With Federal Criminal Investigation Moving Fast, Sessions Now Remembers Russian Discussions

It looks like pint- sized peckerwood and Attorney General of the Confederate States of America Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III may be going back to Capitol Hill to amend his sworn testimony for the third time regarding his knowledge of contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian officials:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is once again under scrutiny on Capitol Hill regarding his candor about Russia and the Trump campaign amid revelations that he rejected a suggestion to convene a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump last year. 

According to court filings unsealed this week, Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos suggested at a March 2016 meeting that he could use his connections to set up a meeting between Putin and Trump with the then-GOP candidate's national security team. An Instagram picture on Trump's account shows Sessions attended the meeting at which Papadopoulos made the suggestion. 

After Trump declined to rule out the idea, Sessions weighed in and rejected the proposed meeting, according to a person who attended. 

But Sessions, who was a top surrogate for Trump during the campaign, did not disclose these discussions despite a persistent set of questions from Democrats and some Republicans about Russia during multiple hearings on Capitol Hill. The new information is renewing attention to how forthcoming Sessions has been with Congress. (our emphasis)

"My stars and bars, I just got so flustered with your relentless questions. Now ask me again for the third time."

Behold the weasel Trump put in charge of the Justice Department. How many bites at the apple does he get before he's charged with perjury?

BONUS:  One of Beauregard's tormentors, the great Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), has sent a scathing letter to him asking specific questions about the meeting with Papadopoulos and other matters related to his previous testimony.

Orange Shitgibbon Set Me Up!

The Washington Post reported yesterday that, contrary to sworn statements from evil elf Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, the conversations Sessions had during the campaign with Russian spy master and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak weren't innocent chit chats as Sessions has claimed:

Russia’s ambassador to Washington told his superiors in Moscow that he discussed campaign-related matters, including policy issues important to Moscow, with Jeff Sessions during the 2016 presidential race, contrary to public assertions by the embattled attorney general, according to current and former U.S. officials. 

Ambassador Sergey Kislyak’s accounts of two conversations with Sessions — then a top foreign policy adviser to Republican candidate Donald Trump — were intercepted by U.S. spy agencies, which monitor the communications of senior Russian officials both in the United States and in Russia. Sessions initially failed to disclose his contacts with Kislyak and then said that the meetings were not about the Trump campaign.

The leak comes just days after orange shitgibbon Donald "Rump" Trump's mind- boggling interview with the New York Times in which, among other things, he said he wouldn't have named Sessions Attorney General if he knew he's recuse himself on the Russia investigation. Rump also raised the issue of terminating Special Counsel Mueller's investigation if it went into Rump crime family business (it has!). To remove Mueller, Rump would have to find someone in the Justice Department willing to do what Sessions can no longer do (Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein has claimed he would only remove Mueller "for cause," an extremely hard case to make against a shrewd and experienced investigator like Mueller).

So, in the light of morning, these "coincidences" have led many to speculate that the Rump regime leaked the story about Sessions/ Kislyak to either force his resignation or provide grounds for firing him, in order to replace him with a loyal lackey that will do Rump's bidding. Rump was even up early this morning to establish his cover story:

A new INTELLIGENCE LEAK from the Amazon Washington Post,this time against A.G. Jeff Sessions.These illegal leaks, like Comey's, must stop!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 22, 2017

But, even Republicans are thinking "the calls are coming from inside the house":

Every GOP figure I've spoken to at #AspenSecurity assumes Trump leaked this to force Sessions out. "Certainly not a Mueller leak," one said. https://t.co/5WjsCLkQks

— Garrett M. Graff (@vermontgmg) July 21, 2017

Sessions didn't get the hint from Rump from the New York Times interview. This seems like the next ratcheting to pressure him to quit. Rump's getting increasingly desperate, and therefore more dangerous.

General Sessions' Last Stand?

The New York Times is reporting that evil elf and Confederate States Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III has fallen into disfavor with neo-fascist Putin poodle Donald "Rump" Trump. Rump is reportedly angry with Beauregard for recusing himself from the Russiagate probe, and thereby eliminating an ally as he attempts to obstruct the investigation into his campaign's and into his personal financial dealings with Russia, and to engage in a coverup.

