Jeff Sessions Says He Never Lied Under Oath, Just Clouded His Recollections

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that he never lied under oath about the alleged Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election, but explained that because of the lack of sleep and the exhausting campaign, he was confused about his recollections of campaign contacts with the Russians. Sessions told the House Judiciary Committee that he could not remember specific encounters from more than a year ago.

“In all of my testimony, I can only do my best to answer all of your questions as I understand them and to the best of my memory. But I will not accept, and reject, accusations that I have ever lied under oath. That is a lie,” Sessions explained.

Sessions led a foreign policy advisory council for Trump campaign which he described as brilliant and chaotic, Associated Press reported.

“It was a brilliant campaign in many ways. But it was a form of chaos every day from day one. We traveled all the time, sometimes to several places in one day. Sleep was in short supply. And I was still a full-time senator keeping a very full schedule during this time,” the Attorney General said.

He told the lawmakers that he now recalls the meeting with former Trump campaign George Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about contacts with people who claimed to have ties to top Russian officials.

“I do now recall the March 2016 meeting at Trump Hotel that Mr. Papadopoulos attended, but I have no clear recollection of the details of what he said during that meeting,” Sessions said.

Papadopoulos proposed arranging a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the meeting in March 2016. Both Sessions and Trump attended the foreign policy meeting, but Attorney General said that he had no memory until he read about it in news reports.

“After reading his account, and to the best of my recollection, I believe that I wanted to make clear to him that he was not authorized to represent the campaign with the Russian government, or any other foreign government, for that matter. But I did not recall this event, which occurred 18 months before my testimony of a few weeks ago, and would gladly have reported it,” Sessions explained.

He did not want to say whether the Department of Justice would open again the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of private email server or whether a second special counsel should be appointed to probe Republican concerns.