Former Attorney General Eric Holder Eric Himpton HolderThe Hill's Campaign Report: Trump's rally risk | Biden ramps up legal team | Biden hits Trump over climate policy Biden campaign forming 'special litigation' team ahead of possible voting battle Pompeo, Engel poised for battle in contempt proceedings MORE issued a sharp rebuke of the Trump administration's criminal justice reform policies on Wednesday, calling them "disappointing, dispiriting and ultimately dangerous."

“They are not tough on crime, they are not smart on crime," Holder told law enforcement leaders during his address at the National Law Enforcement Summit on Crime in Washington, D.C.

The Obama attorney general also called the administration's policies "ideologically motivated."

Holder's comments come as Attorney General Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsGOP set to release controversial Biden report Trump's policies on refugees are as simple as ABCs Ocasio-Cortez, Velázquez call for convention to decide Puerto Rico status MORE testifies on Capitol Hill Wednesday.

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Sessions is expected to be grilled by Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, who sent him a letter last week asking him to answer "fully and truthfully" and urging him not to assert executive privilege on questions.

The attorney general has put forth major changes on criminal justice during the Trump administration, rolling back various Obama-era policies.

As one of his first acts as attorney general, Sessions rolled back an Obama-era plan to phase out the federal government’s use of private prisons.

Sessions also issued a memo in May ordering federal prosecutors to “pursue the most serious, readily provable" offenses that by definition carry the most substantial guidelines sentences, including mandatory minimums.

That marks a sharp contrast with Holder, who pressed federal prosecutors to be more lenient with nonviolent, low-level drug offenders.