Investigators in Congress are trying to determine whether Attorney General Jeff Sessions had an additional meeting with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak that he failed to disclose.
They are specifically looking into an event at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington on April 27, 2016, according to a report by CNN. This was the date of Donald Trump's first major foreign policy speech as a presidential candidate in the 2016 election. Prior to his oration, Sessions — then a United States Senator from Alabama — and Kislyak were guests at a small VIP reception.
[salon_video id="14774050"]Even if Sessions did meet with Kislyak at this time, that interaction may have been incidental, according to both FBI and Capitol Hill investigators who spoke with CNN. The research into Sessions' possible meetings with Kislyak is part of the much larger counterintelligence investigation into allegations that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.
In a statement to CNN, Department of Justice spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores aid that "the Department of Justice appointed special counsel to assume responsibility for this matter. We will allow him to do his job. It is unfortunate that anonymous sources whose credibility will never face public scrutiny are continuously trying to hinder that process by peddling false stories to the mainstream media. The facts haven't changed; the then-Senator did not have any private or side conversations with any Russian officials at the Mayflower Hotel."
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