Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III was born on December 24,1946 and is an American politician and attorney who served as the 84th United States attorney general from 2017 to 2018.
153 Facts About Jeff Sessions
2.
From 1981 to 1993, Sessions served as the US Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama.
3.
Jeff Sessions was an early supporter of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign; he was nominated by Trump for the post of US attorney general.
4.
Jeff Sessions was confirmed and sworn in as attorney general in February 2017.
5.
However, in March 2017, news reports revealed that Jeff Sessions had twice met with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak in 2016.
6.
Jeff Sessions later recused himself from any investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.
7.
Jeff Sessions played a key role in the implementation of the Trump administration family separation policy.
8.
Jeff Sessions supported Department of Justice prosecutions of medical marijuana providers.
9.
On November 7,2018, Jeff 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.
10.
Jeff Sessions ran in the 2020 Senate election in Alabama to reclaim his old seat, but lost in the Republican primary to Tommy Tuberville, who was supported by President Trump.
11.
Jeff Sessions's father owned a general store in Hybart, Alabama, and later owned a farm equipment dealership.
12.
In 1964, Jeff Sessions became an Eagle Scout, and later, he earned the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award for his many years of service.
13.
Jeff Sessions was active in the Young Republicans and was student body president.
14.
Jeff Sessions attended the University of Alabama School of Law and graduated with a Juris Doctor in 1973.
15.
Jeff Sessions entered the private practice of law in Russellville and later in Mobile.
16.
Jeff Sessions served in the Army Reserve in the 1970s with the rank of captain.
17.
Jeff Sessions was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Office of the US Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama beginning in 1975.
18.
In 1993, Jeff Sessions resigned his post after Democrat Bill Clinton was elected President of the United States.
19.
Jeff Sessions's office filed civil rights charges in the 1981 killing of Michael Donald, a young African American man who was murdered in Mobile, Alabama, by a pair of Ku Klux Klan members.
20.
Jeff Sessions' office did not prosecute the case, but both men were arrested and convicted.
21.
In 1985, Jeff Sessions prosecuted three African American community organizers in the Black Belt of Alabama, including Martin Luther King Jr.
22.
Historian Wayne Flynt told The Washington Post he regarded concerns about tactics employed in the 1984 election and by Turner in particular as legitimate, but noted Jeff Sessions had no history of advocating for black voter rights before 1984.
23.
In 1986, Reagan nominated Jeff Sessions to be a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama.
24.
Jeff Sessions's nomination was opposed by the NAACP, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and People for the American Way.
25.
Jeff Sessions said he did not recall making that remark and he did not believe it.
26.
Thomas Figures, a black assistant US attorney, testified that Jeff Sessions said he thought the Ku Klux Klan was "OK until I found out they smoked pot".
27.
Jeff Sessions later said that the comment was not serious, but did apologize for it, saying that he considered the Klan to be "a force for hatred and bigotry".
28.
Figures said that Jeff Sessions had called him "boy", which Jeff Sessions denied.
29.
Figures testified that two assistant prosecutors had heard Jeff Sessions, including current federal judge Ginny Granade.
30.
Jeff Sessions denied this, saying that he recused himself from the case.
31.
Hebert, Kowalski and Daniel Bell, deputy chief of the criminal section in the Civil Rights Division, testified that they considered Jeff Sessions to have been more welcoming to the work of the Civil Rights Division than many other Southern US attorneys at the time.
32.
The pivotal votes against Jeff Sessions came from his home state's Democratic senator Howell Heflin of Alabama.
33.
Jeff Sessions became only the second nominee to the federal judiciary in 48 years whose nomination was killed by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
34.
Jeff Sessions was quoted then as saying that the Senate on occasion had been insensitive to the rights and reputation of nominees.
35.
When Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania left the GOP to join the Democratic Party on April 28,2009, Jeff Sessions was selected to be the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
36.
Jeff Sessions succeeded Howell Heflin, who had retired after 18 years in the Senate, making his victory a Republican pickup in the Senate.
