Did Sessions meet with the Russian ambassador at the Mayflower Hotel? https://t.co/uBu3t5gxeR pic.twitter.com/UfzaqHlemf
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) June 1, 2017
FIRST ON CNN: Congress is investigating another possible meeting between Sessions and Russia's Kislyak, sources say https://t.co/bVsEpqesuk
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) June 1, 2017
NBC News:
The FBI and Congress are examining a campaign event last spring during which Donald Trump, Jeff Sessions and Jared Kushner were in a small gathering with Russian ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak and other diplomats at Washington’s Mayflower Hotel, multiple U.S. officials told NBC News.
Five current and former U.S. officials said they are aware of classified intelligence suggesting there was some sort of private encounter between Trump and his aides and the Russian envoy, despite a heated denial from Sessions, who has already come under fire for failing to disclose two separate contacts with Kislyak. Kushner also denied through a spokesman that he met privately with Kislyak that day.
The officials acknowledged to NBC News that the evidence does not amount to proof, and they have declined to provide details about it…
Any confirmation of a private meeting with Kislyak in April would raise a host of questions, most particularly for Sessions.
April 2016 is when officials at the Democratic National Committee first noticed suspicious activity on their network — activity they would later learn was part of a Russian hack.
At Sessions’ confirmation hearing in January, Sen. Franken asked him, “If there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do?”
Sessions replied: “Senator Franken, 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, and I’m unable to comment on it.” …
At least the OG Trump Crime Cartel had the excuse that (a) they were desperate for money; and (b) they’re morons, as well as political naifs, who had no way of understanding what they were doing — or, rather, letting Putin do. But the Malevolent Leprechaun? He knew.
He knew exactly how dangerous these people were, and how close to treason he himself was skirting. He just didn’t care, because he wanted a win (however temporary) for his clan, the Republican Party. The chance for a bigger stick that he could use to punish uppity people of color and women like Hillary Clinton meant more to him than selling his country out.
When do we conclude as a nation that our AG probably perjured himself before Congress? https://t.co/sTHerW6xEH
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) June 1, 2017
lollipopguild
So instead of the Mayflower Madam we have the Mayflower Traitor.
Lyrebird
I want some o’ them Peach Mints, oh yes I do!
Sessions… brazenly dragging the country backwards, lying at the helm of “Justice”, glad to inflict disproportionate harm…
Arclite
Sessions lied. Before Congress. I’m getting a strong Alberto Gonzales vibe here.
GregB
Confederate Comrade.
The moral depravity among the whole crew is shocking.
Montysano
Gawd, this is exhausting.
Cheryl Rofer
How the Trump administration’s secret efforts to ease Russia sanctions fell short
Cermet
Treason is what the “heart land” desires because, well, because …the South will rise again … .
Wag
@Arclite:
I’m getting a strong John Mitchell vibe myself.
lollipopguild
@Cermet: They do not see themselves as traitors because they hate America and want to destroy it as it currently exists. They see themselves as being “loyal” to an earlier better America-you know -whiter, no gays or people of color, women cannot vote you know America in 1850.
Jeffro
@lollipopguild: Who was the guy on Twitter who had that massive tweet storm as far back as November about this Mayflower meeting? Looks like it all has come to pass…
Burnspbesq
I’ve always believed that sessions had some role in the railroading of Don Siegelman. I am totally in the mood for some payback.
Omnes Omnibus
Where did my comment go?
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Cleveland Cavs lost by 25 points.
Berniewood a Won
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Arclite: No worries, he amended his testimony.
lollipopguild
@Jeffro: I honestly cannot remember/keep track of it all, as Montysano said-this is exhausting.
Morzer
It seems that the Tangerine Scream embarrassed himself again today by confusing a small-scale ca.si.no robbery with a terrorist incident.
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/06/todays-terror-attack-was-fake-news
I really thought that Trump couldn’t get more ignorant, lazy, corrupt and stupid – but apparently I was being unusually optimistic in this expectation.
