As things started to heat up in the 2016 primary season....it was painfully obvious for the 1 March 2016 primary in Alabama....that Trump would win (there was NOT a single county in the state where anyone other than Trump led). So a couple of weeks prior....Senator Jeff Sessions came out and did an endorsement of Trump.
You can argue that Sessions really didn't need to do this. He could have just kept quiet. But this was an overwhelming vote for Trump anticipated, and Sessions needed to be in the 'wave'. He'd won in 2014 and had four years on his Senate job.
Right around this March period (the 22nd)....Governor Bentley went and Spencer Collier (the state Law Enforcement Agency 'boss'. Chief reason, accusation of illegal spending of state funds. I should state for the record, a complete audit was done after this firing....showing zero funds illegally spent.
Shortly after this firing (having nothing to do with the Sessions episode)....Collier came out and accused Bentley of an affair. I should state for the record....Bentley was in his early 70s. The player in this accusation? Bentley's senior political adviser.....Rebekah Caldwell Mason.
About a week into this episode (front-page news in Alabama)....Mason resigned from her office. Just prior to the resignation....an audio recording became public....with a lot of chatter between Mason and the Governor.
Around the first week of April, an effort was mounted by Ed Henry (Rep from the state) to impeach Bentley.
So this odd thing comes up. While the state constitution allows for impeachment....the House itself does not have this process written down. In simple terms, no one knew how to impeach. So they spent a fair amount of time talking over this, and writing a process.
November arrives, and the big shocker (even for Senator Sesions)....Trump wins.
Very quickly, a list is developed for Trump and oddly enough....Sessions is listed for the Attorney General position.
To be honest about Sessions....he's not a pure Republican. Like Shelby (the 2nd Senator)....Sessions is mostly a pretender-Republican.
All the way to this pick, if you'd asked Sessions if he'd ever met a Russian in his entire life....he'd likely answer no. I doubt if he could even count off one hand....the number of Mexicans he'd met in his life.
In January, Sessions walks into DC, and ends up as Attorney General....meaning his Senate seat is empty.
Governor Bentley? Still around, and yet to be impeached (figure eight months now of chatter).
The Alabama Attorney General during this whole affair business (since 2011)? Luther Strange, Republican.
The investigation led by Strange? It can be said that it was done at a snail's speed. Strange is oddly enough selected by Governor Bentley to be the replacement for Jeff Sessions.....taking the seat in early Feb of 2017.
Sessions ends up being asked routine questions for his clearance, and now proclaims he met a Russian a while back. There's almost no details to this, but it just stands out and is kinda admired as 'odd' by most Alabama folks.
So when RussiaGate starts up....Sessions can't preside over this, and he has to go and appoint a Special Counsel. Choice? Robert Mueller (mid-May 2017).
For about a year, Mueller's team is drilling down into what will be a simple case of getting Trump into a room....getting a statement out of him, and then accusing him of a false statement.
But this odd thing comes up around early 2018, with Deputy AG Rosenstein. It comes out that he was almost ready at one point in 2017....to wear a wire into the White House (face-to-face meeting with Trump). This was an effort to get Trump to say something....to be used to take him down.
Once this gets out....Rosenstein now has a problem. Just suggesting he might do this....makes him into a potential criminal. All the way to this point....Rosenstein used almost no real control over Mueller and his team. Things now change.
Within a month of this issue....Rosenstein has given strong directions to the Mueller team....the case needs to end. Trump's cooperation? Mueller's team is given only the chance of asking written questions, and getting written answers in return.
The whole value of Sessions picking Mueller, and this getting rid of Trump? Zero'ed out. Along November of 2018, Sessions is fired by Trump.
Bentley in this landscape? Just as charges finally get handed to the House of Alabama (mid-April 2017)....he resigns.
Strange at this point? Feeling safe in his new job? Well....come spring of 2017....the new governor (Ivey) has decided this was all a 'deal' made and routes the situation to a temp deal for Strange. New election to come.
Strange is pitted against Roy Moore in the primary. Strange by this point? His 'deal' has added a burden to his campaign.....he can't win. Maybe Ivey (the governor) knew this.
Moore as the Republican in the December 2017 special election, again Jones (the Democrat)? Moore is seen as a nutcase, and loses (only a 20-thousand vote difference though).
Somewhere in this whole two-year saga is a 700-page book waiting to be written, with serious politics, fake Republicans, an Alabamian who seems to have met one single Russian in his life, red-hot sex between a 70-year old Governor and some political handler, and some dimwit who thought he could wear a wire into a meeting at the White House.
Oh, and the plea deal for Bentley? He basically has to accept the lifetime ban on political office....with strictly a misdemeanor situation. As for this Mason gal and the Governor? In mid-summer 2018....she was employed in some way for Bentley's medical practice. In Alabamian terms.....they still hang out.
Oh, and one added note for Mueller. By the time he wrapped up his two-investigation and gave a 'talk' at the Senate....it was obvious that he was starting to show serious dementia problems. Just a humble opinion, but I'd say he was two years into the health decline. I doubt that Rosenstein or Sessions knew this when they introduced him into the mess....but the twenty-odd people working for him....had to grasp that he was in a failing state of mind.
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