37.
Jeff Sessions blamed violent video games, movies and music, especially that of Marilyn Manson, and parts of culture for the actions of the two shooters.
38.
In 2002, Jeff Sessions won reelection by defeating Democratic state auditor Susan Parker.
39.
In 2008, Jeff Sessions defeated Democratic state senator Vivian Davis Figures to win a third term.
40.
Jeff Sessions received 63 percent of the vote to Figures's 37 percent.
41.
In 2014, Jeff Sessions was uncontested in the Republican primary and was only opposed in the general election by write-in Democratic candidate Victor Sanchez Williams.
42.
Jeff Sessions was only the second freshman Republican senator from Alabama since Reconstruction and gave Alabama two Republican senators, a first since Reconstruction.
43.
Jeff Sessions was the ranking Republican member on the Senate Budget Committee, a former ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and a senior member of the Armed Services Committee.
44.
Jeff Sessions served on the Environment and Public Works Committee.
45.
Jeff 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.
46.
Jeff Sessions was on the short list to become Trump's running mate and was widely seen as a potential Cabinet secretary in a Trump administration.
47.
Jeff Sessions donned a "Make America Great Again" cap at a Trump rally in August 2015, and Stephen Miller, Jeff Sessions's long-time communications director, joined the Trump campaign.
48.
On February 28,2016, Jeff Sessions officially endorsed Donald Trump for president.
49.
Jeff Sessions's and Rudy Giuliani's appearance was a staple at Trump campaign rallies.
50.
President-elect Trump announced on November 18,2016, that he would nominate Jeff Sessions to be Attorney General of the United States.
51.
Trump would later state in an August 22,2018, interview with Fox News' Ainsley Earhardt that the only reason he nominated Jeff Sessions was because Jeff Sessions was an original supporter during his presidential campaign.
52.
On February 8,2017, Jeff Sessions was confirmed as attorney general by a vote of 52 to 47.
53.
On March 10,2017, Jeff Sessions oversaw the firing of 46 United States attorneys.
54.
Jeff Sessions's acting deputy, Dana Boente, and Deputy Attorney General nominee Rod Rosenstein remained in place after Trump declined their resignations.
55.
Jeff Sessions imposed a hiring freeze on most of the United States Department of Justice Criminal Division and US attorneys' offices, and placed a total hiring freeze on the Department's Fraud Section.
56.
On May 9,2017, Jeff Sessions delivered a memo to the president recommending that Trump fire FBI director James Comey, attaching a memo by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein which called the Director's behavior indefensible.
57.
In March 2017, Jeff Sessions had recused himself from investigations into Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election.
58.
On June 5,2017, Jeff Sessions issued a memo preventing the Justice Department's future lawsuit settlements from including funding for third parties.
59.
On December 21,2017, Jeff Sessions rescinded 200 pages of guidance documents.
60.
Jeff Sessions's recessions were criticized by the United States Commission on Civil Rights and prompted a lawsuit by the City Attorney of San Francisco.
61.
In 2018, Jeff Sessions shuttered the Justice Department's Office for Access to Justice, which had focused on legal aid.
62.
On November 7,2018, Jeff Sessions resigned at President Trump's behest.
63.
On March 1,2017, reports surfaced that Jeff Sessions had contact with Russian government officials during the 2016 US presidential election, even though during his confirmation hearings he denied he had any discussions with representatives of the Russian government.
64.
News reports revealed that Jeff Sessions had spoken twice with Russia's ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak.
65.
Several Democratic members of Congress called on Jeff Sessions to resign his post as United States Attorney General.
66.
Representatives Nancy Pelosi and Elijah Cummings and Senator Al Franken accused Jeff Sessions of having lied under oath at his confirmation hearing.
67.
In May 2017 the Justice Department reported that Jeff Sessions had failed to disclose meetings with Russian officials during the presidential campaign in 2016, when he applied for his security clearance.
68.
