Thread by @SethAbramson

(THREAD) This thread provides live updates on any newsworthy events in Attorney General Sessions' public testimony before Congress today. I hope you'll follow along and share this tweet.

1/ Sessions says to his knowledge Papadopoulos was not authorized by the Trump campaign to speak to any foreign government on behalf on the campaign. In fact, Papadopoulos repeatedly spoke to the governments of Greece and the UK on the campaign's behalf and the campaign knew it.

2/ Sessions is saying he knew nothing of Papadopoulos speaking to UK officials in September and November 2016, and nothing of Papadopoulos speaking to Greek officials in May (twice) and December 2016. This *breaks* credulity, given his role as Trump's foreign policy/NatSec chief.

3/ Sessions also gave a blanket "I didn't remember it" statement to any and every contact with Russian officials or contact with individuals who had had contact with Russian officials that he didn't disclose under oath before Congress in the past.

4/ Conyers asked Sessions about prospective recusals from any investigation involving Clinton (Sessions promised he'd recuse himself from such probes) and Sessions deliberately misconstrued it by pretending Conyers asked if he were *currently* recused from any such investigation.

5/ Sessions' avoidance of a repetition of his promise to recuse himself from any Clinton investigations was pathetic. He pretended not to understand the query; violated his own practice regarding recusals; and used bad guidance even for the question as he *pretended* to take it.

6/ Right now Congress is questioning a witness who, on the face of it, perjured himself before Congress multiple times and is likely a current target of a federal criminal investigation. And House Judiciary Republicans have made it perfectly clear they'll ask no Russia questions.

7/ Sessions says he "pushed back [on]"—but tried to reject claims he totally "shut down"—Papadopoulos when he brought up acting as a Kremlin intermediary at the Trump International Hotel on March 31st, 2016. He seemed concerned about saying he "shut [him] down"—as it'd be a lie.

8/ Sessions says he "doesn't recall" speaking with anyone about Papadopoulos and Russia after March 31, 2016. Which is amazing, given the entire team he led was discussing those topics at length for months after that meeting. So he had to have not been on *any* of those threads.

9/ We should remember that Sessions is obligated to *prepare* for these testimonies before Congress and agreed to do so when he took the job. So he should have reviewed his emails to see if he received or participated in any email threads about Papadopoulos and Russia in 2016.

10/ House Judiciary members on the GOP side *are* planning, apparently, to ask about the perfectly usual practice of politicians paying for opposition research—something both the GOP and Democrats did in 2016, and the GOP and Democrats did *with Fusion GPS specifically* in 2016.

11/ Sessions has just revealed, perhaps inadvertently, that as foreign policy/NatSec chief for Trump he "was asked to lead and form and find some people" who would be on that team—which means Page, Papadopoulos, and others were selected by Clovis *and* Sessions working in tandem.

12/ Sessions says the foreign policy/NatSec team he led was "not effective," which is belied by the fact it successfully changed the GOP platform, led substantial outreach to the Russians via Page/Papadopoulos, and earned the latter a "blank check" job offer for a job well done.

13/ Sessions says he didn't talk with Flynn about Kislyak and doesn't know whether Flynn met with Kislyak in the summer of 2016. Congress needs to ask Sessions *who was with him* at his September 2016 Senate office with Kislyak.

14/ Despite being Trump's foreign policy/NatSec chief, Sessions says he was never told anything untoward about Flynn's liaisons/associations.

Understand this, all: this man is lying. He denies all conversations, emails, and meetings on topics Trump *hired him to specialize in*.

15/ Sessions is so desperate to play down his role—something anyone who's the target of a probe is certain to do—that he's called his own team "ineffective," said he can't recall interactions with anyone on his team, and was not in the loop on anything involving his policy area.

16/ Given my preceding tweet, it's important to say every House Judiciary member in that room knows Sessions is lying. No one believes he's as aloof, incompetent and disinterested in his areas of policy specialization as he now so desperately claims—but they'll pretend otherwise.

17/ I'll remind Rep. Lee that there is *no reason whatsoever* to call Roy Moore "Judge Moore."

He's not a judge, and was removed from office for gross dereliction of duty—his offenses almost rising to the level of open insurrection against the U.S. government (to wit, SCOTUS).

18/ Sessions to Lee: I stand by my prior misleading testimony, in which I pretend that any question to me about my Russian contacts or anyone else's Russian contacts is a question about me trying to help Russia with hacking.

It *isn't*, though—it's about SANCTIONS negotiations.

19/ Every testimony by Sessions before Congress has been a farce, and *this* testimony is a farce.

Sessions pretends to misunderstand questions; answers questions he's not asked instead of those he is; plays dumb; "can't recall"—it's all an embarrassment to Congress and America.

