Sally Yates: Hey Jeff Sessions, “There’s A Difference Between A Cartel Boss And A Street Dealer”
By Sally Yates, for WaPo
In today’s polarized world, there aren’t many issues on which Democrats and Republicans agree. So when they do, we should seize the rare opportunity to move our country forward. One such issue is criminal-justice reform, and specifically the need for sentencing reform for drug offenses.
All across the political spectrum, in red states and blue states, from Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) and the Koch brothers to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and the American Civil Liberties
Too many old geezers in our government.
– Murphy
When dinosaurs ruled.
With Sessions age isn’t the issue he was a dull edged racist when he was a young.
Session’s May 10, 2017, contains this sentence: “This policy affirms our responsibility to enforce the law, is moral and just, and produces consistency.”
“Moral?” “Just?” “Consistency?”
“In 1996, Sessions promoted state legislation in Alabama that sought to punish a second drug trafficking conviction, including for dealing marijuana, with a mandatory minimum death sentence.”
“On October 5, 2005, Sessions was one of nine Senators who voted against a Senate amendment to a House bill that prohibited cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment or punishment of individuals in the custody or under the physical control of the United States Government.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Sessions
In 1986 Reagan nominated him to be a judge of the District Court for the Southern District of Alabama. At Sessions’ confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, “Thomas Figures, a black Assistant U.S. Attorney, testified [to, among several other “unflattering” things,] that Sessions said he thought the Ku Klux Klan was ‘OK until I found out they smoked pot’. Sessions later said that the comment was not serious, but did apologize for it, saying that he considered the Klan to be ‘a force for hatred and bigotry’.” As you might suspect many others opposed his appointment. The Committee voted against his nomination and his nomination was withdrawn.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Sessions
Six years later, when Thomas Figures was in private practice, he was charged with attempting to bribe a witness by offering $50,000 to a convicted drug dealer who was to testify against his client. Figures claimed the charge was in retaliation for his role in blocking the Sessions nomination. Sessions denied this, saying that he recused himself from the case. Figures was ultimately acquitted.
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/11/08/us/retaliation-alleged-in-black-lawyer-s-indictment.html
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/22/jeff-sessions-racism-retaliation-donald-trump-douglas-wicks-thomas-figures
He recused himself from the case, just like he did form the Russia campaign investigation?! Now that’s “consistency.”
Thinly disguised directive to keep cartels from prosecution. If the force is focused on small time, then the big time drug dealers can continue to do their work for those in power.
Remember that Manuel Noriega was only removed from office and put in jail by the US because he started taking off the top and not following directives as given to him by the US government (not because he was a very large cartel leader).
Uhm, Ok, I see why you got your name.
– Murphy