President Vladimir TrumPutin Defends Jeff Sessions: ‘It’s a Total Witch Hunt’

It will seek answers to questions including: “Did the Russian active measures include links between Russia and individuals associated with political campaigns or any other US Persons?”

Jeff Sessions, who was a policy adviser to President Donald Trump’s campaign, had discussions with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak has added fuel to the controversy over whether Russia was improperly involved with Trump’s campaign.

President Trump Thursday declared he had “total” confidence in Sessions.

During the meeting, Gordon told Kislyak he would like to improve relations with Russian Federation, he said, adding that no inappropriate discussion about Russian Federation helping Trump’s campaign occurred, USA Today reported.

Facing the uproar, Sessions announced Thursday he is recusing himself from any Russian Federation investigation, even as he denied any political discussions during those meetings, or misleading senators at his confirmation hearing when he didn’t mention them.

According to the daily, the probe was part of a sweeping investigation of likely contacts between members of the Trump election team with Russians under the surveillance of U.S. counter-intelligence.

However, Carlson later asked Rep. David Cicilline (D-Rhode Island) why he didn’t make a similar demand of former Attorney General Eric Holder when he found himself in a similar situation. “And I don’t have anything else to say about that”.

According to Cole, Sessions’ disclosure of his meetings with the Russian diplomat should have been clearer and sharper, but he went on to describe this as “a murky area”.

Several leading Republican lawmakers joined Democrats in calling on Sessions to stand back.

Sessions told NBC News on Thursday that he would recuse himself “whenever it’s appropriate”.

Senior Democrats have called for his resignation.

First, we would ask the FBI and the United States Attorney’s Office for Washington, DC to take up an immediate criminal investigation into these statements which could potentially implicate a number of criminal laws including Lying to Congress and Perjury, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1001 and 1621.

A statement released by the Justice Department seems to acknowledge the conflict of interest in having Sessions investigate a campaign he was a part of.

The Washington Post reported Thursday that Sessions was the only one of the 26 committee members who met with Kislyak a year ago.

It was the second time Kislyak has emerged at the center of the Russian Federation controversies.

Trump’s national security adviser Michael Flynn was also forced to resign after it was revealed he discussed USA sanctions on Russian Federation with Mr Kislyak before Trump became president, and failed to disclose it to vice president Mike Pence. Flynn was sacked after it was revealed that he misled Vice President Pence and other White House officials about the nature of his discussions with the envoy.

The officials did so, the Times reported, in order to preserve the information after Obama left office.

The US intelligence community believes alleged Russian hacking of Democratic organisations in the election run-up was done to help Mr Trump defeat Hillary Clinton. “This whole narrative is a way of saving face for Democrats losing an election that everyone thought they were supposed to win”, Trump said in a series of tweets.