Here’s a look at the life of Jeff Sessions, US attorney general and former Republican senator of Alabama.
Personal:
Birth date: December 24, 1946
Birth place: Selma, Alabama
Birth name: Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III
Father: Jefferson Beauregard Sessions Jr., business owner
Mother: Abbie (Powe) Sessions
Marriage: Mary Blackshear Sessions (1969-present)
Children: Mary Abigail, Ruth and Samuel
Education: Huntingdon College, B.A., 1969; University of Alabama, J.D., 1973
Military service: US Army Reserve, 1973-1986, Captain
Religion: Methodist
Other Facts:
Is an Eagle Scout.
Serves on the Senate Budget, Judiciary, Armed Services, and Environment and Public Works Committees.
Voted against both of President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominees, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
Supports building fencing along the US border, saying in 2006 that “good fences make good neighbors.”
Timeline:
1973-1975 – Practices law in Alabama.
1975-1977 – Assistant US Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama.
1981-1993 – US Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama.
1986 – President Ronald Reagan nominates Sessions to become a federal judge. The Senate Judiciary Committee opposes the nomination following testimony that Sessions made racist remarks and called the NAACP and ACLU “un-American.”
1995-1997- Alabama Attorney General. During this time, an Alabama judge accuses Sessions of prosecutorial misconduct related to the handling of evidence in a case but ultimately, Sessions is not disciplined for ethics violations.
1996 – Elected to the US Senate. Re-elected in 2002, 2008 and 2014.
1997-February 2017 – Republican senator representing Alabama.
February 2, 2009 – Votes in favor of the confirmation of Eric Holder as attorney general.
April 23, 2015 – Votes against the confirmation of Loretta Lynch as attorney general.
February 28, 2016 – Becomes the first sitting US senator to endorse Donald Trump’s presidential bid.
November 18, 2016 – President-elect Donald Trump announces he intends to nominate Sessions to be the next attorney general.
January 3, 2017 – An NAACP sit-in to protest the nomination of Sessions as US attorney general ends when six people are arrested at Sessions’ Mobile, Alabama, office.
February 8, 2017 – After 30 hours of debate, the US Senate confirms Sessions as attorney general by a 52-47 vote.
March 1, 2017 – The Washington Post reports that Sessions failed to disclose pre-election meetings with the top Russian diplomat in Washington. Sessions did not mention either meeting during his confirmation hearings when he said he knew of no contacts between Trump surrogates and Russians.
March 2, 2017 – Sessions recuses himself from any involvement in a Justice Department probe into links between the Trump campaign and Moscow.
April 3, 2017 – The Justice Department releases a memorandum ordering a review of consent decrees and other police reforms overseen by the federal government in response to complaints of civil rights abuses and public safety issues. During his confirmation hearing, Sessions expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of Justice Department interventions in local police matters.
October 4, 2017 – In a memo to all federal prosecutors, Sessions says that a 1964 federal civil rights law does not protect transgender workers from employment discrimination and the department will take this new position in all “pending and future matters.”
November 14, 2017 – During a House judiciary committee hearing, Sessions says he did not lie under oath in earlier hearings regarding communications with Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign, and denies participating in any collusion with Russia. Sessions also says the Department of Justice will consider investigations into Hillary Clinton and alleged ties between the Clinton Foundation and the sale of Uranium One.