Top Dem calls for investigation into Sessions

The senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee is calling for a new investigation into Jeff Sessions following revelations that the attorney general declined to disclose meetings with Russian officials in his security clearance filings.

Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) said the omissions, first reported by CNN Wednesday evening, reveal “a troubling pattern of behavior by the nation’s chief law enforcement officer.”

{mosads}”In the face of an ongoing investigation into the Trump campaign’s contact with the Russian government — an investigation from which Mr. Sessions is recused because of his failure to disclose similar contacts — the Attorney General’s decision to omit this information from his security clearance application demands the House Judiciary Committee’s careful review,” Conyers said in a statement.

Conyers is pressing Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) for an immediate hearing on the matter. Sessions, a former Alabama senator who was the first upper-chamber lawmaker to endorse President Trump during the campaign, has been a controversial figure in the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation into potential collusion between Russia and Trump’s campaign.

In March, Sessions was forced to recuse himself from any probe into Russian election meddling after it was revealed that he’d provided false testimony under oath about communications with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the presidential campaign.

This month, Sessions sparked further headlines when he endorsed the ouster of James Comey, the former FBI director who was leading the department’s investigation. His participation in Comey’s firing led to charges, largely coming from Democrats, that he’d violated his own vow to steer clear of all matters related to Russia.

The latest CNN report reveals that Sessions, aside from denying contact with Russian officials during his Senate confirmation testimony, also did not disclose his conversations with Kislyak on the federal form seeking security clearance. That form asks applicants to list cases of “close and/or continuing contact with a foreign national within the last seven years.”

A spokesman for the Justice Department issued a statement Wednesday evening defending the omissions as a practical matter for a former senator who met routinely with foreign officials. Sessions, according to spokesman Ian Prior, had been specifically counseled to omit foreign contacts relating to his duties as a Capitol Hill lawmaker.

“As a United States Senator, the Attorney General met hundreds — if not thousands — of foreign dignitaries and their staff,” Prior said in a statement. “In filling out the SF-86 form, the Attorney General’s staff consulted with those familiar with the process, as well as the FBI investigator handling the background check, and was instructed not to list meetings with foreign dignitaries and their staff connected with his Senate activities.”

The explanation likely won’t satisfy Sessions’s Democratic critics. And Conyers, for one, wants his panel to investigate further.

“We can no longer delay conducting oversight of the Office of the Attorney General,” he said.