Thread: AG Sessions did not disclose Russia meetings in security clearance form

First on CNN: AG Sessions did not disclose Russia meetings in security clearance form, DOJ says


By Manu Raju and Evan Perez, CNN
Updated 6:55 PM ET, Wed May 24, 2017

Washington (CNN)Attorney General Jeff Sessions did not disclose meetings he had last year with Russian officials when he applied for his security clearance, the Justice Department told CNN Wednesday.

Sessions, who met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at least two times last year, didn't note those interactions on the form, which requires him to list "any contact" he or his family had with a "foreign government" or its "representatives" over the past seven years, officials said.

The new information from the Justice Department is the latest example of Sessions failing to disclose contacts he had with Russian officials. He has come under withering criticism from Democrats following revelations that he did not disclose the same contacts with Kislyak during his Senate confirmation hearings earlier this year.

Sessions initially listed a year's worth of meetings with foreign officials on the security clearance form, according to Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores. But she says he and his staff were then told by an FBI employee who assisted in filling out the form, known as the SF-86, that he didn't need to list dozens of meetings with foreign ambassadors that happened in his capacity as a senator.

The FBI declined to comment for this story.



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A legal expert who regularly assists officials in filling out the form disagrees with the Justice Department's explanation, suggesting that Sessions should have disclosed the meetings.

"My interpretation is that a member of Congress would still have to reveal the appropriate foreign government contacts notwithstanding it was on official business," said Mark Zaid, a Washington attorney who specializes in national security law.

Zaid added that in a similar circumstance he advised a member of Congress to list all foreign contacts -- including those made during official US government business.

To obtain a security clearance, a federal official is not required to list the meetings if they were part of a foreign conference he or she attended while conducting government business. Sessions' meetings, however, do not appear to be tied to foreign conferences.

The omission comes after problems that Trump adviser Jared Kushner and the President's ex-national security adviser, Michael Flynn, have had on their own security forms. Kushner prematurely submitted his SF-86 form without listing foreign contacts and had to notify the FBI the next day that he was willing to provide the information. Flynn is under investigation for not properly disclosing payments linked to Russia for his foreign trips.

Lawmakers have raised questions about Sessions' meetings with Russian officials while he played a prominent role in the Trump campaign -- meetings that he only disclosed after The Washington Post revealed them. He is under scrutiny as well for his role in the firing of FBI Director James Comey despite his recusal from the Russia investigation.

Sessions could be a witness before the House and Senate intelligence panels as part of their ongoing probes into potential Trump campaign collusion with Russia, lawmakers said. And attendees at a classified House briefing last week with the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, said Sessions' name was raised when lawmakers asked if the attorney general had a role in the Comey firing. Rosenstein, sources said, declined to comment, but noted that such matters could be investigated by Robert Mueller, the recently named special counsel in the Russia probe.



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Flores said the "recommendation to remove Comey was a personnel decision based on concerns about the effectiveness of his leadership" at the bureau and that it had "nothing to do with the substance of the investigation." Since the firing, President Donald Trump acknowledged in an interview with NBC News that the Russia investigation was on his mind as he dismissed Comey.

Sessions' meetings with Kislyak have become a major political problem for the new attorney general.

At his confirmation hearing January 10, Sessions testified that he "did not have communications" with the Russians during the campaign. He made the same assertion in an official questionnaire.

He was sworn in as attorney general February 9 and subsequently received a security clearance, even though he didn't mention the Kislyak meetings on his paperwork.

The Washington Post reported March 1 that Sessions had two undisclosed meetings with Kislyak during the campaign, which brought Sessions into the widening Russia scandal for the first time.

Sessions recused himself from overseeing the FBI's Russia investigation one day later.

"Let me be clear," Sessions said before announcing his recusal, "I never had meetings with Russian operatives or Russian intermediaries about the Trump campaign."

He then amended his Senate Judiciary Committee testimony to note the two reported interactions he had with Kislyak. In the amended testimony, the former Alabama senator said he spoke "briefly" in July 2016 to the Russian ambassador during the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. He also said that he spoke with the Russian ambassador in September 2016 in his Senate office with his staff members. He said he did not initially list those meetings because he did not think they were relevant to the questions asked during the confirmation proceedings.

He added: "I do not recall any discussions with the Russian ambassador or any other representative of the Russian government, regarding the political campaign on these occasions or any other occasion."

Lawmakers on the House and Senate intelligence committees say it is possible that Sessions could be questioned about those meetings and his role in the campaign -- as well as the circumstances around the Comey firing.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, told CNN in an April 28 interview, "I'd be happy if they brought him before the committee and had him testify."

"Look, there are a lot of questions about Jeff Sessions," the New York Democrat said of his former colleague. "That's why I called on him to resign."

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/24/politi...ials-meetings/

This is old news. We already know about that. When CNN is running the same ole story, then their story is fizzling. In fact, after today and what happened on the Hill, it has lost all its fizz, no evidence, no collusion, no "disruption", no crimes, no trials, no impeachment. The Dream has ended. We're on to rooting out the leakers, abuse of surveillance programs, deleted emails, actual crimes .... which all leads to the Obama Administration and Hillary Clinton.

The fizz is now ours.

