Minnesota Sen. Al Franken said he now believes that Attorney General Jeff Sessions committed perjury during his confirmation hearing when he did not disclose meetings with a Russian ambassador.
Sessions’ response during the hearing to Franken’s question about Russia and President Donald Trump’s campaign was demonstrably false, Franken said Tuesday on CNN’s “The Lead” with Jake Tapper.
“It’s hard to come to any other conclusion than he just perjured himself,” the Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary committee said.
Franken also said that Sessions’ response to his contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak coming to light has been insufficient — Sessions on Monday submitted written responses to the committee, denying that he had answered Franken’s question falsely.
“That’s a ridiculous response. It’s not a clarification at all,” Franken said, adding that he had been waiting for Sessions’ letter on Monday before accusing him of lying.
He said Sessions should come before the committee again in order to explain what had happened.
Sessions announced last week that he will recuse himself from any investigation dealing with the Trump campaign due to his role as a surrogate for Trump.
Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said after the recusal that he would not call for Sessions to appear in person before the committee until his annual oversight hearing.
