The latest member of the Trump administration to meet with the Russian ambassador and then lie about having done so just happens to be the chief law enforcement officer of the United States. Let that sink in for a moment.
The Washington Post reports that Jeff Sessions did indeed meet on two occasions with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the course of the presidential campaign. Former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn also met with Kislyak and then lied about his contacts to Vice President Mike Pence. Flynn was forced to resign in disgrace.
Adding to the contacts Sessions made is the fact that the Attorney General swore under oath at his confirmation hearing that he’d never had contact with any Russian officials while assisting with the Trump campaign. Here’s Sessions answering a direct question from Minnesota Senator Al Franken regarding Russia as part of his confirmation hearing:
UNDER OATH: Sessions answered a question he wasn't asked and flat out lied when he gave specifics. #TrumpRussia #TheResistance RT This! pic.twitter.com/983amOe6kF
— D. Garza (@Dgarza888) March 2, 2017
Lying under oath to a Congressional panel is known as perjury and carries criminal penalties.
Thursday morning, Sessions had this to say about the growing Russia scandal which now threatens to engulf and destroy him:
“Well I have not met with any Russians at any time to discuss any political campaign. And those remarks are unbelievable to me and are false. I don’t have anything else to say about that.”
While some Republicans are saying Sessions should recuse himself from any Justice Department investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, several Democrats believe it’s time for Sessions to resign. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi issued a statement which reads in part:
“Jeff Sessions lied under oath during his confirmation hearing before the Senate. Under penalty of perjury, he told the Senate Judiciary Committee, ‘I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians.’ We now know that statement is false.
“Now, after lying under oath to Congress about his own communications with the Russians, the Attorney General must resign. Sessions is not fit to serve as the top law enforcement officer of our country and must resign.”
With each passing day, we learn more about possible collusion between high-ranking members of the administration and Russian officials. And as we learned with Watergate, the crime isn’t so much in the action itself, it’s in the cover-up, the lying. And now the Attorney General of the United States is up to his neck in lies and contradictions. He needs to go, just as Flynn did.
Featured Image Via Gage Skidmore for Flickr available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License