20/ GOP Judiciary Committee members' level of interest in the Russia probe into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, on a scale of 0% (none) to 100% (highly aggressive): -25%.

They're trying to *harm* the probe if they can—these people are without shame.

21/ Sessions: "'looks like' is not enough basis to appoint a Special Counsel" (responding to GOP Rep. Jim Jordan's frantic allegations of a conspiracy between Loretta Lynch, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and former FBI Director James Comey).

22/ Whoa!—Sessions now says he *can't reveal* conversations with presidential *advisors*. What the hell is he talking about? What privilege is he claiming? Someone challenge him on this *right now*. He's literally making up privileges now.

23/ If Sessions actually *did* "make clear [to Papadopoulos] that he was not authorized to represent the Trump campaign with any foreign government," he'll be *stunned* to learn Papadopoulos took a sanctioned trip to Greece in May '16 and met at least *nine* government officials.

24/ This is what folks need to understand: Sessions was George Papadopoulos' BOSS, and Papadopoulos did absolutely NOTHING Sessions ordered him to do (no contact with Russia and no foreign trips as Trump rep). So WHO AUTHORIZED that behavior? And what did Sessions do to find out?

25/ The only men above Sessions in the Trump campaign were MANAFORT and TRUMP. So if Sessions was ignored by Papadopoulos, either a) that's actually a lie and he did what Sessions told him to do, or b) Papadopoulos was authorized to act as he did by MANAFORT or TRUMP (via Hicks).

26/ The idea that Sessions' aides—e.g. Gordon—were telling Papadopoulos to contravene the clear orders of their boss (Sessions) on some big-ticket items (Russia; negotiating with foreign officials) without telling Sessions is outrageous and has been *rejected* by men like Gordon.

27/ So let me boil it down: either Sessions is lying to Congress (a crime) or J.D. Gordon, his aide, lied to the FBI (a crime).

One of those two things is true.

28/ Sessions is now pretending not to understand the pardon power to avoid answering questions about it.

29/ Now Sessions is professing, in effect, an encyclopedic knowledge of leaking statutes.

So, to review: Sessions knows zero on the pardon power (a bad topic for Trump), but a ton about leaking statutes (a good topic for Trump).

Got it.

30/ Remember that Sessions is under oath right now for *all* questions. Even lying about whether he understands the presidential pardon power is a crime. Yes—a crime. Any lie is a crime. *Any* lie.

31/ Some of these GOP Congressmen are very angry about things—and in some cases very angry at Sessions about things—and NONE of those things involve Trump, Russian election interference, or the unwillingness of Trump to do anything whatsoever about Russian election interference.

32/ I want to be clear on something: Sessions responding to questions about Russian contacts by reading a prepared statement means he thinks he's going to be prosecuted. This *is* what a witness does to avoid speaking off the cuff in a way that can be used against them in court.

33/ And the two prepared statements on Russia that Sessions brought with him today—note he appears to have done *no other preparation* for his testimony—are devastatingly narrow and legalistic. Again, as a former defense attorney I'm saying Sessions thinks he's in legal jeopardy.

34/ Hearing former prosecutor Trey Gowdy mispronounce "petit jury" hurts, as does nearly every Congressman wrongly calling Jeff Sessions "General Sessions" (the "General" in "Attorney General" means "general" as compared to "special" or "specific," *not* a military designation).

35/ Sessions says the DOJ "will not be infected by politics or bias."

Okay, then stop meeting with Donald Trump. Ever. You're well aware he's a prospective witness (and likely target) in the Russia probe. You can't hold those meetings and *not* be infected by politics and bias.

36/ Sessions just confirmed that an "intentional failure to remember" with an "intent to deceive" is perjury.

Good.

Because he's been doing that all morning and afternoon so far.

37/ Sessions says he met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak with "two senior aides, both retired Army colonels" in September of 2016.

We need the names of those colonels.

38/ We now know the date of the third NatSec team meeting, at the Capitol Hill Club (the second and third both being unreported by the White House and Sessions): June 30, 2016.

39/ The questions today needed to be on how Gordon and other NatSec team members below Sessions in the chain of command were getting emails Sessions says he didn't; why he didn't prepare for the hearing by reviewing his emails; and who authorized Papadopoulos to ignore Sessions.

40/ Sessions now attacks Comey, saying he had no "power or authority" to announce the conclusion of the Clinton case in July 2016, as he was the "investigator, not the [prosecutor]." In fact, when Lynch recused herself she *explicitly* said Comey had the final say on prosecution.

41/ Sessions' claim he can't talk about his conversations with the President has been rated "Half True" by PolitiFact.

