Attorney General casually perjures himself

[homersapien 11,357]

14 hours ago, Auburnfan91 said:

Here's Franken's question, which was very specific about Trump's campaign and surrogates:

 

I don't see a perjury charge sticking. You can say Sessions wasn't forthcoming and should have said he did meet with the Russian ambassador last year in his capacity of Chairman of the Armed Services Committee but Franken's question wasn't all encompassing about communicating with Russia.

Sessions answer was specific to what Franken specifically asked, which was the Trump surrogates and campaign officials communicating with Russia during the campaign. 

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/03/02/sessions_privately_paid_for_rnc_trip_where_he_met_the_russian_ambassador.html

Jeff Sessions Privately Paid for RNC Trip Where He Met the Russian Ambassador Like It Was a Campaign Trip

While still in the Senate, Jeff Sessions met with the Russian Ambassador at least twice—once at his Senate office in September and once at an event at the Republican National Convention in July. Now-Attorney General Sessions omitted both these meetings in his testimony during his confirmation hearings. Sessions and his Trump backers pushed back against the revelations saying that it was, essentially, a misunderstanding—Sessions conducted those meetings in his role as United States Senator, not a Trump campaign adviser, therefore he didn't perjure himself. It was convenient, if hurried logic and it spread quickly. “He was literally conducting himself as a United States Senator,” Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Thursday. “This is what senators do in the course of conducting themselves in their jobs.”

Was Jeff Sessions conducting himself as a United States Senator at the RNC? Not so much. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Sessions paid for the trip to Cleveland for the convention out of his own political funds, not his official congressional funding, and discussed the Trump campaign, obviously, during his remarks at the Heritage Foundation event where he met with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak. “One person at the Heritage event in Cleveland said Mr. Sessions left the impression he was there because of his role in the Trump campaign,” the Journal reports. “This person said Mr. Sessions’ remarks in part were focused on Mr. Trump’s trade policy, saying the then-candidate would do away with multilateral trade deals.” At the time, Sessions was the chairman of Trump’s National Security Advisory Committee.

From the Journal:

Larry Noble, general counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan advocacy group, said Mr. Sessions likely used his campaign account, rather than official Senate funds, because as a senior adviser to the Trump campaign it would have been difficult to argue that he wasn’t attending the convention for any political purpose. “If he was truly there solely as a member of the Armed Services Committee, then he could’ve used his legislative account,” Mr. Noble said.

So, in short, on one of the two occasions that Jeff Sessions met with the Russian Ambassador he technically was not, in fact, acting in his role as a U.S. Senator. What was he then?

 

[Proud Tiger 4,261]

In a court trial, one thing attorneys do is give precedents. If Sesssions was ever accused as our AG. tis would be one of my precedents if I was his lawyer.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20141029/17394228983/eric-holder-says-he-regrets-lying-to-judge-saying-reporter-was-co-conspirator-law-made-him-do-it.shtml

And I would note that Loretta Lynch didn't ever recuse herself in the Clinton cases (e.mails and foundation) even though she met on her plane with Bill Clinton during the FBI investigation.

[Auburnfan91 1,407]

2 hours ago, homersapien said:

Was Jeff Sessions conducting himself as a United States Senator at the RNC? Not so much. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Sessions paid for the trip to Cleveland for the convention out of his own political funds, not his official congressional funding, and discussed the Trump campaign, obviously, during his remarks at the Heritage Foundation event where he met with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak. “One person at the Heritage event in Cleveland said Mr. Sessions left the impression he was there because of his role in the Trump campaign,” the Journal reports. “This person said Mr. Sessions’ remarks in part were focused on Mr. Trump’s trade policy, saying the then-candidate would do away with multilateral trade deals.” At the time, Sessions was the chairman of Trump’s National Security Advisory Committee.

From the Journal:

Larry Noble, general counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan advocacy group, said Mr. Sessions likely used his campaign account, rather than official Senate funds, because as a senior adviser to the Trump campaign it would have been difficult to argue that he wasn’t attending the convention for any political purpose. “If he was truly there solely as a member of the Armed Services Committee, then he could’ve used his legislative account,” Mr. Noble said.

So, in short, on one of two occasions that Jeff Sessions met with the Russian Ambassador he technically was not, in fact, acting in his role as a U.S. Senator. What was he then?

Again though, it's going to be hard for perjury charges to stick. Does it look bad? Yes. But that still doesn't make what Sessions said a lie.

Maybe Sessions didn't think it would look good using his legislative account to pay to attend a political event, even if he could have done so like Larry Noble of the Campaign Legal Center stated? Sessions still could have been acting as a Senator but not on behalf of Trump's campaign but didn't feel comfortable using his legislative account because even Larry Noble acknowledged: "it would have been difficult to argue that he wasn't attending the convention for any political purpose".

