In 1985, Sessions prosecuted three African American community organizers in the Black Belt of Alabama, including Martin Luther King Jr. 's former aide Albert Turner, for voter fraud, alleging tampering with 14 absentee ballots. The prosecution stirred charges of selective prosecution of black voter registration.
"Sessions Has Lawyered Up Too". Political Wire. Archived from the original on August 14, 2017. ^ a b Entous, Adam; Nakashima, Ellen; Miller, Greg (July 21, 2017).
On June 13, 2017, Sessions testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee after canceling testimonies before the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations.
"Attorney General Sessions Issues Memo to U.S. Attorneys on the Use of Capital Punishment in Drug-Related Prosecutions". United States Department of Justice. Archived from the original on March 22, 2018. Retrieved March 23, 2018. ^ Benner, Katie (November 8, 2018).
Pete Sessions is not related to former Senator and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Matthew WhitakerIn office November 7, 2018 – February 14, 2019PresidentDonald TrumpDeputyRod RosensteinPreceded byJeff Sessions22 more rows
75 years (December 24, 1946)Jeff Sessions / Age
5′ 5″Jeff Sessions / Height
K. K. VenugopalThe 15th and current Attorney General is K. K. Venugopal. He was reappointed by President Ram Nath Kovind in 2020. He began his service on 30 June 2017.
Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III (born December 24, 1946) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 84th United States Attorney General from 2017 to 2018.
Jones served as a United States senator from Alabama from 2018 to 2021. A Democrat, he was the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama from 1997 to 2001.
List of U.S. attorneys generalAttorney GeneralYears of serviceMerrick Garland2021-PresentCharles Lee1795-1801William Bradford1794-1795Edmund Jennings Randolph1789-179482 more rows
Richard Shelby (Republican Party)Tommy Tuberville (Republican Party)Alabama/Senators
On March 27, 2017, Sessions told reporters that sanctuary cities failing to comply with policies of the Trump administration would lose federal funding, and cited the shooting of Kathryn Steinle as an example of an illegal immigrant committing a heinous crime.
Trump would later state in an August 22, 2018 interview with Fox News' Ainsley Earhardt that the only reason he nominated Sessions was because Sessions was an original supporter during his presidential campaign. The nomination engendered support and opposition from various groups and individuals. He was introduced by Senator Susan Collins from Maine who said, "He's a decent individual with a strong commitment to the rule of law. He's a leader of integrity. I think the attacks against him are not well founded and are unfair." More than 1,400 law school professors wrote a letter urging the Senate to reject the nomination. A group of black pastors rallied in support of Sessions in advance of his confirmation hearing; his nomination was supported by Gerald A. Reynolds, an African American former chairman of the United States Commission on Civil Rights. Six NAACP activists, including NAACP President Cornell William Brooks, were arrested at a January 2017 sit-in protesting the nomination.
Sessions replied that he was "not aware of any of those activities" and said "I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I didn't have – did not have communications with the Russians, and I'm unable to comment on it."
Sessions's views on drugs and crime have since softened.
In 2013, Sessions sent a letter to National Endowment for the Humanities enquiring why the foundation funded projects that he deemed frivolous. He also criticized the foundation for distributing books related to Islam to hundreds of U.S. libraries, saying "Using taxpayer dollars to fund education program grant questions that are very indefinite or in an effort to seemingly use Federal funds on behalf of just one religion, does not on its face appear to be the appropriate means to establish confidence in the American people that NEH expenditures are wise."
Sessions and his wife Mary have three children and as of March 2020, ten grandchildren. The family attends a United Methodist church. Specifically, Jeff and Mary Sessions are members of the Ashland Place United Methodist Church in Mobile, Alabama; Jeff Sessions has taught Sunday school there.
In a May 2017 letter, Sessions personally asked congressional leaders to repeal the Rohrabacher–Farr amendment so that the Justice Department could prosecute providers of medical marijuana. The Rohrabacher–Farr amendment is a 2014 measure that bars the Justice Department from using federal funds to prevent states "from implementing their own State laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession or cultivation of medical marijuana". Sessions wrote in the letter that "I believe it would be unwise for Congress to restrict the discretion of the Department to fund particular prosecutions, particularly in the midst of an historic drug epidemic and potentially long-term uptick in violent crime." John Hudak of the Brookings Institution criticized the letter, stating that it was a "scare tactic" that "should make everyone openly question whether candidate Trump's rhetoric and the White House's words on his support for medical marijuana was actually a lie to the American public on an issue that garners broad, bipartisan support."