Backed into a corner, Jeff Sessions tries to blame the FBI for his lies about his Russia meetings

| 3:11 pm EDT May 25, 2017
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One day after Attorney General Jeff Sessions was caught lying about his Donald Trump campaign meetings with the Russian government on his security clearance forms, a felony that should by all rights cause him to be investigated by the FBI, Sessions is trying a novel approach: he’s now trying to blame the FBI for his lies.

Jeff Sessions is using a Department of Justice spokesperson today to float the claim that he told the FBI about his multiple meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, and that the FBI agent advised him not to list the meetings on his clearance forms, according to a New York Times report (link). But Sessions will have a hard time selling this story for a number of reasons.

Sessions has already been caught flat-out lying to the Senate under oath about his Russia meetings during his confirmation hearings for Attorney General. This demonstrates clear intent on his part to deceive the United States government about his meetings with Kislyak, and casts doubt on the notion that he would have voluntarily told an FBI agent about the meetings while seeking advice on how to fill out the forms.

Moreover, as Sessions now oversees the FBI in his role as Attorney General, he’s attempting to blame his own criminal activity on an unnamed underling. He’s likely counting on the FBI agents involved with the security clearance process being afraid to publicly contradict him on this, for fear of putting their jobs in jeopardy. But many among the public will see the ploy for what it is, giving them even less of a reason to believe his story.

As we reported yesterday, the SF-86 form in question specifically states that it’s an imprisonable felony to lie in your answers (link). Even if Sessions was advised by an FBI agent to falsely fill out the form, a dubious claim to begin with, he still would have committed a felony by filling it out the way he did. Follow Palmer Report on Facebook and Twitter.