[Auburnfan91 1,407]

Quote

Sessions was visited by Kislyak in his Capitol Hill office on Sept. 8, the Justice Department said in its statement, but received him in his role as a senator. He also met with the envoy among a small group of ambassadors after an event hosted by the Heritage Foundation in July at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland

read more at: https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-03-02/sessions-spoke-with-russian-envoy-during-trump-s-2016-campaign

 

So the Russian Ambassador wasn't the only ambassador in attendance at the Heritage Foundation event. That certainly paints a different picture of the meeting Sessions had with the Russian Ambassador.

[homersapien 11,357]

1 hour ago, Auburnfan91 said:

Again though, it's going to be hard for perjury charges to stick. Does it look bad? Yes. But that still doesn't make what Sessions said a lie.

Maybe Sessions didn't think it would look good using his legislative account to pay to attend a political event, even if he could have done so like Larry Noble of the Campaign Legal Center stated? Sessions still could have been acting as a Senator but not on behalf of Trump's campaign but didn't feel comfortable using his legislative account because even Larry Noble acknowledged: "it would have been difficult to argue that he wasn't attending the convention for any political purpose".

And all he had to do was explain what he did instead of saying he had no contact.

Go figure.

 

[Proud Tiger 4,261]

Pot meet kettle. Dems also met with Russian. Did they discuss the election? Who knows. Have they come out and openly said for the record they met with the Russian......no. Hypocrisy reigns in DC. Both parties are guilty and the hate is creating the DSA......Divided States of America.

Then there is old holier than thou Chuck Schumer.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/03/03/schumer-pulled-visa-strings-for-indian-athlete-now-accused-child-sex-abuse.html

 

[savorytiger 182]

22 minutes ago, Proud Tiger said:

Pot meet kettle. Dems also met with Russian. Did they discuss the election? Who knows. Have they come out and openly said for the record they met with the Russian......no. Hypocrisy reigns in DC. Both parties are guilty and the hate is creating the DSA......Divided States of America.

Then there is old holier than thou Chuck Schumer.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/03/03/schumer-pulled-visa-strings-for-indian-athlete-now-accused-child-sex-abuse.html

 

I mean, if the Russians are accused of pushing our election in favor of the Democrats, then maybe it would matter just as much that those meetings happened.  

I do agree that our greatest issue is how divided we are right now.  The US is both divided within and increasingly more isolated from our allies around the world.  Someone is winning through all this maneuvering, and it's definitely not us.

[Auburnfan91 1,407]

And now there's even more coming out about those "meetings" Sessions had with Russian Ambassador Kislyak.

This is a completely different picture than what the mainstream media are trying to paint of Sessions.

Quote

Heritage Foundation scholar Hans von Spakovsky wrote at FoxNews.com that the event at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland that his employer hosted was attended by Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

Spakovsky writes that the event was a conference titled “Global Partners in Diplomacy,” where Sessions was the keynote speaker. It was sponsored by the State Department, the Heritage Foundation and other organizations.

“The conference was an educational program for ambassadors invited by the Obama State Department to observe the convention. The Obama State Department handled all of the coordination with ambassadors and their staff, of which there were about 100 at the conference,” Spakovsky writes.

He goes on to say, “Apparently, after Sessions finished speaking, a small group of ambassadors—including the Russian ambassador—approached the senator as he left the stage and thanked him for his remarks. That’s the first ‘meeting.’  And it’s hardly an occasion—much less a venue—in when a conspiracy to ‘interfere’ with the November election could be hatched.”

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2017/03/03/obama-state-department-set-up-russian-ambassador-meeting-with-sessions-at-rnc/#ixzz4aJVIZfPd

 

 

[WDavE 332]

So far this whole facade has been about someone hacking some DNC accounts. None of the information released because of the hacks has ever been denied.

Which ironically proved that the election was being actually rigged by a small group.

 

[AURaptor 1,122]

8 minutes ago, WDavE said:

So far this whole facade has been about someone hacking some DNC accounts. None of the information released because of the hacks has ever been denied. 

Which ironically proved that the election was being actually rigged by a small group.

 

This doesn't get mentioned nearly enough. 

