美司法部長被爆未如實公佈與俄大使會晤

Attorney-general Jeff Sessions failed to disclose during his confirmation hearings in January that he twice met the Russian ambassador while acting as a close adviser to Donald Trump during last year’s presidential campaign.

美國司法部長傑夫?塞申斯(Jeff Sessions)在今年1月的就職聽證會上，未能披露曾在去年總統選戰期間兩次會晤俄羅斯大使的事實。而在與俄羅斯大使會晤時，塞申斯身爲與唐納德?特朗普(Donald Trump)關係密切的顧問。

Mr Sessions met Sergey Kislyak on September 8 in the then-senator’s private office in the US Capitol building, after having spoken with him briefly two months earlier at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

去年9月8日，時任美國參議員的塞申斯曾在其位於美國國會山的私人辦公室會晤謝爾蓋?基斯利亞克(Sergey Kislyak)。此前，塞申斯曾於兩個月前在保守的美國傳統基金會(Heritage Foundation)與後者短暫交談。

The meetings occurred as Russian officials were mounting an increasingly aggressive effort to interfere with the US election in a bid to aid Mr Trump’s chances of winning, US intelligence agencies concluded this year.

今年，美國情報機構曾經認定，上述會晤發生之際，俄羅斯官員正在以日益激進的力度干預美國大選，試圖幫助提高特朗普獲勝的可能性。

During his confirmation hearing testimony before the Senate judiciary committee on January 10, Mr Sessions — who chaired candidate Trump’s national security advisory committee — was asked about published reports of continuing contacts between the Republican nominee’s representatives and Russian officials.

塞申斯曾是總統候選人特朗普的國家安全顧問委員會主席。今年1月10日，在爲其就職聽證向參議院司法委員會做證時，塞申斯曾被問及有關特朗普的代表和俄羅斯官員持續接觸的公開報道。

Asked by Senator Al Franken what we would do if he learnt of evidence of contacts between Trump campaign surrogates and Russian officials, Mr Sessions replied: “I'm not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I didn't have — did not have communications with the Russians.”

當時，參議員阿爾?弗蘭肯(Al Franken)曾問塞申斯，如果他獲悉特朗普選戰代理人與俄羅斯官員接觸的證據，他們應該怎麼做。對此，塞申斯回答：“我並未發現有任何此類活動，有那麼一兩次我曾被稱爲代理人，而我沒有與俄羅斯人聯繫過——完全沒有。”

Late on Wednesday, as Democrats claimed that Mr Sessions had lied under oath and should recuse himself from any US Department of Justice investigation of the president’s Russian links, a spokeswoman said he had acted properly.

週三晚上，塞申斯曾試圖就他在參議院證詞中的誓言與這一新爆料的出入做出澄清。塞申斯表示，他從未“以討論選戰問題爲目的”，與俄羅斯官員會晤。