Rep. Cicilline: If Sessions Lied It ‘Makes It Difficult’ for Him to Remain AG

EXCERPT:

CICILLINE: "I think it’s very clear. As I said last night in my tweet, this is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States. If he in fact lied to the American people and to the his colleagues in the Senate during his confirmation hearing, that is very serious and I think, of course, disqualifies him from leading this investigation or  acquires the appointment of a special prosecutor. And frankly, I think, makes it difficult for him to remain the attorney general of the United States. It is -- it seems very clear that he was asked about whether or not there were contacts between members of the Trump campaign. He identified himself as a surrogate in that campaign and had two meetings. So he didn't testify truthfully before the committee. I think one has to wonder why? Why was he trying to keep those conversations secret? But what’s most important is this is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States. People have a right to expect that he’s going to answer these questions under oath. Honestly, if it turns out he did not, as it appears he did, then I think it makes it very difficult for him to remain in that position. I think for sure it’s clear now that we need the appointment of a special prosecutor to really investigate the relationship between the Trump administration, the president himself and the Russian government. We have seen now four people close to President Trump who have had to remove themselves from government because of their ties and contacts with Russians during the course of the Trump campaign. We had 17 intelligence agencies conclude that the Russian were involved in a very sophisticated effort to elect, help elect Donald Trump as president. These are serious issues. The American people have to have confidence that their elected officials are acting in their best interest and free from foreign interference and I think this raises very serious questions."