[SaltyTiger 7,774]

11 hours ago, homersapien said:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/03/02/sessions_privately_paid_for_rnc_trip_where_he_met_the_russian_ambassador.html

Jeff Sessions Privately Paid for RNC Trip Where He Met the Russian Ambassador Like It Was a Campaign Trip

While still in the Senate, Jeff Sessions met with the Russian Ambassador at least twice—once at his Senate office in September and once at an event at the Republican National Convention in July. Now-Attorney General Sessions omitted both these meetings in his testimony during his confirmation hearings. Sessions and his Trump backers pushed back against the revelations saying that it was, essentially, a misunderstanding—Sessions conducted those meetings in his role as United States Senator, not a Trump campaign adviser, therefore he didn't perjure himself. It was convenient, if hurried logic and it spread quickly. “He was literally conducting himself as a United States Senator,” Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Thursday. “This is what senators do in the course of conducting themselves in their jobs.”

Was Jeff Sessions conducting himself as a United States Senator at the RNC? Not so much. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Sessions paid for the trip to Cleveland for the convention out of his own political funds, not his official congressional funding, and discussed the Trump campaign, obviously, during his remarks at the Heritage Foundation event where he met with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak. “One person at the Heritage event in Cleveland said Mr. Sessions left the impression he was there because of his role in the Trump campaign,” the Journal reports. “This person said Mr. Sessions’ remarks in part were focused on Mr. Trump’s trade policy, saying the then-candidate would do away with multilateral trade deals.” At the time, Sessions was the chairman of Trump’s National Security Advisory Committee.

From the Journal:

Larry Noble, general counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan advocacy group, said Mr. Sessions likely used his campaign account, rather than official Senate funds, because as a senior adviser to the Trump campaign it would have been difficult to argue that he wasn’t attending the convention for any political purpose. “If he was truly there solely as a member of the Armed Services Committee, then he could’ve used his legislative account,” Mr. Noble said.

So, in short, on one of the two occasions that Jeff Sessions met with the Russian Ambassador he technically was not, in fact, acting in his role as a U.S. Senator. What was he then?

 

Can not wait to see this movie! Tom Hanks a great Sessions.

[TexasTiger 12,828]

8 hours ago, Auburnfan91 said:

read more at: https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-03-02/sessions-spoke-with-russian-envoy-during-trump-s-2016-campaign

 

So the Russian Ambassador wasn't the only ambassador in attendance at the Heritage Foundation event. That certainly paints a different picture of the meeting Sessions had with the Russian Ambassador.

But he met individually with him and then the platform changed.

[Auburnfan91 1,407]

34 minutes ago, TexasTiger said:

But he met individually with him and then the platform changed.

All of this suspicion of Sessions is predicated on whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to interfere in the election. Sessions recused himself from a DOJ investigation into Trump and Russia. Sessions did the right thing by recusing himself. If anything comes out of an investigation, talk of what to do about the findings is going to happen..

At this point, calls for Sessions to be charged with perjury or resign over giving an indirect answer is just an incoherent and partisan argument.

[TexasTiger 12,828]

25 minutes ago, Auburnfan91 said:

All of this suspicion of Sessions is predicated on whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to interfere in the election. Sessions recused himself from a DOJ investigation into Trump and Russia. Sessions did the right thing by recusing himself. If anything comes out of an investigation, talk of what to do about the findings is going to happen..

At this point, calls for Sessions to be charged with perjury or resign over giving an indirect answer is just an incoherent and partisan argument.

Who are you arguing with?

[Auburnfan91 1,407]

1 hour ago, TexasTiger said:

Who are you arguing with?

I'm not arguing with anyone in particular. Your comment raised suspicion of Sessions. If you want answers then an investigation will provide answers. My comment was a general statement to those who think the Trump campaign colluded with Russia and those who are arguing that Sessions should be charged with perjury or resign because of his answer during his confirmation hearing. 

 

[AURaptor 1,122]

 

Quote

 

Obama Officials Set Up Jeff Sessions’ Meeting With the Russian Ambassador

Now, new information has come out that throws cold water all over their phony "RussiaGate" scandal.

It turns out the senator spoke to the Russian ambassador in one of the allegedly scandalous "meetings" on the invitation of the Obama administration.

Hans A. von Spakovsky of Fox News reports (emphasis added):

 

So what are the two meetings that Sessions had? The first came at a conference on “Global Partners in Diplomacy,” where Sessions was the keynote speaker. Sponsored by the U.S. State Department, The Heritage Foundation, and several other organizations, it was held in Cleveland during the Republican National Convention.

 

The conference was an educational program for ambassadors invited by the Obama State Department to observe the convention. The Obama State Department handled all of the coordination with ambassadors and their staff, of which there were about 100 at the conference.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/2017/03/03/hmm-obama-officials-set-up-jeff-sessions-meeting-with-the-russian-ambassador/

 

 

 

game-set- match

Fake news  busted

[AUDub 11,137]

56 minutes ago, AURaptor said:

Obama Officials Set Up Jeff Sessions’ Meeting With the Russian Ambassador

Now, new information has come out that throws cold water all over their phony "RussiaGate" scandal.

