Political Odds: Jeff Sessions In Hot Water
When Jeff Sessions faced the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing, he issued a broad and unprompted denial of any contact with Russian officials. When asked about his thoughts regarding Russian involvement in the election, he said: “I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians.”
But a recent story by the Washington Post found that Sessions had in fact met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak twice during his time in the Trump campaign. Sessions downplayed the story, claiming he met with Kislyak as a member of the Armed Services Committee, rather than as a member of the Trump campaign.
Ambassador Sergey Kislyak is the same Russian official that former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn had met with to discuss US sanctions. And after misleading Vice President Mike Pence over the extent of their discussions, Flynn was forced to resign from his position after just 24 days on the job.
As Attorney General, Sessions is tasked with overseeing the Department of Justice and FBI investigations into possible Trump-Russia connections. But now that Sessions may be implicated in the investigations, there were calls from across the aisle for him to recuse himself from any related investigations. Sessions refused at first, but has since recused himself from any Russia-related investigations.
But many Americans feel that’s simply not enough. Flynn was forced to resign after lying to Pence, while Sessions lied under oath. To put it into perspective, Bill Clinton was impeached by the House after he lied under oath about something of far less significance.
Democrats across the country have called for Sessions’ resignation, and the American Civil Liberties Union has gone as far as calling for an investigation into perjury charges.
For now, Donald Trump has defended Sessions and continues to throw his full support behind him. But we haven’t heard the end of this yet, and can be sure that more will come of it in the not-too-distant future.
How will things pan out for Jeff Sessions? Let’s set some odds.
Odds for Jeff Sessions
Odds that more meetings between Sessions and Russian officials surface: 2/3
Odds that Jeff Sessions:
Resigns as Attorney General: 9/11
Is charged with perjury: 20/1
Is imprisoned as a result of the investigation: 50/1
Odds that Donald Trump eventually condemns Jeff Sessions’ actions: 3/2
Odds that a special prosecutor is appointed to the investigations: 7/13
Don Aguero is a man of many talents, writing about nearly anything you can put odds to. Don has been writing for SportsBettingDime since 2015, covering sports, entertainment and politics. You name it, he's covered it! He is also a steadfast West Ham fan, and has learned to embrace that suffering.