Sessions did not disclose Russian meetings on security clearance application: report

BY MAX GREENWOOD - 05/24/17 06:20 PM EDT 445

© Victoria Sarno Jordan

Attorney General Jeff Sessions did not disclose on security clearance forms that he met twice last year with Russia's ambassador, CNN reported Wednesday.

The form, the SF-86, asks applicants to disclose any contacts with a foreign government or its representatives over the past seven years.

Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores told CNN that an FBI employee who was helping Sessions complete the form advised him that he did not have to disclose meetings with foreign ambassadors that took place during his time in the Senate.

She said Sessions listed a year's worth of meetings with foreign officials on the form.

CNN notes that federal officials do not have to list meetings that were part of foreign conferences attended while conducting government business -- though Sessions' meetings with Sergey Kislyak do not appear to fall under that exemption.

The FBI declined to comment to CNN. Sessions came under fire earlier this year amid revelations that he failed to disclose to the Senate his meetings with Kislyak during President Trump's 2016 campaign.

He has since recused himself from any matters regarding federal investigations into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

But Sessions' involvement in the investigation was called back into question earlier this month, after Trump abruptly fired FBI Director James Comey.

Statements released by the White House in the wake of Comey’s ouster said Trump had acted on the advice of Sessions and his deputy, Rod Rosenstein.

After Sessions’ recommendation was made public, some Democratic lawmakers accused him of violating the terms of his recusal, though Trump later said he'd planned fire Comey regardless of the attorney general and deputy attorney general's suggestions.

The revelation that Sessions had met with Kislyak while he was a campaign surrogate for Trump followed the forced resignation of national security adviser Michael Flynn. Flynn had come under fire for failing to disclose to top White House officials the nature of his communications with Kislyak in the month before Trump took office.

http://thehill.com/policy/national-s...rity-clearance

Old news.

Sessions Was Advised Not to Disclose Russia Meetings on Security Forms

By REBECCA R. RUIZMAY 24, 2017

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions failed to disclose meetings with Russian officials when he applied for security clearance because he was told not to do so by advisers and the F.B.I., a Justice Department spokesman said Wednesday.

Mr. Sessions met with Sergey I. Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States, at least twice in 2016. But asked on an official government form to note any contact he or family members had with foreign governments or their representatives over the past seven years, Mr. Sessions did not include his encounters with Mr. Kislyak. It is a federal crime to make false statements or withhold relevant information on the background check form.

“As a United States senator, the attorney general met hundreds — if not thousands — of foreign dignitaries and their staff,” Ian Prior, a spokesman for the Justice Department, said in a statement. “The attorney general’s staff consulted with those familiar with the process, as well as the F.B.I. investigator handling the background check, and was instructed not to list meetings with foreign dignitaries and their staff connected with his Senate activities.”

Mr. Sessions filled out two such forms, Mr. Prior said, one last July, as he was first formally vetted by the Trump campaign, and one after the election in November.

The news, first reported by CNN, renewed questions about Mr. Sessions and the Russia issue. Mr. Sessions, who represented Alabama until his confirmation as the nation’s top law enforcement officer this year, was the first United States senator to endorse Mr. Trump, backing him in February 2016.

He recused himself from the Russia inquiry in March, after it was reported he had met with Mr. Kislyak in 2016. Last week, Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, appointed a special counsel to investigate Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and whether Russia colluded with associates of Mr. Trump’s campaign.

Democratic lawmakers demanded Mr. Sessions’s resignation on Wednesday. “He’s lied under oath,” Senator Kamala Harris, Democrat of California, wrote on Twitter. “He’s misled on security clearance forms. It’s simple — he should not be the Attorney General.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/24/u...ns-russia.html

DemoQuacks and their Corrupt Media Mouth-Pieces are truly desperate. I hope Republicans in Congress and at home see all this for what it truly is.

FACTS:

1. Creepy Comey was punked by a bogus intelligence report, nothing but fake news, and took bizarre and inappropriate actions in response to the punk that compromised the confidence of the American People in the 2016 Presidential Election. Comey did this, not the Russians.

2. Comey and his crooked little entourage in the FBI have divided our country, jeopardized national security, compromised foreign policy and put the American People in the untenable position of no longer trusting their own government on .... anything.

3. John Brennan former CIA Director has through his testimony Congressional hearings revealed a mindset at the CIA that screams "if you can't prove it with actual events and corroborated facts, then fabricate it with "analysis".

4. John Brennan also proved in his testimony that if you're cornered with a question you don't have a good answer for, then say it's "classified" which means it doesn't exist, and move to the "not my role" to decide or comment lane.

It is quite apparent to me at this point that the CIA, FBI and NSA have tried to:

a. throw an election to Hillary Clinton, and when that didn't work
b. throw an elected President out of office on lies and innuendo, and when that doesn't work
c. stay tuned and watch your back, Mr. President.

Secret Service, listen up, we have crazy people in the FBI, CIA and NSA. That's why Phil Snowden risked his life to reveal what he learned about NSA surveillance. To protect this President, you have to investigate the murder of Seth Rich. If anyone thinks these sociopaths will stop with Rich, then you need to think again. Within the plot of the DNC hacking and whatever role Seth Rich had in that IT event will also reveal the plot against this President.

This is all giving the alleged issue of a loyalty question whole new meaning.

5. Since their political media plot against Trump has fizzled, now they're working on Sessions. The people behind this are crazy, very dangerous and need to be hunted down like a pack of rabid dogs and put in cages.