Sessions Was Advised Not to Disclose Russia Meetings on Security Forms

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/24/us/politics/jeff-sessions-russia.html

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WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions failed to disclose meetings with Russian officials when he applied for security clearance because he was told not to do so by advisers and the F.B.I., a Justice Department spokesman said Wednesday.

Mr. Sessions met with Sergey I. Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States, at least twice in 2016. But asked on an official government form to note any contact he or family members had with foreign governments or their representatives over the past seven years, Mr. Sessions did not include his encounters with Mr. Kislyak. It is a federal crime to make false statements or withhold relevant information on the background check form.

“As a United States senator, the attorney general met hundreds — if not thousands — of foreign dignitaries and their staff,” Ian Prior, a spokesman for the Justice Department, said in a statement. “The attorney general’s staff consulted with those familiar with the process, as well as the F.B.I. investigator handling the background check, and was instructed not to list meetings with foreign dignitaries and their staff connected with his Senate activities.”

Mr. Sessions filled out two such forms, Mr. Prior said, one last July, as he was first formally vetted by the Trump campaign, and one after the election in November.

The news, first reported by CNN, renewed questions about Mr. Sessions and the Russia issue. Mr. Sessions, who represented Alabama until his confirmation as the nation’s top law enforcement officer this year, was the first United States senator to endorse Mr. Trump, backing him in February 2016.

He recused himself from the Russia inquiry in March, after it was reported he had met with Mr. Kislyak in 2016. Last week, Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, appointed a special counsel to investigate Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and whether Russia colluded with associates of Mr. Trump’s campaign.

Democratic lawmakers demanded Mr. Sessions’s resignation on Wednesday. “He’s lied under oath,” Senator Kamala Harris, Democrat of California, wrote on Twitter. “He’s misled on security clearance forms. It’s simple — he should not be the Attorney General.”

Mr. Sessions was traveling to Memphis, where he was expected to address law enforcement officers on Thursday morning.