Then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) spoke twice in 2016 with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Justice Department officials said, encounters he did not disclose when asked about possible contacts between members of President Trump’s campaign and representatives of Moscow during Sessions’s confirmation hearing to become attorney general.
Sessions attended a Heritage Foundation event in July [2016] on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention that was attended by about 50 ambassadors. When the event was over, a small group of ambassadors approached Sessions as he was leaving the podium, and [Russian ambassador] Kislyak was among them.