It turns out the senator spoke to the Russian ambassador in one of the allegedly scandalous "meetings" on the invitation of the Obama administration.

Hans A. von Spakovsky of Fox News reports (emphasis added):

Quote

So what are the two meetings that Sessions had? The first came at a conference on “Global Partners in Diplomacy,” where Sessions was the keynote speaker. Sponsored by the U.S. State Department, The Heritage Foundation, and several other organizations, it was held in Cleveland during the Republican National Convention.

 

The conference was an educational program for ambassadors invited by the Obama State Department to observe the convention. The Obama State Department handled all of the coordination with ambassadors and their staff, of which there were about 100 at the conference.

game-set- match

Fake news  busted

I'm confused. Where does it say the encounter between Sessions and Kislyak was set up by the Obama State department? It seems to state that the Ambassadors were invited to the event by the Obama state Department. The meeting was not part of the planned curriculum.

[AURaptor 1,122]

8 hours ago, Bigbens42 said:

I'm confused. Where does it say the encounter between Sessions and Kislyak was set up by the Obama State department? It seems to state that the Ambassadors were invited to the event by the Obama state Department. The meeting was not part of the planned curriculum.

It was due to the meeting set up by State. 

[Grumps 3,704]

I think we will find out that everyone who is buying into Russiagate is a chump. But, hey, maybe I am the chump. I look forward to seeing this play out. So far what we have proposed is that Trump and his minions have this YUGE conspiracy to conspire. Not conspire about anything in particular...just to conspire in general. Scary isn't it?

[homersapien 11,357]

20 hours ago, Proud Tiger said:

Pot meet kettle. Dems also met with Russian. Did they discuss the election? Who knows. Have they come out and openly said for the record they met with the Russian......no. Hypocrisy reigns in DC. Both parties are guilty and the hate is creating the DSA......Divided States of America.

Then there is old holier than thou Chuck Schumer.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/03/03/schumer-pulled-visa-strings-for-indian-athlete-now-accused-child-sex-abuse.html

 

Lots of people meet with the Russian ambassador.  That's a part of his job - schmooze and gossip with American politicians.

That's not the issue.  

The issue is the degree of association Trump and his administration had with the Russians during the campaign, in which, afterall, the Russians hacked the DNC computers in a probable effort to influence the campaign.  Why are they seemingly trying to hide it?

Routine meetings with the Russian ambassador occuring years ago have no relevance to the issue on the table.  It's a rather pathetic diversion actually.

[homersapien 11,357]

15 hours ago, WDavE said:

So far this whole facade has been about someone hacking some DNC accounts. None of the information released because of the hacks has ever been denied.

Which ironically proved that the election was being actually rigged by a small group.

 

I don't follow your reasoning.  Can you elucidate?

 

[homersapien 11,357]

19 hours ago, savorytiger said:

I mean, if the Russians are accused of pushing our election in favor of the Democrats, then maybe it would matter just as much that those meetings happened.  

 

I think the premise is they were trying to sabatoge Hillary, not help her.

But I don't understand your point.  What do you mean by "matter as much"?

[homersapien 11,357]

13 hours ago, Auburnfan91 said:

All of this suspicion of Sessions is predicated on whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to interfere in the election. Sessions recused himself from a DOJ investigation into Trump and Russia. Sessions did the right thing by recusing himself. If anything comes out of an investigation, talk of what to do about the findings is going to happen..

At this point, calls for Sessions to be charged with perjury or resign over giving an indirect answer is just an incoherent and partisan argument.

It's not "incoherent", it's a debatable question.

He may not be technically guilty of perjury, but it's very suspicious he didn't volunteer information on these meetings if they were innocent.  

And especially after the Flynn incident, he could have volunteered more information or clarified his answer.   Why didn't he do so? 

[homersapien 11,357]

2 hours ago, Grumps said:

I think we will find out that everyone who is buying into Russiagate is a chump. But, hey, maybe I am the chump. I look forward to seeing this play out. So far what we have proposed is that Trump and his minions have this YUGE conspiracy to conspire. Not conspire about anything in particular...just to conspire in general. Scary isn't it?

I remember this sort of response in the early phases of Watergate. 

[WDavE 332]

35 minutes ago, homersapien said:

I don't follow your reasoning.  Can you elucidate?

 

Okay! Try this....

 

Dec 13th 2016

Then President Obama emphatically denounced the conspiracy theory that the Russians tampered with the election. 

Yet, here we are in early March listening to Lib's still spouting the same garbage.

A false statement does not get any truer no matter how many times it gets repeated. But lemmings will be lemmings.