Thread by @SethAbramson

I'm at a loss: Sessions made *big* news today—he spoke to Kislyak about sanctions at the RNC *and* in September—and no one is discussing it.

2/ And *all the Democrats had to do* was ask Sessions what Trump knew *when he was a candidate*—not privileged!—and they failed to do that.

3/ If Sessions admitted Trump knew he—Sessions—was meeting with Kislyak to talk sanctions, the case for collusion would effectively be made.

4/ Is the problem incompetence? Do investigators in Congress not know the facts well enough? The law? I don't know. But it is *bewildering*.

5/ Sessions *has* to spill everything Trump said during the campaign. And you can't negotiate sanctions once you know about Russian hacking.

6/ Collusion has *always* been about sanctions policy for hacking—and it's *always* been the case the hacking came first. What's so unclear?

7/ You *can't aid and abet major federal felonies after the fact*, as to do so is to aid and abet and therefore collude—be in a conspiracy.

8/ That's *particularly* true when you used a speech at the Mayflower to make a clear promise that signaled the Russians should support you.

9/ Kushner called Kislyak, got him to the Mayflower as a VIP, put him in the front row, then dad promised Putin a "great deal"—then hacking.

10/ If after the hacks were known Trump had Sessions negotiate sanctions, it's *ballgame*—a clear sanctions policy-for-hacking quid pro quo.

11/ Yes, I practiced criminal law and investigations, but if I can figure this out, so can many in Congress and the FBI. So what's going on?

12/ We know who was with the AG and Kislyak at the RNC. Were the same men at the September meeting? We need to know. theatlantic.com/politics/archi…

13/ For instance, if Dearborn was in the meeting, we must go back to this news about what Dearborn knew at the time. cnn.com/2017/08/23/pol…

14/ If it was someone else—and if we have that someone else dissembling about meetings with the Russians—that too is extremely inculpatory.

15/ But instead Congress is focusing on *Comey*—an Obstruction case we already know Mueller can make out. That work is *done*. *This* isn't.

16/ And the only reason Dems are getting stymied via executive privilege is because they're asking about Comey—*not* campaign conversations.

17/ Sessions is a terrible—deceitful—witness. Easily confused, easily led, easily coerced by questions. And Dems did little to exploit that.

18/ I'm as big a fan of @SenFranken as anyone—but arguing over the past led to a string of missed opportunities to break *new* ground today.

19/ @SenFranken, a great Senator, managed to miss Sessions telling Leahy he talked policy with Kislyak—which *ruined* Franken's questioning.

20/ So today was *huge*—a major step taken toward proving collusion—but you won't see it on the news because everyone is (sadly) missing it.

PS/ Don't forget that AG Sessions met with Kislyak and discussed Russia sanctions *months after* Papadopoulos told him Putin wanted to deal.

PS2/ Virtually *all* the facts needed to confirm collusion are sitting in disparate news articles from 2017—and *no one* is connecting them.

PS3/ I'm not talking about connecting unrelated facts or wild theorizing—I'm talking about *connecting known information that is connected*.

PS4/ Sessions was *on notice* by March 26, 2016 Putin wanted to deal. Russia knew that Sessions knew—*every* meeting thereafter was tainted.

PS5/ The extraordinary setup of the Mayflower speech—there should've been no ambassadors, let alone as *VIPs*—was *tainted* by Papadopoulos.

PS6/ What *stuns* me is that *even the journalists who broke the Dearborn and Papadopoulos news* are missing these very *basic* connections.

PS7/ Do I literally have to take out a whiteboard and tick off all the major-media news stories that align and tell the collusion narrative?

PS8/ If you're a journalist and confused by what your own outlets have reported, contact me. Seriously. I'll explain it to you if I have to.

PS9/ The short version: on 3/26/16, a Trump aide told the campaign Putin wanted to deal. Everything Trump and aides did after was *dealing*.

PS10/ And when Trump learned Russia was committing felonies *the dealing didn't stop—it intensified and solidified into a sanctions policy*.

END/ And that's Aiding and Abetting—which is collusion—which is "Conspiracy" *by law*. And it's confirmed by those involved—so *get on it*.

NOTE/ And as noted (all too briefly) at the hearing today, U.S. IC intercepts confirm *all* of what I've said here. washingtonpost.com/world/national…

NOTE2/ Per usual, Mother Jones is one of the only outlets that gets it—but even Dan leaves out most of the key bits. motherjones.com/politics/2017/…