The Attorney General almost immediately found himself in trouble during his Senate confirmation hearings, when he failed to disclose meetings with the Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, and most recently failed to list the meetings with the Russians on his security clearance form. But it was Beauregard's sudden decision to recuse himself from the FBI counterintelligence investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 elections that angered Rump and apparently caught him by surprise:

"In private, the president’s exasperation has been even sharper. He has intermittently fumed for months over Mr. Sessions’s decision to recuse himself from the investigation into Russian meddling in last year’s election, according to people close to Mr. Trump who insisted on anonymity to describe internal conversations. In Mr. Trump’s view, they said, it was that recusal that eventually led to the appointment of a special counsel who took over the investigation... When Mr. Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation, Mr. Trump learned about it only when he was in the middle of another event, and he publicly questioned the decision. A senior administration official said Mr. Trump has not stopped burning about the decision, in occasional spurts, toward Mr. Sessions." (emphasis added)

In a bizarre Twitter tantrum early yesterday morning, Rump criticized the Justice Department for not staying with the original "travel ban," which the courts found to be unconstitutional. He let it be known that the "watered down" version which is now before the Supreme Court should get an expedited review, before reviving the earlier, unconstitutional version. The tweets were broadly seen as undermining the Justice Department's case by reminding the judiciary that Rump's desire all along was to ban Muslims from traveling to the U.S. 

BONUS:  Former DOJ spokesman Matthew Miller asks a relevant question:

“Why would the president care if Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russian investigation or not unless he wanted him to exert inappropriate influence over it."

Why indeed.

Liars Gonna Lie, Grifters Gonna Grift

We don't pretend to be on top of all the ethical outrages occurring on practically a daily basis in the regime of un-indicted co-conspirator Donald "Rump" Trump. That would require, among other things, a stronger stomach that either of us possesses. Here, though, are a few examples from just the past 24 hours that define the moral and legal black hole that is Rump's regime:

-- Evil elf Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III finds perjury as natural as breathing:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is now said to have had a third undisclosed meeting with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. 

During his confirmation proceedings, Sessions testified under oath that he “did not have any communications with the Russians.” 

Yet now CNN is reporting there was a third undisclosed meeting that occurred on April 27, 2016 at the famed Mayflower Hotel only blocks from the White House in Washington, DC. (our emphasis)

In addition to Congressional investigators, the FBI is also investigating the previously undisclosed meeting between Beauregard and Russian spy recruiter Kislyak. The two previously undisclosed meetings with Russian officials were uncovered in March:

Sessions made headlines in March after a Washington Post report said, citing Justice Department officials, the then-Alabama senator spoke to Kislyak in last July and September “at the height of what U.S. intelligence officials say was a Russian cyber campaign to upend the U.S. presidential race.” 

Following the Post report, the attorney general agreed to have been in touch with one Russian official a couple of times but maintained the meetings had nothing to with sharing of information.  (our emphasis)

At this juncture, the only thing that would keep Beauregard from being impeached and removed from office is the fact that Congress is controlled by sniveling party- before- country Republicans. Lying and hypocrisy are in their DNA.

-- In a regime that takes its cues from the kleptocratic family at its rotten head, it should come as no great surprise that they believe ethics rules are for losers:

President Donald Trump has granted ethics waivers to at least 17 of his top White House aides, including chief strategist Steve Bannon, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and senior counselor Kellyanne Conway, in addition to four former lobbyists. 

The waivers, released by the White House late Wednesday but granted on various dates, undermine Trump’s campaign pledge to “drain the swamp” in Washington. 

They also reveal a president who is granting ethics waivers at an unusually rapid pace. The 17 senior White House appointees were all granted waivers in the past four months. His predecessor, Barack Obama, granted that same number of waivers to his top staff over the course of his eight years in office. 

The waivers allow those covered under them to be exempt from some of the restrictions imposed by Trump’s executive order on ethics, which he signed just days after taking office. Most involve allowing contact with former clients and employers.

Influence peddling, back room sweetheart deals, and generic grifting -- more elements in the DNA of Republicans and of this regime in particular. Government service is only seen as a pocket- lining exercise. The rubes that bought into the "draining the swamp" pitch? No worries! They can always be had with appeals to their bigotry and racism. In the meantime, the Government grift store is open for business.

