Exclusive–Sen. Joe Manchin: Calls for AG Jeff Sessions to Resign ‘Premature’

The only Democrat to vote to confirm Attorney General Jeff Sessions told Breitbart News Thursday calls by Senate Minority Leaders Sen. Charles Schumer (D.-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi D.-Calif.) for Sessions to resign are premature.

“From my end, until I see the facts, anything and everything is premature until you see the facts–and that is what I am looking for,” said Sen.Joe Manchin (D.-W.V.), who said he had not spoken to Schumer about this issue.

The Washington Post and other media outlets reported that Sessions met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak twice during the 2016 election cycle, when the former Alabama senator was a senior adviser to candidate Donald Trump and his campaign.

Manchin said as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, like Sessions at the time of his meetings, he met with Kislyak, but never by himself.

“I met with the Russian ambassador with other senators with the Armed Services Committee,” he said. “As I recall, a lot of that was about NSAS and space and improving the working environment, because we are using Russian rock bets, so there are a lot of conversations with a lot of ambassadors–we all do.”

The senator said he told Sessions he has to play things straight.

“I told Jeff, first of all you should recuse yourself because of the investigation into Mike Flynn and basically, it’s pretty clear that if you all have a relationship, you all worked on the campaign, just put some distance, OK?,” he said.

Manchin said he does not sit on the House Judiciary Committee, so he did not hear all of Session’s full testimony.

“You have to go where the facts go, if the facts go and Jeff intentionally misled–and that’s proven–or he intentionally lied? He’d have to resign,” he said.

“You are not guilty, you know, until the facts come out, so let the facts come out.”