CNN reports today that Patrick Leahy and Al Franken, two democratic senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked former FBI Director James Comey to investigate Attorney General Jeff Sessions over concerns Sessions may have had an undisclosed private meeting with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
CNN obtained the letters Thursday, sent to Comey when he was still head of the FBI, and later, to acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe.
A total of three letters were sent by Leahy and Franken on this matter, dated March 20, April 28 and May 12.
Senators release letters that asked the FBI to investigate Attorney General Jeff Sessions over Russia meetings https://t.co/mr5yLFLGjQ
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) June 1, 2017
Snip from CNN's report:
"We are concerned about Attorney General Sessions' lack of candor to the committee and his failure thus far to accept responsibility for testimony that could be construed as perjury," Franken and Leahy wrote to Comey in their first request.
Leahy and Franken both grilled Sessions during his nomination hearing about any contacts he had with Russian officials about the 2016 campaign. At the time, Sessions said he had none. But following a Washington Post report that showed Sessions had met twice with Kislyak, Sessions acknowledged the meetings and recused himself from oversight of the Russia probe.
CNN reported Wednesday that congressional investigators were now examining whether Sessions and Kislyak met a third time.
"Earlier this year, Attorney General Sessions provided false testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in response to our questions regarding his contacts with Russian officials," Franken and Leahy said in a joint statement Thursday. "The attorney general never fully explained or even acknowledged the misrepresentations in his testimony, and we remained concerned that he had still not been forthcoming about the extent of his contacts with Russian officials."
