The Federal Bureau of Investigation informed an aide to Attorney General Jeff Sessions that he was not obligated to reveal his foreign contacts made while he was a U.S. senator, a newly disclosed document shows.
The FBI email dating from March, released through the Freedom of Information Act, backs up the explanation from the Department of Justice for why Attorney General did not disclose his contacts with former Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak on security clearance forms, CNN reports.
When the first reports about the omission of the foreign contacts appeared, the Justice Department said the FBI advised Sessions’ office that he did not need to disclose the meetings. An unnamed FBI agent responded in March to a query from Sessions’ assistant who sought confirmation of a previous conversation on the matter. The unnamed agent did not recall a previous conversation, but said that Sessions was not required to list foreign government contacts while in official government business unless he developed personal relationships from such contacts.
“For the purposes of the SF-86, he was not required to list foreign government contacts while on official government business unless he developed personal relationships from such contacts,” the FBI official said in the email sent to Sessions aide Peggi Hanrahan, Washington Examiner reports.
CNN reported in May that the attorney general did not disclose his meetings with Kislyak on the SF-86 form. Back then, Sarah Isgur Flores, spokeswoman for the Department of Justice, told the CNN that an FBI employee, who was helping Sessions complete the form, told him that he was not obliged to disclose meetings with foreign ambassadors that happened while he was senator.
The reports comes as special counsel Robert Mueller continues to investigate alleged ties between Trump campaign and Russia and the alleged Russian meddling into the presidential election last year.
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