Closed Sessions

A few quick words about Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ inadequate testimony yesterday. As the NY Times writes today in its editorial, Sessions pretty much ran the gamut in the excuses he had for not answering a question.

Sessions was at his most passionate when he declared that the accusations that he had colluded with the Russian were “appalling”. Of course, no one has accused Sessions himself of colluding with the Russians, at least not yet. What is of more interest regarding the Attorney General is why he keeps on forgetting meetings with the Russians and whether that amounts to perjury. In that regard, Sessions simply claimed that he couldn’t remember meeting Kislyak at the Mayflower Hotel but that it could have happened. This conveniently lets Sessions have it both ways, protecting himself from perjury if in fact a meeting at that time con be proved.

Like DNI Coats and NSA Director Rogers, Sessions also used the novel “theory” that it was inappropriate for him to discuss his conversations with the President. While admitting that Trump was not exerting executive privilege and that the conversation did not cover classified material, the only two legal reasons for refusing to answer the questions under oath, Sessions claimed that he was basing his refusal on “longstanding” DOJ regulations which he could not cite or had even read.

Sadly, no Senator focused on the two questions I hoped would be asked. No one made the point, which is made in the Times editorial, that Sessions’ recusal concerned the “campaigns” of last year and was not limited to the Russia investigation. It clearly included the Clinton campaign as well, which makes his recommendation that Comey be fired because of his actions in the Clinton email investigation a clear violation of his recusal.

The second question I had revolved around the firing of all US Attorneys at once and Sessions knowledge of the discussions that led to that whole affair.

But perhaps the most important admission from Sessions was that he had not attended a single briefing on the depth and breadth of the Russian interference in our electoral process. And he did not seem overly concerned about it either, in stead stressing supporting law and order, cracking down on drugs and gangs, and fighting terrorism. How curious…