Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley urged the “leaker” who shared some information on “substantive” talks between Attorney General Jeff Sessions and a Russian diplomat during the 2016 campaign about Trump’s views on Russia to share all pertinent documents.
“SessionsRuss ph leak/If the leaker thinks there’s a problem leak the FULL text immediately so it can be investigated/help stop speculation,” Grassley wrote on Twitter Saturday. “So much speculation on CNN abt Session/Russian ph call bc of intelligence leak LEAKER:stop tease/ leak entire conversation/end speculation.”
So much speculation on CNN abt Session/Russian ph call bc of intelligence leak LEAKER:stop tease/ leak entire conversation/end speculation
— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) July 22, 2017
SessionsRuss ph leak/If the leaker thinks there’s a problem leak the FULL text immediately so it can be investigated/help stop speculation
— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) July 22, 2017
U.S. spy agencies intercepted the communications between Sessions, the Trump campaign’s foreign policy adviser, and Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergei Kislyak, according to a Washington Post report Saturday.
Kislyak told top Moscow officials about two of the conversations he had with Sessions during the campaign. One of those discussions focused on policies that were important to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s administration.
Trump complained Saturday about leaks that led to the publishing of a Washington Post report, but he did not deny the talks.
“A new INTELLIGENCE LEAK from the Amazon Washington Post, this time against A.G. Jeff Sessions.These illegal leaks, like Comey’s must stop!” Trump wrote on Twitter early Saturday.
Trump later tweeted, “So many people are asking why isn’t the A.G. or Special Council looking at the many Hillary Clinton or Comey crimes. 33,000 e-mail deleted? … What about all of the Clinton ties to Russia, including Podesta Company, Uranium deal, Russian Reset, big dollar speeches etc.”
“Obviously I cannot comment on the reliability of what anonymous sources describe in a wholly uncorroborated intelligence intercept that the Washington Post has not seen and that has not been provided to me,” Sarah Isgur Flores, director of public affairs at the Justice Department, told the Washington Examiner. “But the attorney general stands by his testimony from just last month before the Senate Intelligence Committee when he specifically addressed this and said that he ‘never met with or had any conversations with any Russians or any foreign officials concerning any type of interference with any campaign or election.'”
During his Senate Judiciary confirmation hearing earlier this year, Sessions said, “I did not have communications with the Russians.” When news of a meeting with Kislyak emerged, Sessions subsequently said the meeting was in his capacity as a senator and not a representative of the Trump campaign.
The new allegations against the top U.S. law enforcement official could further complicate the Trump administration’s insistence that campaign associates did not collude with Russia to win the November election.
