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WASHINGTON — Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who fired off one of
the harshest
 criticisms of
Attorney
 General Jeff
Sessions over
his meetings
with a Russian
 ambassador,
faced blowback
 herself Thursday when the senator's own tweets
 contradicted her claim that she never had
met the ambassador.
McCaskill called on Sessions to resign, saying
he "misled the Senate" about his contact with
Russian officials during the 2016 election
 campaign.
The Washington Post reported Wednesday
 night that Sessions met twice with the
 Russian ambassador to the U.S. last year.
During his confirmation hearing to become
President Trump's top law enforcement official,
Sessions said he had no contact with Russian
 officials and did not know anything about
 reported contacts between Trump's campaign
 advisers and allies of Russian President
Vladimir Putin.
“I’m not aware of any of those activities,”
Sessions told the Senate Judiciary Committee
during his January confirmation hearing. "I have
 been called a surrogate at a time or two in that
campaign, and I did not have communications
 with the Russians.”
Read more:
A spokeswoman for Sessions, in a statement
 responding to the Post story, said he did not
disclose his meetings with the Russian
ambassador because he was asked during
 the hearing about communications between
Russia and the Trump campaign. His
 spokeswoman said Sessions' meetings with
 the Russian ambassador were held in his role
 as a senator and a member of the Armed
 Services Committee, not in his role as a top
Trump campaign adviser.
McCaskill blasted that explanation.
“A good prosecutor would have known these
facts were relevant to the questions asked,”
McCaskill said in a statement Thursday morning.
 "It's clear Attorney General Sessions misled the
 Senate — the question is, why? I’ve been on
 the Senate Armed Services Committee for
10 years, and in that time, have had no call
 from, or meeting with, the Russian ambassador.
Ever.
"That’s because ambassadors call members
 of Foreign Relations Committee," McCaskill
 added. "Attorney General Sessions should
 resign.”
McCaskill's statement that she never met with
Russia's ambassador was immediately
challenged by Charles C. Cooke, editor of
 National Review Online, a conservative
news site. Cooke noted that McCaskill had
tweeted about a 2013 meeting with
Russia's top diplomat in the U.S.



View image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on Twitter

Claire McCaskill says she’s had “no call

or meeting w/Russian ambassador

. Ever.” But she tweeted about two. It’s

easy to forget.
Asked to explain, McCaskill said the meeting
on adoption was with about a dozen other
 senators. She said she never had been
contacted by the Russian ambassador nor
 had a one-on-one meeting with him.
"The Russian ambassador has never called
 me. The Russian ambassador has never
 requested a meeting. I have never met with
 the Russian ambassador one-on-one,"
McCaskill said.  "I went to a meeting on
 adoptions, and he was there. But it was
a bunch of senators. And it had nothing to
do with the Armed Services Committee."