Was This Perjury? What Sessions Said And Then What He Said...

First, the frame:

Then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) spoke twice last year with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Justice Department officials said, encounters he did not disclose when asked about possible contacts between members of President Trump’s campaign and representatives of Moscow during Sessions’s confirmation hearing to become attorney general.

One of the meetings was a private conversation between Sessions and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak that took place in September in the senator’s office, at the height of what U.S. intelligence officials say was a Russian cyber campaign to upend the U.S. presidential race.

During his confirmation hearings then-Senator Sessions this happened:


When asked what he'd do if he discovered any communication between "anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign" and the Russian government, he said under oath:

Senator Franken, 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.

 And yet in his own Senate office, he himself talked to the Russian Ambassador.

The wiggle room is obvious when you look at Sessions' denial:

I never met with any Russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign. [Emphasis added.]

But that's not what he said under oath.  He said no communications with the Russians - at all.  None.  Zip.  Nada.  The null set.  The big goose egg.

By the way, Kislyak was the guy at the center of Mike Flynn's troubles:

National security adviser Michael Flynn privately discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with that country’s ambassador to the United States during the month before President Trump took office, contrary to public assertions by Trump officials, current and former U.S. officials said.

Flynn’s communications with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak were interpreted by some senior U.S. officials as an inappropriate and potentially illegal signal to the Kremlin that it could expect a reprieve from sanctions that were being imposed by the Obama administration in late December to punish Russia for its alleged interference in the 2016 election.

Say it with me: And independent investigation, independent of the Sessions' DOJ, independent of the GOP-dominated House, independent of the GOP-dominated Senate.

AN INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION INTO TRUMP'S TIES TO THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT.

Now.