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World|politics|March 2, 2017 / 02:28 PM
Trump Attorney General Jeff Sessions under fire over Russia meetings

AKIPRESS.COM - Attorney General Jeff Sessions met Russia's ambassador twice during Donald Trump's presidential campaign last year, the US government has confirmed, reports BBC.

Mr Sessions, a senator at the time, told his January confirmation hearing that he had had no contacts with the Russians during the campaign.

He stressed on Wednesday he had "never met any Russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign".

The Democrats accused him of "lying under oath" and said he must resign.

They have also called on him to step aside from an investigation by the FBI - which he oversees as attorney general - into alleged Russian interference in the US election, including contacts with Russian officials by those involved in election campaigns.

The US intelligence community concluded that alleged Russian hacking of Democratic organisations was carried out to help Mr Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Mr Trump's National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, was fired last month after he misled the White House about his conversations with the Russian ambassador, allegedly regarding sanctions against Moscow.

As reported in the Washington Post and confirmed by the justice department, Mr Sessions met Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee twice last year.

The Post reports that they held a private conversation in Mr Sessions's office in September and had spoken earlier in the summer along with several other ambassadors.

Mr Sessions had meetings with more than 25 foreign ambassadors in the course of the year.

But his meetings with Mr Kislyak came while he was a prominent part of Mr Trump's campaign team, and amid growing reports of Russian meddling in the US election.

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