U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, then a serving senator and President-elect Donald Trump's pick for attorney general, cheers on the crowd during a Trump rally in Mobile, Alabama, in December of 2016. (Photo: Brynn Anderson/AP)
Sep 21, 2017
A civil rights group on Thursday urged Senators to take seriously their belief that the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice has betrayed its stated mission by improperly colluding with President Donald Trump's Commission on Election Integrity, a project which critics have roundly pilloried as a fraudulent effort more interested in suppressing votes than preventing the nearly non-existent threat of voter fraud.
Ahead of upcoming testimony by Attorney General Jeff Sessions before the Senate Judiciary Committee next month, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is urging members to scrutinize the "significant evidence of politicization" taking place at the DOJ under his command.
Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the group, said that special attention should be paid to the Civil Rights Division and called on Sessions to be held accountable "for the dramatic changes that have taken place on his watch, which have brought federal civil rights enforcement to a virtual grinding halt."
Regarding voter rights and ballot access, Clarke called on Senators "to closely examine evidence that the Division is engaged in collusion with the highly controversial, so-called Election Integrity Commission. The goals of the Commission are fully antithetical to the mission of the Division, which is charged with fighting--not prompting--voter suppression."
Earlier this year, the Lawyers' Committee released a report (pdf) highlighting key civil rights matters being abused or ignored by the Trump administration and the DOJ under Sessions.
Taking stock of his first 100 days at the DOJ, the report detailed how policy changes by Sessions reflected a "hostility and opposition to vigorous enforcement of federal civil rights matters."
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A civil rights group on Thursday urged Senators to take seriously their belief that the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice has betrayed its stated mission by improperly colluding with President Donald Trump's Commission on Election Integrity, a project which critics have roundly pilloried as a fraudulent effort more interested in suppressing votes than preventing the nearly non-existent threat of voter fraud.
Ahead of upcoming testimony by Attorney General Jeff Sessions before the Senate Judiciary Committee next month, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is urging members to scrutinize the "significant evidence of politicization" taking place at the DOJ under his command.
Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the group, said that special attention should be paid to the Civil Rights Division and called on Sessions to be held accountable "for the dramatic changes that have taken place on his watch, which have brought federal civil rights enforcement to a virtual grinding halt."
Regarding voter rights and ballot access, Clarke called on Senators "to closely examine evidence that the Division is engaged in collusion with the highly controversial, so-called Election Integrity Commission. The goals of the Commission are fully antithetical to the mission of the Division, which is charged with fighting--not prompting--voter suppression."
Earlier this year, the Lawyers' Committee released a report (pdf) highlighting key civil rights matters being abused or ignored by the Trump administration and the DOJ under Sessions.
Taking stock of his first 100 days at the DOJ, the report detailed how policy changes by Sessions reflected a "hostility and opposition to vigorous enforcement of federal civil rights matters."
A civil rights group on Thursday urged Senators to take seriously their belief that the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice has betrayed its stated mission by improperly colluding with President Donald Trump's Commission on Election Integrity, a project which critics have roundly pilloried as a fraudulent effort more interested in suppressing votes than preventing the nearly non-existent threat of voter fraud.
Ahead of upcoming testimony by Attorney General Jeff Sessions before the Senate Judiciary Committee next month, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is urging members to scrutinize the "significant evidence of politicization" taking place at the DOJ under his command.
Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the group, said that special attention should be paid to the Civil Rights Division and called on Sessions to be held accountable "for the dramatic changes that have taken place on his watch, which have brought federal civil rights enforcement to a virtual grinding halt."
Regarding voter rights and ballot access, Clarke called on Senators "to closely examine evidence that the Division is engaged in collusion with the highly controversial, so-called Election Integrity Commission. The goals of the Commission are fully antithetical to the mission of the Division, which is charged with fighting--not prompting--voter suppression."
Earlier this year, the Lawyers' Committee released a report (pdf) highlighting key civil rights matters being abused or ignored by the Trump administration and the DOJ under Sessions.
Taking stock of his first 100 days at the DOJ, the report detailed how policy changes by Sessions reflected a "hostility and opposition to vigorous enforcement of federal civil rights matters."
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