WASHINGTON – Sen. Al Franken said Thursday that Attorney General Jeff Sessions must resign if he lied under oath about contacts with a Russian government official.
It was in response to questions from Franken in January, during Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings, that Sessions said he was not aware of any contacts between the campaign of then-Republican candidate Donald Trump and the Russian government. The Washington Post reported late Wednesday that Sessions, then a U.S. senator from Alabama and a top adviser to Trump's campaign, had conversations in July and September with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
"We now know that statement not to be true, and if it is determined that you lied under oath to the committee and the American people, it is your responsibility to resign," Franken said in a letter to Sessions.
Earlier Thursday, Franken and fellow Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar demanded that Sessions recuse himself from the FBI probe into Russia's interference in last November's election. Sessions did so later in the day, as some Republicans joined Democrats in making the demand.
Sessions said at a news conference Thursday that he did not recall whether he discussed Trump or the presidential election with Kislyak. He said he would recuse himself from any investigations into aspects of the presidential campaign because he served as an adviser to Trump.
During Sessions' two days of hearings before he was confirmed as attorney general, Franken pushed him on his connections and communications with Russia.
"If there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do?" Franken said.
"Senator Franken, I'm not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians and I'm unable to comment on it," Sessions responded.