Camembert
Clearly, the proper response to this is to hire Republican Daddies for Secretary of Defense, every Federal office of law enforcement, and Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
patroclus
@Wag: More like Richard Kleindienst, who lied to Congress about whether he had been told (by Nixon and Mitchell) to terminate the ITT prosecution. He was forced to resign and then was convicted of perjury despite telling Nixon that he wasn’t going to terminate the prosecution. But that was with a Democratic Congress, an active non-both-sides-do-it press/media and a Justice Department with honor.
Morzer
It seems that the Tangerine Scream embarrassed himself again today by confusing a small-scale ca.si.no robbery with a terrorist incident.
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/06/todays-terror-attack-was-fake-news
I really thought that Trump couldn’t get more ignorant, lazy, corrupt and stupid – but apparently I was being unusually optimistic in this expectation.
Omnes Omnibus
@Camembert: No.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Our true enemy has yet to reveal himself.
But it’s Chuck Hagel.
Jay Noble
As all this stuff keeps coming out, I keep remembering the stunned faces of Fienstein and Grassley after that closed door secure meeting with Comey. I think he told them just exactly how bad it was, who was involved and how long it was going to take to unravel it all without crashing the the country.
Burnspbesq
I thought Macron’s statement was great. Can we invite France to invade and promise to surrender if they do?
efgoldman
@Morzer:
It was obviously the same miscreant who committed the Bowling Green Massacree.
Morzer
@Burnspbesq:
I think we could even go so far as to promise to eat their cheese, drink their wine and .. well, you know. If called upon, I am willing to make these sacrifices for my country!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Our closest allies are talking about us the way we (Bush) talked about Saddam and the Iraqis. No big deal
@Jay Noble: David Jolly, until a few months ago a proud supporter of Paul Ryan, dismissed Chuck Grassley today as a trump apologist. I keep meaning to go check if Jolly was such a fierce anti-trumper when he was running for re-election. But I’m tired.
Bobby Thomson
It’s already known that he perjured himself before Congress. This is just a new fact providing additional backup.
Peale
@Burnspbesq: how about next year on May 5. Then going forward, we can celebrate our loss to the French the same day Mexico celebrates a victory over them. It will bring more unity to the continent.
Morzer
@Peale:
-Montaigne.
Morzer
That’s so far beyond a sick burn that I am lost in temporary admiration.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Morzer: In Trumpworld, any crime in a casino is terrorism.
sanjeevs
@Jeffro: Seth Abramson https://twitter.com/SethAbramson?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Smudge
Seth Abramson’s tweetstorm from a couple months ago on the Mayflower meeting:
https://storify.com/loriaustex/seth-abramson
??? Martin
Thinking California should just start negotiating treaties with other nations. By the time USSC gets the case, Trump will be out of office. Crisis minimized.
Anne Laurie
@Omnes Omnibus:
Dunno — I checked the spam & trash filters, and it ain’t there.
Cheryl Rofer
@??? Martin: A group of cities, states and organizations is applying to the United Nations to uphold the Paris agreement.
Mike in DC
We have the quid and the quo, we’re just waiting for firmer evidence of the pro.
patroclus
The move by Trump to drop sanctions against Russia in exchange for nothing (i.e., no withdrawal from Ukraine, the Crimea or Georgia) reminds me of Neville Chamberlain and Munich (as well the Anchluss; the re-occupation of the Rhine etc…) – blatant appeasement by conceding territory for nothing but empty promises. Now, I realize that historians debate the impact and wisdom of Munich due to the argument of a needed “breathing space” for the purposes of rearmament, but that doesn’t apply here. I also realize that we normally don’t criticize Trump from the hawkish position, but if we did, this would be a good case for it. What I don’t understand is why the neo-cons aren’t all over this and are instead still mostly fluffing Trump as part of his propaganda machine (like Faux News)…
Morzer
@Anne Laurie:
When comments vanish (could be baddy!)
You call White House, ask for Vladdy!
