DOJ: Sessions did not disclose meetings with Russian officials on security clearance form

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

When Attorney General Jeff Sessions applied for his security clearance, he neglected to share meetings he'd had in 2016 with Russian officials, the Justice Department told CNN on Wednesday.

The SF-86 form requires that a person list "any contact" they or their family had with a "foreign government" or its "representatives" over the last seven years, officials told CNN, and Sessions, who met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at least two times in 2016, did not mention these encounters. Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores told CNN that Sessions and his staff were told by the FBI they did not need to list meetings he had with foreign ambassadors that took place while he was still a senator.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.