Congress probes another US AG's meeting with Russian ambassador

Congressional investigators are probing whether Attorney General Jeff Sessions had an additional meeting with Russia's Ambassador to the US during the 2016 presidential campaign, a media report said.

Investigators are requesting additional information, including schedules from Sessions, a source with knowledge of the issue told CNN on Wednesday night.

They are focusing on whether such a meeting took place on April 27, 2016, at the Mayflower Hotel here, where then-candidate Donald Trump was delivering his first major foreign policy address.

Prior to the speech, then-Senator Sessions and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak attended a small VIP reception with organisers, diplomats and others.

In addition to the Congressional investigators, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is also seeking to determine the extent of interactions the Trump campaign team may have had with Kislyak during the event as part of its broader counter-intelligence probe of alleged Russian meddling in the election.

However, neither the Congressional investigators nor the FBI have concluded whether the Mayflower private meeting took place, reports CNN.

Sessions has previously failed to disclose meetings with Russian officials.

During his confirmation hearing on January 10, Sessions testified that he "did not have any communications with the Russians" during the campaign.

He also said in a written statement submitted to the Senate judiciary committee that he was not in contact with anyone linked to the Russian government during the election.

However, Sessions has not listed two Kislyak meetings that he disclosed in March on the security forms he submitted this year.

--IANS

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