Attorney General Jeff Sessions is facing renewed questions about his sworn testimony before the Senate in the aftermath of reports that he was told about contacts at least two former Trump campaign officials had with Russia.
The former Trump foreign-policy adviser Carter Page told the House Intelligence Committee that he informed Sessions about a trip he took to Russia in July 2016, according to CNN, which Page claims was unconnected to the campaign. Separately, a participant in a March 2016 meeting of Trump’s foreign-policy advisers told The New York Times he recalled Sessions “vehemently” opposing a proposal from George Papadopoulos to set up a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI on Monday, and federal documents showed that he was offered “dirt” obtained by the Russian government on Trump’s 2016 rival, Hillary Clinton.
That information appears at odds with Sessions’s testimony during his confirmation hearing in January 2017. When Minnesota Democrat Al Franken asked what Sessions would do “if there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of this campaign,” Sessions replied that he was “not aware of any of those activities.” In October, Franken asked Sessions directly: “You don’t believe that surrogates from the Trump campaign had communications with the Russians? Is that what you’re saying?”