Jeff Sessions's staff had been advised by the FBI that meetings with foreign dignitaries and their staff connected with his Senate activities did not need to be disclosed.
69.
On June 13,2017, Jeff Sessions testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee after canceling testimonies before the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations.
70.
Jeff Sessions rejected reports he had met with Russian Ambassador Kislyak during Trump's April 2016 speech at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC, testifying that he did not remember any "brief interaction" he may have had with the ambassador.
71.
In July 2017, The Washington Post reported that Kislyak, in communications intercepted by US intelligence, had told his superiors in Moscow that his conversations with Jeff Sessions had concerned Trump's campaign as well as "Trump's positions on Russia-related issues".
72.
Previously, after initially denying having met with Kisylak at all, Jeff Sessions had repeatedly asserted that in his meetings with the Russian ambassador he never discussed the campaign and only met with him in his capacity as a US senator.
73.
The Department of Justice responded by saying that Jeff Sessions stood by his testimony that he "never met with or had any conversations with any Russians or any foreign officials concerning any type of interference with any campaign or election".
74.
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 Jeff Sessions rejected the proposed meeting, according to information provided to CNN by a person in attendance.
75.
On March 16,2018, Jeff Sessions fired McCabe hours before the deputy director would have qualified for a government pension, citing McCabe's lack of candor to the Department's Inspector General.
76.
The idea that Jeff Sessions might have to recuse himself from the Russia investigation was raised almost as soon as he took office.
77.
On March 2,2017, Jeff 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.
78.
Jeff Sessions had been advised to do so by career Justice Department personnel, citing concerns about impartiality given his prominent role in the Trump election campaign.
79.
Jeff Sessions said during a televised interview that the recusal was not an admission of any wrongdoing.
80.
On June 8,2017, James Comey, who had been dismissed as FBI director a month earlier, testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee that he had expected Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from the Russia investigation two weeks before he did so, for classified reasons that made Jeff Sessions's continued engagement in the investigation "problematic".
81.
Jeff Sessions wanted to talk about implementing Trump's proposed travel ban, but instead Trump berated him for recusing himself and asked him to reverse his recusal.
82.
In May 2017, Jeff Sessions offered to resign after receiving criticism from Trump, but Trump did not accept the resignation.
83.
Jeff Sessions told associates he did not intend to resign, but on November 7,2018, he submitted a letter of resignation to Chief of Staff John Kelly at President Trump's request.
84.
On May 12,2017, Jeff Sessions ordered federal prosecutors to begin seeking the greatest criminal charges possible in drug cases.
85.
On July 19,2017, Jeff Sessions signed an order reviving federally adopted civil asset forfeiture, which allows local law enforcement to bypass state limitations on seizing the property of those suspected but not charged of crimes.
86.
In September 2017, the Justice Department under Jeff Sessions stated that it would no longer investigate police departments and publicize their shortcomings in reports, a policy previously enacted under the Obama administration.
87.
On December 22,2017, Jeff Sessions rescinded guidelines intended to warn local courts against imposing excessive fines and fees on poor defendants.
88.
Jeff Sessions has brought prominence to prosecutions of the MS-13 gang.
89.
In February 2018, Jeff Sessions sent a public letter to Senator Chuck Grassley opposing the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman's bipartisan Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act bill.
90.
Jeff Sessions opposed White House senior advisor Jared Kushner's support for the reforms until Kushner reportedly agreed to focus instead on improving prison conditions.
91.
On March 20,2018, Jeff Sessions signed a memo instructing federal prosecutors to seek capital punishment on major drug dealers.
92.
In November 2018, just before Jeff Sessions was fired by Trump, Jeff Sessions ordered for consent decrees to be severely restricted.
93.
In June 2020, Jeff Sessions asserted that former president Barack Obama had coddled criminals while disrespecting law enforcement.
94.
On March 27,2017, Jeff 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.
95.
