A Republican congressman said Wednesday night that Attorney General Jeff Sessions should have known better than to fail to disclose meetings with Russian officials when he applied for his security clearance.
The Justice Department told CNN that Sessions, who met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at least two times last year, didn’t note those interactions the application form, which required him to list “any contact” he or his family had with a “foreign government” or its “representatives” over the past seven years.
Responding to the news during an interview on CNN’s “Erin Burnett Outfront,” Rep. Will Hurd, of Texas, said oversharing would be “a good strategy” and that because of the “intense scrutiny he knew he was going to go under, oversharing is probably better than undersharing.”
Sessions also came under fire from Democrats when he failed to disclose the same meetings with Kislyak at his confirmation hearing earlier this year.
Hurd, a member of the House Oversight Committee and former CIA officer, conceded that this latest lapse “fits a broader narrative that many want to drive,” but added that “we should discourage this kind of sharing of information of leaking.”
The congressman said he believes this is ultimately an issue that special counsel Robert Mueller will look into as part of his investigation into Russia’s involvement with the 2016 presidential election.
After CNN’s story published, a Justice Department spokesman responded with a statement saying that Sessions was instructed not to list meetings like the ones with Kislyak on his form.
“As a United States Senator, the Attorney General met hundreds – if not thousands – of foreign dignitaries and their staff,” spokesman Ian Prior said. “In filling out the SF-86 form, the Attorney General’s staff consulted with those familiar with the process, as well as the FBI investigator handling the background check, and was instructed not to list meetings with foreign dignitaries and their staff connected with his Senate activities.”
CNN’s Manu Raju and Evan Perez contributed to this report