Attorney General Jeff Sessions was at the meeting in which a former Trump campaign volunteer offered to connect Donald Trump with Russian President Vladimir Putin and shot down the suggestion, according to a new report.
NBC News reported Thursday that Sessions, who at the time was a Republican senator from Alabama, was present when George Papadopoulos — who recently pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about contacts with Russians — made the offer at his first meeting with the Trump campaign.
Sessions has testified under oath he never heard any discussions within the Trump campaign regarding Russian collusion.
A source told NBC the latest development to the Russia saga carries no significance.
"The March 31 comments by this Papadopoulos person did not leave a lasting impression," the source said. "As far as Sessions seemed to be concerned, when he shut down this idea of Papadopoulos engaging with Russia, that was the end of it, and he moved the meeting along to other issues.
"Papadopoulos was some 29-year old that nobody had ever heard of and who struck people in the room as someone who didn't have a lot of credibility."
A widely circulated photo this week showed a Trump campaign meeting with Trump at one end of a conference table, Sessions at the other, and several campaign aides and advisers seated. Papadopoulos was situated four seats down from Trump.
Papadopoulos, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and Manafort's business associate Rick Gates have all been indicted on a variety federal charges.
Trump critics are already pointing fingers at Sessions and wondering why he never disclosed what was discussed at the March 31 meeting.
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