© Mike Segar / Reuters
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has said he was acting in his capacity as a U.S. senator when he met with the Russian ambassador at the Republican National Convention, but The Wall Street Journal reports that he paid for related expenses with his political funds and that he spoke about President Trump’s campaign at the event. Sessions came under fire this week over the revelation that he had met with the Russian ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, at the convention and again in Washington during Trump’s election campaign. He has announced, in the wake of the controversy, that he would recuse himself from any inquiry related to the 2016 presidential campaign. The White House has defended Sessions’s meetings—and his failure to disclose them during his confirmation hearing—by claiming that the meetings happened in his capacity as a senator, not as a member of Trump’s campaign.