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Trump: Sessions 'did not say anything wrong'

03 March 2017 04:13 (UTC +04:00)

President Donald Trump stood by Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday, releasing a statement saying Sessions did not make any misleading statements under oath during his confirmation hearings, but that he could have been more accurate in his responses to lawmakers, APA reports quoting Reuters.

"Jeff Sessions is an honest man. He did not say anything wrong. He could have stated his response more accurately, but it was clearly not intentional," Trump said. "This whole narrative is a way of saving face for Democrats losing an election that everyone thought they were supposed to win. The Democrats are overplaying their hand. They lost the election and now, they have lost their grip on reality. The real story is all of the illegal leaks of classified and other information. It is a total witch hunt!"

Earlier Thursday, Sessions bowed to intense political pressure and recused himself from any investigation related to Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer meanwhile billed the day of controversy arising from news of the meetings between Sessions and Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak as a "partisan thing that we've seen over and over again."

"This continues to be a question of: there's no there there," Spicer said.

If nothing else, Thursday's intrigue served as another reminder that questions over Trump's attitude toward Moscow and the Kremlin's apparent operation to sow discord in last year's election are issues that will return again and again to confound the White House.

In this case, questions about Russia served to halt the President's victory lap after his well-received address to Congress on Tuesday night.
The Russian drama has already led to the departure of another Trump ally and top political appointee -- former national security adviser Michael Flynn -- also over contacts with Russian ambassador Kislyak.

Earlier on Thursday, Democrats had sensed new vulnerabilities for the administration over Russia -- and relished taking the battle to Sessions.
"(That) the top cop in our country lied under oath to the people is grounds for him to resign," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters Thursday. "He has proved that he is unqualified and unfit to serve in that position of trust."

Several Republicans, many of them increasingly uneasy about the implications of the evolving Russian drama, had called on Sessions to recuse himself from any probe into ties between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

"Attorney General Sessions should recuse himself to ensure public confidence in the Justice Department's investigation," said Sen. Susan Collins, the Maine Republican who introduced Sessions at his confirmation hearing in January.

"I think the attorney general should further clarify his testimony. And I do think he should recuse himself," said Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee. Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio and Rep. Darrell Issa of California also called for Sessions to recuse himself.

But Sessions appeared to take the edge off Republican anxiety with his late afternoon news conference.

"Attorney General Sessions did the right thing by recusing himself," said Republican House Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-West Virginia, told CNN: "I think if he made that judgment I think that's in the best interest of everything. I'm glad he did it quickly."

Sessions met on two separate occasions with Russia's ambassador to Washington, encounters the Alabama Republican did not disclose during his confirmation hearing on January 10.

At the hearing, Minnesota Democratic Sen. Al Franken asked Sessions what he would do if there was any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government.

"I'm not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians," Sessions said.

Franken told CNN's "New Day" on Thursday that statement appears to be false.

"I am going to be sending (Sessions) a letter to have him explain himself, but he made a bald statement that during the campaign he had not met with the Russians," Franken said. "That's not true."

On Twitter, Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren warned that Sessions should never have been confirmed at all, but now there is reason to remove him.

"Now Jeff Sessions is AG -- the final say on the law enforcement investigation into ties between the Trump campaign & Russia? What a farce. This is not normal," she tweeted. "This is not fake news. This is a very real & serious threat to the national security of the United States."