January 31, 2017

Sessions Faces Withering Attack for His Stance on Violence Against Women

Sen. Patrick Leahy delivered the harangue against the attorney general nominee.


Attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions, already criticized by Democrats for his civil rights record and his support of President Donald Trump’s refugee and travel ban, faced a withering attack Tuesday for his stance on another issue: violence against women.

Ahead of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s vote on Sessions’ nomination, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) tore into Sessions for his position on the Violence Against Women Act. Leahy, who until recently was the committee’s ranking Democrat, deviated from his prepared remarks and grew emotional as he addressed his longtime committee colleague.

During Sessions’ confirmation hearing earlier this month and in follow-up written questions, Leahy had pressed Sessions on his position on the Violence Against Women Act, a 1994 law that mandated and funded prosecutions for violent crimes against women and established the Justice Department’s Office of Violence Against Women, as well as on grant programs to provide resources to battered women. As Leahy noted Tuesday, the White House is reportedly using the conservative Heritage Foundation’s budget blueprint, which “calls for eliminating all Violence Against Women Act grants” overseen by DOJ. Sessions voted against the most recent reauthorization of the act, in 2013, which expanded the law’s protections to tribal lands, college students, and LGBT individuals. “I would defend the statute if it’s reasonably defensible,” Sessions told Leahy during his January 10 confirmation hearing.

“I asked Sen. Sessions to commit to stand up for women and preserve these critical programs,” Leahy said in his prepared remarks. “Again, he refused.” 

Then Leahy, a former prosecutor, strayed from his prepared remarks to describe a time before the Violence Against Women Act. “I still have nightmares about some of the crime scenes I went to,” he said with emotion. “How could anybody who is going to be in a position to enforce our laws turn their back on that? Or suggest the law should only apply to certain classes of women?”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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