Jeff Sessions discussed Donald Trump’s White House bid with the Russian ambassador to Washington in 2016, according to reported US intelligence intercepts which contradict the US attorney general’s assurances that the campaign was not discussed.

Sergey Kislyak told his superiors in Moscow he talked about campaign-related matters and significant policy issues during two meetings with Sessions, according to current and former US intelligence officials, the Washington Post reported on Friday.

The ambassador’s accounts of the meetings – which US spy agencies intercepted – clash with those of Sessions and pile fresh pressure on the attorney general just days after the president publicly criticised him.

Sessions was a senator and senior foreign policy adviser to Trump during the presidential race. After being tapped to run the justice department, he initially failed to disclose his encounters with Kislyak and then said the meetings were not about the Trump campaign.

The Post cited an unnamed US official who called Sessions’ statements “misleading” and “contradicted by other evidence”. An unnamed former official said the intelligence indicated Sessions and Kislyak had “substantive” discussions on matters including Trump’s positions on Russia-related issues and prospects for bilateral relations in a Trump administration, the paper reported.

The officials acknowledged that the ambassador could have mischaracterised the meetings in his briefings to Moscow.

The attorney general has repeatedly said he never discussed campaign-related issues with Russian officials and that it was in his capacity as a senator, not a Trump surrogate, that he met Kislyak. “I never had meetings with Russian operatives or Russian intermediaries about the Trump campaign,” he said in March.

The apparent discrepancy with Kislyak’s version of events capped a torrid week for Sessions. Trump said in an interview published on Wednesday that he regretted appointing him after Sessions recused himself from investigations into links with the Trump campaign and Russia.

The president, marking six months in office, appeared to be venting concern that the investigation headed by Robert Mueller was reportedly expanding to include his business ties with Russia.

Sessions told reporters on Thursday that he would continue in his job “as long as that is appropriate”. He made no immediate response to the Post’s article on Friday.

However in a statement, a justice department spokeswoman told the paper: “Obviously I cannot comment on the reliability of what anonymous sources describe in a wholly uncorroborated intelligence intercept that the Washington Post has not seen and that has not been provided to me.”

In a separate development on Friday, the Senate judiciary committee said that next week it would interview the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr, and his former campaign chief Paul Manafort behind closed doors rather than in public testimony, as originally planned.

Both men agreed agreed to negotiate to provide the committee with documents and be interviewed by committee members and staff prior to a public hearing, the committee chairman, Chuck Grassley, and its ranking member, Dianne Feinstein, said in a statement. “Therefore, we will not issue subpoenas for them tonight requiring their presence at Wednesday’s hearing but reserve the right to do so in the future.”

The report about the Russian ambassador capped another tumultuous day in Washington.

Sean Spicer resigned as White House press secretary, ending a controversial tenure as the administration’s public face. He stepped down after the president tapped Anthony Scaramucci, a New York financier and longtime Trump supporter, as the new White House communications director.



In an interview with Sean Hannity due to be broadcast on Fox News on Friday night, Spicer said he left on good terms with the president.



“I just thought it was in the best interest of our communications department, of our press organization to not have too many cooks in the kitchen ... He wanted to bring some new folks in to help rev up the communications operation, and after reflection, my decision was to recommend to the president that I give Anthony and Sarah a clean slate to start from.”

Asked about the Saturday Night Live spoofs – Melissa McCarthy played him as a raging, foaming attack dog – Spicer replied: “I think that there were parts of it that were funny, but there’s a lot of it that was over the line. It wasn’t funny. It was stupid, or silly, or malicious. But there were some skits on late-night television that I did crack up at. So sometimes it can be funny. Some of the memes you have to crack up about. But sometimes it goes from funny to mean.”</s>Controversial Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak has officially departed the United States as his assignment has come to an end, CBS News' Margaret Brennan reports.

Kislyak became a central player in the ongoing investigation into Russian meddling of the 2016 election. The long-time Washington fixture was involved in a variety of private meetings and discussions with Trump associates, including undisclosed interactions with Mr. Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation after revelations he had met with Kislyak during the campaign. Flynn was forced out as national security adviser for misleading Vice President Mike Pence about phone calls he had with Kislyak during the transition in which they discussed lifting sanctions against Russia.

