Sessions: Reports of third Kislyak meeting are false

WASHINGTON- Attorney General Jeff Sessions said reports suggesting he had a third meeting with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak are false.

“I did not have any private meetings nor do I recall any conversations with any Russian officials at the Mayflower Hotel,” Sessions told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence during a hearing on Tuesday.

“I did not attend any meetings at that event. Prior to the speech, I attended a reception with my staff that included at least two dozen people and President Trump. Though I do recall several conversations I had during that pre-speech reception, I do not have any recollection of meeting or talking to the Russian Ambassador or any other Russian officials,” he explained.

Sessions in March recused himself from the Justice Department’s Trump-Russia probe following The Washington Post reporting that he had twice met with Kislyak while a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Sessions did acknowledge those meetings took place but said they were informal events in which nothing of substance was discussed.

Sessions said any suggestion that he was party to Russian collusion is a “detestable lie.”

Recently fired FBI Director James Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee last week that he had seen evidence suggesting Sessions may have had a third meeting with Kislyak.

Comey told the committee that former White House National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was in legal jeopardy at the time President Donald Trump asked him to halt the Bureau’s probe into Flynn. Comey also told the committee that he authorized the leak of the existence of a memorandum documenting the February meeting in which Trump made that request so as to highlight the need for the appointment of a special prosecutor.

Comey told the committee that during the February meeting Sessions had left the room. Comey then said he requested that Sessions never again leave him alone with President Trump.

This article is republished with permission from Talk Media News