WASHINGTON — A letter from Vermont’s senior senator prompted an investigation into Attorney General Jeff Sessions last year, according to a report from ABC News Wednesday.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., sent a letter with then-Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., in March 2017 asking the Federal Bureau of Investigation to probe Sessions’ contacts with the Russian ambassador and other officials, and whether those contacts or his discussion of them later violated the law.
ABC News reported that senior FBI official Andrew McCabe authorized an investigation into Sessions last March, after receiving the letter.
Leahy spokesperson David Carle said Wednesday afternoon that the only information the senator received following up on his inquiries was a May 31 letter from an FBI congressional affairs official who wrote that the bureau “cannot confirm or deny the existence of an investigation.”
“Senator Leahy was not otherwise made aware of an investigation,” Carle said.
ABC News reported that some lawmakers were briefed on the investigation. Leahy is the longest serving member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Sessions fired McCabe on Friday, less than two days before he was due to retire and receive his full pension. A person close to Sessions said Wednesday that the attorney general had no knowledge of the investigation at the time McCabe was dismissed.
Sessions was interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller’s team two month ago, according to the ABC report. Sessions’ lawyer, Chuck Cooper, said in a statement that the attorney general is not currently under investigation.
“The Special Counsel‘s Office has informed me that after interviewing the Attorney General and conducting additional investigation, the Attorney General is not under investigation for false statements or perjury in his confirmation hearing testimony and related written submissions to Congress,” Cooper said.
Democrats in Congress raised concerns for months that Sessions did not truthfully answer questions about Russian contacts around the 2016 election.
Leahy and Franken sent their first letter to then-FBI Director Jim Comey following March media reports that Sessions met with the Russian ambassador during the campaign. The senators had concerns about Sessions’s “lack of candor” during a January confirmation hearing when he told lawmakers he did not have contact with individuals linked to the Russian government during the 2016 election.
The two senators sent a subsequent letter to Comey in April, then followed up with McCabe after Trump fired Comey in May.
Leahy and Franken pressed Sessions about his contacts with Russian officials and his statements to the committee regarding those contacts at a hearing in October.
“Now I’ve never accused you of colluding with Russians, but you clearly in your answer know you concealed your own contact with Russian officials at a time when such contacts were of great interest to the committee,” Leahy said at the time.
