Monday, March 6, 2017

Russian Hoax

EX-DOJ OFFICIAL: DEMS HAVE SECRET MOTIVE FOR TARGETING SESSIONS, Exposes 'real goal' of political left, by Greg Corombos, 3/5/17, WND

A former U.S. Justice Department official says the liberal outrage over Attorney General Jeff Sessions having contact with the Russian ambassador during the 2016 campaign is much ado about nothing and Democrats are doing whatever they can to thwart the Trump agenda. 

He also told WND and Radio America reports of a slush fund at the Justice Department created during the Obama years that is funneling money to liberal activist groups are a big deal and further evidence that Democrats turned a blind eye to the Justice Department when far more serious things were happening.

It’s the Sessions story that had the media in a frenzy Thursday after accusations the attorney general misled senators during his confirmation hearings in January.
At that hearing, Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., cited a breaking CNN report that officials in the Trump campaign discussed the election on multiple occasions with agents of the Russian government. When asked by Franken what he would do if the report was proven true, Sessions indicated he was unaware of such activity.

“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,” said Sessions during the confirmation hearing.

Then, the Washington Post reported Wednesday night that Sessions had met twice with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in 2016. One occasion was a sideline chat after a speech at a conference held during the Republican National Convention in July and the other was at Sessions’ Senate office in September, with two of his aides present.

Democrats accused Sessions of perjury for his answer to Franken and for not clarifying the statement in writing after the hearing. On Thursday, Sessions recused himself from Department of Justice investigations into alleged Russian meddling in the election, and he tried to clarify his earlier statement.

Sessions insisted none of his conversations with the Russian ambassador were related to the presidential campaign. “Let me be clear: I never had meetings with Russian operatives or Russian intermediaries about the Trump campaign,” he said. “And the idea that I was part of a ‘continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government is totally false. That is the question that Sen. [Al] Franken asked me at the hearing, and that … is the question that I responded to.”

So is Sessions in real political or legal trouble for his testimony under oath, or are his critics deliberately blurring the line between communication about the campaign and communication for other purposes?

Former Justice Department official Hans von Spakovsky told WND and Radio America the controversy is way overblown. “Those calls for his resignation are all overblown, and there’s no reason for him to resign,” said von Spakovsky, who now runs the Election Law Reform Initiative at the Heritage Foundation. “There’s really nothing to this story.”

He said the Democrats are still in shock over losing the elections and are lashing out in every possible direction. “They did not want Jeff Sessions to become attorney general because he’s a conservative, rule-of-law type of guy,” von Spakovsky said. “They’re seizing on this, even though there’s nothing really to it when you dig down into it, because they want to oppose anything the attorney general might do, such as actually start enforcing our immigration laws. That’s the real goal here.”

Listen to the WND/Radio America interview with Hans von Spakovsky: 

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