A look at Russian envoy Sergey Kislyak

According to the Russian embassy, Kislyak has left the U.S. as part of a long-scheduled reassignment. The new ambassador has reportedly not yet arrived to the U.S.

An embassy spokesman said the current deputy chief of mission will be acting ambassador pending the arrival of Kislyak's successor.

Kislyak became Russia's ambassador to the U.S. in 2008 after working as an ambassador to NATO from 1998 to 2003. He was deputy foreign minister from 2003 to 2008.</s>U.S. President Donald Trump lashed out Saturday morning at a new Washington Post report of previously undisclosed alleged contacts between allies of his campaign and Russian government officials, calling the disclosures “illegal leaks” as he continues to try to shift the public focus to what he has said is a partisan attempt to undermine his presidency. “A new INTELLIGENCE LEAK from the Amazon Washington Post, this time against A.G. Jeff Sessions.These illegal leaks, like Comey’s, must stop!” The Washington Post reported late Friday that U.S. intelligence officials had collected information that Russia’s ambassador to the United States had told superiors that he had discussed campaign-related matters and policies important to Moscow last year with Jeff Sessions, then a senator who had endorsed Trump. Sessions, who is now attorney general, had initially failed to disclose his meetings with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during his confirmation process; when they were made public in news reports, he insisted he had met with Kislyak only in his capacity as a senator and had not discussed campaign issues. But U.S. intelligence agencies intercepted communications that showed Kislyak indicated he had “substantive” discussions on matters including Trump’s positions on Russia-related issues and prospects for U.S.-Russia relations in a Trump administration.

Trump has denounced what he has called illegal leaks in the ongoing FBI investigation into his campaign’s contacts with Russian officials. U.S. intelligence agencies have said Moscow meddled in the campaign, stealing thousands of emails and other documents from Democratic Party officials and releasing them publicly to embarrass Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and to assist Trump. Trump has said repeatedly that he did not collude with Russian officials and called accounts of the meetings between his campaign and Russian operatives a partisan attack by Democrats to avenge their loss in the election. But he and some of his top aides have hired private criminal defense lawyers to deal with the probe. In his tweet, Trump was referring to former FBI director James Comey, whom the president fired over his handling of the Russia probe. Comey later testified to Congress that he had felt pressure from Trump over the investigation and, after he was dismissed, released memos of his encounters with Trump to the media. The public disclosures helped lead to a special prosecutor, Robert Mueller, taking over the investigation. (Trump’s tweet also refers to Amazon, the online retailer led by Jeffrey P. Bezos, who also owns The Post.) A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment on what she called a “wholly uncorroborated intelligence intercept” and reiterated that Sessions had not discuss interference in the election. Trump has been angered by Sessions’ role in the Russia probe after the attorney general recused himself. The president told The New York Times this week that he would not have named Sessions to the post if he had known he would do so.

Trump also alluded to another Post report this week that he has inquired of his power to pardon aides, family members and even himself. Trump aides said the president is merely curious about his powers and the limits of Mueller’s investigation.

As he has before, Trump also reiterated on Twitter his view that Clinton’s campaign should be under greater scrutiny and he contended that his son, Donald Trump Jr., “openly” disclosed emails concerning a meeting with a Russian lawyer during the campaign -- even though Trump Jr. did so after The New York Times obtained the emails and was preparing to publish a story on them.

And in another tweet, Trump attacked the Times for reports that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, whose death in a Russian airstrike had been speculated last month, is still alive, according to Pentagon officials. It is not clear why the president holds the Times responsible. Trump is scheduled to participate Saturday in a commissioning ceremony for the USS Gerald Ford in Norfolk. His tweets came a day after Sean Spicer resigned as press secretary in the wake of Trump’s hiring of New York financier Anthony Scaramucci as his communications director. Sarah Huckabee Sanders was promoted to the press secretary role.</s>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia’s ambassador to Washington Sergei Kislyak, a key figure in ongoing U.S. investigations into Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election, ended his tenure on Saturday.

Sergey Kislyak, Russia's ambassador to the United States, arrives at Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Virginia, U.S., May 18, 2012. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/Files

The Russian embassy in Washington said on its Twitter feed that Minister-Counseler and Deputy Chief of Mission Denis V. Gonchar would serve as Charge d’Affaires until Kislyak’s successor arrived.

