"I know that Sen. Sessions will uphold the laws of our great country and will work to ensure that every person here in the United States is given the voice that is deserved," Condoleezza Rice writes. | AP Photo Condoleezza Rice backs Jeff Sessions as attorney general

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has endorsed Sen. Jeff Sessions to be the nation’s next attorney general, CNN reported Monday evening.

Sessions (R-Ala.) was one of the first senators to endorse Donald Trump during last year’s campaign and was among the president-elect’s first cabinet picks. But he has been dogged by suggestions of racial bias, particularly his bid for a federal judgeship in the 1980s that was denied by the Senate over allegations that he used racially charged language as a federal prosecutor. His regular criticism of the Voting Rights Act has also raised eyebrows for some.


Rice, the first African-American woman to serve as secretary of state, wrote in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) that Sessions has worked to rectify the "prejudice and injustice against the descendants of slaves” in Alabama and noted that he was a key force behind the effort to award civil rights leader Rosa Parks the Congressional Gold Medal. The former secretary of state labeled Sessions a “friend” and someone she “greatly” admired.

"He is a man who is committed to justice and knows that law and order are necessary to guarantee freedom and liberty," she wrote in her letter. "I know that Sen. Sessions will uphold the laws of our great country and will work to ensure that every person here in the United States is given the voice that is deserved.”