Morzer
@patroclus:
Not all the neo-cons fluff Trump, but those that do tend to like his intermittent indulgence in dropping hugest, bigliest bombs while making incoherent manly noises about the state of the world.
OGLiberal
@patroclus: I only pay attention to two neo-cons on a regular basis – John Podhoretz and Bill Kristol, the spawns of the neo-con alpha males – and they are disgusted and don’t like Trump at all. They hate the Paris Accords so this doesn’t bother them much, and Gorsuch was their dreamboat, but they think this guy and his admin and the folks pushing the Seth Rich garbage are horrible and shameless and dangerous and say so daily. So do many of the other folks at the conservative mags like National Review, Commentary and Weekly Standard. I still diagree with almost all their politics but they recognize the threat and callout so called conservatives who put party/Dear Leader above country.
Mnemosyne
@patroclus:
The neo-cons only care about our ability to throw crappy little countries against the wall and steal their lunch money. They’ve never had much to say about what to do when faced with a more formidable opponent like Russia or China.
seaboogie
@Cheryl Rofer: T is constitutionally* unable to do anything other than fuck in an upwards direction.
* His constitution, not our founding document.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
also joining in this Bloomberg led coalition per the NYT: the Socialist People’s Republic of Salt Lake City, the company that managed to survive Carly Fiorina, and the Mars candy company. I believe the Mars family has been, historically, a forerunner of the Waltons and the Kochs and the Mercers, billionaire supporters of right wing causes.
rikyrah
The Mayflower Hotel was straight up conspiracy talk just weeks ago…
and, now we’re here.
BBA
@Morzer: 36 people died. Still not clear what the hell happened, but it doesn’t make sense as terrorism or robbery.
Morzer
@rikyrah:
We sure are in the middle of the world’s biggest pile of covfefe.
rikyrah
@Jeffro:
I know..when I first read that account, I thought it was ‘out there’.
feebog
so let’s assume there was a meeting between Sessions, Trump, Kushner and Kislyak at the Mayflower. We already know Sessions lied under oath about his other contacts, and has already amended his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee. I assume he does not get another free pass. But any referral for prosecution is in the hands of the Republican majority. Good luck with that. And even if there was a referral, is Sessions recused? Or does he just quash the referral?
BBA
Banned word is in a URL so I can’t just edit myself out of moderation. Help pls?
Peale
@Morzer: a few years back, South Korea issued a weird statement calling the US a boiled pumpkin. Now that we are led by an actual pumpkin, they seem to have lost that insult.
trollhattan
@??? Martin:
Since you bring it up, Jerry headed to China to talk climate.
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah: j
As I was saying earlier today, one of the reasons the right wing media pushes so many conspiracy theories about Democrats and liberals is that it inoculates their readers/listeners from understanding Republican scandals. I think conservatives know on some level that all of the stuff they heard about Obama and Hillary was fake, just made up racist and sexist bullshit, and that lets them assume that these stories about Trump and the Russians are equally false.
If you sow enough lies, it’s hard for the truth to come out.
Mnemosyne
@feebog:
I’ve been wondering that myself — if the Attorney General commits a federal crime, which of his subordinates is empowered to indict him?
Morzer
@Peale:
I believe that North Korea recently claimed that it had a new weapon that would turn enemy tanks into boiled pumpkins. Back in the day, they said that the shape of the US resembled a boiled pumpkin.
seaboogie
@rikyrah: like me wrt Adam Khan.
Peale
@patroclus: what they’ll do is claim that theyll fight terrorism together. That he’s convinced them to help us fight terrorism. Just like he did the Saudis.
Morzer
efgoldman
@Mnemosyne:
Mueller and whatever grand juries he empanels.
Also pretty much any other federal grand jury if a prosecutor pushes them in that direction.
Original Lee
@Mnemosyne: I was wondering this, too. Can the AG be impeached? (Not that it’s likely to happen …)
Burnspbesq
@Morzer:
Hard to blame him.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@Morzer: Both sides!