Kislyak, who held the post since 2008, is expected to be replaced by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Anatoly Antonov.

Antonov’s nomination for the post, which has yet to be approved by the Kremlin, comes at a time of intense scrutiny over Moscow-Washington relations following U.S. allegations that Russia meddled in the U.S. election last year.

Kislyak’s name has emerged in relation to several of Trump’s associates as a special counsel and congressional panels investigate Russian meddling and possible ties with the Trump campaign.

On Friday, the Washington Post reported Kislyak was overheard by U.S. spy agencies telling his bosses he had discussed campaign-related matters, including issues important to Moscow, with Jeff Sessions during the 2016 presidential race.

As Attorney General, Sessions recused himself in March from matters connected to an investigation by the FBI following his admission he had talked to the Russian envoy.

Sessions has denied discussing campaign issues with Russian officials and has said he only met Kislyak in his role of U.S. senator.

Former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn was forced to resign in February after it became known that he had failed to disclose the content of conversations he had with Kislyak and misled the vice president about their meetings.

Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner also failed to disclose contacts with Russia when seeking his security clearance, the New York Times reported in April.

The White House disclosed in March that Kushner met with Kislyak at Trump Tower in December 2016, in addition to seeing Kislyak when he attended an April 2016 campaign speech in Washington. The White House said the December meeting was to establish “a line of communication.”

Kushner also had phone calls with Kislyak between April and November 2016, Reuters reported. Kushner’s attorney has said that Kushner had “no recollection” of the calls as he had participated in “thousands of calls in this time period.”

Moscow has denied any interference, and Trump has said his campaign did not collude with Russia.

The White House said this week Trump would nominate Jon Huntsman as his new ambassador to Russia.</s>Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak left the United States for Russia on Saturday after concluding his tour of service as ambassador to the US, a spokesman for the Russian Embassy said,

The move was part of a rotation that had been planned for some time, according to the embassy's deputy communications chief, Alexey Mosin. Denis Gonchar, minister-counselor of the Russian Embassy, is currently Charge d'Affaires pending the appointment of a new ambassador, Mosin said.

When Kislyak's departure was announced last month , Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told CNN that the move had been planned for many months. "The changing of an ambassador, especially to a major country, is a question of at least a year. It is all planned in advance. Especially when an ambassador has worked for a long time," Zakharova said

Russian state media has reported that Kislyak's replacement as ambassador will be Anatoly Antonov. He was reportedly approved by the foreign affairs committee of the lower house of the Russian parliament in May. Anatov had been serving as Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister and is seen as a heavy hitter. He was previously Russia's deputy minister of defense.

Kislyak trained as an engineer in the USSR before joining the Foreign Ministry in 1977. His first tour of duty as an envoy to the US was between 1985 and 1989, where he specialized in arms control. Kislyak later served as Russia's ambassador to NATO and as Deputy Foreign Minister. He began serving as Russian ambassador in Washington shortly before President Barack Obama was elected. The former US ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, said Kislyak had held " all the most important jobs in the Foreign Ministry -- except one." Describing him as "effective and experienced," McFaul added, "You're never confused about what country he's representing." The 66-year-old came under the spotlight when his communications with President Donald Trump's short-lived National Security Adviser Michael Flynn led to Flynn being fired for failing to be entirely up front about them. Related story: Who is Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States? Meetings between Kislyak and former Sen. Jeff Sessions -- now Trump's Attorney General -- during the 2016 campaign have generated further heat for the Trump administration, despite Sessions' claims that the meetings were part of his Senate duties and had nothing to do with the campaign. In March, CNN reported that Kislyak is considered by US intelligence to be one of Russia's top spies and spy-recruiters in Washington, citing senior US government officials. Russia's Foreign Ministry strongly rejected the allegations.</s>WASHINGTON — Russian ambassador to the United States Sergei Kislyak — a high-profile figure in the controversy over Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election— has concluded his assignment in Washington.

The Russian Embassy in Washington announced on Twitter that Kislyak’s tenure ended on Saturday.

Kislyak’s successor has not been announced, although it is widely expected to be Anatoly Antonov, a deputy foreign minister and former deputy defense minister seen as a hardliner regarding the United States.