Today's Cartoon Twofer: Thou Shalt Nyet Lie

(click on images to enlarge)

Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Tom Toles, Washington Post

The Trump - Russia Scandal: Sessions Edition, Cont.

Some reactions to the blockbuster revelation of contacts between Attorney General of the Confederate States of America and evil elf Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III and the Russian ambassador while Beauregard was an advisor to the campaign of neo- fascist Putin poodle Donald "Rump" Trump:

Video of Sessions under oath denying he had any contacts with the Russians during the campaign pic.twitter.com/cnbAP187dZ

— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) March 2, 2017

Misleading the Senate in sworn testimony about one own contacts with the Russians is a good way to go to jail https://t.co/qH0s6sTMJ9

— Richard W. Painter (@RWPUSA) March 2, 2017

(Painter is the former chief ethics lawyer for the G.W. Bush administration)

PRO TIP: Next time Coretta Scott King tells you not to trust someone, believe her.

— Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser) March 2, 2017

It's not illegal for a Senator to speak w the Russian Ambassador. So why lie about it under oath?  Makes no sense, unless...

— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) March 2, 2017

So, except for his AG, ex nat sec.adviser, & former campaign manager, so far, trump associates didn't have contact w russia during campaign

— Laura Rozen (@lrozen) March 2, 2017

JUST TONIGHT: Proof Trump Lied on Yemen; Proof AG Lied to Congress; WH Admits Using PsyOps in U.S.; Wiretaps Show Trump Camp-Russia Contacts pic.twitter.com/gwbQKoSxBJ

— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) March 2, 2017

Evan Perez just said it on CNN, so I suppose I can here: Kislyak wasn't just ambassador, he was Russia's "top spy recruiter" in D.C.: SVR.

— Michael Weiss (@michaeldweiss) March 2, 2017

The pursuit of Rump's campaign ties to Russia is just the first course; the main course will be when information comes out (and it will) showing the controlling leverage Russia has over him =cough= loans underpinning his companies? = cough= Russian mob? =cough=.  Let's see those tax returns for starters, shall we?  We know you're out there!

BONUS:  From Dan Rather, who knows about these things as the former CBS White House correspondent during Watergate, "The fuse is lit."

Add "Liar" To Sessions' Resume

Justice Department officials have confirmed that Attorney General of the Confederate States of America and right-wing bigot Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III had two contacts with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak last year during the campaign of neo-fascist con man Donald "Rump" Trump, contradicting sworn testimony he gave in his confirmation hearing and in a written response submitted later for the record. Sessions met with Kislyak at the Rethuglican National Convention in July, and then again in his Senate office in September.

In attempting to deflect accusations of misleading the Senate and perjury, Sessions' spokesperson said that the meetings were on Senate business relating to his role on the Senate Armed Services Committee. That's ridiculous on its face: ask yourselves, what would the Russian ambassador be doing at the Convention in Cleveland discussing Senate armed services matters, and why would a U.S. Senator be discussing issues having to do with our armed forces with the Russian ambassador.* Sessions was one of the earliest and most prominent advisors and supporters of Rump, a status that separated him from others and made him useful for Russia to cultivate.

There's a growing chorus of demands that either Sessions resign as AG or that he immediately recuse himself from overseeing ongoing investigations into Russia's involvement with the Rump campaign, and Russian ties to Rump personally. His intentionally misleading responses under oath to the Senate about his contacts with the Russian ambassador should also prompt perjury charges.
______________
*Sen. Claire McCaskill adds a dose of reality on Sessions' "Senate Armed Services" canard:

I've been on the Armed Services Com for 10 years.No call or meeting w/Russian ambassador. Ever. Ambassadors call members of Foreign Rel Com.

— Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) March 2, 2017

Also, the WaPo reports that no other Senator on the Armed Services Committee was contacted by the Russian ambassador last year:

.@washingtonpost killing it https://t.co/qWzrb5cu1Z pic.twitter.com/ukYXBB5DD6

— Dana Liebelson (@dliebelson) March 2, 2017