Al Franken: ‘Everything points to’ collusion with Donald Trump, Russia
A conversation between two comedians turned serious late Tuesday when U.S. Sen. Al Franken said “everything points to” collusion between President Donald Trump‘s campaign and the Russians. The Minnesota Democrat did not cite any evidence, noting a special counsel has been appointed to lead an FBI probe into the Republican administration’s ties to Russia. But Franken shared his “feeling” when pressed by late-night comedy legend David Letterman during joint appearance in New York City. “My feeling is that there was some cooperation between the Trump campaign and the Russians. I think everything points to that,” Franken told Letterman, who moderated a discussion designed to highlight the release of Franken’s new memoir. Franken added, “They just haven’t been acting like people who have nothing to hide.” The Associated Press reported earlier in the day that Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, rejected a House intelligence committee request for information, while former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn will provide documents to the Senate intelligence committee as part of its probe into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election. Franken, a founding writer on “Saturday Night Live,” has emerged as a liberal hero of sorts during his two terms in the Senate. He insisted in recent days that he will not run for president in 2020, however. “I see myself running for re-election in 2020,” he told Letterman of his plans to seek a third Senate term. Letterman and Franken ignored comedian Kathy Griffin‘s photo shoot in which she’s pictured holding what looks like Trump’s severed head. While Griffin apologized for the image, the Republican National Committee singled out Franken for accepting political contributions exceeding $3,000 from Griffin in recent years. The two were scheduled to appear together at an event in California in the coming weeks. Franken spokesman Michael Dale-Stein did not say whether Franken still planned to attend the event, but he condemned Griffin’s photo. The senator, Dale-Stein said, “believes this image was inappropriate and not the kind of thing that should be part of our national discourse.” Back in New York, the comedians had the crowd roaring. In classic deadpan style, Letterman drew a huge laugh when he declared, “I have begun to lose confidence in the Trump administration.” Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
More Republicans say AG Jeff Sessions should recuse himself
The Latest on Attorney General Jeff Sessions‘ talks with the Soviet ambassador (all times local): 11:25 a.m. attorneyAttorney The top House Democrat says Attorney General Jeff Sessions lied under oath when he told the Senate Judiciary that he had no contacts with the Russian government and says he should resign. Nancy Pelosi says, “Perjury is a crime.” In the meantime, Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Marco Rubio of Florida joined a growing chorus of Republicans calling upon Sessions to recuse himself from any investigation on contacts between the Russians and President Donald Trump‘s campaign last year. Graham says, “Somebody other than Jeff needs to do it.” Graham also tells reporters he is meeting Thursday with FBI Director James Comey and will demand to know whether there is an investigation into the Russia contacts. ___ 10:58 a.m. A growing number of Republicans want Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from the investigation into Russian meddling in the election and ties to the Trump campaign. Ohio Sen. Rob Portman says in a statement that Sessions is a former colleague and a friend, “but I think it would be best for him and for the country to recuse himself from the DOJ Russia probe.” Portman joins congressmen Jason Chaffetz, Darrell Issa and Tom Cole in calling for Sessions to recuse himself, Other Senate Republicans are rallying around Sessions, saying they trust him and that it’s up to Sessions whether to recuse himself. Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee. He says, “I trust Jeff Sessions to make that decision.” ___ 10:33 a.m. Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren joins other Democrats in calling for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign. She says there should be an independent special prosecutor named to oversee an investigation of Russian interference in the U.S. election. Warren has clashed repeatedly with President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans. The Massachusetts senator reacted in a series of tweets to reports that Sessions talked twice with Russia’s ambassador during the presidential campaign, conversations that seem to contradict sworn statements Sessions gave to Congress during his confirmation hearings. The White House says Sessions met with the diplomat in his capacity as a then-U.S. senator, not a Trump campaign adviser. ___ 10:25 a.m. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is calling on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign. Several Republicans and Democrats have called for Sessions to recuse himself from an investigation into Russian interference in the U.S. election following the revelation he talked twice with Russia’s ambassador to the United States during the presidential campaign. The conversations seem to contradict sworn statements Sessions gave to Congress during his confirmation hearings. Schumer says a special prosecutor is needed to investigate the allegations of Russian interference and also look into whether the investigation has already been compromised by Sessions. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi has accused Sessions of “lying under oath” and demanded that he resign. ___ 10:25 a.m. Another congressional Republican says Attorney General Jeff Sessions should recuse himself from any investigation into Russia meddling in the election and links to the Trump campaign. In a statement, congressman Darrell Issa of California joined House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz in calling on Sessions to recuse himself now. Issa says, “We need a clear-eyed view of what the Russians actually did so that all Americans can have faith in our institutions.” It is members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who typically meet with foreign ambassadors, not Armed Services Committee lawmakers whose responsibility is oversight of the military and the Pentagon. Congressional contact with Russian officials was limited after the invasion of Crimea and due to Moscow’s close relationship with Syria, a pariah for much of the West. ___ 9:15 a.m. A Republican committee chairman says Attorney General Jeff Sessions should recuse himself from an investigation into Russian interference in the U.S. election. Utah’s Jason Chaffetz chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. He tells MSNBC that Sessions “is going to need to recuse himself at this point.” The Justice Department has confirmed Sessions talked twice with Russia’s ambassador to the United States during the presidential campaign, a seeming contradiction to sworn statements he gave to Congress. Chaffetz told MSNBC that Sessions “should further clarify.” Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri called on Sessions to resign, and Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont said he should recuse himself. ___ 8:30 a.m. A Democratic senator says Attorney General Jeff Sessions should step aside from any role in the Justice Department’s investigation of Trump campaign ties to Russia. Minnesota’s Al Franken tells MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that Sessions’ statements about his contacts with Moscow have been “contradictory.” At Session’s confirmation hearing in January, Franken asked the then-Alabama senator what he would do if there was evidence that anyone from the Trump campaign had been in touch with the Russian government during the 2016 White House race. Sessions replied he was “unaware of those activities.” But the Justice Department has confirmed that Sessions had two conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the United States. Franken is calling for an “independent prosecutor” to investigate any links the Trump campaign may have had with the Russian government and says Sessions must “come forward with the truth.” ___ 8:15 a.m. A Kremlin spokesman says all the attention given to Jeff Sessions’ meetings with Russia’s U.S. ambassador during the U.S. presidential campaign last year could affect improved ties between the countries. Sessions — who’s now President Donald Trump’s attorney general — was a senator and policy adviser to Trump’s campaign at the time of the meetings with Ambassador Sergei Kislyak. Dmitry Peskov is the spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Peskov tells reporters that he didn’t know about the meetings. But he says it’s normal for Russian diplomats to meet with U.S. lawmakers. The White House says Sessions met with the diplomat in his capacity as a senator, rather than as a Trump campaign adviser. Peskov is characterizing reaction to the news of the meetings as “an
Jeff Sessions spoke with Russian envoy in 2016, Justice Dept says
Attorney General Jeff Sessions talked twice with Russia’s ambassador to the United States during the presidential campaign, the Justice Department confirmed, communications that spurred calls in Congress for him to recuse himself from an investigation into Russian interference in the U.S. election. Sessions, an early supporter of President Donald Trump‘s candidacy and a policy adviser to the Republican, did not disclose those discussions at his Senate confirmation hearing in January when asked what he would do if “anyone affiliated” with the campaign had been in contact with officials of the Russian government. Sessions replied that he had not had communications with the Russians. In a statement late Wednesday, Sessions said, “I never met with any Russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign. I have no idea what this allegation is about. It is false.” Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said Wednesday night that “there was absolutely nothing misleading about his answer.” That statement did not satisfy Democrats, who even before Wednesday had sought his recusal from the ongoing federal investigation and had raised questions about whether he could properly oversee the probe. Sessions said Thursday in a brief interview with NBC, “I have said that, when it’s appropriate, I will recuse myself.” White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders earlier called the disclosure of the talks with the ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, “the latest attack against the Trump administration by partisan Democrats.” She added that Sessions “met with the ambassador in an official capacity as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which is entirely consistent with his testimony.” House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi accused Sessions of “lying under oath” and demanded that he resign. Other Democrats called on him to step aside from the investigation. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, appearing Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show, “I just think he needs to clarify what these meetings were.” The California Republican said it isn’t unusual for members of Congress to meet with ambassadors, but he added that if a question arose about the integrity of a federal investigation, “I think it’d be easier” for an attorney general to step away from the probe. Sessions had more than 25 conversations with foreign ambassadors last year in his role as a U.S. senator and senior member of the Armed Services Committee, and had two separate interactions with Kislyak, the department confirmed. One was a visit in September in his capacity as a senator, similar to meetings with envoys from Britain, China, Germany and other nations, the department said. The other occurred in a group setting following a Heritage Foundation speech that Sessions gave during the summer, when several ambassadors — including the Russian ambassador — approached Sessions after the talk as he was leaving the stage. Revelations of the contacts, first reported by The Washington Post, came amid a disclosure by three administration officials that White House lawyers have instructed aides to Trump to preserve materials that could be connected to Russian meddling in the American political process. The officials who confirmed that staffers were instructed to comply with preservation-of-materials directions did so on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly disclose the memo from White House counsel Don McGahn. On the Sessions revelation, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said: “If reports are accurate that Attorney General Sessions — a prominent surrogate for Donald Trump — met with Ambassador Kislyak during the campaign, and failed to disclose this fact during his confirmation, it is essential that he recuse himself from any role in the investigation of Trump campaign ties to the Russians.” Asked by reporters Monday about the prospect of a recusal, Sessions had said, “I would recuse myself from anything that I should recuse myself on.” At the confirmation hearing in January, Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota asked Sessions about allegations of contact between Russia and Trump aides during the 2016 election. He asked Sessions what he would do if there were evidence that anyone from the Trump campaign had been in touch with the Russian government during the campaign. Sessions replied he was “unaware of those activities.” Then he added: “I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I didn’t have, did not have communications with the Russians, and I’m unable to comment on it.” Flores, the Justice Department spokeswoman, said that response was not misleading. “He was asked during the hearing about communications between Russia and the Trump campaign — not about meetings he took as a senator and a member of the Armed Services Committee,” she said in a statement. Franken said in a statement he was troubled that the new attorney general’s response to his question was “at best, misleading.” He said he planned to press Sessions on his contact with Russia. “It’s clearer than ever now that the attorney general cannot, in good faith, oversee an investigation at the Department of Justice and the FBI of the Trump-Russia connection, and he must recuse himself immediately,” Franken said. Separately in January, Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Judiciary Committee Democrat, asked Sessions in a written questionnaire whether “he had been in contact with anyone connected to any part of the Russian government about the 2016 election, either before or after election day.” Sessions replied simply, “No.” Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
