WaPo: Sessions spoke twice with Russian ambassador during campaign

[Crumpets]

I haven't been online for about nine hours, so I've missed how this story developed. But, I think one important effect of this, regardless of how it plays out at home, is that Putin's dream of a US administration with the ability to do things like recognize Crimea and dismantle sanctions is now completely in tatters. Trump can mess with immigration policy and trade, but he is on such a tight leash when it comes to dealing with Russia that the most Putin can hope for is slightly less hostile press releases from the White House when he does something stupid.

[Crumpets]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/sessions-spoke-twice-with-russian-ambassador-during-trumps-presidential-campaign-justice-officials-say/2017/03/01/77205eda-feac-11e6-99b4-9e613afeb09f_story.html?pushid=breaking-news_1488420257&tid=notifi_push_breaking-news&utm_term=.bdfafb6a506d


And it continues!

Yep. More fake news from the Washington Post.  I see that all the Trump derangement syndrome sufferers here are eagerly accepting every propaganda line churned out by Jeff Bezos' blog because it feeds into their conspiracy theories.

It would be helpful when you call something fake news for you to specifically state what part of the story you disagree with. Do you deny that he ever talked to the Russian ambassador, or that when they talked it was about something related to the election?

[Crumpets]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/02/politics/democrats-sessions-russia-resignation-call/index.html?adkey=bn

The White House is hanging Sessions out to dry.  They say they only learned yesterday, through press reports, that Sessions had contact with the Russian envoy during the campaign.

To be fair, that does seem to lend credence to the idea that he met with Kislyak mainly in his capacity as a US Senator on the Armed Services Committee, and not as a member of the Trump campaign. At the same time, it shows tremendous distrust between members of both groups that neither seem to have known what Sessions was up to with these meetings. Does anybody know if US Senators will bring aides, or maybe a secretary or someone along with them to these meetings? Even if we don't get the content, it seems a bit unnerving that a US Senator can meet with a foreign ambassador at all, and have it seem to vanish completely from the record until a news organization digs it up.

[Crumpets]

Pelosi says 100+ House Democrats have called on Sessions to resign.

DJT should give them the finger.

He doesn't have the guts to do it. He's just going to plug his ears and sing "LALALALALA" until this is over.

[Crumpets]

spicer btw projected that sessions wouldn't recuse himself ...

"There's nothing to recuse himself [from]. He was 100% straight with the committee." -@seanspicer to @HuntsmanAbby on AG Jeff Sessions
https://twitter.com/foxandfriends/status/837346970268151808

It is funny that IF there is no "there" there in any of these stories. None of Flynn, Pudzer, or Sessions seem to have the backbone to defend themselves. If I didn't know any better, I'd think they were Democrats.

[Crumpets]

OH! Also the leaks from last fall that said the Russians have compromising material on Trump also said that Putin would reward Trump with 19% ownership in a Russian state-owned oil company if he got elected and could start removing the sanctions, and now suddenly 19% of the company is owned through a myriad web of shell companies that make it impossible to know who the real owner is

Links? I'm serious.

Here's a story on the sale of Rosneft to an apparently anonymous buyer:

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-rosneft-privatisation-insight-idUSKBN1582OH

The promise to give Trump 19% comes from the story from Buzzfeed on the alleged British dossier, so that still has to be taken with a huge grain of salt. Plus, IIRC, the story said it would be contingent on Trump repealing sanctions. But 19% and 19.5% are awfully close numbers.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/kenbensinger/these-reports-allege-trump-has-deep-ties-to-russia?utm_term=.ctqRrqa0e#.dspzgNAjd