On March 1, the Washington Post reported that Jeff Sessions had two conversations with Sergei Kislyak last year while he was a US senator. Sessions denied allegations he misled the Senate and said he is prepared to recuse himself from the investigation if the need arises.
“We have seen no evidence from any of these ongoing investigations that anybody in the Trump campaign or in the Trump team was involved in any of this [Russia’s alleged interference in the election],” Ryan told reporters. “We have been presented with no evidence that an American was colluding with the Russians to meddle in the election.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on March 2 that Moscow does not know of any meetings between Sessions and Kislyak and does not wish to interfere in the “emotionally-charged” scandal.
The Trump administration has strongly denied US media reports that campaign officials had regular contact with Russian intelligence officials.
Russian officials have called the US allegations absurd and maintained that Moscow had no role in the 2016 election and has no desire to interfere in the US political system.