WASHINGTON_Attorney General Jeff Sessions should reappear before the Senate Judiciary Committee to explain his contacts with Russia's ambassador to Washington, Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., said Sunday.
It was a question by Franken during Sessions' confirmation hearing that elicited the then-nominee's assertion that he had not met with any Russians during the presidential campaign, to which Sessions was an adviser.
Franken, appearing on ABC's "This Week," said he wanted to give Sessions "the benefit of the doubt," but that the attorney general Sessions needed to explain why he had not acknowledged two meetings with the Russian envoy, Sergey Kislyak, during the 2016 campaign.
After the Washington Post's disclosure of the meetings, Sessions recused himself from investigations of Russian involvement in the campaign, but Franken said that did not end the matter.
"The attorney general owes it to the Judiciary Committee to come back and explain himself," he said. "If he lied knowingly, he committed perjury."
