DAY 297: Jeff Sessions confirms Trump wants a "whatabout" investigation on Hillary Clinton

Jeff Sessions testified before Congress for the second time about why he lied about his knowledge of the Trump campaign being in contact with Russian officials. Sessions, of course, claimed he did not "remember" the fact that he talked to Carter Page about his trip to Russia.

But then Sessions and the Republicans tried to change the subject to a non-issue. Sessions confirmed during his testimony what was revealed the previous day: that he had asked the Justice Department if a Special Counsel could be appointed to investigate Hillary Clinton because of the permission the Obama administration gave for the 2010 purchase of a uranium mining company by a Canadian company that was bought by Russia.

DAY 182: Donald Trump inadvertedly admits Sessions did talk to Russia about his campaign

This morning Donald Trump tweeted the following in regards to the article in the Washington Post showing data from intelligence sources indicating that Jeff Sessions did talk to the Russian ambassador Segei Kislyak about the Trump campaign, which can be considered collusion:

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

Which means that Trump is inadvertedly confirming the leak published by the Washington Post. Trump didn't say it wasn't true. He confirmed it as an intelligence leak, which means the information is real.

Jeff Sessions discussed Trump's campaign with Russian officials: WP

According to The Washington Post, intelligence sources confirmed that Jeff Sessions did discuss Trump's campaign with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Twice.

The intelligence agencies know this because they recorded Kislyak's conversations with Moscow, informing them of the content of his interactions with Sessions.

This means Sessions lied to Congress when he was asked during his confirmation hearings if he had discussed the Trump campaign with Russian officials.

From the article:

Now Trump is attacking Jeff Sessions and threatening Robert Mueller

In an interview with The New York Times, Donald Trump attacked Jeff Sessions and threatened Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Regarding Sessions, Trump said he would've picked somebody else for Attorney General if Sessions was going to recuse himself with the Russia investigation:

“Sessions should have never recused himself and if he was going to recuse himself he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else.”

Jeff Sessions uses bullshit excuse to not answer the Senate's questions

Jeff Sessions essentially refused to answer questions about Russia and his conversations with Donald Trump regarding the firing of James Comey during his Senate testimony under oath arguing that he was honoring a tradition of confidentiality between the Department of Justice and the president. Problem is, there is no law or legal standard that justifies that bullshit excuse. And the Senate told him. Sessions then goes on to say that he's not answering the question in case Trump wants to use executive privilege. In other words, there's no reason for Sessions to refuse to answer:

Sen. @MartinHeinrich to Sessions: "You're impeding this investigation" pic.twitter.com/O0Eb3qG4lA

— POLITICO (@politico) June 13, 2017

DAY 142: Apparently, Trump is sending Jeff Sessions to the Senate to respond to James Comey

According to The New York Times, Jeff Sessions will testify before the Senate on the Russia investigation.

Sessions was supposed to talk to other Congressional committees the same day he will testify (Tuesday, June 13) about the budget for the justfice department. But instead, he will talk about the meddling of Russia in the 2016 election.

Which suggests Donald Trump is sending Sessions to respond to James Comey after his damning testimony showing Trump tried to stop the Russia investigation.

Jeff Sessions did not disclose meetings with Russian officials when applying for security clearance

According to CNN, Attorney General Jeff Sessions did not disclose meetings he had with Russian officials when he was applying for security clearance.

Sessions had met with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak at least twice in 2016, but he did not disclose the meetings to the Justice Department.

From the CNN article:

Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions praised James Comey in 2016 for the Clinton emails

During the 2016 campaign Donald and Jeff Sessions praised James Comey for his handling of the Hillary Clinton emails just days before the elections.

Trump praised Comey multiple times during the campaign, saying he had "guts" and did "the right thing." The video of Trump praising Comey was shown on CNN:


https://youtu.be/CTus5rU6J8I

Trump asked Jeff Sessions to come up with an excuse to fire Comey

According to The New York Times, Donald Trump started talking about firing James Comey last week, and he asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to come up with an excuse to fire him.

