Franken has ‘a lot of questions’ for Sessions on Russia contacts

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) said Thursday that he has “a lot of questions” for Attorney General Jeff Sessions regarding his knowledge of Trump campaign officials’ connection to Russians during the presidential race.

“I have a lot of questions for the attorney general,” Franken told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews in an interview, saying he supports Sen. Patrick Leahy (Vt.), the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, in calling for Sessions to return for another testimony. 

Franken’s comments come after Sessions reportedly shut down a suggestion by a junior Trump campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, that he could potentially arrange a meeting between then-Republican candidate Donald Trump and his Russian contacts, and possibly with Russian President Vladimir Putin himself. 

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The Minnesota senator said Sessions had been “moving the goalpost” on his account of his knowledge of the campaign’s connections to Russia, changing his story from at first having not spoken with then-Russian ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak on anything related to the campaign to not having spoken of anything on Russia’s alleged interference.

“He has contradicted himself so many times since January that it really is hard to believe that he’s been telling the truth at any one point,” said Franken, a member of the committee who then posed the question to Sessions during the attorney general’s testimony.