OH, THAT THING!

Sessions: ‘I Do Now Recall’ Papadopoulos Meeting

Attorney general says Trump campaign was “a form of chaos every day from day one.”

Attorney General Jeff Sessions acknowledged Tuesday that he attended a meeting at Trump Tower where George Papadopoulos—a former Trump campaign foreign-policy adviser who pleaded guilty last month to lying to the FBI—allegedly informed the attorney general about his “frequent” conversations with Russian officials. “I do now recall the March 2016 meeting at Trump Tower that Papadopoulos attended, but I have no clear recollection of the details of what he said during that meeting,” Sessions told the House Judiciary Committee. Sessions had been pressured to clear up his past statements to Congress in which he said repeatedly that he was not aware of conversations that took place between Trump campaign officials and Russians during the election. “After reading his account, and to the best of my recollection, I believe that I wanted to make clear to him that he was not authorized to represent the campaign with the Russian government—or any other foreign government, for that matter,” Sessions said. “I did not recall this event, which occurred 18 months before my testimony of a few weeks ago, and I would gladly have reported it had I remembered it.” The attorney general excused his failure to mention the meeting and conversations by saying that the Trump campaign was a “form of chaos every day from day one.” Sessions added that he “pushed back against” Papadopoulos’ suggestion that Trump should meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

—Andrew Desiderio

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