Could this Russian Angle be bigger than just Sessions, or Flynn???

NEW YORK (TIP) : Russian involvement in the US presidential elections and President Donald Trump‘s ties with Putin began during his campaign and is now having effect on his month-old Presidency with members of his top circle getting hit every week.

First Manafort then Flynn and now Sessions. It seems everyone from his core team met and spoke to Russian officials during his campaign (which he knows nothing about) and then lied about these interactions.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions now finds himself in the Russian seat for not disclosing at his confirmation hearing that he spoke twice last year with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak which amounts to perjury.

U.S. intelligence agencies concluded last year that Russia hacked and leaked Democratic emails during the election campaign as part of an effort to tilt the vote in Trump’s favor. The Kremlin has denied the allegations.

Under fire, Jeff Sessions removes himself from campaign probes

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Thursday, March 2, that he would stay out of any probe into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election but maintained he did nothing wrong by failing to disclose he met last year with Russia’s ambassador.

“I have recused myself in the matters that deal with the Trump campaign,” Sessions told reporters at a hastily arranged news conference.

Did Jeff Sessions lie under oath?

Yes, He Did!!!Here’s why: Jeff Sessions met twice with the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak in July and September 2016.

At the time of Sessions’ contact with Kislyak, Sessions was not only serving as a surrogate for Donald Trump but had been named chairman of the Trump campaign’s National Security Advisory Committee.

Sessions denied he had contact with Russian officials when he was asked directly during his Senate confirmation hearing to become attorney general whether he had exchanged information with Russian operatives during the election campaign.

Now-Attorney General Sessions omitted both these meetings in his testimony during his confirmation hearings.

Sessions and his Trump backers pushed back against the revelations saying that it was, essentially, a misunderstanding—Sessions conducted those meetings in his role as United States Senator, not a Trump campaign adviser, therefore he didn’t perjure himself.

“He was literally conducting himself as a United States Senator,” Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Thursday. “This is what senators do in the course of conducting themselves in their jobs.”

But for now its on record that while still in the Senate, Jeff Sessions met with the Russian Ambassador at least twice—once at his Senate office in September and once at an event at the Republican National Convention in July.

(Read The transcript of Jeff Sessions’s recusal news conference, annotated)

Trump’s & White House’s Response : President Trump said earlier Thursday, March 2, he “wasn’t aware at all” of Sessions’ meetings and that the attorney general still has his “total” confidence.

Trump, Kellyanne Conway, Sean Spicer, Sessions and others on the Trump team have denied campaign officials’ communications and connections with Russian officials at least 20 times since July.

Trump and Republicans who control Congress are trying to move past early administration missteps and focus on issues important to them, including immigration, tax cuts and repealing the Obamacare healthcare law.

What questions remain?

It is still unclear what Sessions discussed with Kislyak, although either side could have recorded it or taken notes.

“As long as the conversation remains unknown, people will still be suspicious of what was said, whether that’s merited or not,” said Robert Walker, a former chief counsel to Senate and House ethics committees.

Investigators need to find out about anyone involved with Trump who spoke to Russian officials before he was inaugurated. Short of that, Russia potentially could use those conversations to its advantage if it’s being denied by Trump and his administration.

So far, investigators have found information showing contacts between Trump associates and Russians, including Russians linked to the Kremlin, NBC News has reported. Some of the information came from “routine intercepts” that normally might never have been examined, the source close to the investigation says.

It’s unclear whether that is how the information about the Sessions meetings came to light, but it has become clear that the Russian ambassador was under FBI scrutiny and his communications were being monitored.

A declassified report from U.S. intelligence agencies released in January concluded just that, saying, “Putin and the Russian government aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him.”

Russia is Laughing with eyes wide Open: The Kremlin, increasingly convinced that President Trump will not fundamentally change relations with Russia, is instead seeking to bolster its global influence by exploiting what it considers weakness in Washington, according to political advisers, diplomats, journalists and other analysts.

Russia has continued to test the United States on the military front, with fighter jets flying close to an American warship in the Black Sea this month and a Russian naval vessel steaming conspicuously in the Atlantic off the coast of Delaware.

“They think he is unstable, that he can be manipulated, that he is authoritarian and a person without a team,” Alexei A. Venediktov, the editor in chief of Echo of Moscow, a liberal radio station, said of President Trump.