On March 6,2018, Jeff Sessions sued the state of California in federal district court, alleging that the state's laws regarding prisoner release, workplace inspection, and detention site inspection are preempted by the federal government's immigration policy.
96.
Jeff Sessions played an important role in implementing the Trump administration family separation policy wherein undocumented immigrants were separated from their children.
97.
Bible scholar and professor Matthew Schlimm said that history was being repeated as Jeff Sessions had taken the quote "completely out of context" just as slave traders and Nazis had misused the Bible in the past.
98.
Jeff Sessions sought to distance himself from the family separation policy, letting others in the administration take the blame.
99.
On June 11,2018, Jeff Sessions reversed a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals granting a battered woman asylum and announced that victims of domestic abuse or gang violence will no longer qualify for asylum in the United States.
100.
On January 4,2018, Jeff Sessions rescinded the Cole Memorandum, which had prevented federal prosecutors from bringing charges against state legalized marijuana use.
101.
Jeff Sessions called the fatal vehicle-ramming attack at the August 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia an act of domestic terrorism, and began a civil rights investigation into the attack to determine if it will be tried in court as a hate crime.
102.
On November 7,2018, Jeff Sessions resigned as attorney general at the president's request.
103.
In October 2019, Jeff Sessions began exploring a potential candidacy for his old Senate seat in the 2020 election.
104.
Jeff Sessions faced the former head football coach at Auburn University, Tommy Tuberville.
105.
Jeff Sessions lost the Alabama Senate Primary to Tommy Tuberville on July 14,2020.
106.
Jeff Sessions was an opponent of legal and illegal immigration during his time in Congress.
107.
Jeff Sessions opposed the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 and the bi-partisan Gang of Eight's Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013.
108.
Jeff Sessions 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.
109.
In 2013, Jeff Sessions said an opt-out provision in immigration legislation before Congress would allow Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to avoid building a border fence.
110.
Jeff Sessions's Senate website expressed his view that there is a "clear nexus between immigration and terrorism" and that "Plainly, there is no way to vet these refugees" who would immigrate to the US from Syria in 2016 or who came to the US after September 11,2001, and were alleged to be involved in terrorism.
111.
Jeff Sessions supported establishing safe zones as an alternative to immigration from war-torn countries.
112.
In 2005, Jeff Sessions spoke at a rally in Washington, DC in favor of the War in Iraq organized in opposition to an anti-war protest held the day before.
113.
Jeff Sessions opposed the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, the 2011 military intervention in Libya, and arming the Syrian rebels.
114.
Jeff Sessions's legislation was accepted in the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2005.
115.
In June 2014, Jeff Sessions was one of three senators to vote against additional funding for the VA medical system.
116.
Jeff Sessions opposed the bill due to cost concerns and indicated that Congress should instead focus on "reforms and solutions that improve the quality of service and the effectiveness that is delivered".
117.
In September 2016, in advance of a UN Security Council resolution 2334 condemning Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, Jeff Sessions signed an AIPAC-sponsored letter urging President Barack Obama to veto "one-sided" resolutions against Israel.
118.
In 1996, Jeff Sessions promoted state legislation in Alabama that sought to punish a second drug trafficking conviction, including for dealing marijuana, with a mandatory minimum death sentence.
119.
Jeff Sessions supported the reduction of the sentencing disparity between crack cocaine and powdered cocaine, ultimately passed into law with the Fair Sentencing Act 2010.
120.
On October 5,2005, Jeff Sessions was one of nine senators who voted against a Senate amendment to a House bill that prohibited cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment or punishment of individuals in the custody or under the physical control of the United States Government.
121.
In November 2010, Jeff Sessions was a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee when the committee voted unanimously in favor of the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, and sent the bill to the full Senate for consideration.
122.
In October 2015, Jeff Sessions opposed Chairman Chuck Grassley's Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act, a bipartisan bill which sought to reduce mandatory minimum sentences for some nonviolent crimes.
123.
Jeff Sessions has been a strong supporter of civil forfeiture, the government practice of seizing property when it has allegedly been involved in a crime.
