Jennifer Rubin writes in the Washington Post:
“In addition to Clovis, now-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, we noted, appears in the photo of the March 2016 meeting with Papadopoulos and Trump. “A picture is worth a thousand words, and it may take the attorney general that many to explain this one,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) tells me. “Not only can’t Sessions get his story straight about contacts with Russia, but it is becoming harder for him to claim these contacts were inconsequential.”
Sessions not only was involved in the firing of FBI Director James B. Comey (when Trump said he had the Russia investigation in mind), but he also has at various times, when asked about his contact with or knowledge of Russian contacts, not brought up Papadopoulos. Sessions, in his confirmation hearing, denied having any contacts with Russians. When that proved not to be true, he revised his testimony. In June, he told the Judiciary Committee: “The suggestion that I participated in any collusion, that I was aware of any collusion with the Russian government, or hurt this country which I have served with honor for 35 years, or to undermine the integrity of our democratic process, is an appalling and detestable lie.”
However, the New York Times reports:
On March 31, back in Washington, Mr. Papadopoulos met Mr. Trump for the first time at a gathering of his new foreign policy team at the candidate’s Washington hotel. According to the former Trump adviser who was there, and who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid offending former colleagues, Mr. Papadopoulos spoke for a few minutes about his Russian contacts and the prospects for a meeting with the Russian president.
But several people in the room began to raise questions about the wisdom of a meeting with Mr. Putin, noting that Russia was under sanctions from the United States. Jeff Sessions, now attorney general and then a senator from Alabama who was counseling Mr. Trump on national security, “shut George down,” the adviser said. “He said, ‘We’re not going to do it’ and he added, ‘I’d prefer that nobody speak about this again.’”
And yet Sessions recalled none of that in testimony under oath — in anyof his explanations.”
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Read Rubin’s complete column at the above link.
Sessions has demonstrated a clear aversion to truth, accuracy, and decency, as well as an amazingly selective memory during his brief, yet incredibly destructive, tenure as Attorney General. However, like many White Nationalists who show a marked disregard and teeming disrespect for the lives and legal rights of others, Gonzo is keenly aware of his own legal rights. Realizing that “but for” a friendly GOP Government, he would be in “deep doodo” for his lies, half-truths, misrepresentations, and questionable “memory lapses,” he had the good sense to “lawyer up” by retaining former GOP DOJ honcho Chuck Cooper as his personal lawyer. It’s likely that before this all plays out, Cooper will actually have to start earning his pay.
PWS
10-31-17