U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton continues to see no harm in Trump administration pussyfooting with Russia. Latest is his defense of Attorney General Jeff Sessions:

“Anyone who knows Jeff Sessions as I do can vouch for his integrity and honesty. There’s no scandal in a senator meeting an ambassador, which happens all the time. I’m disappointed the Democrats are distorting the facts to impugn Attorney General Sessions’s character. The Senate Intelligence Committee’s review is proceeding, and we should follow the facts where they lead.”

These are facts:

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At his Jan. 10 Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, Sessions was asked by Sen. Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, what he would do if he learned of any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of the 2016 campaign.

“I’m not aware of any of those activities,” he responded. He added: “I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians.”

We now know Sessions sworn testimony to Congress — “I did not have communications with the Russians” — is at variance with the facts.

Justice Department officials told the Post that Sessions, in fact, spoke twice with Kislyak, including, the Post reported, “at the height of what U.S. intelligence officials say was a Russian cyber campaign to upend the U.S. presidential race.”

It’s not the first time one could call Session’s integrity into question. His defense of voter discrimination legislation is one place to begin. There was his prosecution of black people who tried to vote in Alabama. There was the misrepresentation of his involvement in a Klan persecution case.  There’s his broad opposition to equal rights, whether for racial minorities or LGBT peop.e

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All this makes Sessions solid gold for Tom Cotton, who’s not yet expressed any real concern about Russian involvement in Trump’s election or Sessions’ ability to be a fair arbiter of ties between people in Russia he’s chummy with and the president, also a Russian admirer. This is justice? Not with a big or small j.

Remember when Russia was an enemy of the U.S. and the Republicans led the charge?

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