Democrats block Sessions vote after Leahy, others pile on

WASHINGTON — In a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting Tuesday morning, Democrats offered dire predictions that the confirmation of Jeff Sessions to be attorney general would undermine the impartiality of the Department of Justice.

While it was expected that Sessions would receive a vote at the end of the markup hearing, Democrats took the unusual step of stalling a vote until Wednesday morning by invoking an obscure procedural rule.

In hours of impassioned speeches, leaders on the left expressed myriad concerns with Sessions. A number of senators referenced recent revelations from The Washington Post that Sessions is the “intellectual godfather” of Trump’s political ideology, whose fingerprints were all over the president’s controversial executive order that froze immigration from seven majority Muslim countries and instituted a ban on Syrian refugees.

During the transition period, Sessions spent days holed up in Trump Tower helping to plan policy, and two of his former Senate aides, Stephen Miller and Rick Dearborn, are now Trump policy advisers. Miller helped draft the travel ban.

The public outcry to Trump’s immigration order — along with prolonged protests against Trump’s agenda — has emboldened the Democratic minority in the Senate to resist the president’s agenda more forcefully. (In addition to blocking a vote on Sessions, Democrats on Tuesday delayed committee votes on Steven Mnuchin to run the Treasury and Georgia Rep. Tom Price to lead Health and Human Services by boycotting a hearing.)

“You will come to realize what is at stake here: It is our reputation in the world,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who castigated Republicans for their defense of Trump’s immigration order. “And when President Donald Trump offers these executive orders authored by Sen. Sessions’ former staffers, of course we have questions, and we should.”

While a number of Republican legislators have offered varying levels of criticism of Trump’s order, Judiciary Republicans offered their full-throated support for Sessions on Tuesday.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, called him “a man of integrity,” while Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said “he will enforce the law no matter whether he would have supported that law as a member of the Senate.”

The committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, offered a contrary view, saying she had “no confidence the nominee will uphold our laws and civil liberties as attorney general.”

The portrayals of Sessions frequently diverged greatly down party lines, leading Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., to remark that “it is almost as though we are discussing two different people here.”

While no longer the top Democrat on Judiciary, Leahy spoke more than any other member.

For more than 25 minutes, Vermont’s senior senator — his voice at times verging on a roar — systematically condemned Sessions’ past positions on a number of issues he would hold sway over as attorney general.

Leahy said his opposition to Sessions wasn’t personal, adding the two had developed a friendship in the Senate over the past 20 years.

“It has to do with whether he can be the independent person we need as attorney general for all of the country,” Leahy said. “I have very serious doubts.”

Leahy contended that Sessions lacked any independence from Trump. He and other Democrats pointed to the Alabama senator’s dozens of appearances at Trump campaign rallies, in which he whipped up the crowd with anti-establishment rhetoric while wearing a red “Make America Great Again” baseball cap.

On Sunday, Leahy announced he will vote against Sessions.

Sessions said in confirmation hearings that his statements on the trail regarding Hillary Clinton “could place (his) objectivity in question,” and he promised to recuse himself from any potential Justice Department investigation of the former Democratic presidential nominee.

But Sessions was noncommittal when asked what steps he would take to recuse himself from potential investigations of Trump, from his widespread business entanglements across the globe to allegations of fraud at Trump University.

Throughout the confirmation process, Sessions also did not commit to continue the current Justice Department investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, which intelligence agencies believe was undertaken to benefit Trump. The FBI’s investigation includes a probe into possible connections between Trump associates and the Russian government.

Sessions also refused to refute Trump’s claim — for which no evidence has emerged — that millions of illegal immigrants cast votes in the election. Sessions said he couldn’t reject the claim because he wasn’t familiar with the data the president relied upon.

“Of course he doesn’t know what data. There is no such data!” Leahy thundered. “He ought to just admit that. Just because you make up a fantasy does not mean it is real. The next thing we are going to hear is the unicorns voted.”

Leahy further slammed Sessions as totally unqualified to serve when he wouldn’t “acknowledge a fundamental and plainly visible fact.”

The hearing occurred hours after Trump’s dismissal of acting Attorney General Sally Yates, who defied the president Monday by declaring that the Justice Department deemed the immigration order as unlawful.

Leahy criticized Trump’s termination of Yates as “shameful,” saying it further demonstrated that “the independence of the Justice Department (is) under siege.”

“The attorney general is the people’s attorney, not the president’s attorney,” said Leahy, who has long sought promises of independence from attorney general nominees. “He or she does not wear two hats.”

Yates enjoyed broad bipartisan support during her confirmation to be deputy attorney general in 2015. In her confirmation hearings, she was asked by Sessions if she would act independently from the president if she considered his actions improper or illegal.

“I believe the attorney general or the deputy attorney general has an obligation to the law and the Constitution, and to give their independent legal advice to the president,” Yates said.

“That’s a good answer,” responded Sessions, who later voted against Yates’ nomination.

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