Attorney General Jeff Sessions did not mislead the Senate Judiciary Committee when he testified that he had not met with the Russian ambassador to the United States last year, even though he had, his spokeswoman told NBC News on Wednesday night.
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Sessions spoke twice with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak last year, once during a private meeting in Sessions’ office in September. Sessions, a Republican from Alabama, was then a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Sen. Al Franken, D-Minnesota, asked Sessions at his Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing Jan. 10: “If there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do?” Sessions replied: “I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign, and I did not have communications with the Russians, and I’m unable to comment on it.”
Sessions’ spokeswoman, Sarah Isgur Flores, told NBC News that Sessions did have a conversation with Kislyak last year but that “there was absolutely nothing misleading about his answer” at the hearing.
