Black lawmakers to testify at Sessions hearing

Democratic senators have secured testimony from Congressional Black Caucus members this week at the confirmation hearing for Jeff Sessions as attorney general — heightening the issue of race in what’s already expected to be a contentious nomination battle.

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, approached chairman Chuck Grassley last week with her request: to allow Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and other CBC members to appear before the committee to discuss Sessions’ nomination to be the nation’s top cop, according to two sources.


The Iowa Republican was willing to do so, but on the condition that the lawmakers appear only after a group of outside witnesses testify about Sessions, the sources said. Democrats were miffed at Grassley’s offer, viewing it as an insult to lawmakers who typically appear before non-lawmaker witnesses testify. They also saw it as an attempt by Republicans to bury what would be high-profile testimony from Lewis, a civil rights icon, and other CBC lawmakers.

Sessions’ bid for a federal judgeship three decades ago was derailed by allegations that he made racially charged comments as a federal prosecutor.

In a statement to POLITICO, Feinstein said Lewis, Congressional Black Caucus chairman Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) asked her late last week to speak at Sessions’ confirmation hearing, which begins Tuesday and will run for two days.

“I was pleased when Chairman Grassley agreed to make this possible, however I regret that they will have to wait until after a nine-member panel speaks,” Feinstein wrote. “Asking three members of Congress to sit and wait until the end of the hearing to testify — likely at the same time the Senate will be holding important budget votes — is deeply unfair.”

She added: “These members offer a very important perspective and they deserve to be heard.”

Grassley spokeswoman Beth Levine said the Democrats’ demand to let lawmakers go before others who have already been called to appear before the committee, including former Attorney General Michael Mukasey and an official from the American Civil Liberties Union, was “unacceptable.”

“A members-only panel that could have preceded even Sen. Sessions, simply to satisfy an ideological perspective, was unacceptable to Sen. Grassley,” Levine said. “Instead, a third panel, with both supporters and opponents, has been added to the hearing following the panel of citizens on Wednesday afternoon.”

But Democrats pointed out that the committee’s past practice has been to have lawmakers testify before non-members. During John Ashcroft’s attorney general confirmation hearing in 2001, the committee hosted a panel of lawmakers to discuss the former Missouri senator’s nomination.

That panel, which included Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), former Sen. John Danforth (R-Mo.), and Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), went after Ashcroft was finished, but before a separate group of outside witnesses.

Democrats wanted the same treatment for CBC members at Sessions’ hearing, but how the two-day session is structured is up to Grassley as chairman. The committee released an updated witness list Monday evening that included the three black lawmakers, as well as a trio of new GOP witnesses: Willie Huntley, former assistant U.S. attorney; Jesse Seroyer, former U.S. marshal; and William Smith, a former chief counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee and ex-aide to Sessions.

Booker's committee appearance opposing Sessions marks the first time in the chamber's history that a sitting senator has testified against another sitting senator who was up for a Cabinet job, according to the New Jersey senator's office, citing the Senate historian.

“I do not take lightly the decision to testify against a Senate colleague," Booker said in a statement late Monday. "But the immense powers of the attorney general combined with the deeply troubling views of this nominee is a call to conscience."

Sessions, a 20-year veteran of the Senate who holds solidly conservative views on a litany of legal issues he would oversee at the Justice Department, has come under fire for racially charged comments he allegedly made decades ago. Those remarks helped derail Sessions’ nomination to the federal bench in 1986 before the Senate Judiciary Committee — the same panel he’ll appear in front of this week for his attorney general nomination.

But Democrats and outside groups fighting Sessions’ nomination are trying to broaden their case against the genial Alabama Republican beyond his reported comments and to his views on civil rights, voting issues, immigration and other hot-button topics. And Democratic senators who sit on the powerful Judiciary Committee have said they won’t go easy on Sessions during their questioning on Tuesday.

For instance, Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) plans to raise topics including gun violence, the future of so-called Dreamers who were granted work permits under the Obama administration, and Donald Trump’s call during his campaign to bar Muslim immigrants from entering the United States. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), another member of the committee, said he was looking into Sessions’ positions on women’s health care, civil rights, religious freedom and privacy issues, among other topics.

“He’s justifiably well-liked and respected, but we have an obligation to make judgments on the merits of each nominee,” Blumenthal said. “It might as well be that I could support him for a different nomination, but not for attorney general. I’ve reached no conclusion.”

A spokeswoman for Lewis said earlier Monday that his staff was already preparing in case the Georgia Democrat was called to speak.

Meanwhile, a source close to Richmond said earlier Monday that he will raise concerns about Sessions’ record with “communities of color.” Richmond and the black caucus held a news conference last week outlining their objections to Sessions becoming the nation’s chief law enforcement official.

Democrats are also making their case against Sessions with the outside witnesses they’ve called to speak about his record. The list of people preparing to testify includes Cornell Brooks, president and CEO of the NAACP, and Oscar Vasquez, whom Democrats identified as a U.S. veteran and former Dreamer from Texas.

Sessions has been one of the most ardent critics of President Barack Obama’s move to shield young undocumented immigrants from deportation. He not only opposes a pathway to citizenship for those here illegally but also supports curbs on future legal immigration.