And I can tell you his claim he can't talk about conversations he had with presidential *advisors* is "Pants on Fire"—and he knows it. politifact.com/truth-o-meter/…

42/ For God's sake, someone get the names of the RETIRED COLONELS Sessions mentioned being at his Senate office meeting with Kislyak and get them before Congress. THEY have no privilege whatsoever they could raise to avoid discussing what happened during that undisclosed meeting.

43/ Flag this—

CILLINE: Did you ever exchange any email, text message or other communication to or from Mr. Papadopoulos about Russia or any other subject?
SESSIONS: I'm confident I did not.
DC: Did anyone ever forward you a message about Mr. Papadopoulos?
JS: I don't recall it.

44/ The chance Sessions never got a SINGLE email, text message, or communication FROM Papadopoulos (a member of the National Security team Sessions was the Chief of) is ZERO. The chance someone at some point FORWARDED him a message FROM Papadopoulos is VERY HIGH (same reason).

45/ Sessions now says there were "at least two aides" with him and Kislyak in September 2016 in his office. That "at least" is *new*, as is his statement regarding the duration of the meeting ("less than an hour," a fact which he suddenly recalls).

46/ Respectfully, if certain members of Congress had read my five threads about Papadopoulos' 3 trips to Greece—which he was open about with members of the campaign—they'd know that Sessions couldn't *possibly* believe he told Papadopoulos never to represent the campaign abroad.

47/ Rep. Lieu is asking Sessions about him lying on his SF-86 form regarding contacts with foreign officials. Sessions says it wasn't his fault, it was the fault of his executive assistant. Surprisingly, this isn't a legal defense.

48/ Sessions CONFIRMS that Russian Ambassador Kislyak was in his Senate office for "45 to 50 minutes" for the explicit purpose of arguing that the U.S. should DROP sanctions against Russia.

49/ I've been saying it for months and will keep saying it: Trump and Sessions traded sanctions policy for Russian assistance by promising a unilateral dropping of sanctions against Russia—a huge financial windfall—at a time they knew Russia was committing crimes against America.

50/ Did Sessions assist with hacking? No. Did he promise to? No. Did Kislyak discuss hacking with him? Probably not. But did Sessions negotiate giving Russia a massive economic and policy benefit as a way of encouraging federal crimes Sessions and Trump knew were occurring? Yes.

51/ Sessions has changed his story on Papadopoulos (who I've said Trump authorized to act on the campaign's behalf abroad, including in Greece): Sessions says he told Papadopoulos simply that he wasn't authorized to negotiate abroad. Evidence suggests Trump later overruled that.

52/ 3/31/16: Sessions tells Papadopoulos that he has no power to negotiate abroad. April/May: Papadopoulos asks Clovis, Manafort, Lewandowski for this power—they dither. 6/3: Papadopoulos forwards to a Greek reporter an email from HOPE HICKS on his work abroad. See what happened?

53/ The only person *clearly* above Sessions was Trump. *Maybe* Manafort was. Hicks, Clovis and Lewandowski were (at best) lateral to Sessions on the Trump campaign org chart. So to get the foreign negotiation ability he clearly *had*, Papadopoulos had to go to Trump or Manafort.

54/ I want to make sure people know that if the Democrats ran Congress right now, Sessions would be found in Contempt of Congress for falsely claiming he's not allowed to answer any questions about his conversations with Trump's *advisors* (e.g. Stephen Miller). That's a lie.

55/ It is stunning that Sessions can create a privilege from THIN AIR to avoid testifying under oath before Congress and not ONE Republican will do anything to compel him to testify in accordance with his oath of office and the very clear assurances he made at his confirmation.

56/ Sessions says he doesn't have to do anything at DOJ to protect the United States against future Russian election interference because Mueller is addressing all of that. Except that he's not—that's not at *all* what Mueller is tasked with doing.

57/ The meeting that Sessions held in his office with Kislyak was one Kislyak asked for *at the RNC*—while Sessions was representing Trump's campaign. Sessions tells Rep. Gohmert the meeting was about "foreign relations between the U.S. and Russia," elsewhere saying "sanctions."

58/ Not one—not a single one—of Mueller's agents will credit even for a moment the idea that Sessions was *not* negotiating sanctions policy with Kislyak in his Senate office on September 8, 2016. And he did so while knowing Russia was committing crimes against the United States.

59/ The way a trial attorney would handle Sessions: establish his experience in testifying; his hours of preparation for testifying; all he reviewed before testifying; get all emails from him on the subject of the testimony. Then prosecute for obstruction or perjury as necessary.

60/ Pundits who say, as I basically just heard on CNN, that "I don't recall" pretty much gets you out of any prosecution for perjury are leaving out the fact that that's only true if you've done *nothing* to find out the witness' base of knowledge prior of questioning him or her.