"Ukrainegate" is going to round up a whole buttload of GOP whores

Former U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions is an unnamed member of Congress mentioned in an indictment against two business associates of President Trump’s personal attorney, Rudolph Giuliani, according to NBC News.

The two Soviet-born men, Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas, were arrested late Wednesday night at Dulles Airport outside of Washington, D.C, per ABC News.

  Texas Tribune

According to an NPR report I just heard, at the international gate with one-way tickets. (UPDATE: Also, they met with Rudy Giuliani just shortly before they went to the airport.  It seems likely that he advised them to get out of the country on info from someone in DOJ - Barr? - that they were going to be apprehended.  I'm guessing the FBI had them tailed, as the agency has been investigating Giuliani's Ukraine activities  Much more to come in this story.)

The Wall Street Journal reported that the two men are accused of “violating campaign finance rules, including funneling Russian money into President Trump’s campaign.”

Regarding Sessions, the indictment against the two men states that they “committed to raise $20,000 or more for a then-sitting U.S. Congressman” who is referred to in the court document as “Congressman-1.” The indictment goes on to state that the congressman “had been the beneficiary of approximately $3 million” in donations from a campaign committee. NBC News and other outlets identified that person as Sessions and reported that the committee was a Trump-aligned super PAC.

Federal authorities alleged that around the same time, Parnas "sought Congressman-1's assistance in causing the U.S. government to remove or recall” the American ambassador to Ukraine at the time, Marie Yovanovitch.

[...]

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Sessions, in his capacity as House Rules Committee chairman, advocated for the ouster of Yovanovitch.

[...]

Previously, Sessions told the Wall Street Journal that his efforts to remove the ambassador were "in line with a broader concern among members of Congress that the administration wasn’t moving swiftly enough to put new ambassadors in place."

Ha. "New ambassadors" - what would be Congress' concern with replacing ambassadors?  And....which members of Congress?

Toward the end of Sessions' toughest — and unsuccessful — campaign for reelection last year, Giuliani headlined a fundraiser on his behalf.

Sessions is now running for Congress in the 17th Congressional District, which is about 90 miles from his former, Dallas-based 32nd District.

I'm gonna guess that's about to go belly up.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:







UPDATE:

Buzzfeed has been on this story since July.