last year, according to accounts intercepted by U.S. intelligence agencies.
Kislyak’s reported account contradicts Sessions’ assertion that he hadn’t discussed any campaign issues with Kislyak when he was acting as a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, the Washington Post reports. Sessions was a U.S. senator at the time, and he has said his discussions with Kislyak were related to his capacity in that role.
Sessions’ conversations with Kislyak reportedly took place in April at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, in July during the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, and in September in his Washington office. The intercepted Kislyak reports concerned the first two meetings, anonymous officials told the Post.
One former official told the newspaper that the discussions included Trump’s positions on issues related to Russia and prospects for U.S. relations with Russia if Trump would be elected.
Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said Sessions, now attorney general, did not discuss interference in the election. “Obviously I cannot comment on the reliability of what anonymous sources describe in a wholly uncorroborated intelligence intercept that the Washington Post has not seen and that has not been provided to me,” Flores said in a statement issued to the Post.
Trump told the New York Times in an interview last week that Sessions gave “bad answers” about his contacts with Russia during his confirmation hearing. Sessions stated during his confirmation hearing that “I did not have communications with the Russians.” The lawmaker later said he misunderstood the scope of the question he was answering.
In later testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sessions denied having any substantive meetings or discussions with Russian officials outside of his duties as a senator.
Trump had additional criticism for Sessions in his New York Times interview. Trump said he would not have appointed Sessions to be attorney general if he had known the former senator would recuse himself in the probe of Russian attempts to influence the election.
