U.S. Attorney General Jefferson Sessions said his meeting with the Russian ambassador to the United States turned “testy” after the two began to discuss Russia’s three-year war in Ukraine.
“Somehow the subject of Ukraine came up,” Sessions said of his meeting with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. He added that “to listen to him…Russia had done nothing that was wrong in any area, and everybody else was wrong with regard to the Ukraine.”
Sessions spoke of the meeting at his first press conference as U.S. attorney general. The event was convened in response to allegations that he had lied about having met Russian officials during his confirmation hearing.
A Washington Post story revealed on March 1 that Sessions had met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the presidential campaign. The meetings took place on at least two separate occasions. One occurred on the sidelines of the Republican national convention with other ambassadors, while on another Kislyak went to Sessions’ office on Capitol hill.
Under questioning from U.S. Senator Al Franken during his confirmation hearing, Sessions said he had not met with any Russian officials.
The attorney general said that he would recuse himself from an investigation into whether the Russian government collaborated with the Trump campaign to influence the U.S. election.
In the March 2 press conference, the attorney general showed a level of contrition.
“In retrospect, I should have slowed down and said, ‘but I did meet one Russian official a couple of times,’” Sessions said. “That would be the ambassador.”
Sessions added that he had spoke with Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Valeriy Chaly the day before he met with Kislyak in the Capitol.
“It got to be a little bit of a testy conversation at that point,” he said, regarding the discussion of Ukraine with Kislyak. Sessions did not specify what he discussed about the conflict.
Sessions also noted that he had traveled to Russia in 1991 “with a church group.”
Kislyak said “he was not a believer himself but he was glad to have church people come there,” Sessions stated. “Indeed, I thought he was pretty much of an old-style Soviet type ambassador.”
