# Jefferson Beauregard Sessions the third apparently lied under oath January 10, 2017 **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 2, 2017, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jefferson-beauregard-sessions-the-third-apparently-lied-under-oath-january-10-2017/781171 "2017-03-02T02:47:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jefferson-beauregard-sessions-the-third-apparently-lied-under-oath-january-10-2017/781171/121 "2017-03-03T02:44:17Z")
Maybe Trump thinks if his cabinet members keep resigning, there won’t be enough of them to ever invoke the 25th on him. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jefferson-beauregard-sessions-the-third-apparently-lied-under-oath-january-10-2017/781171/122 "2017-03-03T02:49:28Z")
I wonder what his Italian Mob friends think of him cozying up to the Russians like that. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jefferson-beauregard-sessions-the-third-apparently-lied-under-oath-january-10-2017/781171/123 "2017-03-03T03:36:13Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > I wonder what his Italian Mob friends think of him cozying up to the Russians like that. Trump doesn’t seem too bright; maybe he’s trying to find out what happened to the one that got away from Pauley and Christopher all those years ago. ---
**Author:** ![skdo23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@skdo23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skdo23)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jefferson-beauregard-sessions-the-third-apparently-lied-under-oath-january-10-2017/781171/124 "2017-03-03T03:46:46Z")
It just keeps getting better and better. > **[Jeff Sessions Used Political Funds for Republican Convention Expenses](https://www.wsj.com/articles/jeff-sessions-used-political-funds-for-republican-convention-expenses-1488509301?emailToken=JRrzfvl7ZX6Ti9E1aMw%2B2VMmK7IFEPSIQVXMaW3RN0SJrHvRoP6gzKwxwtWqp2%2B0AEh9%2FZUe4nYiTznQi2NsGcSWnaByl0ulfH8Yo4Hc3AuQN1%2BexRLaLbdE5%2FKNpw%3D%3D)** > > Campaign-finance records show attorney general used his campaign account, not official funds, for expenses to Cleveland, where he met Russia’s ambassador at an event. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jefferson-beauregard-sessions-the-third-apparently-lied-under-oath-january-10-2017/781171/125 "2017-03-03T03:51:39Z")
> [@skdo23](#): > > It just keeps getting better and better. > [https://www.wsj.com/articles/jeff-sessions-used-political-funds-for-republican-convention-expenses-1488509301?emailToken=JRrzfvl7ZX6Ti9E1aMw%2B2VMmK7IFEPSIQVXMaW3RN0SJrHvRoP6gzKwxwtWqp2%2B0AEh9/ZUe4nYiTznQi2NsGcSWnaByl0ulfH8Yo4Hc3AuQN1%2BexRLaLbdE5/KNpw%3D%3D](https://www.wsj.com/articles/jeff-sessions-used-political-funds-for-republican-convention-expenses-1488509301?emailToken=JRrzfvl7ZX6Ti9E1aMw%2B2VMmK7IFEPSIQVXMaW3RN0SJrHvRoP6gzKwxwtWqp2%2B0AEh9/ZUe4nYiTznQi2NsGcSWnaByl0ulfH8Yo4Hc3AuQN1%2BexRLaLbdE5/KNpw%3D%3D) > [@](#): > > The Trump administration says Attorney General Jeff Sessions was acting as a then-U.S. senator when he talked to Russia’s ambassador at an event during last year’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland, but Mr. Sessions paid for convention travel expenses out of his own political funds and he spoke about Donald Trump’s campaign at the event, according to a person at the event and campaign-finance records. So he was speaking to the Russian ambassador \*strictly in his role as senator, \* but he paid for the trip from campaign funds. But not to worry folks! It’s all good because he’s a Republican. Therefore, nothing was improper. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jefferson-beauregard-sessions-the-third-apparently-lied-under-oath-january-10-2017/781171/126 "2017-03-03T04:09:45Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > CNN correspondent Jim Acosta [just tweeted](https://twitter.com/Acosta/status/837441548501549056) that “Former Trump campaign nat sec adv JD Gordon tells me he and other nat sec adv’s met with Russian Amb in Cleveland during GOP convention” [and](https://twitter.com/Acosta/status/837442704170696704) “Then Senator Jeff Sessions presided over the meeting, Gordon added.” > > BOOM. It should be pointed out that the RNC convention in Cleveland, that Sessions admitted to, is not the meeting referred to here. Trump has no buildings in Cleveland, so far as I can tell, and the RNC convention was in July. Most likely, this would have been when Trump visited DC on [March 21](http://wtop.com/dc/2016/03/trump-hotel-old-post-office-set-open-fall/slide/1/) to “check in on the Old Post Office”. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jefferson-beauregard-sessions-the-third-apparently-lied-under-oath-january-10-2017/781171/127 "2017-03-03T04:45:59Z")
