MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - Two members of Vermont’s congressional delegation are calling for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign in the wake of revelations that he twice met with the Russian ambassador during the presidential campaign.
Democratic Rep. Peter Welch and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders issued statements Thursday calling for Sessions to resign. Sessions said he would recuse himself from any Russian investigation at news conference Thursday.
Sessions, a Republican and the nation’s top law enforcement officer, did not disclose discussions he had with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak when asked about Russian contacts at his Senate hearing in January.
“Attorney General Sessions, while under oath, at best misled the Senate Judiciary Committee about his contacts with Russian officials. At worst, he committed perjury,” Welch said in his statement.
Sanders said that millions of people are concerned that Trump and his team colluded with the Russian government to help win the presidential election and that it is “disturbing” he denied meeting the Russian ambassador.
“We need a Justice Department that will give us the facts about Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election and their ties to the Trump campaign, not one led by someone who deliberately misled Congress about his own communications with the Russian government,” Sanders said in his statement.
Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy didn’t go as far as Sanders or Welch but did call for Sessions to recuse himself from investigations into Trump’s relationship with Russia.
He joins a growing group of lawmakers who earlier in the day had called on Sessions to recuse himself from an investigation into ties between Russia and White House and “come clean about any contacts” he had with the Russians.
Leahy spokesman David Carle said Leahy has long believed the case for Sessions’ recusal was strong well before revelations that he had contact with the Russian ambassador.
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This story has been corrected to show the congressman’s last name is Welch, not Welsch.
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