Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., said Thursday that the contact Attorney General Jeff Sessions had with Russian officials last year should have been disclosed earlier, but said he would take Sessions at his word that he never discussed the Trump campaign with those officials.
“It gives me some pause that he wasn’t more clear about the meeting,” Duffy, a public supporter of the Trump administration, told CNN Thursday.
Sessions told senators in his confirmation hearing that he “did not have communications with the Russians.” But it became clear Wednesday night that he had two meetings with the Russian ambassador: one briefly in public, and another in his office.
Sessions said the public meeting was brief, and the other was in his role as a senator and had nothing to do with the campaign. But Duffy said those contacts should have been disclosed nonetheless.
“You want to disclose that information, and I think it should have been more clear during his confirmation process that he did have the meetings,” he said.
Still, Duffy said those sorts of contacts happen “all the time” between senators and foreign officials, and said he doubts Sessions was talking about the Trump campaign.
“I highly doubt there was a correlation between those meetings and any campaign activity. I do think it was in the senator’s capacity as a senator.”
Duffy did say, however, that it should be looked at more closely.
“I would assume there’s nothing there, but I think as Lindsey Graham said last night… if there is, and the FBI presents us information, I think you’ll see the Congress act,” he said.
