Lying Sessions

Russia, Russia, Russia:  As Ricky Ricardo liked to say, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has some ‘splainin to do.  At a March 2016 campaign meeting, memorialized in a now widely circulated photo, former campaign aide George Papadopoulos offered to use his contacts to set up a meeting between Trump and Putin.  Trump listened carefully to the suggestion, but before he could respond, Sessions jumped in and shot down the offer.  While Sessions response shows that he understood that a Trump-Putin campaign tete-a-tete would have been a bad idea, Sessions is now in trouble with his former colleagues in the Senate for failing to disclose the Papadopoulos offer.  Senator Al Franken, whose initial questioning of Sessions last January triggered the events leading to the appointment of Special Counsel Mueller, had pressed Sessions hard on this point during his Judiciary Committee testimony last month.  At the time, Sessions pushed back hard at Franken for the insulting suggestion that he, one of their former colleagues, wasn’t sharing everything he knew.   Yesterday, the furious Franken sent Sessions a lengthy letter saying that the failure to disclose the Papadopoulos offer was “ another example in an alarming pattern” in which Sessions “apparently failed to tell the truth, under oath, about the Trump team’s contacts with agents of Russia—a hostile foreign power that interfered in the 2016 election.” As to Trump he lied too repeatedly, whenever he denied that anyone in his campaign had any contact with any Russians, but for Trump lying is like breathing so no one is particularly surprised.  A spokesman for Sessions says that Papadopoulos was so minor a player that any conversation with him would have been too insignificant to leave a lasting impression, the “selective memory” defense.  White House lawyer Ty Cobb  said that nothing Papadopoulos said matters because he is now a convicted liar, he didn’t mention that he was convicted for lying to protect Trump.  Yesterday during testimony to the House Intelligence Committee former campaign advisor Carter Page, reported that he told Sessions about his July 2016 trip to Russia, no word yet from Sessions if he has any recollection of that conversation.  Sessions’ lying pattern should be a problem for his long term viability as Attorney General.  However, if he’s forced out his departure would be a double edged sword, we would be rid of Sessions and his nefarious ways but any new Attorney General would have the authority to fire Mueller, disrupting the Russia investigation. Sessions isn’t the only victim of  Papadopoulos’ testimony, Sam Clovis’ nomination to be the Department of Agriculture Chief Scientist has been withdrawn. The Trump team only learned that Clovis had already testified in front of the Mueller grand jury as a result of the announcement of the recent indictments. Fearful of what he would be asked about Russia during his upcoming confirmation hearing, the White House withdrew his nomination. Additional papers released about Paul Manafort, Trump’s infamous former campaign manager, reveal that he had three passports and ties to the Russian mafia.  The Judge in his case believes that he is a possible flight risk and wants him at home wearing one of those nifty ankle bracelets.  She also wants his lawyers to stop making inflammatory comments to the press. Mueller has now moved on to Jared Kushner, his team has been asking other witnesses about Kushner’s role in the Comey firing and the meeting with Don Jr and the Russian lawyer. In response to Mueller’s request. Kushner’s lawyers have turned over additional documents.  Separately, the Wall Street Journal reports that the Justice Department has identified more than six members of the Russian government involved in the hacking of the DNC computers and are considering bringing a case against them next year.  Despite Trump’s campaign suggestion, none of them are couch sitting 400 pounders.  

The Birth of A Tax Plan: To much fanfare, the House released their tax plan, naming it the Tax Cuts and Jobs Plan instead of the Trump preferred Cuts, Cuts, Cuts. Trump called the plan a Christmas gift to the country, assuming that you don’t mind if your Christmas is delayed because his year-end target for passage is highly suspect.  Like many pieces of House legislation, Paul Ryan wants you to believe it’s the best thing since sliced bread, assuming you like white doughy mid-west bread.  He disingenuously said that "It's very clear and obvious that the whole purpose of this is a middle-class tax cut,” a compelling  soundbite for the nightly news. Sadly, if you are middle class and live in a high tax state, your taxes are likely to go up.  In summary, the plan reduces the number of tax brackets, but leaves the highest rate intact, it raises the standard deduction,  leaves 401 (k) plans alone, allows for the deduction of some real estate taxes but eliminates the state and local tax deduction, deductions for medical expenses and student loans. Corporate tax rates will be immediately reduced to 20%, the alternative minimum tax will be eliminated and estate taxes will be phased out over time.  It’s probably too early to dwell on the details because despite Ryan’s statement, this is only a beginning salvo in what is likely to be a protracted battle between budget hawks, blue state Republicans and special interest groups.  Already, Senator Rubio has said that the plan doesn’t go far enough in helping the middle class, Senator Flake has said that you can’t have cuts without real reforms and Long Island Congressman King said that he can’t support a plan that eliminates state and local tax deductions and hurts residents of areas of the country where property values and house prices are high.  Not too surprisingly, Democrats had nothing nice to say either.  

Other News: Proving that Democrats are as dysfunctional as Republicans, yesterday just days before the important Virginia Governor election, excerpts of former DNC chair Donna Brazile’s book were released.  She accuses the Hillary Clinton campaign of manipulating DNC rules so as to glom onto as much election funding as possible.  Berniacs and the progressive wing of the party are not surprised, but neither are they very happy.  Democratic turnout is crucial next week in Virginia, so the timing of Brazile’s release was less than optimum.  In any case, while Democrats wrestle with their own demons and work towards a more equitable system, expect to hear more about this from Republicans who, will be more than happy to add it to their list of Hillary complaints.   Yesterday, Trump announced the appointment of Jerome Powell as the new Federal Reserve Bank chair, to replace current chair Janet Yellin in January when her term expires.  Trump has taken the unusual step of replacing Yellin, not because he didn’t like her but because he didn’t want to keep an Obama appointee around.  The markets were happy with his Powell announcement because they expect him to continue Yellin’s policies. Last night in still another Fox News interview, this one with right wing pundit Laura Ingraham, Trump attacked Hillary’s collusion with the DNC, provided only lukewarm support for Secretary of State Tillerson and asserted that he likes keeping the State Department understaffed because he is his own best diplomat.  The upcoming Asia trip will be interesting, if you find missteps and misstatements entertaining.  Tillerson may have to pay for his own return trip.