Nov 08, 2018 · President Donald J. Trump announced his intention to nominate Mr. Sessions on November 18, 2016, and he was sworn in as the 84th Attorney General of the United States by Michael R. Pence on February 9, 2017. Sessions and his wife, Mary Blackshear Sessions, originally of Gadsden, Alabama, have three children, Mary Abigail Reinhardt, Ruth ...
Nov 17, 2017 · Today, in an action to further uphold the rule of law in the executive branch, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memo prohibiting the Department of Justice from issuing guidance documents that have the effect of adopting new regulatory requirements or amending the law. The memo prevents the Department of Justice from evading required rulemaking …
Outgoing Attorney General Jeff Sessions touted his team's achievements in a farewell message to Justice Department colleagues Thursday, after ending his tenure as the nation’s top law ...
Nov 07, 2018 · “We are pleased to announce that Matthew G. Whitaker, Chief of Staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the Department of Justice, will become our new Acting Attorney General of the United States.
Nov 08, 2018 · Attorney General Jeff Sessions is introduced during the Justice Department's Executive Officer for Immigration Review (EOIR) Annual Legal Training Program June …
United States Attorney General | |
---|---|
Incumbent Merrick Garland since March 11, 2021 | |
United States Department of Justice | |
Style | Mr. Attorney General (informal) The Honorable (formal) |
Member of | Cabinet National Security Council |
Jeff Sessions, once one of President Trump’s most loyal and trusted advisers before infuriating Trump over his recusal from the Russia investigation, has resigned as attorney general at the request of the president. “At your request, I am submitting my resignation,” Sessions wrote in a Wednesday letter to Trump.
In March 2017, Sessions announced his plans to recuse himself after reports surfaced detailing undisclosed conversations with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the campaign. Sessions has said he was acting in his capacity as a Republican senator from Alabama.
Before he took a job at the Justice Department, Whitaker wrote an op-ed saying Mueller “is dangerously close to crossing” a “red line” in the Russia probe if he looked at Trump or his family’s finances.
Trump won Alabama. Sessions went on to become one of Trump ’s most outspoken and prominent surrogates during the campaign. A number of Sessions’ top staffers – including Rick Dearborn and Stephen Miller – took senior White House roles.
Fox News' John Roberts and Chad Pergram contributed to this report. Alex Pappas is a senior politics editor at FoxNews.com.
Whitaker in a statement called Sessions as a dedicated public servant and said he is committed to leading the Justice Department with the "highest ethical standards.". "It is a true honor that the President has confidence in my ability to lead the Department of Justice as Acting Attorney General. I am committed to leading a fair Department with ...
15, 2017. Rep. Jerry Nadler , the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, also called for accountability.
Rosenstein soon appointed Special Counsel Robert Mueller to oversee the Russia probe, angering the president. Win McNamee/Getty Images.
The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United Stateson all legal matters. The attorney general is a statutory member of the Cabinet of the United States.
The title "attorney general" is an example of a noun (attorney) followed by a postpositive adjective(general).[8]". General" is a description of the type of attorney, not a title or rank in itself (as it would be in the military).[8]
The Department of Justice has two distinct areas of power over immigration: prosecuting immigration violations and administering the immigration courts. It has considerable authority over the enforcement of immigration laws, such as illegal reentry into the U.S. and immigration fraud. For instance, under Obama, the DOJ worked with the Department of Homeland Security on a program called Operation Streamline which prosecuted immigrants caught illegally crossing the border, which carries stricter consequences than if those caught at the border had just been returned to the other side. This program, widely hated by immigration activists, was scaled back in recent years.
The enforcement of antitrust laws is increasingly garnering attention in Washington, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressing concern about concentration in different industries. The power to police such anti-competitive behavior falls to the antitrust division of the Department of Justice. Antitrust enforcement has recently become a higher priority for the Obama administration but whether it will continue under the Trump administration is unclear.
The Civil Rights Division is also responsible for enforcing the Voter Rights Act and other laws that protect the right to vote. The federal government’s power over voting rights was significantly curtailed by the 2013 Supreme Court decision that eliminated the requirement that certain states receive preclearance from the federal government to make changes to their voting laws. Since that ruling, many states have made major changes to their voting laws, instituting voter ID requirements and changing early voting rules, among other changes. The Justice Department has challenged many of these reforms in court.
Exceptions for what can be charged will only be allowed with approval from a U.S. attorney, an assistant U.S. attorney general or a designated supervisor. This takes away the discretion from prosecutors to charge a lesser offense but leaves some level of flexibility in place.
The changes will likely increase the number of people charged as well as the size of the federal prison population.
Former Attorney General Holder called the move "unwise and ill-informed" in a statement, adding that the policy is "is not tough on crime. It is dumb on crime."
Attorney General Jeff Sessions (left) speaks while Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein listens during a summit at the Justice Department on Feb. 2 in Washington, D.C., to discuss efforts to combat human trafficking.
Those policy initiatives have advanced despite an increasingly turbulent relationship among the president, Sessions and the institution he leads. Trump disavowed his attorney general over his recusal last year in the Russia investigation, and he has repeatedly attacked the Justice Department and the FBI as inept or politically motivated.