US Attorney Gen defends recusal from Russia probe

Washington: United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Sunday said that he did the right thing to recuse himself from the Justice Department’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

“I believe I did the right thing, the only thing I could do. I participated in this campaign, and as such, under the explicit regulations of the Department of Justice, no one can participate in an investigation of a campaign in which they were an active participant,” Sessions said on Fox News’ ‘Sunday Morning Futures.’

“You can’t ask other members of the department to follow the law and follow the rules if the attorney general himself refuses to do so,” he added.

Last year, Sessions recused himself from the Justice Department’s investigation.

It had emerged that Sessions spoke twice with the Russian ambassador to the United States during former’s presidential campaign.

Sessions did not mention either meeting, during his confirmation hearings when he said he knew of no contacts between Trump surrogates and Russians.

The probe grew out of the FBI’s Russia investigation after Trump fired FBI director James Comey and Sessions recused himself from the investigation.

Russia has denied meddling in the election campaign and Trump called Mueller’s probe a “political witch hunt”. (ANI)