- The Washington Times - Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley said Tuesday he wants Attorney General Jeff Sessions to testify publicly to clear up questions after a report Friday that Mr. Sessions spoke to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak about the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.

Mr. Sessions told the Senate Intelligence Committee earlier this year that he didn’t speak with Russian officials about the campaign.

But a report last week from The Washington Post, citing anonymous sources, said Mr. Kislyak claimed in intelligence intercepts to have spoken with the former Alabama senator about the campaign.

Mr. Grassley said the hearing could cover that ground or anything else at the Justice Department, which Mr. Sessions heads.

“Most of the concern has been about Senator Sessions and Russia. I want this to be that and anybody who wants to make it a normal oversight hearing we have at least once a year with the attorney general,” Mr. Grassley said during a hearing on Tuesday.

Mr. Grassley said he’d been waiting on the hearing to give Mr. Sessions time to have his team in place, but several Justice Department nominees are still awaiting confirmation, so he’ll schedule the hearing anyway.


SEE ALSO: Dianne Feinstein pushes for A.G. Jeff Sessions to testify on Russian ambassador meetings


In March, the attorney general recused himself from involvement in the Justice Department’s investigation into allegations of collusion between President Trump’s campaign team and the Russian government during the 2016 election because he had served as a campaign surrogate at the time for Mr. Trump.

Mr. Trump has recently been criticizing Mr. Sessions on his decision to recuse himself and reports have emerged that Mr. Trump is contemplating firing the attorney general.

• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.

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