Senior White House and Justice Department officials had been working on building a case against Mr. Comey since at least last week, according to administration officials. Mr. Sessions had been charged with coming up with reasons to fire him, the officials said.

Which is a very serious accusation, as Sessions was supposed to be recused from the Russia investigation because he was part of Trump's campaign, and he was not supposed to even touch Comey, who was conducting the Russia investigation.

Another NYT article points out that Trump was the one who spoke privately with this top advisers about firing Comey:

Mr. Trump, according to people close to the president, had been openly talking about firing Mr. Comey for at least a week. Despite the objections from some of his aides about the optics and the lack of an obvious successor, the grumbling evolved into a tentative plan as he angrily watched the Sunday news shows at his Bedminster, N.J., golf resort.

By Monday, capping off months of festering grievances, Mr. Trump told people around him that he wanted Mr. Comey gone, repeatedly questioning Mr. Comey’s fitness for the job and telling aides there was “something wrong” with him, several people familiar with the discussions said.

Is all of this is the case, then it suggests Trump didn't fire Comey because of a recommendation from the Deputy Attorney General, as he claimed in his letter to Comey informing him of his firing. Trump instead told Sessions to come up with an excuse to fire Comey and then, knowing Sessions was not supposed to get involved with the Russian investigation, blamed it on the Deputy Attorney general, who had received a request from Comey to expand the Russia investigation.

Trump must have kown this was going to raise suspicions about the Russia investigation. That may explain why Trump added this unsolicited item in his letter to Comey:

While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau.

A very obvious attempt at trying to convince the public that the Russia investigation is the not the reason, when we now know Comey was fired after he asked for more resources for the Russia investigation.

AUTHORITARISM: Woman who protested against Jeff Sessions faces time in prison just for laughing

Back on January 10, during Jeff Session's confirmation hearing as Attorney General, a group of protesters were taken out of the room where the confirmation hearing was taking place. Some were arrested. Why? Because one of them, a woman, laughed for 3 seconds when a Senator told Sessions that Sessions had an "extensive record of treating all Americans equally under the law", which is clearly false, as Sessions has been denounced for being a racist even by Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King Jr.'s widow.

Because of the giggling, the protesters were taken out of the room by the police. But the woman who laughed, Desiree Fairooz, was charged with two counts of "unlawful conduct" on capitol grounds and will be sentenced in June. The punishment could be time in prison.

Jeff Sessions lies about Mexico paying for the border wall

In case you're wondering why Donald Trump tweeted about the border wall today...

The Democrats don't want money from budget going to border wall despite the fact that it will stop drugs and very bad MS 13 gang members.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2017

Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2017

...the reason is because his Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, a well known racist, went on George Stephanopoulos's Sunday morning show and said Mexico would pay for Trump's border wall one way or another, but the examples Sessions gave of ways in which Mexico could pay for the wall would end up in American taxpayers having to pay for the wall.

Jeff Sessions insulted Hawaii calling it "an island in the Pacific" in a derogatory way

Donald Trump's Attorney General Jeff Sessions insulted Hawaii by calling it "an island in the Pacific" in a derogatory manner.

It all started when Sessions bitched and moaned about the fact that a Federal Judge in Hawaii blocked Donald Trump's second Muslim ban. He said according to CNN:

"We are confident that the President will prevail on appeal and particularly in the Supreme Court, if not the Ninth Circuit. So this is a huge matter. I really am amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific can issue an order that stops the President of the United States from what appears to be clearly his statutory and Constitutional power."

Trump says Jeff Sessions told the truth even though he didn't

Asked by the press about Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the fact that he lied to the Senate about his contacts with Russian officials, Donald Trump denied Sessions lied. According to The New York Times, when asked by reporters if he thought Sessions told the truth to the Senate during his confirmation hearings, Trump said: “I think he probably did.”

In reality, Sessions lied. Here's the video:

Jeff Sessions talked to Russian officials twice and didn't disclose it to Senate

Attorney General had contacts twice with Russian officials last year but he did not disclose it to the Senate during his confirmation hearings even though he was asked about contacts between Russia and the Trump campaign.

According to The Washington Post, Sessions spoke with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak in September of 2016 in Sessions's own office.