Senator Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, is President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. attorney general. (Photo by Diego M. Radzinschi/THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL)
President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, an early supporter of Trump and one of his close advisors, as his nominee for U.S. attorney general.
Sessions brings the “law and order” background that Trump touted as part of his platform during the campaign, as well as the baggage of a judicial nomination that failed amid accusations of racism. Before he was elected to the Senate in 1997, Sessions served as U.S. attorney and attorney general in Alabama.
Trump said in a statement that Sessions “is a world-class legal mind and considered a truly great Attorney General and U.S. Attorney in the state of Alabama. Jeff is greatly admired by legal scholars and virtually everyone who knows him.”
Sessions said that he was “humbled” to be Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Department of Justice.
“I love the Department, its people and its mission. I can think of no greater honor than to lead them,” Sessions said. “With the support of my Senate colleagues, I will give all my strength to advance the Department’s highest ideals. I enthusiastically embrace President-elect Trump’s vision for ‘one America,’ and his commitment to equal justice under law.”
Sessions’ nomination will go before a Republican-controlled Senate next year. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a statement that Sessions’ background as a former U.S. attorney would “serve him very well in this position” and that he was “confident” the nomination would be voted out of committee.
The pick was heralded by several of Sessions’ colleagues in the Senate and decried by civil rights groups, who have been critical of his record on civil rights and his hardline stance on immigration. In a tweet on Friday morning, Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, wrote, “Unacceptable,” in response to reports that Sessions had been tapped.
In an interview, Ifill said that there was nothing in Sessions’ record “that suggests he is prepared to lead the nation and to lead our federal government in the protection of civil rights of minorities.” She pointed to his opposition to the nominations of justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, his vote against the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, and his opposition to the ultimately successful nomination of U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland, a former civil rights lawyer and public defender.
Sessions was nominated to be a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama in 1986, but that nomination floundered after lawyers who had worked with Sessions at the Justice Department testified that he had made racist statements, including reportedly agreeing with the sentiment that a white civil rights lawyer was a disgrace to his race and saying that the NAACP and American Civil Liberties Union were un-American.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, praised Trump’s pick of Sessions for attorney general, saying in a statement that “Sen. Sessions’ solid understanding of the Constitution and firm commitment to the rule of law is exactly what the Justice Department needs.”
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said in a statement that Sessions “will restore honor to a Department that, under President Obama, perpetually pushed a political agenda while neglecting to enforce the law.”
The “landing team” for the Justice Department transition is expected to be announced later on Friday. Requests for comment to the transition team and Sen. Sessions’ office were not immediately returned.
Trump put out a statement on Thursday that signaled his interest in Sessions for a cabinet-level position, if not attorney general. The statement said that Trump was “unbelievably impressed with Senator Sessions and his phenomenal record as Alabama’s Attorney General and U.S. Attorney. It is no wonder the people of Alabama re-elected him without opposition.”
Sessions earned his law degree in 1973 from the University of Alabama School of Law. He spent his early career in private practice before moving to the U.S. attorney’s office as a line prosecutor. In 1981, he became the U.S. attorney.
In 1995, he was elected attorney general, serving for two years before running successfully for the Senate.
As an advisor to Trump during the presidential campaign, Sessions was involved in helping the candidate draft his list of potential U.S. Supreme Court nominees, a list that Trump’s camp has said he will rely on once he takes office.
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