美司法部长被爆未如实公布与俄大使会晤

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.

美国司法部长杰夫?塞申斯(Jeff Sessions)在今年1月的就职听证会上，未能披露曾在去年总统选战期间两次会晤俄罗斯大使的事实。而在与俄罗斯大使会晤时，塞申斯身为与唐纳德?特朗普(Donald Trump)关系密切的顾问。

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，时任美国参议员的塞申斯曾在其位于美国国会山的私人办公室会晤谢尔盖?基斯利亚克(Sergey Kislyak)。此前，塞申斯曾于两个月前在保守的美国传统基金会(Heritage Foundation)与后者短暂交谈。

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，美国情报机构曾经认定，上述会晤发生之际，俄罗斯官员正在以日益激进的力度干预美国大选，试图帮助提高特朗普获胜的可能性。

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.

塞申斯曾是总统候选人特朗普的国家安全顾问委员会主席。今年1月10日，在为其就职听证向参议院司法委员会做证时，塞申斯曾被问及有关特朗普的代表和俄罗斯官员持续接触的公开报道。

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.”

当时，参议员阿尔?弗兰肯(Al Franken)曾问塞申斯，如果他获悉特朗普选战代理人与俄罗斯官员接触的证据，他们应该怎么做。对此，塞申斯回答：“我并未发现有任何此类活动，有那么一两次我曾被称为代理人，而我没有与俄罗斯人联系过——完全没有。”

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.

周三晚上，塞申斯曾试图就他在参议院证词中的誓言与这一新爆料的出入做出澄清。塞申斯表示，他从未“以讨论选战问题为目的”，与俄罗斯官员会晤。