Lock him up: Jeff Sessions committed felony by lying about Trump-Russia on his clearance forms
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, after having recused himself in the Trump-Russia investigation, may now have to recuse himself in the Department of Justice’s investigation into his own criminal activities. Not only did Sessions lie to the American public and to the United States Senate about his secret meetings with Russian officials on behalf of the Donald Trump campaign, he also lied on his clearance forms.
When Jeff Sessions filled out the standard SF-86 clearance form in order to take the Attorney General job, he lied about his multiple meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak (link). Anyone can download a blank copy of the SF-86 form through the official federal government website for the General Services Administration (link). The form is more than a hundred pages long, page you only have to get to Page Two to find the relevant passage:
“The U.S. Criminal Code (title 18, section 1001) provides that knowingly falsifying or concealing a material fact is a felony which may result in fines and/or up to five (5) years imprisonment. In addition, Federal agencies generally fire, do not grant a security clearance, or disqualify individuals who have materially and deliberately falsified these forms, and this remains a part of the permanent record for future placements.”
Note the word “felony” and potential multi-year prison sentence. This makes Jeff Sessions the second member of the Trump campaign to commit a felony by lying on the SF-86 form about secret meetings with the Russian government, after Jared Kushner was caught committing the same crime on the same form. With Sessions and Kushner now each facing potential prison sentences for their roles in the Trump-Russia scandal, it raises the question of whether either of them is willing to go to jail just to protect Donald Trump. We wouldn’t be shocked to see either one of them flip on him to save themselves. Follow Palmer Report on Facebook and Twitter.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report