President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions both denied any knowledge of members of the Trump campaign meeting with Russians, but newly unsealed court documents appear to refute those statements, The New York Times reports.
Former campaign aide George Papadopoulos said in a meeting with Trump and the foreign policy team, "that he had connections that could help arrange a meeting between then-candidate Trump and [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin," according to court records.
"He went into the pitch right away," said J. D. Gordon, a campaign adviser who was at the meeting, according to the Times. "He said he had a friend in London, the Russian ambassador, who could help set up a meeting with Putin."
Although Trump listened to Papadopoulos' idea, Sessions reportedly opposed it, and "said that no one should talk about it," according to Gordon.
Sessions testified under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee in January that he was unaware of any contacts between the campaign and Russia. Sessions repeated this claim in his testimony last month, after his own meetings with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. came to light.
Sessions "now needs to come back before the committee, in person, under oath, to explain why he cannot seem to provide truthful, complete answers to these important and relevant questions," Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., a member of the Judiciary Committee, told the paper.
"The media's willingness to inflate Papadopoulos, a young unpaid volunteer and supposed energy expert, into an important thought leader in the campaign or Russian operative is ludicrous," White House lawyer Ty Cobb told The Times.
"The evidence so far suggests he attended one meeting, said something about Russia and was immediately shut down by everyone in the room. It's very important to remember that he is not a criminal now because of anything he did for the campaign — he is a criminal because he initially lied to the FBI."
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