WASHINGTON (AP) – The Justice Department has released a heavily blacked out page from Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ security clearance application.
The document has become public in response to a government watchdog group’s lawsuit.
The application page asks whether Sessions – a senator before joining the Trump administration – or anyone in his immediate family had contact within the past seven years with a foreign government or its representatives.
There’s a “no” listed, but the rest of the answer is blacked out.
The department has acknowledged that Sessions – on his form – omitted meetings he had with foreign dignitaries, including the Russian ambassador.
A department spokesman says the FBI agent who helped with the form said those encounters didn’t have to be included as routine contacts as part of Sessions’ Senate duties.