Foreign meetings omitted from Sessions’ security clearance
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions did not disclose contacts with foreign dignitaries, including the Russian ambassador, on a security clearance form he submitted as a United States senator last year, the Justice Department acknowledged Wednesday.
The department said Sessions’ staff relied on the guidance of the FBI investigator handling the background check, who advised that meetings with foreign dignitaries “connected with Senate activities” did not have to be reported on the form.
The news comes just two months after Sessions recused himself from a Justice Department investigation into potential ties between Russia and the Trump campaign after it was revealed that he had two previously undisclosed encounters, last summer and fall, with the Russian ambassador. Sessions said at his Senate confirmation hearing that he had not any communication “with the Russians.”
In a statement, Justice Department spokesman Ian Prior said Sessions met with hundreds, if not thousands, of foreign dignitaries while in the Senate. Prior said Sessions’ staff consulted with the FBI and others familiar with the disclosure process, and was told not to list those meetings connected to his Senate job. CNN first reported the omissions.