Attorney General Jeff Sessions clearly said something that wasn’t true when he testified before Congress earlier this year that he was unaware of any relationship between the Trump campaign and Russia.
But he insists it was not a lie.
Sessions claims he simply forgot about that roundtable during which campaign aide George Papadopoulos suggested setting up a meeting between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“You’re accusing me of lying about that?” Sessions asked when confronted by members of the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. “I would say that’s not fair, colleagues.
“I don’t think it is right to accuse me of doing something wrong,” he continued.
That raises an excellent question. When is a lie not actually a lie?
Some psychologists argue that anyone, given enough pressure or incentive, is capable of lying. I am certainly no exception. Neither was my now-deceased bichon frise, Chatham.
Allow me to digress for a moment.
Pressured last summer to get my 7-year-old nephew who loves broccoli to try his Brussels sprouts, I told him it was “broccolette.”
After posting it on Facebook, I was struck by the range of responses. Some thought it was brilliant. But there were others who said it was shameful that I would lie to a child.
I’ve been on the receiving end too. I was sitting on the couch eating dinner one evening when Chatham went to the back door and barked, indicating that he needed to go outside. When I got up and placed my food on the coffee table, he ran back and gobbled it up.
Neither of us was honest in those two incidents. But I don’t know if I’d call our actions bald-faced lies.
So it is through this lens that I will examine Sessions’ forgetfulness rationale.
It wasn’t until Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, Sessions said, that he recalled actually having been in on discussions about Russia while serving as Trump’s foreign policy adviser.
Apparently, a lie revealed another lie. That’s not at all uncommon. But let’s not digress again.
Most might agree that white lies, for the most part, are acceptable. They aren’t meant to deceive. They are harmless little false statements that actually are meant to protect another’s feelings.
Say, for instance, Sessions curled up his mouth like a turtle and said, “I love the way Kate McKinnon mocks me on ‘Saturday Night Live.’ ” We wouldn’t believe him, but it might bring a chuckle.
We’re also pretty forgiving if someone lies to protect everyone’s best interest. Suppose Sessions were to come up with a brilliant lie to convince Trump that he had been banned from Twitter for life, thus he no longer needs a cellphone for tweeting. We might consider that a public service.
What we can’t tolerate are lies that only benefit the liar.
Most people also are less forgiving of lies stemming from self-deception. That’s like when a U.S. president convinces himself that every negative story about him is fake news and goes on a mission to discredit the media.
We also have little tolerance for lies of omission. We don’t like it, for example, when Congress tries to sneak an Obamacare repeal into a tax bill while pretending the bill is helping the middle class.
Unfortunately for Sessions, forgetting the truth falls right up there with the lies we detest.
According to Sessions, it was the “chaos” of the Trump campaign from “Day One” that caused him to forget about those Russia talks. How could he be expected to remember details when he was traveling all the time and sleep was in short supply?
I’m glad he raised that point. Must we assume that he also cannot be trusted to tell the truth while serving in the chaotic role of U.S. attorney general?
Perhaps we could buy Sessions’ excuse had he forgotten a few other details of the meeting as well. Though he said he has no clear recollection what Papadopoulos actually said, Sessions had no problem recalling his own response.
“I pushed back against his suggestion,” Sessions insisted.
Selective memory is so convenient. I don’t suppose it would be of any benefit to Sessions to recall what he once said about perjury when he was a U.S. senator.
Here’s a little reminder.
“In America, the Supreme Court and the American people believe no one is above the law,” Sessions said in an interview prior to Bill Clinton’s 1999 impeachment trial.
Then, he voted Clinton “guilty” on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.
The only reason Sessions’ statement wouldn’t still hold true today is if it were a lie 18 years ago.
dglanton@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @dahleeng
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