Wikipedia (en)
Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III (born December 24, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who is the 84th Attorney General of the United States, in office since 2017. Sessions previously served as a United States Senator from Alabama from 1997 to 2017, and he is a member of the Republican Party. From 1981 to 1993, he served as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama. Sessions was nominated in 1986 to be a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama, but his contentious nomination failed. Sessions was elected Attorney General of Alabama in 1994, and to the U.S. Senate in 1996, being re-elected in 2002, 2008, and 2014. During his time in Congress, Sessions was considered one of the most conservative members of the U.S. Senate.
An early supporter of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, Sessions was considered as a possible vice presidential nominee, but Indiana Governor Mike Pence was ultimately selected for the ticket. In November 2016, President-elect Donald Trump nominated Sessions for the post of US Attorney General. He was confirmed on February 8, 2017, with a 52–47 vote in the Senate, and was sworn in on February 9 2017.
In his Attorney General confirmation hearings, Sessions stated, while under oath, that he did not have contact with Russian officials during the 2016 presidential campaign. In March 2017, news reports revealed that Sessions had twice met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in 2016. Sessions subsequently recused himself from any investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, while some Democratic lawmakers called for his resignation.
As Attorney General, Sessions overturned a memo delivered by predecessor Eric Holder that had sought to curb mass incarceration via avoiding mandatory sentencing, and has ordered federal prosecutors to begin seeking the greatest criminal charges possible. Sessions signed an order adopting civil asset forfeiture, which allows law enforcement to seize the property of those suspected but not charged with crimes, on the federal level. A staunch opponent of illegal immigration, Sessions has taken a hard-line on so-called sanctuary cities and has told reporters that cities failing to comply with federal immigration policy would lose federal funding. Sessions supports allowing the Department of Justice to prosecute providers of medical marijuana.
