The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee is calling on Republicans to hold hearings on Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his contact with Russian officials following revelations that Sessions failed to include meetings on a security clearance application.
“The latest report detailing how Attorney General Jeff Sessions once again concealed his contacts with Russian officials points to a troubling pattern of behavior by the nation’s chief law enforcement officer,” Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., said in a statement.
CNN reported Wednesday night Sessions failed to disclose meetings with Russian officials and other foreign contacts when he applied for a security clearance during his confirmation process.
Sessions had to disclose on the form “any contact” he had with a “foreign government” and its “representatives” over the last seven years. The attorney general didn’t include at least two meetings he had with Russian officials.
Conyers is now asking Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., to hold a hearing on Sessions’ decision to leave the information off of the form.
“In the face of an ongoing investigation into the Trump campaign’s contact with the Russian government — an investigation from which Mr. Sessions is recused because of his failure to disclose similar contacts — the Attorney General’s decision to omit this information from his security clearance application demands the House Judiciary Committee’s careful review,” Conyers said.
According to CNN, Sessions didn’t disclose meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak, meetings he also didn’t mention during his Senate confirmation earlier this year.
Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores told CNN on Wednesday that an FBI employee who helped Sessions fill out the form told the attorney general and his staff he didn’t need to include meetings that occurred in his capacity as a senator.
The Justice Department defended Sessions in a statement Wednesday.
“As a United States senator, the attorney general met hundreds — if not thousands — of foreign dignitaries and their staff,” Justice Department spokesman Ian Prior said in a statement. “In filling out the SF-86 form, the attorney general’s staff consulted with those familiar with the process, as well as the FBI investigator handling the background check, and was instructed not to list meetings with foreign dignitaries and their staff connected with his Senate activities.”
In March it was revealed that Sessions spoke with Kislyak on two occasions during the 2016 election. Those findings caused Sessions to recuse himself from the investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election.
