Republican calls for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from federal investigations are escalating amid reports that he met with the Russian ambassador as senator but didn’t disclose it during his confirmation hearing.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, a centrist Republican who introduced him at the beginning of his confirmation hearing, has now called for him to step aside from any probe into Russian ties to the Trump administration and campaign.
Collins’ rebuke is particularly stinging because her introduction was viewed as symbolic of GOP unity on backing Sessions for the top law enforcement post in the country.
Her call for a recusal follows those of other senators after news broke that Sessions has met with the Russian ambassador once in his Senate office and had another brief contact with him after a speech at the GOP convention over the summer.
Republicans Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio, Jeff Flake of Arizona, and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina have all called for a recusal in the wake of revelations that Sessions had met with the Russian ambassador in September at his Senate office.
“Obviously, he is going to need to clarify and likely recuse himself from any investigation with regard to the Russians,” Sen. Jeff Flake, a campaign critic of Trump’s, said Thursday afternoon.
“I think it would be best for him and for the country to recuse himself from the DOJ probe,” Portman said, after acknowledging that Sessions is a friend and former colleague.
In addition, several conservative Republican members and at least two members of the right-wing Freedom Caucus have called on him to recuse himself from a federal investigation.
Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., said simply: Sessions must recuse himself from the Russia investigation.”
Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, said Sessions and Trump administration arguments that Sessions wasn’t misleading during the confirmation process didn’t pass muster with him.
A Sessions spokeswoman has indicated that he hadn’t lied in his testimony to his Senate Judiciary colleagues because he wasn’t directly asked if he met with Russian official in a Trump campaign capacity. The meeting with the Russian ambassador, she said, occurred in his capacity as a senator, and senators have meetings regularly with foreign ambassadors.
“But that was the question, you answer the question that you’re asked,” Labrador said. You don’t caveat with you know twenty other things, but that’s why I think he should recuse himself.”
In addition, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, who chairs the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the same panel’s former chairman, have called on Sessions to recuse himself, along with several other GOP House members.
