Tag

#Sessions

2 incidents

Grade 4 of 5: Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern

Zero Tolerance: 5,500+ Children Separated, HHS Lost Track of Hundreds

Zero tolerance created systematic family separation as deliberate policy — not incidentally but intentionally, with separation designed as a deterrent. The administration did not build a system to track which children belonged to which parents. A federal judge ordered reunification within 30 days; the government said it could not comply. In October 2020, ACLU lawyers reported they still could not reach the parents of 545 children — many of whom had been deported to Central America without their children, without being told where their children were.

Grade 2 of 5: Major Abuse of Power

Sessions Recusal, AG Firing, and the Mueller Obstruction Pattern

Sessions's recusal created the conditions for the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, since it meant Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein oversaw the Russia investigation. Trump spent 20 months publicly attacking Sessions for his recusal — including in tweets, press statements, and reporting — while his private conduct (documented by Mueller) included repeated instructions that Sessions should 'unrecuse' himself and take control of the investigation. The day after the 2018 midterm elections, Trump demanded and received Sessions's resignation, replacing him with Matthew Whitaker — a move DOJ legal scholars argued was designed to install an acting AG who would not be recused from the Russia investigation.