Gerry Hebert Statement on Jeff Sessions Attorney General Confirmation

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Today, Gerry Hebert, director of voting rights and redistricting at the Campaign Legal Center, released the following statement on the confirmation of Jeff Sessions as attorney general of the United States: 

“The U.S. Senate has failed us today,” said Gerry Hebert, director of voting rights and redistricting at the Campaign Legal Center. “The confirmation of Jeff Sessions as attorney general is a direct threat to voting and civil rights. Sessions has perpetuated the myth of massive voter fraud, claims that undermine our democratic institutions. That he will oversee President Trump’s call for plans to ‘investigate’ non-existent voter fraud is surely an effort to prevent minorities from participating in future elections and to purge them from the voting rolls. Unfortunately, even though Sessions has prosecuted black citizens on phony charges of voter fraud in the past, the Senate failed to question Sessions on the role he has played, or the role he plans to play, in Trump’s voting rights witch hunt.”

“It’s clear that during this new era at the U.S. Department of Justice, we will have to be vigilant, especially those of us who used to work there and treasure it as a place where justice is done. Civil rights litigators and advocates will now have to bear the burden of fighting for justice, because a Justice Department headed by Jeff Sessions can no longer be relied upon to enforce and protect our civil rights.”

On Jan. 9, Mr. Hebert submitted written testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee about racial insensitivity he personally witnessed by Sessions, and later submitted supplemental testimony to respond to inaccuracies about his testimony by Senator Cruz and Senator Sessions himself. The testimony flagged inaccuracies in Sessions’ questionnaire, in which Sessions falsely claimed he litigated four civil rights cases in Alabama, apparently in an effort to bolster his non-existent record of voting rights enforcement.