Kevin Johnson

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — At the time Jeff Sessions met with the Russian ambassador to the United States during the midst of last year's bitter campaign, the Alabama senator was not only serving as a surrogate for candidate Donald Trump but had been named chairman of the campaign's National Security Advisory Committee.

Justice Department officials have said that Sessions' contacts, which he did not disclose during questioning during his confirmation hearing as President Trump's attorney general nominee, had nothing to do with the campaign and were confined to his service as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Yet, when Trump announced Sessions' appointment to chair the campaign committee, he directly referenced the senator's long service on the powerful Senate panel among his credentials as an influential political and policy adviser.

"Sen. Sessions has been on the Armed Services Committee for almost 20 years and is chairman of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee,'' the Trump campaign announced last March.

Sessions said then that he was "grateful for the opportunity to recommend and facilitate discussions among exceptional and experienced American military and diplomatic leaders to share insight and advice with Donald Trump, regardless of their political views.''

"Mr. Trump and the American people know our country needs a clear-eyed foreign policy rooted in the national interest,'' Sessions said then. "We need to understand the limits of our ability to intervene successfully in other nations. It is time for a healthy dose of foreign policy realism.''

Sessions, who was sworn in as the nation's chief law enforcement officer last month, has denied discussing campaign-related matters when he encountered Russian envoy Sergey Kislyak in July during an event at the Republican National Convention and during a September meeting in his Senate office in Washington, Sessions' spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said. At the time of both encounters, the FBI also was investigating Russia's interference in the U.S. election system.

"I never met with any Russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign," Sessions said. "I have no idea what this allegation is about. It is false."

Senate testimony

Yet when asked in January by Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., whether he was aware if campaign associates had any contact with Russian government officials, Sessions said he did not have knowledge of such contacts nor did he communicate with Russian officials.

He provided a similar response to written questions submitted by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

"There was absolutely nothing misleading about his answer,'' Flores said in a written statement, adding that Sessions took those meetings as a member of Senate Armed Service Committee and not as a surrogate for Trump's campaign.

The disclosures, first reported by The Washington Post late Wednesday, were driving fresh calls for his recusal from overseeing the ongoing FBI inquiry into communications between Trump associates and Russian government officials. Others, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., have gone further, calling for Sessions to resign.

Momentum also was building among some Republicans for the attorney general to remove himself from overseeing the FBI inquiry.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, Thursday called on Sessions to step aside from the FBI Russia inquiry.

“Jeff 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.”

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, also called on the attorney general to recuse himself and "clarify'' his remarks during the Senate confirmation hearing.

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Sessions, as recently as Thursday morning, has maintained that he would only recuse himself if a matter emerged that made it necessary to step aside.

Flores has said the senator had "over 25 conversations (last year) with foreign ambassadors as a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, including the British, Korean, Japanese, Polish, Indian, Chinese, Canadian, Australian, German and Russian ambassadors.''

"He was asked during the (confirmation) 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.

The meetings involved discussions between the two countries and any prominent issues they may have been facing.

The September meeting with Kislyak was memorialized on the former senator's calendar. In July, Sessions encountered the Russian official during a Heritage Foundation event timed to the Republican National Convention.

Read more:

Trump team's many, many denials of contacts with Russia

Sessions did not disclose contact with Russian ambassador, Justice Dept. says