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. [135] When told that a special counsel had been appointed, the president slumped back in his chair and said, "Oh my God. [207] During the primary, Alabama's senior senator Richard Shelby asked Trump to stay out of the race. 1973-1986: U.S. Army Reserve, attained the rank of captain 7. In 1996, Sessions won the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, after a runoff, and then defeated Democrat Roger Bedford 53%–46% in the November general election. [7], After attending Wilcox County High School in nearby Camden,[8] Sessions studied at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1969. ", "Read the letter Coretta Scott King wrote opposing Sessions's 1986 federal nomination", "Senate Panel Hands Reagan First Defeat On Nominee for Judgeship", Supreme Court pick Sotomayor under fire for comments, ""New Gang of 14" : Applying "Lets Get This Done" to Appointments", "How Jeff Sessions Helped Kill Equitable School Funding in Alabama", "From courtrooms to Capitol Hill: The evolution of Jeff Sessions", "Jeff Sessions' Other Civil Rights Problem", "Gay Lesbian, Bisexual Alliance v. Sessions", "Gay Lesbian Bisexual Alliance v. Sessions, 917 F. Supp. "[150] Trump demanded that Sessions investigate Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and various employees of the FBI and Justice Department. [126], In March 2016, one of Trump's foreign policy advisors named George Papadopoulos suggested that he could use personal connections to arrange a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Sessions rejected the proposed meeting, according to information provided to CNN by a person in attendance. He was confirmed and sworn in as Attorney General in February 2017. [246] The bill also increased the level of coverage under the Servicemen's Group Life Insurance from $250,000 to $400,000. [161] Sessions opposed White House senior advisor Jared Kushner's support for the reforms until Kushner reportedly agreed to focus instead on improving prison conditions. [255] The proposed law would allow the Attorney General to ask a court to issue a restraining order on Internet domain names that host copyright-infringing material. [244] As Attorney General, he reportedly advised President Trump against increasing the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. [158], On December 22, 2017, Sessions rescinded guidelines intended to warn local courts against imposing excessive fines and fees on poor defendants. "[63] More than 1,400 law school professors wrote a letter urging the Senate to reject the nomination. [178] Christian leaders strongly disagreed with the policy, with Cardinal Daniel DiNardo calling it "immoral", Reverend Franklin Graham calling it "disgraceful", and Bishop Kenneth Carter of Session's own church (the United Methodist Church) calling it "unnecessarily cruel". [4] His father owned a general store in Hybart, Alabama, and later owned a farm equipment dealership. Trump issued an executive order revoking the cities' funding, but that order was overturned by a federal court. He also served on the Environment and Public Works Committee. [264], Sessions opposed the $837 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, calling it "the largest spending bill in the history of the republic". [188] Sessions said "You can be sure we will charge and advance the investigation toward the most serious charges that can be brought, because this is an unequivocally unacceptable and evil attack that cannot be accepted in America. [14][15] Sessions's office did not prosecute the case, but both men were arrested and convicted. [301][302], On July 20, 2010, Sessions and five Republican colleagues voted against Kagan's nomination. [37] The pivotal votes against Sessions came from his home state's Democratic senator Howell Heflin of Alabama. Senate. How Senators voted on Iraq and Kosovo", "Which senators voted against funding Syrian rebels against ISIS? On the same day, while at an entry border port in Nogales, Arizona, Sessions insisted the new administration would implement policies against those continuing "to seek improper and illegal entry into this country". I took control of the Department of Justice the day I was sworn in. Granade denied this. These four cases are awfully weak evidence of Sessions' supposed commitment to civil rights. Daarvoor was hij de procureur-generaal van Alabama van 1995 tot 1997. [30] In 1992, Figures was charged with attempting to bribe a witness by offering $50,000 to a convicted drug dealer who was to testify against his client. [149] According to Senator Jeff Flake, "the president has been pushing [Sessions] very openly to go after the president's enemies and lay off his friends," adding "And so far, Jeff Sessions, bless his heart, has resisted and maintained that the judiciary needs to be independent. [159], Sessions has brought prominence to prosecutions of the MS-13 gang. "[28][23][26][27] Figures testified that on one occasion, when the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division sent the office instructions to investigate a case that Sessions had tried to close, Figures and Sessions "had a very spirited discussion regarding how the Hodge case should then be handled; in the course of that argument, Mr. "[193][194] The memo was written to withdraw an earlier DoJ memorandum issued by Eric Holder on December 15, 2014, which aligned the DoJ with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on interpreting Title VII to include gender identity or transgender status as a protected class. Jeff Sessions, the former attorney ... By choosing to run for office now, Mr. Op de vraag of hij Sessions zou ontslaan, antwoordde Trump "de tijd zal het leren". He had the stunned appearance of a hostage emerging out of an underground prison for the first time in months. He said that a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants undermines the rule of law, that the inflow of guest workers and immigrants depresses wages and raises unemployment for United States citizens, and that current immigration policy expands an underclass dependent on the welfare state. [61] 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. Sessions zou later zeggen dat hij een grapje maakte. In een interview noemde de president hem "heel zwak", omdat Sessions geen onderzoek instelde naar het lekken naar de pers en de "misdaden" van Hillary Clinton. During her tenure, Kagan reinstated the practice of requiring military recruiters to coordinate their activities through a campus veterans organization, rather than the school's Office of Career Services. [136], On March 2, 2017, Sessions announced that he would recuse himself from any investigations into Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election, or any other matters related to the 2016 presidential election. Sessions to be an "egalitarian".