Sergei Lavrov’s comments to Russia’s RIA news agency were reported by Reuters. | Getty Russia's foreign minister calls scandal over alleged Trump ties a 'witch hunt'

The still-swirling scandal surrounding ties between the Russian government and close allies of President Donald Trump amounts to a “witch hunt,” Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told a state-owned news agency Friday.

Lavrov’s comments to Russia’s RIA news agency were reported by Reuters.


The president has been unable to shake allegations that his presidential campaign was in communication with Russian officials during last year’s presidential campaign, which the Russian government actively sought to interfere with to Trump’s benefit. Trump and other administration officials have denied any contact with the Russian government during the campaign.

Already, two Trump administration officials have been hampered to some degree by interactions with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak. National security adviser Michael Flynn resigned last month following revelations that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence and others about the content of conversations he had with the Russian ambassador regarding recently imposed U.S. sanctions.

And on Thursday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced he would recuse himself from all investigations regarding last year’s presidential election, including one into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. That recusal followed news that Sessions met twice with Kislyak during last year’s campaign, when he was a high-level surrogate for Trump’s candidacy. Sessions did not disclose those meetings during his confirmation hearings to become attorney general and has argued that they were not relevant because he held them in his role as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, not as a member of Trump’s campaign.

In a statement released Thursday by the White House, Trump said controversy around Sessions amounted to a “total witch hunt!”

Others with close ties to Trump have also been linked to Russia, most notably former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, but also former foreign policy adviser Carter Page and Trump confidant Roger Stone.

And Trump himself, while explicitly denying any ties to the Kremlin, has also raised eyebrows with his relatively warm stance towards Russia. The president, who campaigned on a hardline vision of U.S. foreign policy, has lavished praise on Russian President Vladimir Putin and pledged to seek to get along with Russia. During the campaign, Trump said he would be open to officially recognizing Crimea, which was forcefully annexed away from Ukraine in 2014, as part of Russia. He has also expressed a willingness to discuss a deal to ease sanctions leveled against Russia related to its annexation of Crimea and military activities in eastern Ukraine.