A Washington fixture with a sprawling network, Kislyak has emerged as a central figure in the investigations into Russian interference in the election and whether any Trump associates were involved. President Donald Trump has repeatedly dismissed the story as “fake news,” but the investigations have shown no signs of stopping, with a focus on top aides heightening.

Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was fired after the White House concluded he had not been truthful about conversations he had with Kislyak. Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation after acknowledging two previously undisclosed contacts with Kislyak.

On Friday, the Washington Post reported that Kislyak said he discussed election-related issues with Sessions when the men met last year. The Post cited anonymous U.S. officials who described U.S. intelligence intercepts of Kislyak’s descriptions of his meetings with Sessions. The Justice Department said Sessions stands by his previous assertion that he never had conversations with Russian officials about any type of interference with the election.

The president’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner has also been criticized for failing to immediately disclose a meeting with Kislyak on his security clearance questionnaire. In that December meeting, he proposed a secret back channel between the Kremlin and the Trump transition team.

During a long diplomatic career, Kislyak has led the life of a fairly typical global envoy, making himself a reliable presence on the circuit of receptions, teas and forums that make up the calendar of any ambassador.

Kislyak, who was appointed to his post in 2008, is regularly spotted walking around town, heading to and from meetings. Early in his tenure, he often opened the doors of the Russian Embassy, hosting dinners for foreign policy professionals, Pentagon officials, journalists and Capitol Hill staffers.

His first foreign posting was to New York where he worked at the Soviet delegation at the United Nations in the early 1980s. He spent the following years as the first secretary and then councilor at the Soviet Embassy in Washington before returning to Moscow in 1989, where he took a succession of senior jobs at the Foreign Ministry.

He did a stint as Russian ambassador to Belgium and simultaneously served as Moscow’s envoy at NATO. He then returned to Moscow to serve as a deputy foreign minister, overseeing relations with the United States and arms control issues before being sent to Washington.</s>Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke to the Russian ambassador about issues related to President Trump’s campaign, despite his public denials about making such interactions , a report said.

Sessions’ conversations with Sergey Kislyak were recounted by the ambassador in subsequent discussions that were intercepted by US intelligence agencies, according to The Washington Post.

Sessions recused himself from any investigations involving Russia when it became public that he met with Kislyak.

However, he insisted he never discussed campaign-related issues with any Russian officials.

“I never had meetings with Russian operatives or Russian intermediaries about the Trump campaign,” he said in March.

Given the new information, a US official said Sessions has provided “misleading” statements that are “contradicted by other evidence.”</s>Russia's ambassador to Washington told his superiors in Moscow that he discussed campaign-related matters, including policy issues important to Moscow, with Jeff Sessions during the 2016 presidential race, contrary to public assertions by the embattled attorney general, according to current and former U.S. officials.

Ambassador Sergey Kislyak's accounts of two conversations with Sessions - then a top foreign policy adviser to Republican candidate Donald Trump - were intercepted by U.S. spy agencies, which monitor the communications of senior Russian officials both in the United States and in Russia. Sessions initially failed to disclose his contacts with Kislyak and then said that the meetings were not about the Trump campaign.

One U.S. official said that Sessions - who testified that he has no recollection of the April encounter - has provided "misleading" statements that are "contradicted by other evidence." A former official said that the intelligence indicates that Sessions and Kislyak had "substantive" discussions on matters including Trump's positions on Russia-related issues and prospects for U.S.-Russia relations in a Trump administration.

Sessions has said repeatedly that he never discussed campaign-related issues with Russian officials and that it was only in his capacity as a U.S. Senator that he met with Kislyak.

"I never had meetings with Russian operatives or Russian intermediaries about the Trump campaign," Sessions said in March when he announced that he would recuse himself from matters relating to the FBI probe of Russian interference in the election and any connections to the Trump campaign.

Current and former U.S. officials said that assertion is at odds with Kislyak's accounts of conversations during two encounters over the course of the campaign, one in April ahead of Trump's first major foreign policy speech and another in July on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention.

The apparent discrepancy could pose new problems for Sessions at a time when his position in the administration appears increasingly tenuous.

