Sessions Recuses Himself; Kushner Abetted Flynn's Lies

Jeff Sessions recused himself today from any involvement in the investigation into the Trump's campaign connections with Russians. Interestingly, Sessions did not seem to indicate that the recusal would apply to any investigation of connections between the Trump transition team and the Russians that occurred after the election. Sessions' excuse for his blatant lie to Senator Franken was that his meetings with the Russian ambassador were in his role on the Senate Armed Services Committee. That answer may help him avoid perjury charges but is hardly believable. He knew exactly what the question involved and chose to give, at best, a misleading answer. One of those meetings was attended by at least three Sessions' staffers who had to know that the answer was not accurate. They apparently made no attempt to get Sessions to correct the record. In addition, the September meeting came just three days after Obama announced that the crippling sanctions on Russia would stay in place.

And now the New York Times is reporting that Jared Kushner and Mike Flynn also met with that same Russian Ambassador at Trump Tower just days before Obama expelled 35 Russians and imposed further sanctions on Russia over its hacking the US elections. Once again, there may be nothing improper about that specific meeting. But the problem for the Trump administration and now for Kushner is that Flynn maintained that he only had a phone call and a text from the ambassador at the end of December, after Obama's decision. Of course, that turned out to be a lie and forced Flynn's resignation. We already knew that the Trump administration found out that Flynn was lying when Sally Yates briefed them that Flynn's lies subjected him to possible blackmail. The Trump administration stayed silent and did nothing. But we now know that Kushner had to know that Flynn was lying the moment the words came out of his mouth. And he was silent and did nothing.

Every new revelation about the Trump administration lies regarding Russia just screams "cover up". The investigation needs to move from Congress to some kind of independent investigation. Nothing less will be satisfactory.