Nancy Pelosi: Jeff Sessions is making a 'sorry attempt to explain away his perjury'

Jeff Sessions.
(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Not long after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on Thursday he will recuse himself from overseeing any "future or existing" investigations into Donald Trump's presidential campaign, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said this doesn't go nearly far enough, and he must "resign immediately."

It was revealed on Wednesday night that last year Sessions, while still a senator and one of Trump's top foreign policy advisers, met with the Russian ambassador to the United States; during his Senate confirmation hearing in January, he declared that he "did not have communications with the Russians" during the campaign. Pelosi said he needed to step down from his position, and was even more forceful on Thursday, releasing a statement that called his recusal "narrow," adding that his "sorry attempt to explain away his perjury" is "totally inadequate."

The Democratic leader went on to say Sessions is "clearly trying to maintain his ability to control the larger investigation into the sprawling personal, political, and financial grip Russia has on the Trump administration," and his "lies to the Senate and to the American people make him unfit to serve as the chief law enforcement officer of our country."

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Catherine Garcia

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.