House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to immediately resign following revelations that he spoke to the Russian ambassador to the United States during President Trump’s campaign.
“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,” Pelosi said in a statement.
“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.”
The Washington Post on Wednesday reported that Sessions spoke once privately with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. He also spoke with Kislyak and other ambassadors during an event in July.
{mosads}A spokeswoman for Sessions told the newspaper that the then-senator was acting as an Armed Services Committee member rather than a Trump surrogate at the time.
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, also called on Sessions to step down.
“When Senator Sessions testified under oath that ‘I did not have communications with the Russians,’ his statement was demonstrably false, yet he let it stand for weeks — and he continued to let it stand even as he watched the President tell the entire nation he didn’t know anything about anyone advising his campaign talking to the Russians,” Cummings said in a statement.
“Attorney General Sessions should resign immediately, and there is no longer any question that we need a truly independent commission to investigate this issue.”