Jefferson Sessions is an American politician and lawyer who now serves as the United States’ 84th Attorney General. He was elected as a Republican Senator from Alabama in 1997 and won three re-elections to serve in the position for the next two decades until quitting to pursue his present position. Throughout his congressional career, which was marred by allegations of racism, he advocated for conservative ideas like as keeping a strong military and law enforcement, as well as clamping down on illegal immigration.
He also voted against a number of Democratic proposals, including the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which fought for equal pay for women, and the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. As Attorney General, he pushed federal prosecutors to pursue the most serious criminal charges feasible, including the death penalty for prominent drug traffickers. He not only threatened sanctuary towns with federal funding cuts if they did not cooperate with federal immigration policy, but he also endorsed President Donald Trump’s widely condemned policy of separating children from their parents at the border. He is one of the government officials suspected of conspiring with Russia during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and he is responsible for the dismissal of FBI Director James Comey, who was in charge of the investigations.
Jefferson Sessions’ Bio, Age
Jefferson Beauregard ‘Jeff’ Sessions III was born in Selma, Alabama on December 24, 1946, to general store owner Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, Jr. and Abbie Powe. He was a highly active Boy Scout who achieved an Eagle Scout in 1964 and won the ‘Distinguished Eagle Scout Award’ after many years of service.
He went to Wilcox County High School in Camden before enrolling in Huntingdon College in Montgomery, where he was a member of the Young Republican National Federation and served as student body president. After receiving a B.A. in 1969, he enrolled in the University of Alabama School of Law, where he obtained a J.D. in 1973.
Career
Jeff Sessions worked as an attorney in Russellville and Mobile in his early career, and he also served in the Army Reserve in the 1970s, rising to the rank of captain. At 1975, he was appointed as an Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama.
In 1981, President Ronald Reagan nominated him to be the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama, a position he held for 12 years. Early on, he was chastised for prosecuting three African-American community organizers for voting fraud but not pursuing two Ku Klux Klan members accused with murdering a black man.
Reagan nominated him to be a U.S. District Court judge for the same area in 1986, but he became just the second candidate in 48 years to be denied by the Senate Judiciary Committee. While he apologized for a statement that seemed to condone the KKK, four Department of Justice attorneys who worked with him said that he often made racially insensitive comments.
He was elected Attorney General of Alabama in November 1994, defeating Democrat Jimmy Evans with a 57 percent vote share. Soon after, he engaged private attorneys to contest a 1993 court ruling that aimed to equalize financing for impoverished community schools, mostly attended by black pupils, and wealthy ones, but the measure was ruled illegal.
In 1996, he won the Republican primary for U.S. Senate and then beat Democrat Roger Bedford in the general election in November. Also that year, he alleged “violation of state law” when the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Alliance filed a lawsuit against Alabama for seeking to withhold financing to student groups advocating homosexuality, although the statute was eventually deemed illegal.
He was re-elected to the Senate in 2002 by beating Democratic State Auditor Susan Parker, a feat he repeated in 2008 by defeating Democratic State Senator Vivian Davis Figures. In 2014, he ran unopposed in the Republican primary, and in the general election, he defeated write-in Democratic opponent Victor Sanchez Williams.
In late February 2016, he became the first senator to openly back Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, and he was on the short list to be Trump’s running mate, but lost to Mike Pence.
On November 18, 2016, President-elect Trump nominated him to be Attorney General of the United States, which was met with swift opposition from several civil and human rights groups owing to his previous records.
His nomination was approved by the Senate on February 8, 2017, despite protests and suspicions of collaboration with Russia during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Following the release of more information about his conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak on two occasions, legislators of both parties asked that he recuse himself from investigations into Russian election meddling.
On March 2, 2017, he announced his intention to recuse himself, and one week later, he issued a letter to President Trump advocating the dismissal of FBI Director James Comey, who was overseeing the investigations. While Trump dismissed Comey immediately, he publicly declared that he would not have hired Sessions as attorney general if he known he would recuse himself, prompting Sessions to offer his resignation, which he rejected.
Who is Jefferson Sessions’ Wife?
Jeff Sessions married Mary Blackshear, a teacher he met at Huntingdon College, in 1969. Mary, Ruth, and Sam Sessions are their three children, and they have eleven grandkids.
He and his wife are both United Methodists who attend the Ashland Place United Methodist Church in Mobile. He also teaches Sunday school at the church.
Jefferson Sessions’ Net Worth
As of 2022, Jefferson Sessions has a net worth of $5 million.