Sessions denies racism charges as Dems hold their fire Trump's attorney general pick calls allegations ‘damnably false charges.’

Jeff Sessions, Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, on Tuesday directly addressed allegations of racism that have dogged him for three decades — defiantly declaring them “damnably false charges.”

Deviating from his prepared remarks, Sessions addressed the allegations that sank his bid for the federal judiciary in 1986 — accusations that ran the gamut from making racially improper comments to not protecting voting accessibility for black voters in a high-profile voter fraud case. He was also accused of being sympathetic to the Ku Klux Klan.


“These are damnably false charges,” Sessions told the Senate Judiciary Committee on the first day of his confirmation hearings. “The voter fraud case my office prosecuted was in response to pleas from African-American, incumbent elected officials.”

Noting that he prosecuted a KKK member who murdered a black teenager, Sessions added: “I abhor the Klan and what it represents and its hateful ideology.” In later questioning, Sessions addressed the racism allegations again.

“The caricature of me in 1986 was not correct,” Sessions said, his voice rising. “I do not harbor the kind of animosity and race-based discrimination ideas that I was accused of. I did not.”

During the first hours of the high-stakes hearing, senators ran through reams of questioning on legal affairs and contentious policy issues — such as immigration, abortion and waterboarding — and on more obscure topics such as Sessions’ views of the role of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. Though tense at times, the tone stayed relatively civil, without much in the way of political fireworks.

On waterboarding, for example, Sessions noted that “Congress has taken an action now that makes it absolutely improper and illegal to use waterboarding … or any other form of torture by our military and by our other departments and agencies,” although he had defended the practice during a 2008 floor speech. Trump made it a campaign pledge to revive waterboarding, but has signaled since his election that he may reconsider his view.

The one exception to the relatively cordial tone came from Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), who delivered the most contentious grilling of the day, essentially accusing Sessions of lying about the number of desegregation and civil rights cases he brought as the U.S. attorney in Mobile, Alabama, and about the extent of his involvement in those cases.

“It’s fair to expect sitting before us you’re not going to misrepresent your own record,” Franken said as he zeroed in on Sessions’ statement to National Review in 2009 that he “filed 20 or 30 civil-rights cases to desegregate schools and political organizations and county commissions when I was a United States attorney.” Sessions conceded that statement appeared to be an exaggeration.

Sessions also had a tense moment in an exchange with Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, who invoked the controversial “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump was captured bragging about sexually assaulting women. During the campaign, Sessions, Trump’s most enthusiastic supporter in the Senate, told The Weekly Standard that he did not “characterize that as sexual assault.” The senator later said the publication took him out of context.

Leahy asked Sessions to revisit the issue on Tuesday, asking: ”Is grabbing a woman by her genitals, without consent, is that sexual assault?”

The nominee responded: “Clearly, it would be.”

Earlier, in response to some of the first questions of the hearing, Sessions made a surprise announcement, declaring that he would recuse himself from all issues related to the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email account. He said his rhetoric on the issue during the campaign could lead people to doubt he’d be fair in considering the matter.

“I do believe that that could place my objectivity in question. … I believe the proper thing for me to do would be for me to recuse myself from any questions regarding those kinds of investigations regarding Secretary Clinton that were raised during the campaign,” Sessions said.

The attorney general pick also appeared to offer an implicit rebuke to President-elect Trump, who declared during a debate that he would instruct his attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor who would put Clinton “in jail” over her handling of the email matter. Sessions said, in essence, that he would not accept such an instruction and would instead formally recuse himself.

Sessions, despite his staunchly conservative views on abortion and gay marriage, testified before the committee that the Supreme Court has ruled on those issues and that he would “follow” those decisions. On immigration, Sessions said he has “no objection” to abandoning President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration because “it is very questionable in my opinion, constitutionally.” But he declined to spell out what specifically the Trump administration plans to do with the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or what he would do with the 740,000 so-called Dreamers who’ve gotten work permits under DACA.

And Sessions also said he does not favor banning Muslim immigrants from the U.S., as Trump initially proposed.

“I believe the president-elect subsequent to that statement made clear he believes the focus should be on individuals coming from countries that have a history of terrorism,” the Alabama senator said. He explained his decision to vote against a 2015 amendment from Leahy urging no religious test in the immigration process, saying he was concerned the measure suggested that one’s religious views could never be taken into account by the government, no matter how radical those views.

In another departure from the president-elect’s public comments, Sessions said he’s inclined to trust the FBI’s conclusion that the Russian government carried out a hacking campaign aimed at interfering with the recent U.S. presidential election.

“I’m sure it was honorably reached,” Sessions said of the FBI’s finding, while noting that he has not been briefed by the FBI on the subject.

Under questioning by Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of the most outspoken Republican lawmakers on the issue, Sessions said he sees such hacking episodes as disturbing. However, Sessions linked the election cyber-meddling to alleged hacking of the U.S. government by China and others.

“I think it’s a significant event,” Sessions said. “We have penetration apparently throughout our government apparently by foreign entities.” He also called for “developing some protocols which, when people breach our systems, a real price is paid even if we can’t prove the exact person who did it.”

He had come before before the Judiciary Committee with a simple message to his fellow senators: You know me. His prepared remarks touched on a litany of policy issues in the purview of the Justice Department — voting accessibility, police-community relations, the war on terror, even gay rights. But his message, at its core, was one that emphasized his deep ties with senators.

“You know who I am. You know what I believe in. You know that I am a man of my word and can be trusted to do what I say I will do,” Sessions told senators. “You know that I revere our Constitution and am committed to the rule of law. And you know that I believe in fairness, impartiality and equal justice under the law.”

Even before the hearing began, the racial issues were dramatically brought to the fore. A few minutes before the session kicked off, a pair of protesters from the liberal group Code Pink donned Ku Klux Klan attire and began shouting at Sessions.

“Jefferson Beauregard, here we are. We’re here for you,” one protester said. “You’re the man. You’re the man that’s going to bring the whiteness back to the South.”

Those demonstrators were quickly escorted out by Capitol Police who flanked both sides of the public area of the spectators gallery, although many who didn’t join in the early protest remained seated in that section.

In her opening remarks, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the committee, acknowledged that her personal relationship with Sessions, and those of other Democrats with the nominee, “makes this very difficult for me.” But she also spoke of “so much fear in this country,” especially in black communities, and noted that Sessions has pushed an “extremely conservative” agenda on issues such as immigration and religious freedom.

“There is a deep fear about what a Trump administration will bring in many places, and this is the context in which we must consider Sen. Sessions’ record and nomination to become the chief law enforcement [official] of America,” Feinstein said. “Communities across this country are concerned about whether they will be able to rely on the Department of Justice to protect their rights and freedoms.”

Sessions also tried to head off criticism from Democrats on Tuesday by stressing that attorneys general must retain an air of political independence, even from the president who nominates them.

Sessions’ fellow Senate Republicans worked to highlight Sessions’ character to not only the public, but also to Democrats who for weeks promised a detailed grilling for Sessions before the Judiciary Committee, despite the clubby chamber’s tradition of senatorial deference when one of their own is nominated to the Cabinet.

Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), in his comments kicking off the confirmation hearing, emphasized Sessions’ familiarity to members of the committee — both his policy views and how he’ll approach his prospective new job as attorney general.

“Every member of this committee knows from experience that, in his new role, Sen. Sessions will be a leader for law and order administered without regard to person,” Grassley said at the hearing. “Leadership to that end is exactly what the department now needs.”