Frankensteinbeck
@Mnemosyne:
I think very few conservatives plan deliberately that way. Some. But ironically, they don’t have to. All they have to do is be an abusive asshole, and conservatism is the philosophy of abusive assholery. Abusers constantly fling accusations because they enjoy it, and it helps them be abusers because it has the side effect you described. They almost never plan this. It comes naturally. I think a lot of the stuff the conservative movement does that looks like a scheme follows the same process.
Mnemosyne
@Frankensteinbeck:
The Russians do plan their propaganda out, though, and as Adam keeps saying, they’ve penetrated the American conservative movement at all levels. At this point, there’s been deep Russian involvement for at least a decade.
So you take a population that’s been carefully taught to believe their abusers’ lies at home and at church, expose them to the level of professional propaganda that the Russians have been providing and you get … what we have.
NotMax
Orange is the new
blackred.sukabi
@?BillinGlendaleCA: how he ran them was terrorism.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@sukabi: I’ve only been to Reno and Las Vegas, so I’ve never had the “pleasure”.
JGabriel
@lollipopguild:
Mayflower Traitors. Plural.
Trump, Kushner, Jeff Sessions, Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, Corey Lewandowski, Bud McFarlane, Richard Burt, Jacob Heilbrunn …
J R in WV
@Morzer:
Yes, me too. And think how far our leadership has fallen in order to make this so~!!!!
Amazing.
I’m glad to see that leaders everywhere are differentiating between Trump’s presidency and the United States of America, which are two very different things!
J R in WV
@JGabriel:
Ya know, I try to follow this stuff closely, so as not to get surprised when things appear.
But I’ve never heard of several of these “Mayflower Traitors” in this list.
Who the hell is Jacob Heilbrunn? for one example! But not gonna look it up, gonna go to bed again, and hope my dreams are less unsettled.
Peale
@JGabriel: yep. Reading about the rosneft deal, makes me wonder if there weren’t wealthy people at this meeting who we don’t yet recognize. Also, too, I would like Ask perennial candidate Baud if he’d consider “invading the Cayman Islands” to his platform.
Redshift
@efgoldman: Yeah. The president is the only official who is immune from prosecution, with impeachment as the only remedy. Any lower level official can be prosecuted. That doesn’t automatically remove them from office, but I think retaining an AG who’s on trial would damage Republicans’ standing with all but their rabid base to the point they’d actually do something.
gene108
I think the real question to be asked: How many other Republicans met with Russians for advantages in their races?
We know the Russians were involved in hacking several Congressional races. Did they do it at the behest of those Republicans?
ruemara
@gene108: I think they did it where they could, including kompromat on Republicans. And Republicans, being venial as all hell, shrugged and took the offered info because winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.
piratedan
@gene108: call it services rendered for future considerations….
MomSense
I seem to be back in the trumpsomnia stage. Listening to a recording of Bob Dylan’s radio show. This first episode is so good. If anyone else needs a little musical comfort, here is is. Lots of wonderful musicians.
Episode 1 Stormy Wearher
Morzer
@NotMax:
Well, if you mix red with a yellow streak.. you do get orange.
Origuy
@Original Lee:
Yes, the Constitution says “The President, Vice President, and all civil Officers of the United States shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors.” Most often it’s been federal judges, but William Belknap, Secretary of War under Grant, was impeached and acquitted, although he resigned before the House voted.
Camembert
@Omnes Omnibus: Purity pony.
NotMax
@Morzer
Ahem.
(Great minds, and all that.)
Kathleen
@lollipopguild: Or in Trump’s case, The Mayflower Madman.
Kathleen
@Burnspbesq: I for one welcome our Cheese Monkey Overlords.
