OPINION:
The Russians are a nefarious gang. They send their ambassador to public meetings where he is likely to run into senators, other ambassadors, generals, admirals, bishops and who knows who else, and is quick to talk to them. Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi recommend keeping the poor fellow locked up in the ambassadorial residence on 16th Street, lest he ruin the career of someone in official Washington with whom he inadvertently wishes a good day.
In the fevered Democratic narrative now amok on the streets, Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions was recruited as a Russian agent by Ambassador Sergey Kislyak when they spoke in passing at a Heritage Foundation event last year. If their deal was not sealed then, it was sealed a few weeks later when the ambassador called on Mr. Sessions at the office, where he was then a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Neither meeting was a “one on one,” as some of the fake-news accounts have it, nor were they occasions for Mr. Sessions to dish about the Trump campaign. But these clever Russians are skilled at extracting information from a nod, a smile and the good manners of others.
Mr. Sessions is not a unique source of spilled state secrets. Dozens of senators of both partisan persuasions have met singly and in groups with Ambassador Kislyak over the the past year. It’s what senators and ambassadors are paid to do. It’s their job to discover what other governments and other peoples are thinking, and for an ambassador, from Russia, France, even Britain, the Peoples Republic of Lower Slobbovia or anywhere else, to lobby everyone on behalf of their governments. (Here’s a stunning bit of gossip for the next Washington dinner party: Our ambassadors do it, too.)
The Russian ambassador not only attends Heritage Foundation events, but he could have been seen at the Gridiron Dinner last week, and no doubt will be seen with the rest of le tout Washington at the White House Correspondents Association dinner next month. Mr. Kislyak is an attractive and engaging fellow, and if they’re not careful many senators, both Democrats and Republicans, will bump into him and have to explain to The Washington Post why they were charmed and gave him company secrets.
Mr. Sessions stands accused of lying to the Senate at his confirmation hearings about meeting furtively with the Russian ambassador, but the Democrats twisting the facts are trying to make a steak sandwich out of a nothingburger. Only in Washington is an innocent handshake and a polite word proof of treason. The attorney general has recused himself from any investigation of what happened, where, and when. From the available evidence, nearly all of who said what is on record and available to anyone with a laptop or a smart phone. By the unexpurgated accounts, Mr. Sessions didn’t lie. His accusers are mired in the fever swamps of conspiracy, trying to keep alive the fake news that Donald Trump didn’t actually win the election (it was all a bad dream) and lives happily in Vladimir Putin’s pocket. The fabulists must get over it, and the Russian ambassador should beware who he dines on nothingburgers with.
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