U.S. Senator Al Franken (D-MN) made a statement Wednesday night following some pretty big breaking news. The Washington Post revealed U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions had met with Russian envoy twice last year. This was information Sessions failed to disclose during his confirmation hearings. In fact, on January 10, during those hearings, Al Franken asked Sessions if the AG nominee had been in communication with Russia or knew of anyone in the campaign who had been, and Sessions this under oath.
“I’m not aware of any of those activities,” he responded. He added: “I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians.”
Franken, in his statement Wednesday night, said “at best” Jeff Sessions misled. But those of us who love Al Franken, know the former SNL writer and Air America pundit, was being polite. We know he wanted to say, “in fact” Jeff Sessions is a liar.” Here is Al Franken’s statement from his Facebook page.
Many Americans are rightly concerned by the Trump team’s close ties with the Russian government and the role that Russia played in interfering with our presidential election. There’s a dark cloud over the Trump administration and there are a lot of questions still unanswered.
When then-Senator Jeff Sessions testified under oath during his confirmation hearing to become attorney general, he explicitly told me that he had not been in contact with Russian officials in the course of the presidential campaign. But according to a report from the Washington Post, he actually met with the Russian Ambassador during that time period. If that's true, then I am very troubled that his response to my questioning during his confirmation hearing was, at best, misleading.
In light of these revelations, I'm going to be directly pressing Attorney General Sessions to answer some tough questions about his contact with Russia and his testimony before the Judiciary Committee.
The American people deserve to know the truth about what happened between Russia and the Trump team, and I believe we need thorough and impartial investigations to get to the bottom of it. It's clearer than ever now that the attorney general cannot, in good faith, oversee an investigation at the Department of Justice and the FBI of the Trump-Russia connection, and he must recuse himself immediately.
Here is a YouTube video of Senator Franken being intervened on MSNBC Thursday morning.
Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi also made a statement Wednesday night saying Jeff Sessions is “unfit to serve as the top law enforcement officer of our country and must resign.”
PRESS RELEASES 03.02.17
Pelosi Statement on Attorney General Sessions’ Apparent Perjury on Russian Meetings
Washington, D.C. — Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement after it was reported that Jeff Sessions lied under oath to the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearings about meetings with Russian officials:
“Jeff Sessions lied under oath during his confirmation hearing before the Senate. Under penalty of perjury, he told the Senate Judiciary Committee, ‘I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians.’ We now know that statement is false.
“Attorney General Sessions has never had the credibility to oversee the FBI investigation of senior Trump officials’ ties to the Russians. That is why Democrats have consistently called for Sessions to recuse himself from any oversight of the investigation.
“Now, after lying under oath to Congress about his own communications with the Russians, the Attorney General must resign. Sessions is not fit to serve as the top law enforcement officer of our country and must resign. There must be an independent, bipartisan, outside commission to investigate the Trump political, personal and financial connections to the Russians.”
Below is a 6 minute video of Senator Al Franken (D-MN) asking Jeff Sessions if he has had communications with Russia.
One of the best case scenarios for Americans, on Thursday, will be to see the resignation of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. At minimum, Sessions should be barred from from practicing law as penalty for perjury under oath, leaving us to ask, “How can the head of the U.S. Department of Justice do his job—without the ability to practice law?“
Bye, Felicia.