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[smjjames]

Sessions met with Russian envoy twice last year, encounters he later did not disclose

Then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) spoke twice last year with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Justice Department officials said, encounters he did not disclose when asked about possible contacts between members of President Trump’s campaign and representatives of Moscow during Sessions’s confirmation hearing to become attorney general.

One of the meetings was a private conversation between Sessions and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak that took place in September in the senator’s office, at the height of what U.S. intelligence officials say was a Russian cyber campaign to upend the U.S. presidential race.

The previously undisclosed discussions could fuel new congressional calls for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Russia’s alleged role in the 2016 presidential election. As attorney general, Sessions oversees the Justice Department and the FBI, which have been leading investigations into Russian meddling and any links to Trump’s associates. He has so far resisted calls to recuse himself.

Just how deep this Russian hole goes?!

FAKE_EDIT:

Officials said Sessions did not consider the conversations relevant to the lawmakers’ questions and did not remember in detail what he discussed with Kislyak.

“There was absolutely nothing misleading about his answer,” said Sarah Isgur Flores, Sessions’s spokeswoman.

In January, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) asked Sessions for answers to written questions. “Several of the President-elect’s nominees or senior advisers have Russian ties. Have you been in contact with anyone connected to any part of the Russian government about the 2016 election, either before or after election day?” Leahy wrote.

Sessions responded with one word: “No.”

That has got to be perjury. Please, for the love of god, be actually prosecutable offence. Pleeeease.

Dang, you beat me to it while I was looking around at sources.

Anyway, here's a The Hill article, and a Vox article on the same thing.

About all I have to say is: Drip, drip, кап, кап, кап edit: Now with correct spelling.

*Should be Russian for 'drip', according to google translate, but um, seems kinda long for just the word 'drip'.

As for lying under oath, the reply seemed vague enough to get by, but I guess the answer lies in the specifics.

[TheBiggerFish]

Please.

[Sergarr]

*Should be Russian for 'drip', according to google translate.

Almost, but that's an adjective form, not a noun one. For a noun you'd generally want "капать", but in this situation, "кап" would be more appropriate.

[smjjames]

*Should be Russian for 'drip', according to google translate.

Almost, but that's an adjective form, not a noun one. For a noun you'd generally want "капать", but in this situation, "кап" would be more appropriate.

Noted.

As for what happens with Sessions, I suppose it depends on what exactly was said. Plus increased calls for a special prosecutor.

[PTTG??]

It doesn't matter. Trump could stand in the middle of fifth avenue and shoot people and the Republicans wouldn't do anything.

[Sergarr]

Flynn got fucked, though. So there's clearly some leverage that you can use on Republicans.

[Reelya]

“This is something the generals wanted to do. They came to see me, they explained what they wanted to do, the generals. Who are very respected. My generals are the most respected that we’ve had in many decades, I believe.

I've got the best generals. The very best.

[palsch]

Sessions has some wiggle room on perjury accusations, but looks close enough for a trial to me. It's going to come down to the contents of any conversation and the exact wording of the questions and responses.

The arguments are that the contents of his conversations with the ambassador do not match the context of the questions he was asked, although one story reports that the context was at least extremely similar in one of the questions (eg, they discussed the election). At first glance it looks like enough to get him off, but there are potentially still shoes waiting to drop (FBI investigation appears to be into other conversations than those discussed so far) and a couple of different questions he answered which could be enough to screw him.

Sadly in this case a trial would mean impeachment hearings, which would mean at the least a dozen Republican Senators pulling out the long knives on one of their long-time colleagues and friends.

Remember that this means Trump appointed a man to oversee the FBI who the FBI was currently investigating. Trump should have been privy to that information, but appointed Sessions anyway. Again, the lie in incidental to the fact that he is the wrong man for the job, and Trump wanted him over all other qualified candidates anyway.

As for what happens with Sessions, I suppose it depends on what exactly was said. Plus increased calls for a special prosecutor.

I'll try to pull some links later, but there are good reasons to want an independent commission over a special counsel.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Flynn got fucked, though. So there's clearly some leverage that you can use on Republicans.

Ah ah. Flynn was a Democrat. The highest appointed Democrat in Trump's administration, in fact.

[Max™]

I got more info.The guy is black and was traveling from Nigeria. No evidence of him being targeted for any other reason than skin color, basically.
https://www.informationng.com/2017/03/engineer-celestine-omin-detained-ny-airport-given-test-prove-occupation.html

Omin said he was “too tired to even think,” but he worked out the questions. However, after handing the paper back to the officer, he was told the responses to the questions were wrong. “No one would tell me why I was being questioned,” Omin said, according to the LinkedIn post. “Every single time I asked [the official] why he was asking me these questions, he hushed me … I wasn’t prepared for this. If I had known this was happening beforehand, I would have tried to prepare.”

Following the incident, he was sure he would not be allowed access into the United States. But an official told him he was free to go – adding that he wasn’t entirely convinced. “Look, I am going to let you go,” the official reportedly said. “But you don’t look convincing to me.” Omin was given the green signal to enter the country after the US Customs Office had called Andela and First Access to verify Omin’s occupation.

Double WTF.

...

Hold up, hold the fuck up everybody, stop everything.

1. Trump is President and fucking up left and right.
2. People are going through a processing area and being electronically or literally stripped.
3. Nobody told them they were supposed to study for the pop quiz.

dun-BWAAAAAANGGGGG!

[smjjames]

Calls are increasing for Sessions to either recuse himself or resign. Including Rep. Chaffetz, the House Oversight Chairman. I'll note that it's the Democrats calling for resignation while the Republicans are calling for recusal.

Sessions meanwhile, has said that he is willing to recuse himself, while at the same time denying that he ever talked to the Russian ambassador.

One of the reasons that Sessions gave is that it was in the capacity of the Armed Services committee, however, one of the Senators on the committee says that meeting with ambassadors isn't their job.

In a non Russia scandal related thing, Ryan Zinke, the Montanan Interior Chief, rides a horse to work, and in style.

[Frumple]

Kinda' annoying there doesn't seem to be an easy place to see the actual statements of those justice department officials mentioned in stuff related to that mess.

That said, I'll give 'em this much, Peskov (one of russia's critters) response to the thing was definitely amusing. "Let's say it's not our headache." indeed...

[Greiger]

It is amazing how many people surrounding trump have been found to have suspicious ties to russia, (who have pretty much been determined to have tampered with this election process) yet we havent decided to hold a new election yet.

In good sense a new election should be held just because the winning candidate did not win more than half the country's popular vote (I know it does not work that way, but it should), but now we also have reasonably strong indications that even if trump himself didn't, there are strong indications that his staff are involved in the russian election tampering.   

If Bill Clinton can get impeached for adultry, I don't see why The Donald isn't already in a court for appointing clearly compromised individuals.  Oh right, it's because Trump said he'd get rid of corruption by killing lobbying and then becomes the most corrupt executive branch probably ever, and people are ok with that.

Sorry, needed to get it out of my system.  I feel better now.   Kinda like when you have a sour stomach.   Throw up, and then immediately feel right as rain.   Feel free to skip all the above vomit.

[FearfulJesuit]

Pretty sure there's no mechanism for calling snap elections. If Trump gets kicked out, Pence becomes prez, and if he gets the boot, it's Ryan.

[Frumple]

Eh, it was the perjury, not the adultery, technically.

Though saying that did make me realize it was pretty much the exact sort of perjury that sessions is trying to get away with, heh. Wonder how many folks have brought attention to that, yet...

E: Well, same save a significantly more appropriate-to-the-position concern being the issue.