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.
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