The "Diplomat" is also a "Spy - Recruiter." Trump's got some trouble in his cabinet...

[MADem]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/01/politics/jeff-sessions-russian-ambassador-meetings/

Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador, is considered by US intelligence to be one of Russia's top spies and spy-recruiters in Washington, according to current and former senior US government officials.
Sessions met with Kislyak twice, in July on the sidelines of the Republican convention, and in September in his office when Sessions was a member of the Senate Armed Services committee. Sessions was an early Trump backer and regular surrogate for him as a candidate.

Confirmation video and discussion of Sessions role at link, too--it's instructive.

[sunonmars]

1. This whole administration is on the cusp of collapse...its unbelievable

and sooner or later there is no getting away with the fact that Trump and his people cannot be trusted and the people is starting to see this with eyes wide open.

The republican congress are going to have to take the blinkers off soon less we are going to have some sort of dare I say it....removal and intervention.

[MADem]

5. Pelosi and Warren have called for his resignation.

Warren (who "persisted" if you recall with the Coretta Scott King letter re: Sessions, and was "warned" and "punished&quot must be really feeling the rather delicious schadenfreude!!

[Maru Kitteh]

2. Oh my. Good find!

KnR

[sunonmars]

3. I bet the GOP wishes they never heard of Trump,this is like getting gold and finding lead underneath

[Maru Kitteh]

4. perfect metaphor for trump

[BlueMTexpat]

9. Well, I might have used

sh*t instead of lead in your analogy.

Otherwise, it's great!

[kysrsoze]

29. Or just a golden shower.

[Hekate]

6. Kick

[MADem]

7. The NYT is also leading with the "OBAMA PRESERVED THE TRAITOROUS DEALINGS" line...!

It's getting very interesting:

The New York Times, citing four current and former officials, reported last month that the American authorities had obtained information of repeated contacts between Mr. Trump’s associates and senior Russian intelligence officials. The White House has dismissed the story as false.

Since the Feb. 14 article appeared, more than a half-dozen officials have confirmed contacts of various kinds between Russians and Trump associates. The label “intelligence official” is not always cleanly applied in Russia, where ex-spies, oligarchs and government officials often report back to the intelligence services and elsewhere in the Kremlin.
.....
The concerns about the contacts were cemented by a series of phone calls between Mr. Kislyak and Michael T. Flynn, who had been poised to become Mr. Trump’s national security adviser. The calls began on Dec. 29, shortly after Mr. Kislyak was summoned to the State Department and informed that, in retaliation for Russian election meddling, the United States was expelling 35 suspected Russian intelligence operatives and imposing other sanctions. Mr. Kislyak was irate and threatened a forceful Russia response, according to people familiar with the exchange.

But a day later, Mr. Putin said his government would not retaliate, prompting a Twitter post from Mr. Trump praising the Russian president — and puzzling Obama White House officials.

On Jan. 2, administration officials learned that Mr. Kislyak — after leaving the State Department meeting — called Mr. Flynn, and that the two talked multiple times in the 36 hours that followed. American intelligence agencies routinely wiretap the phones of Russian diplomats, and transcripts of the calls showed that Mr. Flynn urged the Russians not to respond, saying relations would improve once Mr. Trump was in office, according to multiple current and former officials.

Beyond leaving a trail for investigators, the Obama administration also wanted to help European allies combat a threat that had caught the United States off guard. American intelligence agencies made it clear in the declassified version of the intelligence assessment released in January that they believed Russia intended to use its attacks on the United States as a template for more meddling. “We assess Moscow will apply lessons learned,” the report said, “to future influence efforts worldwide, including against U.S. allies.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/01/us/politics/obama-trump-russia-election-hacking.html?ribbon-ad-idx=3&src=trending&module=Ribbon&version=context®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Trending&pgtype=article

[DeminPennswoods]

14. Interesting that transcripts are starting to leak now

IIRC, the NYT story is the first to cite actual transcripts of the calls to/from Kislyak. This is the first documented instance of what Flynn and Kislyak actually talked about. I'm sure there's a transcript of what Sessions and Kislyak talked about, too.