Trump, in an interview this week, expressed frustration with Sessions's recusing himself from the Russia probe and indicated that he regretted his decision to make the lawmaker from Alabama the nation's top law enforcement officer. Trump also faulted Sessions as giving "bad answers" during his confirmation hearing about his Russian contacts during the campaign.

Officials emphasized that the information contradicting Sessions comes from U.S. intelligence on Kislyak's communications with the Kremlin, and acknowledged that the Russian ambassador could have mischaracterized or exaggerated the nature of his interactions.

"Obviously I cannot comment on the reliability of what anonymous sources describe in a wholly uncorroborated intelligence intercept that the Washington Post has not seen and that has not been provided to me," said Sarah Isgur Flores, a Justice Department spokeswoman in a statement. She reiterated that Sessions did not discuss interference in the election.

Russian and other foreign diplomats in Washington and elsewhere have been known, at times, to report false or misleading information to bolster their standing with their superiors or to confuse U.S. intelligence agencies.

But U.S. officials with regular access to Russian intelligence reports say Kislyak - whose tenure as ambassador to the United States ended recently - has a reputation for accurately relaying details about his interactions with officials in Washington.

Sessions removed himself from direct involvement in the Russia investigation after it was revealed in The Washington Post that he had met with Kislyak at least twice in 2016, contacts he failed to disclose during his confirmation hearing in January.

"I did not have communications with the Russians," Sessions said when asked whether anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign had communicated with representatives of the Russian government.

He has since maintained that he misunderstood the scope of the question and that his meetings with Kislyak were strictly in his capacity as a U.S. senator. In a March appearance on Fox television, Sessions said, "I don't recall any discussion of the campaign in any significant way."

Sessions appeared to narrow that assertion further in extensive testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee in June, saying that he "never met with or had any conversation with any Russians or foreign officials concerning any type of interference with any campaign or election in the United States."

But when pressed for details, Sessions qualified many of his answers during that hearing by saying that he could "not recall" or did not have "any recollection."

A former U.S. official who read the Kislyak reports said that the Russian ambassador reported speaking with Sessions about issues that were central to the campaign, including Trump's positions on key policy matters of significance to Moscow.

Sessions had a third meeting with Kislyak in his Senate office in September. Officials declined to say whether U.S. intelligence agencies intercepted any Russian communications describing the third encounter.

As a result, the discrepancies center on two earlier Sessions-Kislyak conversations, including one that Sessions has acknowledged took place in July 2016 on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention.

By that point, Russian President Vladimir Putin had decided to embark on a secret campaign to help Trump win the White House by leaking damaging emails about his rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton, according to U.S. intelligence agencies.

Although it remains unclear how involved Kislyak was in the covert Russian campaign to aid Trump, his superiors in Moscow were eager for updates about the candidate's positions, particularly regarding U.S. sanctions on Russia and long-standing disputes with the Obama administration over conflicts in Ukraine and Syria.</s>Russia’s ambassador to Washington told his superiors in Moscow that he discussed campaign-related matters, including policy issues important to Moscow, with Jeff Sessions during the 2016 presidential race, contrary to public assertions by the embattled attorney general, according to current and former U.S. officials.

Ambassador Sergey Kislyak’s accounts of two conversations with Sessions — then a top foreign policy adviser to Republican candidate Donald Trump — were intercepted by U.S. spy agencies, which monitor the communications of senior Russian officials both in the United States and in Russia. Sessions initially failed to disclose his contacts with Kislyak and then said that the meetings were not about the Trump campaign.</s>MOSCOW — The Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergei Kislyak, a prominent figure in the controversy over Russia’s possible involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, has ended his assignment in Washington.

The Russian Embassy in Washington announced on Twitter that Kislyak’s tenure ended on Saturday.

Kislyak’s successor has not been announced, although it is widely expected to be Anatoly Antonov, a deputy foreign minister and former deputy defense minister seen as a hardliner regarding the United States.

President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, resigned after lying about contacts with Kislyak. Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 election after reports that he had not disclosed meetings with Kislyak.
Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak, who was cited in Washington Post reports yesterday that American intelligence overheard him telling Moscow about his election-related discussions with a Trump campaign official, ends his nine-year assignment and leaves the United States. In May 2017, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Anatoly Antonov was approved as the next ambassador.