WELL, it's a new month, but I must admit to a sort of [Sleezebag] outrage burnout on my half. I simply pay less attention to current events in order to restore more serenity. I did e-mail my senator with regard to Senator Sessions' confirmation, imploring him to be absent for the vote. My reasoning was that with [Sleezebag] kinda fuzzy on ethics and The Constitution, we really needed an AG who would keep him within the lines to prevent a Constitutional crisis, and Sessions wasn't the guy to do that, being too cozy with [Sleezebag].
After voting to confirm Sessions, my Senator responded saying he thought [Sleezebag] had the right to chose his own people. Well, now I feel vindicated:
According to today's news, Sessions lied about his contacts with the Russian ambassador while under oath during his confirmation hearing. Now that it's been discovered, he claims it was only while wearing his US Senator hat, not his [Sleezebag] foreign policy advisor hat.
I think we need and independent prosecutor in charge of the FBI Russia-[Sleezebag] probe. Sessions is a potential witness, if not co-conspirator. He must recuse himself. He can't remain in charge of the people doing it.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/investigators-probed-jeff-sessions-contacts-with-russian-officials-1488424871[Politics
Investigators Probed Jeff Sessions’ Contacts With Russian Officials
Communications from the then-senator occurred during presidential campaign
By Carol E. Lee, Christopher S. Stewart, Rob Barry and Shane Harris
Updated March 1, 2017 10:56 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON—U.S. investigators have examined contacts Attorney General Jeff Sessions had with Russian officials during the time he was advising Donald [Sleezebag]’s presidential campaign, according to people familiar with the matter.
The outcome of the investigation, and whether it is ongoing, wasn’t clear, these people said. The contacts were being examined as part of a wide-ranging U.S. counterintelligence investigation into possible communications between members of Mr. [Sleezebag]’s campaign team and Russian operatives, they said.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has been leading the investigation, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The White House directed requests for comment to the Justice Department.
During his confirmation hearing for attorney general in January, Mr. Sessions, a Republican senator from Alabama, testified under oath that he had no contact with Russian officials as a campaign surrogate and never discussed the 2016 election with Russian officials.
But Mr. Sessions spoke with the Russian ambassador to the U.S., Sergei Kislyak, while the Republican National Convention was under way in Cleveland last summer, according to his spokeswoman, Sarah Flores. He also spoke with Mr. Kislyak on another occasion last year, by phone from his Senate office, she said.
Ms. Flores said the contact last July occurred when Mr. Sessions spoke at a Heritage Foundation event attended by Mr. Kislyak in Cleveland, appearing in his capacity as a senator, not a campaign official. She said several ambassadors approached Mr. Sessions after his speech at the Heritage Foundation event, including Mr. Kislyak.
“It was short and informal,” she said.
She said the attorney general wasn’t aware that his communications have been under investigation.
During his confirmation hearing in January, Mr. Sessions was asked what he would do if any evidence emerged that someone affiliated with the [Sleezebag] campaign communicated with the Russian government during campaign and said: “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 didn’t have—did not have communications with the Russians, and I’m unable to comment on it,” he said.
Ms. Flores said Mr. Sessions wasn’t required to disclose the contacts because they took place in his capacity as a senator, not a campaign official.
“The attorney general has been very clear that as a senator he had conversations with the Russian ambassador,” Ms. Flores said in a statement. “Last year, the senator had over 25 conversations with foreign ambassadors as a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, including the British, Korean, Japanese, Polish, Indian, Chinese, Canadian, Australian, German and Russian ambassadors.”
The focus of the U.S. counterintelligence investigation has been on communications between [Sleezebag] campaign officials and Russia. The inquiry involving Mr. Sessions is examining his contacts while serving as Mr. [Sleezebag]’s foreign-policy adviser in the spring and summer of 2016, one person familiar with the matter said.
The investigation is being pursued by the FBI, Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency and Treasury Department, officials have said. Counterintelligence probes seldom lead to public accusations or criminal charges.
However, the probe, if ongoing, could create a highly unusual and sensitive political dynamic given that the FBI is part of the Justice Department that Mr. Session as attorney general, now leads. Mr. Sessions has only been in office for under a month and the investigation began before he was nominated and approved by the Senate.
The FBI’s role in the investigation into Mr. Sessions’ conversations left the agency “wringing its hands” about how to proceed, said one person familiar with the matter.
Mr. [Sleezebag] asked for the resignation of his national security adviser, Mike Flynn, after Mr. Flynn misled Vice President Mike Pence over the nature of a conversation he had in December with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S.
The White House has denied any inappropriate interactions between associates of Mr. [Sleezebag] and Russian officials. Asked during a news conference in February if anyone advising his campaign had contact with Russia during the campaign, Mr. [Sleezebag] said “nobody that I know of.”
Committees in the House of Representatives and the Senate are investigating Russia’s alleged involvement in the election campaign and possible ties or communication between Russian officials and the [Sleezebag] campaign.
Russia has denied interfering in the U.S. election, blaming accusations on American politicians who want to sabotage relations between the two countries.
Some Republicans contend that the Russia investigations are politically motivated and are being pushed by people who were furious that the FBI, led by its director, James Comey, continued to investigate Hillary Clinton’s emails late into the 2016 election campaign. These Republicans say that the Russia investigations will prove to be without foundation.
Until this week, Mr. Sessions had resisted calls to remove himself from any role investigating possible ties between [Sleezebag] associates and Russia. Democrats have said he should do so because of his place advising the [Sleezebag] campaign.
On Monday, he suggested he would take himself off a case under certain circumstances, though he left out any specifics. Mr. Sessions told reporters he would “recuse myself on anything that I should recuse myself on, that’s all I can tell you.”
As a senator, Mr. Sessions was a sharp critic of Russia. He supported kicking the country out of the Group of Eight summit and called for sanctions against Moscow for its 2014 invasion of Ukraine.
“I believe a systematic effort should be undertaken so that Russia feels pain for this,” Mr. Sessions said at the time.
But his rhetoric softened after he endorsed Mr. [Sleezebag], and he advocated better relations with Russia.
Mr. Sessions joined the [Sleezebag] campaign in February 2016 at a rally in the former senator’s home state of Alabama. Within days, Mr. [Sleezebag] named him chairman of his campaign’s national-security advisory committee.
It is unclear whether anyone in Congress knew about the investigation into Mr. Sessions’ Russian interactions before Mr. Sessions was confirmed.
The investigation into Mr. Sessions’ communications comes amid calls from Democrats and some Republicans for an independent inquiry into the possible cooperation between the [Sleezebag] campaign and the Russian government to influence the 2016 election, particularly through cyberattacks.
U.S. intelligence agencies already concluded that Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee and the personal email account of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta. Emails from both were released on the website WikiLeaks.
At first, Mr. [Sleezebag] disputed that assessment, but later said: “I think it was Russia, but we also get hacked by other countries.”
Justice Department regulations require the attorney general to remove himself from investigations that present a real or perceived conflict of interest. But ultimately, there is no practical mechanism, other than public pressure or an impeachment proceeding, to force the matter.
The law has changed since wide-ranging probes into the Clinton Administration, when a three-judge panel could appoint an “independent counsel” or a “special prosecutor.” Today, the attorney general retains far more control over the scope of a special investigation and its prosecutorial jurisdiction.
Mr. Sessions can also appoint a temporary “special counsel” from outside the Department of Justice to conduct an investigation into a particularly sensitive matter and possibly prosecute related wrongdoing.
—Lisa Schwartz contributed to this article. ]
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