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While then-candidate Donald Trump didn't quash the idea of meeting with Vladimir Putin when it surfaced at a national security campaign meeting last year, Jeff Sessions did. At least, that's the version of events someone wants us to believe in an anonymously-sourced story from CNN Wednesday that paints Sessions as a hero.
The idea was raised by George Papadopoulos as he introduced himself at a March 2016 meeting of the Republican candidate's foreign policy advisers, according to a court filing.
"He didn't say yes and he didn't say no," the official said, declining to be more specific about Trump's response to Papadopoulos.
But the chairman of Trump's national security team, then Alabama senator and now attorney general Jeff Sessions, shut down the idea of a Putin meeting at the March 31, 2016, gathering, according to the source. His reaction was confirmed with another source who had discussed Session's role.
We had a picture but now we also have sourcing that places Sessions at that now-infamous March 31 national security meeting where Papadopoulos stated that “he had connections that could help arrange a meeting between then-candidate Trump and President Putin.”
In the CNN story, we also have one anonymous source (“a person in the room”) confirming Trump's response, but a second anonymous source confirming Session's reaction.
Regardless of whether this telling suggests that Sessions responded appropriately in the moment, the entire narrative directly contradicts his assertion earlier this year at his confirmation hearing—under oath—that he was "not aware of any of those activities" concerning communications between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
If CNN's reporting is accurate, Sessions unequivocally told two bald-faced lies, under oath, during his January confirmation process: He both did have communications with the Russians himself and he was aware of other such communications.
At this point, we should just stop asking when Sessions lied and start asking when he told the truth. It would be easier.