124.
From March 2018 until the end of his service as attorney general, Jeff Sessions sat on the Federal Commission on School Safety.
125.
Jeff Sessions voted for the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts, and said he would vote to make them permanent if given the chance.
126.
Jeff Sessions is a signer of Americans for Tax Reform's Taxpayer Protection Pledge.
127.
Jeff Sessions was one of 25 senators to vote against the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, arguing that it "undermines our heritage of law and order, and is an affront to the principle of separation of powers".
128.
Jeff Sessions opposed the $837billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, calling it "the largest spending bill in the history of the republic".
129.
In 2013, Jeff Sessions sent a letter to National Endowment for the Humanities enquiring why the foundation funded projects that he deemed frivolous.
130.
Jeff Sessions "believes that a marriage is union between a man and a woman, and has routinely criticized the US Supreme Court and activist lower courts when they try to judicially redefine marriage".
131.
Jeff Sessions voted in favor of advancing the Federal Marriage Amendment in 2004 and 2006, a US constitutional amendment which would have permanently restricted federal recognition of marriages to those between a man and a woman.
132.
Jeff Sessions voted against the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010.
133.
Jeff Sessions is against legalizing marijuana for either recreational or medicinal use.
134.
Jeff Sessions was "heartbroken" and found "it beyond comprehension" when President Obama said that cannabis is not as dangerous as alcohol.
135.
Jeff Sessions was one of 34 senators to vote against the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007, which was vetoed by President Bush and would have provided funding for human embryonic stem cell research.
136.
Jeff Sessions opposed President Barack Obama's health reform legislation; he voted against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in December 2009, and he voted against the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.
137.
Jeff Sessions has voted in favor of legislation that would bar the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases.
138.
Jeff Sessions has voted to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.
139.
Jeff Sessions rejected criticisms of successful circuit court nominee Dennis Shedd's record, saying he "should have been commended for the rulings he has made".
140.
In 2003, Sessions viewed criticisms of Alabama Attorney General William H Pryor Jr.
141.
On July 28,2009, Jeff Sessions joined five Republican colleagues in voting against Sotomayor's nomination in the Judiciary Committee.
142.
Jeff Sessions was one of 31 senators to do so, while 68 voted to confirm the nominee.
143.
Jeff Sessions served as the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee during the nomination process for Elena Kagan, President Obama's nominee to succeed retired Justice John Paul Stevens.
144.
Jeff Sessions based his opposition on the nominee's lack of experience, her background as a political operative, and her record on guns, abortion, and gay rights.
145.
Jeff Sessions pointed out that Kagan "has a very thin record legally, never tried a case, never argued before a jury, only had her first appearance in the appellate courts a year ago".
146.
Jeff Sessions focused the majority of his criticism on Kagan's treatment of the military while she was dean of Harvard Law School.
147.
Jeff Sessions asserted that Kagan's action was a violation of the Solomon Amendment and that it amounted to "demeaning and punishing the military".
148.
Jeff Sessions argued that her action showed a willingness to place her politics above the law, and questioned "whether she had the intellectual honesty, the clarity of mind, that you would expect on the Supreme Court".
149.
Jeff Sessions voted against Kagan in the full Senate vote, joining 36 other senators in opposition.
150.
In March 2016, following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia and President Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to the US Supreme Court, Jeff Sessions said the Senate "should not confirm a new Supreme Court justice until a new president is elected".
151.
In 1999, Jeff Sessions cosponsored the bill to award Rosa Parks the Congressional Gold Medal.
152.
On December 11,2013, Jeff Sessions cosponsored the Victims of Child Abuse Act Reauthorization Act of 2013, a bill that would reauthorize the Victims of Child Abuse Act of 1990 and would authorize funding through 2018 to help child abuse victims.
153.
Specifically, Jeff and Mary Sessions are members of the Ashland Place United Methodist Church in Mobile; Jeff Sessions has taught Sunday school there.