Republicans in Congress Are Mad We Pointed Out Jeff Sessions’ Lies

“This committee doesn’t need Mother Jones.”

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) condemned a Democratic colleague’s submission of a Mother Jones article into the record of Jeff Sessions’ appearance before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. The article, titled “3 Times Jeff Sessions Made False Statements to Congress Under Oath,” detailed the attorney general’s shifting narratives when testifying before Congress about the Trump campaign’s communications with Russian officials.

“We even had somebody offer into the record that Mother Jones basically said you lied,” Gohmert said. “And I would submit this committee doesn’t need Mother Jones to inaccurately describe or depict or tell us what happened when we can look at the conversation and see ourselves.”

Gohmert’s disparaging remarks came hours after Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Illinois) introduced the article, citing the need to remind the attorney general that he was testifying under oath.

Gohmert ended his questions by referring to a chart he brought along to help illustrate the details of Uranium One—a Hillary Clinton-linked conspiracy theory currently being pushed by President Donald Trump and other conservatives to discredit Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“We got a chart here that shows just how integral the relationship is with Mr. Rosenstein, Mr. Mueller, into this whole Uranium One thing,” Gohmert said. “It sure stinks to high heaven and it doesn’t appear to me that they should be involved in investigating.”

Editor’s Note: If you’d like to receive and support the type of reporting that Rep. Gohmert took issue with, you can subscribe to our award-winning magazine or give a gift subscription for just $10.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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