Free Republic

"""Pelosi: Sessions’ Russia Contacts ‘Completely Different’ From Loretta Lynch’s Secret Meetings With Bill Clinton [VIDEO]""" Nancy Pelosi told reporters on Capitol Hill Thursday that current Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ alleged contacts with Russian officials are “completely different, day and night” from the secret meetings former Attorney General Loretta Lynch took with Bill Clinton during the 2016 election. WATCH:

Thursday, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said those calling for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign over allegations he met with Russian officials from a Washington Post story published late Wednesday night are “crazy.” Graham sad, “Jeff Sessions has done nothing wrong.”

Chad Pergram‏ @ChadPergram 6m6 minutes ago #BREAKING Attorney General Sessions to hold press conference at 4 pm et

Saw this press conference. AG Sessions has decided to recuse himself "from any investigations related to the Trump campaign". I felt it was a very weak performance by AG Sessions, by the way.

It took minutes, not hours, for top congressional Democrats to call on Trump's Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign on Wednesday evening after the WaPo reported that he had allegedly met with the Russian ambassador in the months before the election, meetings that Sessions did not disclose during his confirmation hearings. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) led the effort late on Wednesday night, accusing Sessions of "lying under oath" during confirmation proceedings about his contacts with the Russians. "Jeff Sessions lied under oath during his confirmation hearing before the Senate. Under penalty of perjury, he told the Senate Judiciary...

<p>Then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) spoke twice last year with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Justice Department officials said, encounters he did not disclose when asked about possible contacts between members of President Trump’s campaign and representatives of Moscow during Sessions’s confirmation hearing to become attorney general.</p>

During a press conference on Thursday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions stated, “I never had meetings with Russian operatives or Russian intermediaries about the Trump campaign,” and “no such things were discussed” during his meeting with the Russian ambassador, and “my reply to the question of Senator Franken was honest and correct as I understood it at the time. I appreciate that some have taken the view that this was a false comment. That is not my intent. That is not correct.”

With the ascension of former Sen. Jeff Sessions to attorney general and several of his former staff installed at the White House and federal agencies, immigration policy experts are sensing a sea change in Washington. Advocates and policy staff of both parties half-jokingly refer to the "Sessions cabal" that has now found power in President Donald Trump's Washington -- a group that for years has found itself outside the mainstream on immigration policy in Washington and faced ire from their Republican and Democratic colleagues for what one sparring partner called "strident" positions.