Jeff Sessions Forced to Recuse from Russia Investigation After Perjury About Kislyak Meetings Revealed

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on March 2, 2017, that he would recuse himself from any investigations related to the 2016 presidential campaign, including Russian interference, following The Washington Post’s revelation that Sessions had lied under oath about his contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during his confirmation hearing.

The Post reported that Sessions had met with Kislyak twice in 2016: a brief conversation at the Republican National Convention in July and an office meeting in September in his Senate office. When Senator Al Franken asked Sessions under oath during his January confirmation hearing whether he had “communications with the Russians,” Sessions categorically denied it: “I did not have communications with the Russians.” This was perjury.

Sessions claimed he met Kislyak in his capacity as a Senator on the Armed Services Committee rather than as a Trump campaign surrogate, drawing a distinction that many legal experts found dubious given his senior campaign role. The meetings occurred during the height of Russian interference in the 2016 election, making Sessions’ failure to disclose them particularly damaging.

Following DOJ ethics officials’ recommendation, Sessions stated: “I feel like that I should not be involved investigating a campaign I had a role in.” The recusal transferred oversight of the Russia investigation to Acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente, the career prosecutor who had replaced Sally Yates after Trump fired her. Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein would later be confirmed and ultimately appoint Special Counsel Robert Mueller in May 2017.

Sessions’ recusal enraged Trump, who expected his Attorney General to protect him from investigation. Trump would later cite the recusal as the primary reason he regretted appointing Sessions, saying Sessions should have disclosed his intention to recuse before accepting the nomination. The recusal demonstrated that even a loyal Trump ally like Sessions could be forced to follow minimal ethical standards when perjury was publicly exposed—though Sessions was never prosecuted for lying to Congress.