Seth Abramson connects the dots on Session’s transparent attempt to save himself and Trump in the wake of current and upcoming bombshells from Mueller.
Seth Abramson connects the dots on the Trump-Russia investigation, giving a detailed point-by-point analysis of the latest attempt by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to spin the facts to save himself and Trump from Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
Former public defender and University of New Hampshire professor Seth Abramson has been publishing extensive tweets regarding the Trump-Russia conspiracy for months now; and, while he has his critics, he has been correct on most of his assessments.
Abramson’s bio reads like a “Who’s Who” of media appearances, noting:
Seth is regularly interviewed about politics and higher education by domestic and International media. Recent interviews include the BBC, CNN, NPR, PBS, ABC Radio, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Chronicle of Higher Education, New York Magazine, and The New England Review of Books. Seth’s essays have also been widely cited, including discussions on CNBC, PBS, FNC, BET, and NPR, as well as in Politico, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, The Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy, Slate, and Pitchfork.
On Tuesday, Abramson posted a massive Twitter-thread regarding Session’s testimony before the House judiciary committee on Tuesday (14NOV17). Abramson remarked more than once that Sessions was well aware that he was in serious legal jeopardy:
- “I want to be clear on something: Sessions responding to questions about Russian contacts by reading a prepared statement means he thinks he’s going to be prosecuted. This *is* what a witness does to avoid speaking off the cuff in a way that can be used against them in court.“
- “And the two prepared statements on Russia that Sessions brought with him today—note he appears to have done *no other preparation* for his testimony—are devastatingly narrow and legalistic. Again, as a former defense attorney I’m saying Sessions thinks he’s in legal jeopardy.“
In a subsequent 6-part thread, Abramson discusses the fact that both Sessions and Trump know what is coming and are doing their best to retroactively protect themselves from possible prosecution.
- “The BIGGEST moment in the Sessions hearing—not coincidentally, the ONE way Sessions changed his story on Russia—is him NOW saying he told Papadopoulos he could NEVER be a Trump surrogate. He and Trump know what’s coming and want a RECORD of saying Papadopoulos WASN’T their agent.“
- “It’s NOT a coincidence that—after Papadopoulos’ plea—the ONE new fact Sessions will add to the ENTIRETY of his Russia story is that at a meeting at which TRUMP was present Sessions told Papadopoulos he was not authorized to speak to FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS. So—guess what’s coming?“
- “This is a retroactive play to save himself and Trump over the POST-March 2016 contacts we now know Papadopoulos had with foreign governments on Russia, and a PREEMPTIVE attempt to protect himself and Trump from this week’s and *coming* revelations about Papadopoulos in GREECE.“[1]
- “What Sessions and Trump are doing to save themselves is so transparent it becomes a giant slap in the fact of all America that Republicans in the House today just sat there and one after another thanked Sessions for his service. The man is a lawbreaker, and an unrepentant one.“
- “So pundits on TV tonight can say that Sessions was “trying to make himself look good” by remembering one new fact about Russia and having it be an exculpatory one, but a look at WHAT that fact in particular WAS confirms that Sessions and Trump are working the long game here.“
- “Summer reports by FNC and The Daily Caller would’ve jogged Sessions’ memory on what he allegedly said on March 31, 2016 (and the fact of a meeting that day). But they all say he shut down Papadopoulos on RUSSIA only. TODAY Sessions said ALL foreign governments. Remember that.“
FOOTNOTE 1: Abramson’s reference to Greece was covered in a November 12, 2017 thread discussing an Papadopoulos interview by Greek daily newspaper Kathimerini. [You can read the official English version here.]
Abramson tweeted of the article:
- “Papadopoulos told Greek media—Athens daily Kathimerini, by reputation the New York Times of Greece—that he had a 5-minute phone interview with Trump several days prior to being announced as a member of Trump’s National Security team on March 21, 2016.“
- “‘Low-level’ staffers don’t get directly interviewed by presidential candidates. Nor do ‘volunteers’ in the sense Trump used the term—i.e., an aide whose services are of so little interest to the campaign that they are passively accepted rather than the result of an interview.“
- “That Donald Trump personally interviewed Papadopoulos for his position on the National Security team means Trump knew who he was and why he wanted him aboard when he called him an ‘excellent guy’—the only member of his NatSec [National Security] team he chose to personally vouch for in that way.“
- “But *much* more startling is a second interaction with Trump Papadopoulos has disclosed—this one in December of 2016. Papadopoulos told Kathimerini ‘the new president had given him a *blank check* to choose any role he wanted in the government to be formed.’ This is stunning.“
- “Prior to today, we knew of not a single Trump aide—including his most loyal campaign staffers—who had been given a ‘blank check’ to choose any role in the Trump administration. If Papadopoulos told Kathimerini the truth, it means he performed some *massive* service for Trump.“
- “The possibility that George Papadopoulos had performed some significant service for Trump that Trump knew about, had acknowledged, and intended to richly reward is bolstered by Papadopoulos’ claim to Greek government officials that he had ‘helped Trump win the presidency.’“
- “The basis of Papadopoulos’ claim he ‘helped Trump win the presidency’ is unclear, but if Trump chose to reward his service with a ‘blank check’ it had to be more than acting as a liaison with the Greek-American community or talking to scholars in Israel about oil/gas issues.”
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