Sessions did not disclose oil interests in government ethics forms

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, did not disclose his ownership of oil rights on more than 600 acres of land in Alabama to the Office of Government Ethics, according to state records examined by The Washington Post.

The revelation came as Sessions goes before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing. Federal law requires presidential appointees requiring Senate confirmation to submit financial and employment disclosures to the OGE. While Sessions submitted his forms to the ethics office, the oil interests were not included.

The interests are only worth somewhere in the range of $4,700 annually, but the 1978 Ethics in Government Act still requires Sessions to disclose them. Some of the acreage on which Sessions owns oil rights borders a federal wildlife preserve.

{mosads}“I am troubled by any omissions,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a member of the Judiciary Committee, told the Post. “But this is particularly troubling because this ownership interest involves oil and gas holdings connected to a federal wildlife refuge.”

The Senate is set to hold hearings for several of Trump’s cabinet nominees beginning on Tuesday. The OGE sent a letter to Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) over the weekend expressing concern that some of Trump’s appointees had not yet filed their disclosure forms.