[BlueMTexpat]

8. So - the AG of the US

has no problem with perjury so long as it is he who is committing it?

Excellent timing!

[Seedersandleechers]

10. Alabama State Bar

Complaint against a lawyer


https://www.alabar.org/for-the-public/complaint-against-a-lawyer/


Let's get one million complaints on this site and maybe Sessions will be disbarred.

[JudyM]

22. Excellent idea! If he's disbarred he has to either become a member of another state bar or resign.

You may want to consider starting a new thread for this, it could work.

[sunonmars]

11. Trump must be seething today, cant wait for the Tweets today or have they taken his phone.

[JHB]

16. Nothing so far. #GameOfPhones

[sunonmars]

17. Sessions must be on the shitlist, dead to him list.....

Trump will screw over anyone who is not useful to him anymore.

He'd pull the plug on his own children if he thought it would do him some good.

[joet67]

12. Even before today my suspicions were up about so many of his cabinet. Treason is NOT

an inappropriate charge, if my suspicions are true. I realize there just won't be the political will to call it what it is, and sadly, 20-some percent of our own country is either outright siding with the Russians or else doesn't see a problem here (as reported widely on MSNBC tonight).

Personally, I have no problem calling it what it is, and I would have no problem filing the charges (were I in a position to do so). Political ramifications be damned.

I always said if I ever ran for office it would be for one term at a time, so that I could be free to speak my mind without the interference of having to either raise funds for the party, or the next election.

This is- to borrow Donnybrook's favorite word- sad.

[MADem]

21. A lot of people thought our relationship with Germany was just dandy

before WWII too. America Firsters, American Nazi Party....and mainstream types as well...not nutters.

We're a bit (not much) wiser now.

[progressoid]

13. Met with him in Session's office no less!

[safeinOhio]

15. Good people do not meet with

top Russian spies, or lie to congress.

[Dorian Gray]

18. Compromised.

I don't know that Putin wanted Trump to win because he would be better for him.

He may have just supported his win because he knew he could wreak havoc with the bumbling administration of idiots who don't know that they will be caught talking to Russians and lying about it.

What fuckwits.

[MADem]

27. I think Putin thought he'd hit the trifecta with Trump.

He believed he could wreak havoc, that he could control Trump, and he could get a bunch of Russo-friendly cretins in the highest corridors of power.

To his dismay, he's only been really successful with one of three--that havoc was wreaked. He absolutely can't control Trump, and his Russo-friendly cretins are either getting knocked back or looked upon with a jaundiced eye.

Still, he keeps trying, though....

[brer cat]

19. Thanks, MADem.

These stories move so fast it is hard to keep up. I hadn't seen this side of Kislyak reported before.

[Hekate]

20. Kick

[C Moon]

23. Are we going to end up with Orrin Hatch as President?

[Hekate]

24. Kickety

[Nitram]

25. One of the basic functions of our embassies is collecting intelligence.

The CIA run the "Political Section" in every embassy.

[Achilleaze]

26. republicans have gone over to the Dark Side of the Evil Empire

the shade of Ronald Reagan is retching in the grave as he contemplates how latter day republicans have sold out America to the very same freakin Evil Empire he warned them about.

I held a seance over my morning cup of coffee. When I studied the coffee grounds smushed in the bottom of my cup, they revealed to me that the Eternal Shade of R. R. is squirming in agony at the betrayal of America the GOP, and that he rises to CURSE them for their infernal TREASON in selling out the Evil Freakin Empire.

[MADem]

28. Saint Ronnie of Raygun started the dumpster fire that brought us Trump.

He capitalized on Nixon's Southern Strategy with "welfare queens" and rallies at KKK strongholds, too. Trump took a big chunk of his playbook from Reagan--the son of a biscuit never had an original idea in his campaign; it's all Nixon/Reagan/Hitler. What a mash-up....

Republicans are racist sexists who never met a fetus they didn't like, but wouldn't give a day-old baby left on a doorstep a bottle of formula. They're happy, though, to lock that baby up in a for-profit prison the minute it turns 18 (16 if they're dusky).