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AG Nominee Jeff Sessions Conveniently Omits Racist History From Confirmation Questionnaire

Alabama Senator Provides “Shockingly Deficient” Report Ahead Of January Hearing

Alabama GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions, President-elect’s Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, was rejected for a federal judgeship in 1986 due to his history of racist remarks, which include calling a black attorney “boy,” joking that his only issue with the Ku Klux Klan was their drug use, and referring to civil rights groups as “un-American.” 

However, Sessions omitted records from that period on a Senate Judiciary Questionnaire he filled out for his nomination as attorney general, according to a report released Friday by three progressive groups. 

In the report, the groups note that the Senate Judiciary Questionnaire requires nominees “to provide complete documentation of employment history, major cases litigated, published writings, media interviews, speeches, awards, finances, political activities and memberships.”

But they called Sessions’ questionnaire “shockingly incomplete” and “astonishingly deficient.” For example, Sessions has produced only “very scant records” from his first two decades in government and law enforcement, which included stints as a federal prosecutor and attorney general of Alabama, in addition to his first term in the Senate.

Among other things, as Alabama AG, Sessions fought to prevent an LGBT group from holding a conference on a public college campus in 1996. 

The Huffington Post notes that Sessions, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has attacked some of President Barack Obama’s nominees for not thoroughly responding to the same questionnaire, even threatening them with criminal charges. 

 

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