The White House on Sunday did not rule out that US Attorney General Jeff Sessions may recuse himself from Department of Justice investigations into allegations of Russian interference in last year’s US presidential election.
Deputy White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said congressional investigations into possible Russian hacking of Democratic groups would have to run their course before Sessions needed to decide whether to step aside from the FBI probes.
Sessions was a top adviser to US President Donald Trump during the presidential campaign.
“I wasn’t saying that he shouldn’t recuse himself or that he should,” Sanders told ABC’s This Week. “My point is: I don’t think we’re there yet. Let’s work through this process.”
US intelligence analysts have concluded that Russia tried to help Trump win the White House by discrediting Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton and her party through cyberattacks.
Former US president Barack Obama, a Democrat, expelled Russian diplomats in retaliation in December last year.
Moscow has denied the accusations.
The FBI is pursuing of alleged Russian election-related hacking and of financial transactions by Russian people and companies who are believed to have links to associates of Trump, current and former government officials said.
Trump has dismissed controversy about ties between his aides and Russia as a “ruse” and “scam” perpetrated by a hostile news media.
Trump fired his national security adviser, Michael Flynn, three weeks into the new administration after revelations surfaced that he had discussed US sanctions on Russia with the Russian ambassador to the US before Trump took office and misled US Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations.
Democrats have been pushing for an independent investigation into whether there were links between the Trump campaign team and Russian officials.
“The attorney general must recuse himself,” US House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said on ABC.
She cited news reports that White House officials had asked the FBI to dispute a New York Times story on Feb. 14 indicating regular contacts between senior Russian intelligence agents and members of Trump’s team during the presidential campaign.
Republican lawmakers echoed the White House, saying the investigations must take their course.
“Let’s let the process work,” US Representative Jim Jordan, founder of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told ABC.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in