Sorry if it’s already been mentioned (Damn, all these Trump threads move fast!), but we can add Carter Page to the list of Trump cronies who have suddenly remembered that they did, in fact, meet with Kislyak. After denying in February that he had met the Ambassador, Page admitted on Thursday that he had met with him in Cleveland. At this hour it is still unclear whether the meeting involved a Cleveland Steamer or merely a golden shower. Anyway, it’s not as bad as it sounds. Page did point out: [Quote=Carter Page] I will say I never met him anywhere outside of Cleveland. Let’s just say that much. [/quote] Oh good! What happens in Cleveland stays in Cleveland. So we’re good then. > **[In a reversal, former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page now says he did have...](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/reversal-former-trump-campaign-adviser-carter-page-now-says-contact-russia)** > > Page told MSNBC he did not deny" meeting with the Russian ambassador last summer in Cleveland. He told NewsHour he had no meetings with Russians last year. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jefferson-beauregard-sessions-the-third-apparently-lied-under-oath-january-10-2017/781171/128 "2017-03-03T06:07:15Z")
So… It’s very hard, if not impossible to charge Sessions with any crime, [according to the NY times:](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/02/us/politics/russia-sessions-attorney-general.html?ribbon-ad-idx=5&rref=politics&module=Ribbon&version=context®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Politics&pgtype=article) > [@](#): > > But it is exceedingly unlikely that the Justice Department will bring charges against the attorney general — and not just for political reasons. To violate statutes that criminalize lying to Congress and perjury, it is not enough to say something that turns out to be demonstrably false. Rather, the speaker must have intentionally lied. That can be very difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. > > Mr. Sessions has said that while some people think he made a false statement, that was “not my intent.” Rather, he said, his answer was “honest and truthful as I understood it at the time” because the context of the question was the allegation that the Trump campaign and the Russian government were exchanging information. He said he understood his meetings with the Russian ambassador to be **linked to his role as a senator, not his role as a campaign surrogate.** But now we hear that "Mr. Sessions paid for convention travel expenses out of his own political funds and he spoke about Donald Trump’s campaign at the event, according to a person at the event and campaign-finance records. " So where does this leave us? Sessions defense seems to be that he was speaking as a senator. But now it seems that we have evidence that he was not. Is he still clean as a whistle, prosecution-wise? ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jefferson-beauregard-sessions-the-third-apparently-lied-under-oath-january-10-2017/781171/129 "2017-03-03T07:43:02Z")
He’s still a Republican, so … ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jefferson-beauregard-sessions-the-third-apparently-lied-under-oath-january-10-2017/781171/130 "2017-03-03T08:25:10Z")
I don’t care about charging him with a crime, I don’t crave the satisfaction of seeing him shipped off to a Club Fed. I don’t need to punish him for being a morally malignant asshole. I need to see his grubby mitts pried off the levers of power, what becomes of him after that is a triviality. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jefferson-beauregard-sessions-the-third-apparently-lied-under-oath-january-10-2017/781171/131 "2017-03-03T08:55:07Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Based on what he said, it boils down to “I don’t have the ethical judgement to recuse myself, I needed several people tell me I should.” I wonder if one of those people was Ivanka, 'cos I hear she’s good at getting people to do the right thing… ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jefferson-beauregard-sessions-the-third-apparently-lied-under-oath-january-10-2017/781171/132 "2017-03-03T08:58:40Z")
[Trey “Benghazi” Gowdy says](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trey-gowdy-sessions-contact-with-russia-information-should-never-have-become-public) the Sessions-Kislyak contacts should have never become public, the real problem is the leaks, and that Congress isn’t equipped to investigate a matter such as this. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jefferson-beauregard-sessions-the-third-apparently-lied-under-oath-january-10-2017/781171/133 "2017-03-03T09:00:14Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > I’m not sure I understand. Let’s say I’m on trial for murder – not just _any_ murder, you understand, but the murder of Nathan Yablonski in New York on August 5th of last year. And let’s say I’m simply asked – under oath – whether I murdered Nathan Yablonski in New York on August 5th of last year. And let’s say that I cheerfully reply, _“Hey, listen, pal: I didn’t kill anybody in New York on August 5th of last year.”_ > > And let’s say that I in fact killed some other guy in New York on August 5th of last year. Have I committed perjury? > [@Bricker](#): > > No. What if the guy he killed was _also_ named Nathan Yablonski (only they haven’t found his body yet)? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jefferson-beauregard-sessions-the-third-apparently-lied-under-oath-january-10-2017/781171/134 "2017-03-03T11:32:36Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > WaPo’s investigating a report from anonymous sources that Jefferson Beauregard Sessions lied about private meetings with Ulysses S. Grant prior to the Confederate’s surrender at Appomattox. Ridiculous. That event left Sessions too devastated by grief to meet with anyone. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jefferson-beauregard-sessions-the-third-apparently-lied-under-oath-january-10-2017/781171/135 "2017-03-03T11:35:56Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > You could also make his full name “Jefferson Earl Beauregard Sessions III” so his nickname can be “J.E.B.”. “Earl” ? Ew, how banal. For that true 19th-century “S’uthun” flavour, his middle name should be Eleuthereus. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jefferson-beauregard-sessions-the-third-apparently-lied-under-oath-january-10-2017/781171/136 "2017-03-03T11:39:51Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > he said, his answer was “honest and truthful as I understood it at the time” Ironically, his very sliminess supports the “as I understood it” defense: [QUOTE=George Orwell] His mind slid away into the labyrinthine world of doublethink. To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again: and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself. That was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word ‘doublethink’ involved the use of doublethink. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jefferson-beauregard-sessions-the-third-apparently-lied-under-oath-january-10-2017/781171/137 "2017-03-03T13:52:23Z")
This may have been pointed out already as I didn’t take the time to read every post in this thread. Sessions’ lie or whatever you want to call it was completely unnecessary. Franken asked him what he would do IF someone in the campaign had contact with the Russians. Sessions basically said, “No comment” after answering a question that wasn’t asked. As is so common with politicians in general and this administration in particular, he simply dodged the question. This is so common that it has become acceptable. I don’t know if refusal to answer a hypothetical is a valid response in these types of hearings or not but Franken didn’t press him on it when he had the chance. In my experience as a criminal investigator, when someone offers up denials in response to a question where no accusation has been made, something is wrong. Also, as a former prosecutor, Sessions has to know the importance of answering questions as asked. When under oath the answers need to be thoughtful and considered. Its testimony 101. To say “I answered the question I thought he asked” or similar is disingenuous. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jefferson-beauregard-sessions-the-third-apparently-lied-under-oath-january-10-2017/781171/138 "2017-03-03T14:28:21Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > Who has discretion to prosecute perjury to a Congressional committee? (I’m assuming it’s a crime. It is, right?) Maybe it’s expecting too much to expect a factual answer in the Pit, but does anyone know who (one or more people) gets to make a decision to prosecute (or not) cases of perjury before Congress? ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jefferson-beauregard-sessions-the-third-apparently-lied-under-oath-january-10-2017/781171/139 "2017-03-03T15:19:31Z")
I’ve got another smoking gun. Sessions has said that he was wearing his Armed Services Committee hat when he had the meetings with the Russian ambassador. Well, I checked – [there’s no such thing!!!](https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#safe=active&tbm=shop&q=%22Senate+Armed+Services+Committee+hat%22&*) ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2017, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jefferson-beauregard-sessions-the-third-apparently-lied-under-oath-january-10-2017/781171/140 "2017-03-03T15:43:06Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > Maybe it’s expecting too much to expect a factual answer in the Pit, but does anyone know who (one or more people) gets to make a decision to prosecute (or not) cases of perjury before Congress? It seems to be very rare - six convictions since the fifties: [What happens if you lie to Congress](http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/07/what-happens-if-you-lie-to-congress.html) [http://www.wplucey.com/2010/08/convictions-for-lying-to-congress-few-and-far-between.html](http://www.wplucey.com/2010/08/convictions-for-lying-to-congress-few-and-far-between.html) It looks like federal prosecutors make the call … [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jefferson-beauregard-sessions-the-third-apparently-lied-under-oath-january-10-2017/781171.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jefferson-beauregard-sessions-the-third-apparently-lied-under-oath-january-10-2017/781171.md?page=8)