Origuy
I didn’t see any comments about this, from Crooks and Liars:
TriassicSands
I have a problem with that statement. What we need is proof that Sessions perjured himself. Then, we can get rid of him. But that requires more than concluding that he “probably” perjured himself. Sessions is a thoroughly loathsome individual who should never have been confirmed as AG. I’ve concluded he has probably done an endless amount of unethical and probably illegal stuff, but that isn’t anything that can be acted on. We need proof!
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
If these meetings were so innocent, why do they keep lying about them.
You don’t lie about something that is innocuous.
Elizabelle
From the WaPost: Doctors Gone Wild. Pennsylvania Man edition.
Moles, a licensed physician, served in the Navy from 1992-2006**, worked in a hospital until 2013, renewed his medical license in 2016, lives near Lake Erie, and is an excellent marksman. He withdrew $10,000 from his bank account — leaving the significant (to him) balance of $4.19 (hint, hint) — and left a voicemail that alarmed a friend —
A tipster called Pennsylvania police, who coordinated with DC police, and Moles was located at the Trump Hotel, rifle in plain sight in his car. Moles had told the valet to keep an eye on his car, since it was loaded with weapons. Weapons he will not be keeping for long, at least for now:
DC police found the Bushmaster, “two 30-round high capacity magazines and a loaded Glock 23 inside the unlocked glove box” of Moles’ 2017 BMW sedan. Moles is being held “overnight at an undisclosed hotel, under guard and confined to his room pending a federal court hearing scheduled for Friday.”
And, doing what defense attorneys do:
A WaPost reader comment says Moles’ Facebook page says he suffered a head injury recently, but I cannot confirm that.
Per Philly.com:
** The WaPost got Moles’ service dates wrong. Philly paper reports he was in the USN Reserves until 2006.
TenguPhule
Mass Trials, Convictions and Executions.
Its the only viable way forward.
Anything less and we end up worse off then when we started.
TenguPhule
@Elizabelle:
Expect more of this. And they’re not going to catch them all in time.
TenguPhule
@rikyrah:
All conspiracy theories are true where Trump is concerned.
They count on it being too unbelievable in order to avoid being indicted for it.
What jury or judge would believe it, after all?
sm*t cl*de
@Elizabelle:
This man needs to join the Resistance.
Booger
Any surprise that someone named Jefferson Beauregard is okay with treason?
sherparick
@Morzer: Kim Jong-Un trolling the Orange One! Between the two of them, half of East Asia may get blown up, but I guess we will have a few laughs along the way;-) In many ways, North Korea and Putin’s Russia are the regimes Trump, Bannon, Miller, and Sessions would like the U.S. to become: an autarkical, family based, thug run, super-nationalist autocracy. But her EMAILS!!!!!
Another Scott
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Hey, if a Republican wants to meet with someone in private, it’s nobody else’s business.
Haven’t you heard, IOKIYAR?
That’s why Donnie’s people are resisting every scintilla of oversight. That’s why they don’t fill out their clearance forms properly, or release their tax returns, or have press conferences on foreign trips. They’re Republicans, so by definition anything they do is more than OK – it’s unquestionable.
HTH!!
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who will probably be at the March for Truth tomorrow.)
sherparick
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Well, Conservatives have always gone on about States Rights and we should be using the plural for the United States (as in the United States are, rather than the United States is – the preferred use since end of the War of to Crush Treason and Slavery.
Captain C
@David Canadian Anchor Baby Koch: And the refs would totally have ignored his constant yelling that they were corrupt oligarchs helping to rig the game against him.
West of the Cascades
It’s always the cover-up that gets these people, rather than the crimes (it’s hard to think that a U.S. Senator meeting with the Russian ambassador is per se a crime, and not even clear that meeting the ambassador in his capacity as a Trump campaign flunky is criminal). But lying about it to Congress certainly is.
Thymezone
I insist that DougJ come clean and own up to writing the absurd original letter in this phony anti-feminist kerfuffle.
Mayor of Austin, Texas, Steve Adler responded to a shrill letter writer on his website today. Above, Adler during the 2017 SXSW Conference in March.
Alan Barney
@Morzer: And, you want to believe him?