Thursday, March 2, 2017

SESSIONS


I woke up around 1:45am this morning, I woke up due to the sound of high winds howling.  I was wide awake, so I looked at my emails in my phone.  The first email that I saw was from MoveOn.org.  A petition read as follows:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions lied under oath about his contacts with the Russian ambassador and must resign immediately. Sessions' successor must appoint a special prosecutor to lead a comprehensive investigation of the Trump campaign and the Trump administration's ties to the Russian government.

Wooooooooo dogie!!!!!!!  I immediately started doing research.  This story broke at 9:35pm last night, 3/1, in the Washington Post.  The article indicated two meetings took place between sessions and the Russian ambassador last year.   Before I lay out the story chronologically, I want to point out two things that sessions and a spokesman for sessions  made with reference to the meeting that took place in his office in September of 2016, because the statements are diametrically opposed to each other:

1.) In a statement issued Wednesday night, Sessions said he “never met with any Russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign. I have no idea what this allegation is about. It is false.”

2.) In the case of the September meeting, one department official who came to the defense of the attorney general said, “There’s just not strong recollection of what was said.”

Well my friends, if he doesn't have a "strong recollection of what was said", then how does he know that he didn't discuss campaign issues.

Here's the whole story, as it is known right now.

- At the Republican National Convention, sessions gave a speech to a break out meeting.  Afterwards a few ambassadors stayed and talked with sessions.  One was the Russian Ambassador.

- In September, sessions had a private meeting with the Russian ambassador in sessions's office

- On January 10th, 2017, Senator Al Franken, a Democratic Senator from Minnesota, asked sessions, at sessions's confirmation hearing, what he would do if he learned of any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of the 2016 campaign.

sessions replied (with a smirk on his face, I watched the video), “I’m not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians.” 

I want to make note here that Franken did not ask sessions anything about whether sessions had contact with Russian officials.  sessions seems to have been feeling 'cocky' and stuck his foot right in it.

Sessions's spokeswoman,Sarah Isgur is quoted as saying, "There was absolutely nothing misleading about his answer".  I don't believe anyone has said that his answer was misleading.  Actually, his answer has lead us further along the path to truth.

- Today, March 2nd, At approximately 4:20pm edt, I found out that sessions had recused himself just five minutes before that time.  I was taking my afternoon walk and making phone calls to my representatives in Congress.  Anthony at Representative Fitzpatrick's office (PA 8th district) informed me that sessions had recused himself from any investigations into possible contacts between trump's campaign and Russian officials during the campaign.

As I continued to make my phone calls, I made the point with all that I spoke with or left messages for, that  recusing himself is not the completion of what must be done.  The assistant AG (Attorney General) cannot be responsible for such an investigation, because he is a political appointee, just as is sessions.  The ONLY path to a full and transparent investigation is for the assignment of an Independent Prosecutor.

I, for one, have started to make phone calls to all Congressional leaders.  I will also be emailing those same leaders and my representatives.  We must strike while the proverbial iron is hot.

Fired up?  Ready to go?

Keep the pressure on!  Turn up the heat!


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