[40]. [26] Hebert also said that Sessions had called a white civil rights attorney "maybe" a "disgrace to his race". [261], Sessions voted for the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts, and said he would vote to make them permanent if given the chance. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. In 2002, Sessions won reelection by defeating Democratic state auditor Susan Parker. Sessions focused on Sotomayor's views on empathy as a quality for a judge, arguing that "empathy for one party is always prejudice against another". [53], Sessions was an early supporter of the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump, and was a major policy adviser to the Trump campaign, especially in regard to immigration and national security. [206] Sessions faced the former head football coach at Auburn University, Tommy Tuberville. "[186] 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. [47][48][49][50], Sessions was only the second freshman Republican senator from Alabama since Reconstruction and gave Alabama two Republican senators, a first since Reconstruction. On November 7, 2018, Sessions tendered his resignation at Trump's request following months of public and private conflict with President Trump over his recusal from investigations relating to Russian election interference. View the profiles of people named Jeff Sessions. [286] He has voted in favor of legislation that would bar the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases. [214], Sessions lost the Alabama Senate Primary to Tommy Tuberville on July 14, 2020. Sessions said he did not recall making that remark and he did not believe it. Jefferson Beauregard "Jeff" Sessions III (born December 24, 1946) is an American politician. Na zijn schooltijd werd hij advocaat. On February 8, 2017, Sessions was confirmed as Attorney General by a vote of 52 to 47. This is terrible. Sessions was one of 34 Senators to vote against[280] the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007,[281] which was vetoed by President Bush and would have provided funding for human embryonic stem cell research. A Department of Homeland Security official stated, "We are complying with the court's requests ... the plaintiffs will not disembark and will be promptly returned to the United States." Sessions nam zitting in de Senate Judiciary Committee en was een sterke voorstander van de nuclear option, een tactiek die de voorkeur had van de toenmalige meerderheidsleider Bill Frist om een filibuster in een debat over de benoeming van (federale) rechters te voorkomen. "[268], Sessions voted against the Matthew Shepard Act, which added acts of bias-motivated violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity to federal hate-crimes law,[269] commenting that it "has been said to cheapen the civil rights movement". [288] Sessions is a proponent of nuclear power. 1548 (M.D. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), a co-sponsor of the bill, has said Sessions was its top opponent. In her letter, she wrote that "Mr. Jeff Sessions hides emotion poorly—his face is reflexively expressive—and last Wednesday night, it betrayed a mixed set of sentiments as he stepped out of the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in downtown Washington, D.C. [305], Sessions and his wife Mary have three children and as of March 2020, ten grandchildren. ... were arrested in early January after staging a sit-in at Sessions’s Mobile office. Sessions denied this. 1981-1993: United States Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama 5. However the mother was removed from her detention facility and likely put on a plane on August 9, 2018, despite Justice Department promises that she and others would not be deported before the judge could rule on their cases. In August 2018 he said that Sessions should "stop" the Mueller investigation. It has been reported that his letter of resignation had also been submitted on a prior occasion. Sessions admonished me to 'be careful what you say to white folks'." In particular, Sessions was asked about a September 8, 2016, meeting that Sessions had had with Kislyak in Sessions’s Senate office. [241], Sessions opposed the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia,[242] the 2011 military intervention in Libya,[243] and arming the Syrian rebels. It is impossible to describe Donald Trump’s political rise without including the role of Jeff Sessions, the former U.S. senator from Alabama who was … [132] Deputy Director Andrew McCabe then assigned FBI agents to investigate. [182] According to The New Yorker, legal experts estimated that "Sessions had single-handedly dismantled between sixty and seventy per cent of asylum jurisprudence from the previous three decades. [128][129] Furthermore, on the same day, testimony given by Carter Page to the House intelligence committee contradicted Sessions' previous statements by stating that he had told Sessions about plans to visit Russia during the campaign. [211] On May 22, 2020 President Trump tweeted "3 years ago, after Jeff Sessions recused himself, the Fraudulent Mueller Scam began. 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