NYMag | We now live in a world where the attorney general going out to dinner
with two top Justice Department officials is not only news, but a sign
that he’s rebelling against the president. As a senator, Jeff Sessions
was one of Donald Trump’s earliest supporters, and he served as one of
his campaign’s top foreign-policy advisers. But the seeds of the
attorney general’s rift with the president were planted during his
confirmation hearing, when he offered up some thoughts about Russia
collusion that turned out to be not entirely accurate. Here’s how the
Trump-Sessions relationship devolved to the point that two 71-year-old
lawmakers are barely speaking, lobbing insults on Twitter, and sending
passive-aggressive messages with their choice of dinner companion.
Sessions’s Russia Contacts Are Revealed
Exactly one year ago, President Trump was basking
in the unusually positive reviews from his first address to Congress.
The very next day, we learned that Sessions met with Russian
ambassador Sergey Kislyak at least twice while working with the Trump campaign — yet during his confirmation hearing he denied, under oath, having any such contacts.
“I’m
not aware of any of those activities,” Sessions said of Trump
officials’ Russia contacts, “I have been called a surrogate at a time or
two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the
Russians.”
